I'm not lying when I say I'm honestly torn on the trend of scheduling decent Week 1 matchups...but in NFL stadiums. I'm ready for college football, and a chunk of these games have zero college football feel to them at all. So while I'd also prefer an afternoon kick, I'll settle for these two at least playing on campus. Michigan boasts a schedule marked with 6 games that will define not only their 2018 campaign, but at this point the entire Harbaugh narrative. It's Year 4, he has a full roster of his players, and had a former #1 QB recruit fall into his lap when the Ole Miss scandal broke. If not now, when? Harbaugh probably wouldn't say it publicly, but I don't think he'd disagree, which is why he spent the early part of his offseason tinkering with his coaching staff. The home run hire was Jim Warriner, who did amazing things with the Ohio State offensive line, and just maybe isn't a great offensive coordinator. He's not going to be asked to do that, and the biggest glaring weakness in Michigan's performance was the offensive line. If that takes a major step forward, the Wolverines can be every bit as good as they were supposed to be in 2018, before 2017 happened. The defense has absolutely zero questions. The secondary is as good as any in the country, the linebacking group has a pair of All-American candidates, and the line features a pair of rushers that anyone other than Clemson and Auburn would trade for. You want to quibble, the interior line is merely good. How the Irish fare this year depends largely on whether Brandon Wimbush is for real. Through 9 games last year, the Irish were 8-1, with the lone loss being by 1 point to national runner-up Georgia, and Wimbush was great in every one of those wins. Then something fell apart, and while he was "fine" against Navy, he was lousy in losses to Miami and Stanford, and was so bad in the Citrus Bowl, he was benched in favor of Ian Book, who led the comeback victory. Kelly has come back to Wimbush, who is clearly the better runner, hoping he can return to the form he showed the first 2/3 of the season. It will help if the hero of that Citrus Bowl win, Miles Boykin, can develop into a consistent talent. The junior shows flashes of how good he can be, he maybe had the play of the bowl season. But before that 102 yard day, he had 9 catches for 151 yards on the season. The running games takes a big hit without Josh Adams, but Kelly has always find guys back there in his system. Their defense took a huge step forward during Mike Elko's lone year in South Bend, enough that Texas A&M broke the bank to bring him in to run their defense. Can Clark Lea keep the ball rolling? They've been very good on that side of the ball since letting letting Brian VanGorder go early in the 2016 season. But the question remains as to whether Michigan can go into a hostile environment like this and pull out a win. They did it in 2006, and since then? The Wolverines haven't beaten a ranked team on the road since that game 12 years ago, 16 losses in a row. In a sport we all love for the upsets, the fact that Harbaugh has avoided anything resembling a big loss is noteworthy, but he is also yet to pick up a big win, certainly not on the road. He'll get three, maybe four opportunities this year, and I'd be shocked if he goes 0-4, but this is a group that needs to prove, particularly on offense and the coaching staff to be more than hype, before I'll actually pick it. Michigan is the better team, but chalk this one up to a vote for the intangibles. I'll take the home team in the night game atmosphere. But, if Michigan pulls out a win, and looks good doing it (not that Wimbush is who we fear he might be), watch out, the sky is the limit. |