Early Michigan Football vs TCU roundtable preview

Early thoughts about TCU and how Michigan matches up with them?

Jordan: I think they’re a great matchup for the Wolverines. TCU’s defense isn’t great, so Michigan football should be able to put points on the board. The X factor in this game is Max Duggan and his ability to run. The Wolverine defense has struggled in years past against mobile quarterbacks. I think that if the Wolverines shut down his ability to run, they’ll be advancing to the national championship.

Brady: I’m excited about this one. I think TCU has a great offense and we’ve got to shut down their passing game. On the other side of the ball, it feels like we’ll see a traditional run-focused Michigan offense. I’d like to see us get creative with JJ in the passing game, but if we can control the game on the ground there’s no reason not to. This is a very winnable game for the Wolverines and I love this matchup much better than last year’s.

Nick: Michigan football matches up well with TCU’s below-average defense. The Wolverines could score at will against them. TCU’s offense will give Michigan some problems defensively, but Jesse Minter will want to prove that he was more deserving of being the Broyles award winner than Garrett Riley.

Josh: TCU’s offense is kind of an air-raid hybrid – focusing on distributing the ball to all the offense but still maintaining a run presence – and man do they have a gritty guy in Max Duggan who’s the perfect quarterback to lead that offense. The Horned Frog defense is no slouch either, but the issue team-wide, particularly on defense though is just the lack of depth. If you watched the Big 12 title game on those final drives you saw how exhausted the defensive line and entire offense looked. A lack of depth will come back to haunt them against a football Michigan team that wants to take you into the 12th round.

Cameron: TCU is really good, and they have heart, and it’s easy to root for them and their QB, Max Duggan. TCU is a good enough opponent where the game could be competitive for three and a half quarters. I’d say TCU is like an Ohio State on defense (meh), and a diet Ohio State on offense, like Purdue. I think Michigan will be able to score on TCU pretty often, but it will come down to the bend-don’t-break defense Michigan has done for the past several games to win. TCU knows how to come back, but Michigan knows how to pull away. It’ll be fascinating to see which side wins out. It’s good Michigan gets to go up against an opponent that’s really good, but not so good that the outcome of the game is already set in stone prior to the game taking place. A lot of Michigan fans felt confident that the Wolverines could beat Georgia last year, but deep down, a lot of us knew Michigan wasn’t going to win, including myself. TCU is nowhere near last season’s Georgia squad, so it’s a good first-round opponent.

Chris: I think Michigan football will be able to run the ball. J.J. McCarthy will have a great game. Colston Loveland will catch another touchdown and the defense will hit Max Duggan enough to impact him and for the Wolverines to win the game. It will be close and exciting though.