Michigan heads to Northwestern to play a Wildcats team that’s lost to Akron and Duke after beating Purdue.
It’s ben that kind of year in the not-so-Big Ten. Purdue also lost to Eastern Michigan (!), but rebounded to hammer Boston College after the Eagles entered the AP Top 25 for the first time since the Johnson (ish) administration.
The Wildcats are always going to have their ups and downs under head coach Pat Fitzgerald, but the fan base is getting restless (not really). The fighting purple have a brand new facility on the shores of Lake Michigan — yes, it’s the ugly side, but it’s still Lake Michigan — have added dozens of fans since Fitzgerald took over and started beating the Wolverines once every 11 years and changed the uniforms to look … well, less purple.
But they’re no longer the Big Ten laughingstock they were in the 1970s and 80s, when many wondered when the vote would come to remove them from the conference (at least for the major sports). That honor now belongs to Rutgers, which will be an underdog every Saturday this year but one — Oct. 27 when the Scarlet Knights have a bye.
That one’s a pick’em.
Thanks again, Commissioner Delany.
Congratulations to last week’s winners, Doug Skene and Brandon Brown. Austin “Pride of Westphalia” Fox, after taking a victory lap for predicting U-M’s point totals on the mark in the first two games, finished last. Let that be a lesson to you, young man.
This week’s winner receives two used tires from Rick’s Service Shop in Quincy, Michigan, and of course the respect of his peers.
The picks:
CHRIS BALAS: Pat Fitzgerald is a very good football coach and the perfect guy to lead Northwestern for the next several years. His teams generally improve as seasons progress, he’s a straight shooter on the recruiting trail and seems to be a down to earth guy, too … not deserving of the beat down he and his team are about to get Saturday. MICHIGAN 34, NORTHWESTERN 13
JOHN BORTON: The last time Michigan lost at Northwestern, Drew Henson was slinging, the Wolverines churned toward their eighth Big Ten championship in 13 years, and the 3-3-5 was only a gleam in a Wisconsin offensive coordinator’s eye. The Wildcats scored 54 in that wild shootout, but a team that couldn’t beat Duke and Akron and just lost its best back won’t garner one-fourth that total once Dr. Blitz starts operating.MICHIGAN 42, NORTHWESTERN 13
BRANDON BROWN: Northwestern is really going to struggle getting anything going on offense. Don Brown should come in with the same exact game plan as he did for Nebraska. The Huskers just couldn’t go athlete to athlete with Michigan and neither can Northwestern. It’s in Evanston so it might not be a rout, but I still see Michigan cruising. MICHIGAN 38, NORTHWESTERN 10
AUSTIN FOX: Is Michigan finally turning into the elite team many expected it would be before the year, or are its last three blowout wins more indicative of the competition? Unfortunately, we likely won’t find out the answer tomorrow (or the week after against Maryland, for that matter).
It’s encouraging nonetheless to see what this club has been doing lately, and a dominant win tomorrow in Evanston would only enhance that notion. It’s never easy winning on the road in conference action (unless you’re playing at Rutgers), so a two touchdown-plus victory by the Wolverines would be yet another step in the right direction. MICHIGAN 31, NORTHWESTERN 14
DOUG SKENE: This is not a red-letter game that gives me reasons to be concerned. MICHIGAN 38, NORTHWESTERN 10
DREW HALLETT:Northwestern has had an extra week to prepare for Michigan, but nothing could prepare them for the terrible news that starting running back Jeremy Larkin was retiring from football due to a spinal condition. Larkin was the heartbeat of NU's offense, and with him, the Wildcats were still just 97th in Offensive S&P+. Without him, a backup tailback with more than 21 rushing yards, and a healthy Clayton Thorson, the Wildcats will struggle to move the ball against U-M's fourth-ranked defense. Though Northwestern's defense will provide a much stiffer test (27th in S&P+), NU can be picked apart through the air (107th in efficiency), and Shea Patterson will do just that in front of a predominantly Michigan crowd on the road. MICHIGAN 31, NORTHWESTERN 7
ADAM GHABOUR: Grant Perry gets more involved and has a big away game. MICHIGAN 42, NORTHWESTERN 13
ANDREW HUSSEY: TBD
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