If Michigan football is going to make life easy on itself in Piscataway, the path is obvious: run the ball, and run it until Rutgers proves it can stop it.
That’s the assignment this week, and it’s a brutally simple one. The Wolverines head to Rutgers as a 14.5-point favorite, facing a Scarlet Knights team that is 2-5 overall with one Big Ten win. It’s just Michigan’s second road trip of the season, and on paper it should be a straightforward one.
But nothing has felt straightforward for this Michigan team, now 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten.
There have been some breaks that didn’t go the Wolverines’ way. Michigan should have beaten Iowa.
It also got a win over Western Michigan that came with its own dose of fortune. And then there’s the offense, which has gone from shaky to flat-out broken.
Against Minnesota, Michigan put up only seven points. One of its two touchdowns came on a pick-six, and the offense never found any traction on the ground. The second half produced nothing.
The Indiana game wasn’t much cleaner. Michigan scored just six second-half points, and three of those came after a Zeke Berry interception handed the Wolverines the ball at the 10.
Tommy Carr also steered a tying drive late in the half, which sent the game to overtime. If Michigan had cashed in on a goal-to-go chance there, or on another sequence that got all the way to the one-yard line, it would have walked away with the win.
Even with all that, Kyle Whittingham has kept standing behind Jason Beck, despite the fact that the offense is sitting outside the top 100 nationally in total offense, pass offense, rushing offense and scoring offense.
That faith is going to get tested hard this weekend.
Rutgers owns the worst run defense in the Big Ten, giving up 229 rushing yards per game against conference opponents and 6.6 yards per carry. Greg Schiano will almost certainly lean on the kind of looks and wrinkles other teams have used against Michigan, but the Wolverines should still have enough to take some of those answers with them to Piscataway and leave with a win. That formula worked against Penn State, and Rutgers’ run defense has been even worse.
If Michigan can’t get the ground game moving, the door opens wider than it should. The game could get tight fast, and Rutgers would have a real shot at an upset. Michigan has been shaky throwing the ball with Bryce Underwood and Tommy Carr, though that has hardly changed the bottom line so far.
What has mattered is whether the Wolverines can lean on the run. If they can’t do that against Rutgers, then there will be nowhere left to hide for Jason Beck.
In Other News...
Michigans Next AD Could Decide More Than Wolverines Fans Realize
Warde Manuels decision to step down at the end of December has put Michigan into the kind of search that tends to ripple well beyond the athletic department. The Wolverines are looking for a new athletic director at a time when the football program is already under pressure, and that means the hire will not just be about administration or fundraising. It could shape how the school approaches one of its biggest public-facing decisions in the months ahead.
Among the names circulating are Candice Story Lee of Vanderbilt, Katie Fraumann, who has ties to Michigan, and David Benedict of UConn. Each brings a different background, but the common thread is the same: this is a hire that may define the direction of the department as much as any move on the field. For Michigan fans, the real intrigue is not only who gets the job, but how quickly that person decides the Wolverines need a different path in football. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Still Has One Problem It Must Solve Before Rutgers
Michigan still has one major decision hanging over it before Rutgers, and it is the sort that can shape everything else on the field. Kyle Whittingham has not settled on a starting quarterback, with freshman Tommy Carr and sophomore Bryce Underwood both in the mix after uneven recent showings. Carr flashed some promise even while dealing with turnovers and sacks, while Underwood has struggled in his last two starts but still carries a leadership presence inside the program.
The next few days of practice will go a long way toward sorting it out, with the staff planning to use those reps to narrow the competition and make the call closer to game time. For Michigan, it is more than just a roster question. The Wolverines are trying to find the steadier option before a conference game that can help set the tone for the stretch ahead, and the answer at quarterback remains the biggest unresolved piece. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Fans Will Want To See Who Dominated Michigans Passing Game
Michigans 13-6 loss to Indiana was shaped as much by what did not happen through the air as by anything the Wolverines did on the ground. The defense held up well enough to keep the game tight, and senior cornerback Zeke Berry was right in the middle of it, helping limit completions and coming away with an interception against a quarterback many expect to hear called in the NFL draft someday.
On the other side, the offense never found much room to breathe. Jordan Marshall had a difficult time generating yards, with the blocking up front not giving him much to work with, and the passing game never provided enough relief. Jyaire Hill also turned in a strong day in coverage, which only added to the sense that Michigans defense did its part while the offense left too much on the table. [Read more 🡒]