Michigan Football: Predicting each non-conference game for Wolverines

Middle Tennessee State

I know this is about Michigan football but I have to butt in with some basketball trivia. Do you remember the 2015-16 NCAA basketball tournament where Michigan State, as a 2 seed, drew 15 seed Middle Tennessee State?

Blue Raiders 90, Michigan State 81.

Moving on.

Sitting in Conference USA, MTSU generally enjoys success on the football field, especially recently as they made it to the championship game losing to Alabama-Birmingham 27-25.

Even with the loss, the Blue Raiders were able to make it to the postseason with an 8-6 overall record and they were matched up against Appalachian State in the New Orleans Bowl where they were throttled 45-13.

That score might be mimicked when MTSU takes the field in Ann Arbor on August 31st.

The Blue Raiders recent history against the Big Ten is about as atrocious as you would probably guess. Since 2010, MTSU has battled against the Big Ten Conference five times and they lost five times. Most recently, they were spanked by Minnesota 34-3 in 2017.

And that’s not even the worse news for the team from Murfreesboro as their fearless QB Brent Stockstill graduated at the end of the season. For four straight years, he led the team throwing for a combined 12,483 yards and 106 TDs with a career-high 70% completions during his senior year.

The success Brent had at MTSU will be nearly impossible to replicate and the team still can’t decide who is going to be put up to the task.

JUCO transfer Randall Johnson and Asher O’Hara, who played in two games last season for Rick Stockstill, are in a heated competition with Asher being the reported favorite.

My prediction: A lot of trick plays ending badly for MTSU, Michigan football 42, MTSU 3.