Staff Predictions: Michigan vs. Rutgers
Michigan is back on the road this week as it travels to Piscataway to take on Rutgers.
Below, the Maize & Blue Review staff give their predictions on what they think will happen on Saturday.
Josh Henschke
All the talk of a possible emotional letdown of what happened last week will be just that—talk. Michigan knows what's at stake with the season reaching its conclusion and Rutgers is just another obstacle getting in the way of their ultimate goal. Nothing suggests this one should be relatively close, even with recent history suggesting the Scarlet Knights will give the Wolverines issues. U-M cruises to a win.
Michigan 41 - Rutgers 7
Brandon Justice
Michigan will play football this week, believe it or not, and the Wolverines will have to deal with a well-coached but far less talented Rutgers team — and perhaps without starting CB Gemon Green.Under the lights in Piscataway, Blake Corum’s Heisman campaign should continue as we continue to see J.J. McCarthy’s run game evolve. It should be a breezy ninth win of the season for the Wolverines despite the circumstances.
Michigan 35 - Rutgers 7
Dennis Fithian
Michigan was shut out in the second half last year against Rutgers with four three-and-outs on offense including calling for a run on a 3rd & 13. I’m expecting a complete game from UM this time around with a top-ten-ranked total offense and defense. Nobody has been able to stop Blake Corum yet this year. Business trip approach for the Wolverines as they win this one easily.
Michigan 38 - Rutgers 13
Trevor McCue
It’s been a long week no doubt, and now Michigan will head to Jersey to take on Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights started the season well but are at their lowest point yet. Their best RB is out for the season, and their QB situation is basically a warm up for 2023. They were shutout in their last game and I think they’ll be shut out again. The Michigan offense won’t do more than it needs to win.
Michigan 38 - Rutgers 0
Brock Heilig
Rutgers is a bad football team. It’s now the 10th week of the season, and the Scarlet Knights still aren’t set on a starting quarterback. Sophomore Evan Simon is the team’s leading passer, but Gavin Wimsatt got the start last week against Minnesota. Wimsatt got injured, so it looks like it’ll be back to Simon, or maybe even Noah Vedral against Michigan this week. Regardless of who’s under center, Michigan should win rather easily. I think we might see a little lack of focus from the Wolverines early, mainly because of what happened after last week’s game, but Michigan should have no problem taking care of Rutgers.
Michigan 38 - Rutgers 6
Davis Moseley
I would like to say Michigan is going to take an exception to being ranked behind Clemson in the CFP Rankings, and make a statement vs Rutgers, like in 2016. I want to call a 78-0 victory and just say to hell with it. But that’s just not what Michigan does. They are a body shot after body shot team that eventually wears you down, compared to that of Ohio State who simply outruns you in the first quarter and you play catch up for the whole game. Michigan is going to dominate Rutgers, and I would argue, they shut them out on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve called several 250+ yard games for McCarthy and none have hit, except Indiana. I think he throws a very efficient but limited game, ending up 16-19 for 185 yards and a TD. Corum has a great game on the ground, as does Edwards. Michigan rushes for close to 350 yards as they cruise past Rutgers. They don’t do anything out of the ordinary but they do move up a spot or two in the rankings as Clemson and one of Georgia/Tennessee lose. Michigan enters week 10 at 9-0 and the #3 team in the country.
Michigan 41 - Rutgers 0
Zach Libby
This game will go one-of-two ways. Either the aftermath of what went down in the tunnel Saturday will affect Michigan to the point where Rutgers makes it interesting, or Michigan uses the incident as their second gear for the final quarter of the season to blow out Rutgers. It better be the latter if the Wolverines want to remain No. 5 or higher in next week’s CFP Rankings because the case can be made that they’ll drop to No. 7 if the former happens and TCU rolls over Texas Tech, Alabama beats LSU, and Georgia falls to Tennessee. I personally think Greg Schiano is better than at least half of the head coaches in the Big Ten, but the talent that he has is arguably the worst in the conference. Also, it’s not like the New York City market craves college football, so don’t expect a hostile crowd at 7:30pm EST. Rutgers enters Saturday with the third lowest total offense in the Power 5, it’ll be over by halftime.
Michigan 37, Rutgers 6
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