There will be a special guest in town this weekend when Cincinnati comes to town … and we’re not talking about Cincy alum and Detroit News columnist Angelique Chengelis or her Bearcats classmate, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.
Both were in the running for honorary captain honors for Cincinnati’s first ever trip to the Big House, but it proved to be a conflict of interest for one, while the other one was busy preparing his team to play Oklahoma.
No, we hear they’re playing celebrity coach of the week at Cincinnati this year in an effort to boost ticket sales for a team that won only three games last year and struggled with an abysmal Austin Peay team last week.
This week’s winner … Adam Sandler, who takes time off from making bad movies to coach a bad football team.
We’re not certain what’s worse — Grown Ups 2 or this year’s Bearcats team — but the cast of the former might have as good a chance at winning Saturday as this Cincinnati team, and we’d pay extra to see that smarmy David Spade carry a couple times against the Michigan defense.
Heck, once.
Congratulations to last week’s winner. This week’s receives two tickets to the premiere of Grown-Ups 3 and the opportunity to play again next week.
We're adding something to this year's picks ... our picks for a handful of other good games on the schedule, as well.
This week's picks:
CHRIS BALAS: Welcome back to the Big House, Luke Fickell … and to your second consecutive loss in Ann Arbor as a head coach. U-M will score 40-plus again, but the Bearcats won’t sniff the end zone. Michigan 45, Cincinnati 0
JOHN BORTON: Luke Fickell doesn’t have any cover these days. No Snakepit, no 100,000 crazed Copenhagenites, no Ohio born and bred adjudicators of the game.
He’s got Cincinnati, inside a Big House where there are bigger fish to fry, but where a motivated team is willing to boil a lesser in oil just for the halibut. Michigan 51, Cincinnati 6
BRANDON BROWN: Michigan stifled Florida last week and it’s going to be even easier to stifle Cincinnati this week. I see Michigan rolling, on both sides of the ball, in a big way. Michigan 56, Cincinnati 0
AUSTIN FOX: This isn’t the same competitive Cincinnati program we saw from 2006-2012 when Brian Kelly and Butch Jones were at the helm. This Bearcat team is bad.
Cincinnati had a tough time beating Austin Peay last week, who has won one game since the start of the 2013 season.
How in the world are the Bearcats — who only put up 248 yards of offense last week on the Governors — going to move the ball on the Wolverine defense this week?
If they reach 200 yards of offense on Saturday, it should be considered a successful day for them.
Michigan’s offense should have no problem moving up and down the field, which will allow the coaches to rest most of the starters in the second half.
The most intriguing aspect surrounding this game is we should find out which freshmen are redshirting and which ones aren’t once the game gets out of hand. Michigan 51, Cincinnati 3
ANDREW VAILLIENCOURT: The biggest question coming into this game is whether or not Cincinnati will be able to score any points. Redshirt junior quarterback Hayden Moore will be tasked with keeping pace with Michigan’s offense which should have no trouble scoring on the Bearcats defense. Cincinnati’s run game is solid, but the level of talent between Austin Peay and Michigan is obviously huge. If the running game can’t get going, it’ll be a long day for Moore in the pocket trying to pass his way down the field.
I’m looking to see how redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight handles this start after a rough outing against Florida. His success will be important for Michigan as the season goes on, and the more confident he is, the better. If he doesn’t turn the ball over, it’ll be a solid start.
The Wolverines are going to run all over Cincinnati. I’m expecting both Ty Isaac and Chris Evans to reach 100 yards, and the defense to hold the Bearcats to 3 points or fewer. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see a shutout. Cincinnati just isn’t that good, and Michigan will take care of business. Michigan 48, Cincinnati 3
DOUG SKENE: Michigan’s defense has stolen Mark Dantonio’s disrespect card and is going to play it every chance they can. The Michigan offense will refine and get better. Michigan 42, Cincinnati 3
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