The No. 4 Michigan Wolverines (10-1, 8-0) continued showcasing their dominance with a gritty win over the Indiana Hoosiers in their last home game of the season. Now to end the regular season, the maize and blue will travel to Columbus, Ohio for their annual rivalry matchup with the No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes.
Opponent Overview The defending Big Ten champions have continued to play like one of the best teams in the country. This came even after the Zach Smith scandal, which was a bad look for the program and led to head coach Urban Meyer being suspended for the season's first three games. The scarlet and gray's offense is led by redshirt sophomore Dwayne Haskins. He's not nearly as mobile as his predecessors who have started at QB under Meyer, but his 3,685 passing yards (3rd in FBS) and 36 touchdowns (Tied for 1st in FBS) make him the best passer that the head coach has had at OSU. The running back core is led by J.K. Dobbins. The sophomore leads the team with 194 carries for 915 yards and eight touchdowns. Dobbins is joined by junior Mike Weber who has 127 carries for 711 yards and four touchdowns. The receivers are headlined by senior Paris Campbell who leads the team with 66 catches for nine touchdowns to go with 711 yards. K.J. Hill leads in receiving yards with 772. Senior Terry McLaurin has 30 catches for 579 yards and nine touchdowns. Johnnie Dixon, Austin Mack and Binjimen Victor should also see snaps. Players to Watch The Front Seven-Over the past two games, Michigan's defense has allowed at least 190 yards rushing, their highest marks this season. This Wolverines unit can't afford to have a game like that against a running back core in Weber and Dobbins that has carved them up in recent years. It'll also be especially important for them to keep the pressure on Dwayne Haskins and force him to make mistakes. The Secondary-The back four have been arguably the best part of Michigan's dominant defense. However, they're about to face what is by far their biggest test of the season. Dwayne Haskins will have a lot of time to throw the ball, especially if Chase Winovich can't play. From Paris Campbell to K.J. Hill to Johnnie Dixon, Ohio State has lots of weapons on the perimeter to get you with and the secondary will need to be ready for it. Shea Patterson-This is the game that Jim Harbaugh got Patterson to come to Michigan for. The Toledo, Ohio native will get his first taste of one of the greatest rivalries in sports which, this year, will determine who gets to play in the Big Ten Championship Game on Dec. 1. There's no longer an excuse to hold back what he's capable of. It's time for Shea to unleash everything he's got from his mobility to his efficiency as a passer. This Michigan offense will need everything they can get to win for the first time in Ohio Stadium since 2000. Michigan and Ohio State will kick off Saturday, Nov. 24 at Noon eastern on FOX.
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It wasn't done in the prettiest of ways, but the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines (10-1, 8-0) were able to hold off the Indiana Hoosiers (5-6, 2-6) beating them 31-20 on Saturday evening in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Shea Patterson had 250 yards and a touchdown through the air and 68 yards on 10 carries. Karan Higdon took 21 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown. Zach Gentry led the team with two receptions for 83 yards. This was the last home game for many of Michigan's players including Chase Winovich, Karan Higdon and Tyree Kinnel. Underclassmen players like Devin Bush and Rashan Gary, may leave school early to go to the draft. The Wolverines got the ball to start the game and got on the board immediately with a field goal by Jake Moody who replaced the usual starter Quinn Nordin. He would go on to make all of his six field goal attempts, a Michigan program record. The Hoosiers would answer two drives later with a touchdown run by running back Stevie Scott to go up 7-3. The Wolverines added two more field goals from Moody and Indiana added one of their own to make it 10-9. Michigan finally added a touchdown thanks when Shea Patterson found Nick Eubanks over the middle for a touchdown. The team would miss a two-point conversion on the next play. Once the Hoosiers got the ball back they would march 75 yards on nine plays to make it a 17-15 game. The maize and blue drove all the way to the Indiana 3-yard line with seconds left in the half. Shea Patterson found Sean McKeon at the Indiana 2-yard line who was tackled in bounds so that the clock kept moving. The Wolverines tried to get one more play off and score, but they ran out of time and went into halftime down 17-15. In the second half, the Wolverines held the Hoosiers to a three and out. Once they got the ball back they charged down the field and took the lead back thanks to Karan Higdon's 2-yard touchdown run. In the fourth quarter, they would add on another field goal. The Hoosiers got the ball with 2:37 left in the game with a chance to stay alive. Indiana got all the way to their own 44 yard line before the Wolverines forced a turnover on downs, giving the maize and blue a win in their last home game of the season. The Hoosiers have still yet to beat Michigan since 1987. They haven't won in Michigan Stadium since 1967. Next week, Michigan will travel to Columbus, Ohio to face the No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes in a game that will determine who wins the Big Ten East. The No. 5 Michigan Wolverines are one of the hottest teams in the country right now following wins over Wisconsin and Michigan State in consecutive weeks. Fresh off a bye week, they'll look to keep the momentum going against No. 14 Penn State.
