Michigan Football vs. Ohio State Preview and Prediction

Ohio State offense vs. Michigan defense

Up front, I feel confident that the Michigan defensive line has an advantage over the offensive line of Ohio State. Adding in the fact that Kyle McCord is not a mobile quarterback, Michigan has a clear advantage and should be able to disrupt McCord. McCord has had some issues with fumbling the ball at times, so the Michigan defenders are surely going to try to knock it out of his hands.

For Ohio State, they’re going to try to get the run game going early. With Treyveon Henderson back at 100%, the Buckeyes have a solid running game. The thing with Henderson, however, is that he’s a big playback, not a grinder. He can run for 60+ yards in the blink of an eye, but he won’t break a ton of tackles in the process. So the key for Michigan’s defense is to make contact with Henderson early.

Henderson is phenomenal at hitting holes and is very quick and elusive. I think a good example of Henderson is his game against Notre Dame, which is a relatively comparable defense to Michigan. Henderson finished with 14 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown. A great stat line. However, 61 of those (and the touchdown) came on one carry. Outside of that, he had 13 carries for 43 yards. Not great numbers.

Henderson is by far the best running back for Ohio State and will therefore get the bulk of the carries. The question here is can Michigan’s front seven shut down Henderson at the line of scrimmage and make the Buckeyes one-dimensional? I think the Wolverines, who have a great line, especially on the interior, have an advantage here. Onto the passing game.

Kyle McCord is a solid quarterback, but he’s no CJ Stroud. The passing attack is still Ryan Day’s go-to, so we should see a heavy dose of it against the Wolverines. The Buckeyes have tons of talented receivers. Marvin Harrison Jr is the best player in America, Emeka Egbuka is a likely first-round pick, Cade Stover is a solid receiving tight end, and there are countless other five-star receivers on the team.

The matchup of the game is Marvin Harrison Jr versus Will Johnson. Plain and simple. Michigan football tends to be very zone-heavy, but for The Game I expect Jesse Minter to mix things up and put Will Johnson in man coverage against Marvin Harrison Jr for much of the game. Johnson is the only player on Michigan’s defense that can physically compete with Marvin Harrison Jr.

Last year, we saw Johnson excel against stud wide receivers. He played very well when matched up against Harrison Jr in 2022, and was able to shut down first-round pick Quentin Johnston when matched up with him. He’s the Wolverines’ best shot at slowing down Harrison. Of course, the Wolverines will need safety help on him all game long.

The X-factor here is Michigan’s pass rush. As I said, they have the advantage against Ohio State’s offensive line. If they can create lots of pressure, McCord is going to struggle. And when that happens, he’s going to force the ball to MHJ. If Michigan is prepared, that could lead to crucial mistakes from McCord.

I think the Wolverines are going to disrupt McCord all day long. He’s going to make some good throws and Marvin Harrison Jr is going to make some ridiculous plays, but this offense is not what it has been the past two seasons.

Advantage? Michigan