Michigan Football: 3 reasons Wolverines will beat Hawaii
By Josh LaFond
Playing an undermanned and inferior opponent, will the Wolverines succumb to overconfidence, or will they handle their business?
Michigan football has zero reason to worry this week against Hawaii.
Unless they let overconfidence get the best of them that is.
Hawaii enters The Big House 0-2, outscored by a combined 85 points in contests against Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky. Though this isn’t your dad’s June Jones-led air-raid Warriors, the Wolverines can’t look past them.
How many times have we seen a completely outmanned, inferior opponent come into a blue blood stadium and hold their own?
Heck, we just saw South Dakota St. give the Iowa Hawkeyes a run for their money in a 7-3 Hawkeye victory IN IOWA CITY.
Now, that being said, this Hawaii team as mentioned before is for lack of a better word, bad.
Hawaii has a lot of problems. Their starting quarterback, Brayden Schager, has yet to throw a touchdown but has four interceptons through two games. The backup, Joey Yellen, hasn’t either and also has an interception on his stat sheet.
The Warriors clearly haven’t been much better on defense. Giving up 63 to Vanderbilt in Week 0, and 49 to Western Kentucky doesn’t show much indication they’ll be a .500 club this year.
So why will Michigan football win?
Even though I’ve been railing on Hawaii (sorry Warriors fans) we’re going to break it down. Because even though you could paint the reasons with a broad brush, I’ve got three that I’m going to share with you.
Michigan’s offense is going to be punishing
What’s the last thing a reeling program that has yet to have a passing touchdown this season wants to do?
Play a physical juggernaut. And that’s exactly what the Wolverines are.
With an offensive line that returns nearly every starter, and finished the season winning the Joe Moore award as the nation’s best offensive line, that screams mismatch against an undersized Hawaii front 7.
We know how Michigan football wants to play. Physical, gritty, blue-collar football.
Even though Jim Harbaugh has turned to sophomore phenom, J.J. McCarthy to start this game, the game plan and philosophy of Michigan football won’t change.
Expect the Wolverines to come out and utilize McCarthy’s legs, and the threat of him running to open up the rest of the run game — and offense.
The physical, ground, and pound offense that we all fell in love with last season will be what set’s up McCarthy for success.
Running the play action off of big runs up the gut. Using the aforementioned threat of quarterback run from McCarthy will take the Warriors will early, and will set Michigan up for a blowout win.