Michigan vs. Minnesota Preview

It has been a while, but it’s game week, and it’s a big one. So for those of you who didn’t read last year, the way the previews work is that we go over the game, and then I give my score prediction. So starting with what I expect to see from Michigan, well for starters, a whole lot of Charbonnet and Haskins. I think that Michigan will try to get the ground game going early and often to ease Milton into the game. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t see Milton’s massive arm, but more that Minnesota had suspect run defense last year, especially against teams with a good ground game. I do expect to see some things we didn’t see last year; Minnesota is VERY inexperienced on Defense, losing 5 of 6 leading tacklers and being ULTRA thin at Linebacker. Now, that probably won’t have a massive effect on the game, but I heard something today that I really agree with on a college football show . If Alabama or Ohio State were to lose 5 of 6 leading tacklers, their leading receiver, their leading secondary member, and 1,600 of 2,300 rushing yards, even then there would be some questions – but Minnesota? Minnesota has some major questions. Now here’s what I expect from the defense, a lot of press man. Minnesota runs a heavy RPO offense, where the pass options are generally slants and short over the middle passes. If Michigan were to run zone they would die a slow painful death of 10 yd passes. But good news is that Michigan’s signature defense is a press man, which is set up perfectly to defend a heavy RPO offense. The only problem is Minnesota has a new OC. I read that he is supposed to run similar stuff, but you never know. I expect Michigan’s duo of Hutchinson and Paye to dominate this game; Minnesota is missing there two best offensive linemen in Faalee (RT) and Dunlap (RG) for non-injury reasons, so expect Hutchinson especially to get some pressure. Another name to watch is Michael Barrett, as the VIPER position had a lot of success in Don Brown’s defense. One of the keys to the game is how well Michigan can keep in check Minnesota’s star receiver Rashod Bateman. The player who is mainly tasked with this is Vincent Gray. Gray was fine in coverage last year, but this is his first true test. He was great against Alabama last year, which gives confidence that he will be fine. Especially because I think that he will get plenty of safety help from Hawkins and Hill. Some quick keys to the game:

Keeping Bateman in check: explained above

Playing good defense: I expect them to, but we don’t want to have Milton to be having to trade points the whole game

Milton making good decisions: One of the biggest knocks on Milton coming out of High school was poor decisions leading to turnovers. He’s made improvements but that will be inetresting.

Line Play: Michigan controlling the trenches could swing this game massively in Michigan’s favor

Minnesota’s COVID troubles: Minnesota has had a lot of COVID troubles lately, with rumblings that they could be missing 6 starters (just a rumor – Fleck isn’t releasing an official number) along with Faalele and Dunlap out. We truly will not know who is on the field for Minnesota until they start.

Score prediction.

I believe that it will be a somewhat boring first half like maybe a score of 14-10, 14-7, 10-3, etc. But I believe the second half opens up a bit and becomes more exciting, leading to a final of somewhere in the 31-24, 28-21, 31-21 range. But for my official score prediction I’m going with 28-17 Michigan: our defense plays well, and the offense doesn’t put up gaudy stats or anything, but does enough to get the job done. Minnesota play’s an OK game, but all the uncertainty regarding COVID, opt outs, and inexperience is too much for them to handle.