Opponent Overview Despite heavy losses from last year's team, the Nittany Lions still have a lot of talent across the board. However, they haven't quite been able to put it together the way fans hoped they would. Penn State (6-2, 3-2) let a 26-14 fourth-quarter lead against Ohio State slip away as they lost 27-26. The next week, they led Michigan State 17-14 before a touchdown pass with 19 seconds left gave the Spartans the win. The team has since rebounded with wins over Indiana and Iowa. However, neither of them came easily. The offense is centered around quarterback Trace McSorely. The junior has completed 52.8 percent of his passes for 1,620 yards and 12 touchdowns. He's also taken 110 carries for 617 yards and nine touchdowns, the most in the Big Ten. In the backfield, he's joined by junior running back Miles Sanders. His 834 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground are both the second best marks in the Big Ten. He also had 15 catches for 112 yards. The receivers are led by true freshman KJ Hamler, whose 27 catches for 497 yards and five touchdowns are all team-highs. Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins make for dangerous deep threats while tight end Pat Freiermuth will make noise in the red zone. His four receiving touchdowns are second most on the team. Players to Watch Chase Winovich-The front seven has done well to start their season, but they're about to face their toughest test of the season. As a team Penn State has scored 27 touchdowns on the ground, tied for second most in college football behind Georgia Tech. It'll be up to guys like Chase Winovich and Josh Uche, who leads the team with 5 sacks, to hold down the backfield duo of McSorely and Sanders, especially if Rashan Gary has to sit out another week. Shea Patterson-Despite what he's been able to do already, Patterson will have to kick it into another gear. The junior will be tasked with matching Trace McSorely's offensive production in what might end up being a shootout. In doing so, he'll need to avoid a Penn State defense that has 28 sacks, the most in the Big Ten this season. Quinn Nordin-A guy who had usually been a reliable source of scoring has become very inconsistent. Nordin has made just three of his last six field goal attempts including a brutal miss from 38 yards out against Michigan State in the team's last game. Mistakes like that won't fly in games like the one coming up. Michigan will need all the points they can get to match the Nittany Lions and Nordin's consistency will be a big part of that. Michigan and Penn State kick off Saturday, Nov. 3 at 3:45 eastern on ESPN. It's now or never in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Three years ago, Jim Harbaugh promised Michigan fans that he would take them back to the glory days. That the Wolverines would once again reign among the blue blood programs in the nation. That they would be at the top of the Big Ten and even compete in the College Football Playoff. The program has improved quite a bit since then, but no championships have come. Michigan struggles just to place second in their own division. Harbaugh's persona is no longer enough to woo fans or the college football world and the team still struggles against their two biggest rivals; Michigan State and Ohio State. Those concerns came to a deafening crescendo in 2017. Despite a great defense, Michigan finished 8-5 with instability at quarterback and an offense that failed to score more than nine passing touchdowns. Air Force and Navy, whose offenses are largely dependent on the running game, each had 10. Now it's 2018 and many of the team's top performers are set to graduate after this year. A few of them are even projected first-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft. So what cast of characters will have the role of bringing a championship to Ann Arbor? Let's take a look. The Wolverines saw three different quarterbacks start a game last year, neither of whom seemed to show any successful consistency. This year, they'll feature Shea Patterson a former five-star recruit who spent his first two years at Ole Miss. Following a scandal, he transferred to Michigan and was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA. Patterson's only played 10 college games, but in those games he's thrown for 3,139 yards and 23 interception, a very impressive stat line for a Michigan team desperate for an offensive playmaker. He'll have some help from Karan Higdon and Chris Evans, the team's 1-2 running back punch. The perimeter players aren't very impressive and it looks like their best receiver, Tarik Black, will miss extended time with another foot injury. Outside of him, the team returns Donovan Peoples-Jones and Grant Perry as well as tight ends Sean McKeon and Zach Gentry. They also welcome four-star Mustapha Muhammad who could make an early impact this year. Wide receivers Nico Collins and Oliver Martin have also looked good in offseason practices. The defense has always been a forced to be reckoned with under Jim Harbaugh and this year is no different. Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary, perhaps the team's best player, lead a strong defensive line while Devin Bush, a preseason first-team all-american, leads the linebacker core. What's most impressive about the unit is its passing defense, which allowed just 142.2 passing yards per game, by far the best mark in college football. This year, it's led by the fearsome four of Khaleke Hudson, Tyree Kinnel, Lavert Hill and David Long, all of whom are returning starters. The maize and blue faces a tough schedule this season. They start off with a road game at No. 12 Notre Dame. On Oct. 13, they begin a string of three straight games against ranked Big Ten teams with a home game against No. 4 Wisconsin. The team then visits East Lansing to take on No. 11 Michigan State and heads home to host No. 10 Penn State the following week. The Wolverines wrap up the regular season with their annual showdown against No. 5 Ohio State in Columbus. Regardless of the circumstances, the Wolverines-especially Jim Harbaugh-will be hard pressed to prove that they can not just compete with but knock off some of the better teams in the Big Ten and in the country. They may never have as good a shot as they do now so the clock is ticking. James Murphy Sense Of Urgency Surrounds Michigan In 2018 8/24/18 |
AuthorBeat writer for Michigan Wolverines football and basketball, Ithaca College '20 Archives
November 2018
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