Michigan Football: Michigan Wolverines vs. Notre Dame — GBMWolverine Staff Predictions

Posted at 12:00pm — 9/22/2012

Michigan Football: Michigan Wolverines vs. Notre Dame — GBMWolverine Staff Predictions

The staff at GBMWolverine have made their predictions and also gave their comments on the game today at 7:30pm at Notre Dame Stadium.

Michigan leads the all-time series with Notre Dame, 23-15-1. Last year’s meeting with Notre Dame under the lights at the Big House was a incredible experience with the coming from behind win in the closing seconds of the game.

Denard Robinson needs only 191 total yards to surpass Chad Henne’s Michigan record (9,400) in total career offensive yardage. Denard Robinson has so far combined for 944 yards of total offense in his last two games against Notre Dame. Robinson owns the top eight single game total offense totals in Michigan history.

GBMWolverine Predictions:

CoachBT:

Michigan squeaks out a tough one.

Michigan 38
Notre Dame 34

Doc4Blu:

A win for Michigan is not a long shot, but it would be a very nice accomplishment. It will be a tough mission.

Michigan 17
Notre Dame 27

ErocWolverine

Here we go into another Notre Dame/Michigan game and not really knowing what to expect, but we should learn a lot from our team after this game. Notre Dame struggled against Purdue, but than manhandled Michigan State so what to expect from them as well.

Sep 8, 2012; South Bend, IN, USA; The Notre Dame marching band plays the national anthem before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame won 20-17. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-US PRESSWIRECould weather be a factor? Playing at night be a factor? Tall grass be a factor? Sloppy field be a factor? All of the above. It looks like most of the rain is forecasted to be out of the area by game-time, but how good of shape will the field be in come game-time. I ASSuME that Notre Dame has the grass very high and possible allowed some rain on the field to slow the field down some in thinking that could benefit Notre Dame.

The underdog in this match-up has done quite well in this series and Michigan is clearly the underdog this year playing on the road, at night which will be an electric atmosphere with their fans on the fighting Irish national television channel.

The last several years this game has come down to the last minutes of the game and at this point I expect the same type of results.

Michigan will need to put together four quarters of solid football to beat the Irish on their field and cannot allow them to get a big lead early. Need to control the game along with the crowd and have their best game of the season yet by far to win this game. This will need to be a team effort and be able to pass the ball along with testing their secondary deep or at least attempting passes down the field to back the defensive backs. I expect Notre Dame will try and control the line of scrimmage and not do a lot of blitzing because we have all seen what happens if the defense doesn’t get to Denard and he is allowed to scramble and Notre Dame has seen enough of that throughout the past several seasons.

Think both offense’s will be able to move the ball, but as almost every person that makes a prediction on this game states if Notre Dame can control/contain Denard Robinson they win the game which is obvious of course. Notre Dame has struggled to do that though and Denard has had some of his biggest games against the Irish and I am hoping it continues Saturday night.

If I was betting on this game even up I would probably take Notre Dame, but since I am just a fan I am going with Michigan.

Michigan 32
Note Dame 27

MaizeMan:

No prediction sent in this week.

Mike Fitzpatrick (TheMichiganManPodcast)

Before we talk about this weeks game, let’s flashback to last year, Under The Lights At The Big House. Notre Dame outplayed us for three quarters, was bigger, faster, and more athletic. That said, it was Michigan that found a way to win, taking advantage of the Irish imploding in the 4th quarter. In the end that’s what matters, it doesn’t have to look pretty, you just have to keep fighting and find a way to win.

Fast forward to September 2012. The Irish are trending up, and they should be. Brian Kelly inherited a team loaded with talent, and has added more. Irish fans are fully expecting the program to jump forward this year, and most college football observers believe the Irish are a year away from being in the mix for a run at a National Championship. We are outmatched on both sides of the ball by this team, so for the second year in a row, finding a way to win is what this game is all about.

September 15, 2012; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Denard Robinson (16) rolls out during the second quarter against the Massachusetts Minutemen at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIREOffense: We have to hope the offensive line shows improvement this week in the interior run game. Longtime observers say this is the best Irish front seven in 20 years, so it will be a tall order for the O line. Notre Dame is quite capable of taking Denard out of the game, so we need to seek balance in our attack. If we are one dimensional, ie. Denard left, Denard right, Denard up the middle, then we are in trouble. We will have much more insight into exactly what our offense is capable of after Saturday night.

On the D side. I don’t think the Irish offense is prolific, but they certainly have three running backs with size and blinding speed. The O line is good, the receivers improving, and their young QB Everitt Gholson looks to be very talented, although unpolished. To me, this phase of the game comes down to a battle of the fronts. Can ND dominate us in the trenches, or will Michigan finally get some push. We’ll see a lot of young faces shuffling in and out in the back seven, so it is imperative that the D line steps up. If not…it will be a long day in South Bend.

Conclusion: I hope I’m wrong..but I see our defense struggling once again to stop the run and keep contain on Gholsen. It doesn’t matter who the back seven is if our guys in the trenches can’t make plays. Offensively we have to get out of the gate faster. If Fitz can establish himself early that will help a great deal. Denard will find a way to make plays, he always does. He just needs a little help from his friends this week. ND is simply too talented, and it’s asking far too much for Denard to have a game similar to the one he had in South Bend two years ago.

Those of us who have a few miles on us know this series has produced some of college footballs best games in the last 30 years. That’s the great thing about rivalry games, you never know what can happen. But looking at this came from a practical perspective leads me to the conclusion that Notre Dame is just better than we are right now. That said…I thought they were last year too, but they shot themselves in the foot over and over in the 4th quarter. Could it happen again on Saturday? That’s maybe what it wll take for Michigan to come out of South Bend with a W.

Michigan 14
Notre Dame 34

SKWDCOP:

So, I have been really struggling with this game. On both sides, my head tells me ND, but my gut is screaming Michigan. This game will be a battle for El Dorado, or better El Denardo. I am hearing in the background as I write this L’Estasi Dell’Oro – or the Ecstasy of Gold. The same song that is the theme song of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. So go ahead Punk!! Feeling lucky, then make your pick on who will win the battle for Gold. Will ND continue a Golden rise in their 14K helmets to being back, or does Shoelace finish a golden performance and shut out of ND (game-wise). Much like Clint’s movie this game has potential to be any of the three above.

Sep 15, 2012; East Lansing, MI, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Manti TeND has played well and is off to a 3-0 start, including trouncing of MSU at home. However, what became apparent is that Boise St is a joke and Sparty’s one “Key win”, and ND has beat Navy (pssst so has PSU and well they suck right now) and almost lost to Purdue. This leaves me feeling confused about both ND and Michigan. After re-watching the Umass game the DL was mostly not starting DL but a hodge-podge experiment, and we also see that Borges has some things that are going to happen this game on offense – trickery or new wrinkle wise. Okay time to draw.

ND will win if: The ND front seven contains Denard, and Denard cannot exploit a very weak ND secondary via the pass, and if the Wolverines O-line allows a 3-man front to beat them down like they did sparty, or Michigan does not perform against the run.

UM will win if: Denard is golden. The defense can be respectable against the run, and make Golson uncomfortable without gashing the front seven. Sorry head I’m going gut.

Michigan 28
Notre Dame 24

WerlsWolverine

Michigan 31
Notre Dame 30

YostMeister

Another one of these games where we have to play perfect to win.

We are outmatched on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and frankly, h2h with our RB’s also.

Denard has the advantage over a red shirt freshmen, but playing down there at night…

Sorry guys, our defense couldn’t stop Air Force let alone Notre Dame at home.

Michigan 13
Notre Dame 31

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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