Michigan Football: 5 Predictions for Wolverines against Rutgers
Michigan football will try to get back in the win column Saturday night against Rutgers and here are five predictions for the Wolverines.
It’s a tough pill to swallow that Michigan football is 1-3 at the midway point of the season, facing a must-win game against Rutgers. Yes, Rutgers.
It might be sound silly to call this a must-win game, because even if the Wolverines win this game and every other one on their schedule, they won’t sniff a championship of any sort.
This is about pride and trying to salvage a respectable season. In the big picture, it’s also pretty important for Jim Harbaugh‘s coaching tenure and the recruiting outlook, which despite some major struggles, is looking very good for 2022.
However, as bad as things have been — a loss to Rutgers would be an even new low and it would be hard for even Harbaugh to come back from that.
Don’t get me wrong, this Rutgers program is different and obviously better under Greg Schiano, which we all saw in the Scarlet Knights win over Michigan State. This team is capable and it will be fired up.
Can Michigan match that intensity? That’s going to be a big question and without further ado, here’s a look at the first of five predictions for Michigan football vs Rutgers:
Michigan football starts fast
Harbaugh hasn’t been as animated this season and really he hasn’t looked like himself on the sidelines for years. But he did seem to have some of the same fire this week and he talked passionately about the program getting back to basics.
Rutgers is a veteran team, as a majority of the starters are juniors and seniors, so it will be a test for this young Michigan team early on and fast starts, even against Minnesota, haven’t happened.
In my heart of hearts, I still believe Harbaugh knows how to coach the game of football. The problem is that he got away from who he was in order to try and catch Ohio State. Michigan needs to get back to being Michigan — tough, physical and fundamentally sound.
This team needs to run the damn ball and it needs to play with an attitude and for the first time since the Minnesota game, I think we see that and we see it right away.
And a more motivated team will start fast thanks to some promising early runs, which will help the Wolverines grab the opening score for the first time all season.