Final predictions for Michigan Football’s 2020 season

Here are some final predictions ahead of the 2020 Michigan football season.

The Michigan football season finally starts Saturday as it’s now game week for the Wolverines, who will play at Minnesota next Saturday.

It’s been a long wait and watching other teams play college football has been tough. There has also been a lot up in the air, with coaches, players and others testing positive for COVID-19 including Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm.

Hopefully, the Big Ten conference is able to keep things under control and continue playing the 2020 season. The full slate of opening games starts this weekend and Michigan vs Minnesota, a top-25 matchup, is the marquee game.

While I took a shot at some bold predictions for the season not along ago, we have obviously learned even more about the team since then and I wanted to take a quick shot at some final predictions just a few days before the 2020 season gets underway, so here goes, rapid fire:

Michigan will play for the Big Ten East title in Columbus

I have predicted that Michigan football will head into the final week of the season, without a loss and believe that’s possible. The Wolverines have won their last two home games against Penn State and Wisconsin and I don’t believe either of those teams is better than U-M.

Michigan certainly could lose at home to either Wisconsin or Penn State, but with some games under Joe Milton’s belt by then, Michigan will win those games and will be 4-0 at home.

A loss to Minnesota or Indiana leading up to the Ohio State game wouldn’t surprise me, because road games are tough but on an individual basis, I’d expect Michigan football to win both of those games too.

Either way, an unbeaten record or even 6-1 going into the final weekend would give Michigan a shot to steal the division title in Columbus and even though it doesn’t seem likely the Wolverines will win that game, it would be disappointing if it wasn’t even for a trip to Indy.

The offenses and defense will make progress.

It might seem like a simple prediction and it sort of is, but I do think that the offense and defense will make tangible improvements for Michigan football.

The offense has a lot of room to grow in terms of points and yards per game in year two under Josh Gattis. So not only will the offense look better according to the eye test, it will put up better numbers too.

The same can be said for the defense, which will defend the run better than it did in 2019. It remains to be seen if this defense can live up to the hype, but it has as much talent as any Michigan defense since 2016.

The front seven should be really good along with the pass rush. Daxton Hill also has star potential in the secondary and it will lead to one of the best defenses in the country.

Michigan will find its quarterback

It will be hard to call this season a success if Michigan doesn’t beat Ohio State, but as I have said before, it’s just hard to do that until we actually see it happen.

However, even in a defeat to Ohio State, I think we’ll see some impressive play from Joe Milton this season. There will be growing pains, but also stellar moments too.

An improved defense, a strong running game and Joe Milton will give Michigan a puncher’s chance against Ohio State but another loss and a 7-2 mark seems likely.

But heading into next year with Milton as the starter sounds promising. He should eventually be an early-round draft choice, as long as he can live up to the hype and this year, in some ways, I believe he will.

Milton has the potential to be that elite quarterback Michigan football has been missing, but developing into that takes time and this year will be part of that process.