Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Yeah, that's why I noted UT's games against UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, Maryland, BYU, over the past 6-8 years.  We've also played Ole Miss within that span.



In fact, going back to 2012 and through 2018, Texas has played two P5 teams OOC every single year, if we're counting BYU and ND as P5-type teams.  That's 7 straight years of playing 11 P5 teams every single year.  Sadly, it's all been during a miserable down-period for the Horns, but I still like the scheduling practices.  Makes the season more interesting.



Anyway, back to the game at hand, I wouldn't be shocked if Michigan wins it, but I have a feeling Wisconsin is going to pull it out.  

very envious of this. wish Michigan would have done more of this. They did neutral site games with Florida and Alabama but neutral site games are lame as hell. I am all for eliminating neutral site games, forcing teams to quit playing FCS, and forcing them to play at least 1 opponent from another P5 every year. Makes things way more interesting.

As for the game at hand, I agree with your assessment. Wisconsin will win this one. Frosh QB playing that nasty Wisconsin defense in their house? Going to be a tough game for Michigan.

This is gonna be a defensive slugfest. Whoever hits a few key passes on offense and takes care of the football will win the game. And I think that team will be Wisconsin. Peters hasn't thrown an INT yet. Which is BAD juju to me. Kinda wish he'd have gotten those INT's out of his system way before this game. Hindsight is 20/20, but it was probably a huge mistake to go with O'Korn after Speight got hurt. Should've went with Peters, just kept getting him experience and grooming him for the future. He would've been battle tested had he gotten time against MSU and PSU. He's walking into something he's never experienced now. Wisconsin is an entirely different animal than a half against Rutgers and games against Maryland and Minnesota.

I don't see either team running wild, both defenses are stout up front. Not sure Wisconsin has the WR's and passing game to really abuse Michigan's safeties Tyree Kinnel and Josh Mettellus in man coverage, but there will be plenty of opportunities there for the Wisconsin WR's on safeties in man coverage because.....Don Brown LOVES man coverage. Probably loves it a little bit too much. He puts his safeties in man to man coverage a lot. And both of them kinda struggle at it. As you'd expect...there's a reason they play safety and not CB.

The Penn State game scared me half to death because of Barkley's receiving ability. Don Brown LOVES man coverage. He put slow ass 6'4, 240+ pound LB Mike McCray in man coverage on Barkley. Never made an adjustment there. Just manned McCray up on Barkley in pass coverage. And it did not go well. Complete lunacy. Whoever is Wisconsin best pass catching RB......that's the match-up that I'd look for if I was the Wisconsin OC. Get the RB on a pass route in space in man coverage on Mike McCray on a wheel route- it's a guaranteed big play and you can go to that well as much as you like because Brown probably ain't going to adjust it and Mike McCray sure as hell ain't gonna cover it. He's too slow. He's a 6'4, 240+ banger. His game is going down hill, stuffing the run, rushing the QB. He can't cover in space like at all.

Michigan will probably see a lot of 3 TE sets in this game. I'm sure they are practicing against it this week since they do it all the time too...

The best pass catcher out of the backfield is probably Chris James, but Taylor can do it too. Screens scare the hell out of me with Horni though.

Both offenses see great defenses every week in practice. I don't think anyone is going to freak out.

I don't think anyone will be freaking out...Peters seems like a level headed player, I like his demeanor as QB- nothing- if it's going well or bad- nothing. He seems like a cool customer. But I wouldn't be shocked if Peters loses some confidence and has a rough out. In fact, I'm expecting that to be the case. That's a tough environment and that's a top 5 defense and it's his first real road test and he's a freshman. He hasn't really been prepped for anything like this in live action. He didn't get to play against MSU, Florida, or Penn State. He's played 2.5 games against pretty average teams in Rutgers, Minnesota, and Maryland, and Harbaugh has hidden the QB. They've been so conservative and he hasn't been asked to do a whole lot. To his credit though he was actually executing, unlike O'Korn who was just god awful at everything save for an incredible half against Purdue.

