The Wolverines went through three of the top five teams in the playoff standings to end the 2023 season and this time around will faceoff with three of the newest and most fiercest members of the Big Ten in 2024. That means there will be games where Michigan football will have to have their heads on a swivel as they match up with teams looking to upset them.
There will be at least three or four games that Michigan football could get caught looking ahead to have a letdown or sleepwalk into a game it's supposed to win. Here's the list.
1. September 28th, Minnesota @ home
Coming off a landmark Big Ten opener with USC and just weeks removed from the anticipated Texas affair, the Gophers will come into town expecting to give Michigan football everything that they can handle. It will also be Michigan's final home game before they travel all the way across the country for their first road test.
This meeting will be in the midst of perhaps Michigan's sternest three game stretch of the season. Minnesota brings in one of the most proficient rushing attacks in the conference. During his time spent on the field, Darius Taylor recorded almost three 200 plus yard performances and is the epitome of a workhorse back who can carry it 30 plus times an outing.
2. October 26th, Michigan State @ home
A week before Oregon enters the Big house and a tricky road game in Bloomington, Sparty seeks revenge on its "big brother." They've got a new regime leading them and a legit quarterback who will have been put through the ringer with games against conference favorites Ohio State and Oregon already in the past.
This one won't be as easy as it was a year ago in East Lansing. Michigan football will be seeking its third win in a row over Sparty. They won in 2020 in Mel Tucker's first try in the rivalry. Joe Rossi has the dubious job of replacing Scottie Hazelton who also gave up about 50 to Michigan a year ago, when he was at Minnesota.
You can make a case that Indiana is a trap game too. Curt Cignetti would like nothing more than a signature win, just like Smith to jump start their respective programs. Doing it against Michigan football would lift their coaching career into the stratosphere.
Indiana's transfer quarterback and new coach each had power five conference wins in 2023. Cignetti has never had a losing season, but is skating on thin ice at a job where practically no one ever succeeds.
3. November 23rd, Northwestern @ home
Northwestern will waltz into Michigan stadium one week before "the game." That's an easy excuse for Michigan to be game-planning ahead for the Buckeyes. David Braun has people around the Chicago area forgetting about Pat Fitzgerald and focusing on their bright future. They're another school that historically gives Michigan football problems just like Minnesota or Indiana does every once in a while.
Jim Harbaugh would have been the Big Ten coach of the year if it wasn't for Braun. He got them to win in Madison and beat a Utah squad that always gives their opponents a dogfight. They're entering 2024 with a four-game winning streak, but get Ohio State right before they drive or fly up to Ann Arbor. Coach Moore will want to do right by his former coach and win this one for him.
It's going to be difficult for the Wildcats to sneak up from behind on teams this year. The film is out on them. With their new lakefront stadium in the works, it would have been a lot cooler if Michigan played there this year, but that exposure will be a prime feature for them to display to recruits. Michigan is set to square off with the Cats again in 2025, but the venue is still unknown.