Michigan football on an impressive streak against rivals

Michigan football was billed as a team that couldn’t win rivalry games not that long ago, but after an impressive run, that’s no longer true. 

Rivalry games are an essential part of college football. At least as a Michigan football fan. Ohio State is the most important rivalry but it’s far from the only one.

Michigan also counts Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Minnesota as rivals too. Penn State has also emerged as one since the two teams have been in the same division.

The Minnesota game even has a trophy at stake. It’s just that the Big Ten rivals don’t play each other each season, which is why I would have enjoyed seeing Michigan football get three protected rivalries: Michigan State, Ohio State, and Minnesota.

Instead, Michigan just got Michigan State and Ohio State. The Wolverines have won their past three games against those two rivals.

But if you consider Michigan football’s top five rivals to be MSU, OSU, Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Penn State, then the Wolverines are on quite a run of success as Scott Bell pointed out on Twitter on Friday morning.

The smallest margin of victory for Michigan football in each of the most recent matchups were the 22-point victories the Wolverines notched against Michigan State and Ohio State in 2022.

Michigan football defeated the Spartans 29-7. The final score against Ohio State was 45-23. Michigan also registered a four-touchdown triumph over Penn State last season, thanks to long second-half touchdowns from Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum.

Michigan hasn’t played Notre Dame since the 2019 season but also put a beat down on the Irish by 31 points. The last win against Minnesota was the game Joe Milton started during the Covid-19 season of 2020.

Things started fast that season for Michigan football but it came crashing down all the way to a 2-4 finish. Still, that was a nice rivalry win and U-M will have the chance to battle the Gophers once again this season.

Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State are on the schedule too and we’ll see if the Wolverines can make it a clean sweep of rivalry games just as they did in 2022.