I was talking more about sending the RB's in actual passing routes out of the backfield or even putting them into motion and lining 'em up at slot WR to expose McCray in man coverage. If Wisconsin has a back that can do that- they better use him because that works like magic against this defense. Screens also work great against this style of attacking, aggressive defense that blitzes a lot. MSU scored one of their two TD's against this defense off a screen if I'm remembering correctly. Perfect play-call actually, Michigan was blitzing and MSU caught them with their pants down.

I've said this before, but one of the few redeeming qualities of the Dave Brandon era is that he set up all these great non-con series with Washington, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Texas, and Oklahoma for the next 10 years (Notre Dame replaced Arkansas for the next two years, which I definitely favor now, considering the Irish are good and the Razorbacks are not)..... He also scheduled some good guarantee games (2015 BYU / Oregon State, 2016 Colorado / UCF / Hawaii, 2017 Air Force & Cincinnati should've been better).

As for this game, the Michigan passing game is the biggest wildcard, still....

BB threw away the game in EL that year with terrible playcalling late, an unforgivable PF on him, and then calling timeout to "ice" the MSU kicker with the clock running and MSU having no timeouts, giving them time to set up the winning FG.  Not his finest game

That game was artistry. UW's defense was just nails that day, and they did so effing much to give away hidden yards. 

That game was artistry. UW's defense was just nails that day, and they did so effing much to give away hidden yards.

That felt all afternoon like a game MSU was losing by 2-3 scores.

Bucky has been waiting for this one all year.  The first 10 games were tense, if only because everyone was telling them, "you better be 10-0 going into Michigan, or else..." but now they get their first big game atmosphere of the season.  Has Michigan figured things out with Brandon Peters?  He's looked like he deserves the job, which is more than O'Korn ever showed, but he hasn't exactly faced anyone like this.  This is a rebuilding year, so while 8-4 isn't terrible, it's still Michigan, and going 0-4 against the only four decent teams you face doesn't really sit right, so for this season to be a success the Wolverines need to win one of these last two...although they'd prefer it be next week.  Harbaugh hasn't asked Peters to play outside his comfort zone, and the running game, which has been vastly underrated this year, and shouldered most of the load.  The question now is who is going to run the ball?  Ty Isaac left the Rutgers game with an injury, and hasn't played since, and Karan Higdon, who has become easily their best back left the Maryland game, although he did practice yesterday.  They still have Chris Evans and Kareem Walker, but neither is nearly the complete back that Higdon or Isaac is, and against this defense, you certainly don't want to put it all on Peters.  If you want any sympathy for those injuries from Wisconsin fans, you won't get it.  The Badgers' injury report is longer than any in the nation outside of Chapel Hill.  You wouldn't know it from the way they are playing right now.  Last week, against probably the best team they've played all season, Wisconsin steamrolled Iowa 38-14, in a game that was only that "close" due to a pair of pick sixes.  They held the Hawkeyes to only 66 total yards...a week after they scored nearly that many POINTS on Ohio State.  The fact that Wisconsin's defense is playing this well right now, down this many starters, is downright scary.  S&P+ ranks them as the top defense in the entire nation.  To have a shot, Michigan has to win first down.  Alex Hornibrook is fine when he plays within himself, but when he doesn't...well, two pick sixes last week.  Considering nobody is moving the ball on Wisconsin, it's tough tothink that a struggling Michigan offense will be the one to break that streak.  So Wisconsin, don't turn the ball over, don't make special teams mistakes.  Don Brown is coming after you no matter what, but in this one, there might be a little extra emphasis on trying to force the splash plays, the turnovers, the sacks.  It's not going to be enough for the Michigan defense to just stop Wisconsin, they are going to have to set up their offense too.  You could tell from last week how ready for a big game Camp Randall was, and this is the one they've been pointing to since last season ended.  Michigan probably isn't walking into quite the beehive they did in Happy Valley, and Wisconsin doesn't have the type of personnel to exploit Michigan's lack of athleticism at linebacker like Penn State did, but this Wisconsin team feels even more like a machine than Penn State did prior to the Columbus and East Lansing trips.
WISCONSIN 28, MICHIGAN 17