100 Days Out: Michigan Favored by 1 vs Notre Dame

Submitted by SkyPanther on

100 days until kickoff vs. Notre Dame. Michigan is slightly favored by another betting outlet, BetOnline.

Other notables there:

State favored by 26 over Utah St

Wisconsin favored by 33 over Western Kentucky

Ohio St favored by 38 in their really tough match up with Oregon St ;-)

Penn St favored by 23.5 over Appalachian St.

Nebraska favored by 20.5 over Akron

Iowa favored by 14 over Northern Illinois

It looks like Michigan has the toughest match up of all big name teams in the BIG 10 on opening weekend.

 

Two other games that should be great ones that weekend: Auburn vs Washington on Saturday afternoon, before the Michigan night game. And on Sunday night, LSU vs. Miami, at AT&T Stadium, Dallas (JerryLand).

 

Link: https://www.betonline.ag/sportsbook/football/ncaa

 

SugarShane

May 24th, 2018 at 9:57 AM ^

Shea Patterson really fucked my offseason up.

I was quite content being mopey and ignoring Michigan altogether until mid August.

Now it’s like a daily countdown in my head awaiting kickoff.

aMAIZEinBLUEinTX

May 24th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^

Idk how you omitted Louisville/Alabama, or Va Tech/Florida State in other notable games in Week 1...

Can't wait to stomp the Irish. Wish I could be in South Bend Labor Day weekend, but I'll be in Arlington (JerrahWorld) to watch LSU-Miami, fully sedated/comatose from overindulging in good hearty Cajun food from the all-day LSU tailgate faithful.

SkyPanther

May 24th, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^

The names of the teams in those games are notable. But those games don't hold my interest.

 

I'm not going to watch Alabama dominate Louisville. And I don't think Florida St is going to be a contender for anything this year.

MJ14

May 24th, 2018 at 6:51 PM ^

I'm with you. Louisville will be breaking in a new QB and he might not last until halftime. Alabama will win that game easily.

FauxMo

May 24th, 2018 at 10:17 AM ^

I like Northern Illinois to win outright against Iowa. Doesn't Iowa always lost its opener against a non-P5 or even IAA school each year??? 

mad magician

May 24th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^

that odds-makers aren’t getting caught up in narrative. UM as a tossup in a road opener against a top 20 team shows the more sober among us see a top returning defense, a QB that should address some of major faults from last year’s offense, emerging talent in skill positions, and, yes, confidence in a proven coach to right the wrongs from last season

dragonchild

May 24th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^

Last season's offense needed major fixing.  Harbaugh made major changes.  Did it work?  Only time will tell.  On a scale of one to ten, I rate next year's offense as mauve.

The arrival of Patterson certainly upgrades our QB depth, but as we saw in his game vs. Alabama, solid QB play isn't even going to prevent a blowout if you can't protect the QB, and the O-line is a huge question mark.

I commend the HC; he looked at his mistakes and did what needed to be done.  There aren't that many people who'd even have the humility to do that.  But the results are ultimately beyond his control.  If something's going wrong he can't feasibly make any more major changes without causing as much damage as he's trying to mitigate.

I was going to write a diary on what I expect next season's offense to look like (tactically), then I realized I have no idea.  The offense is going to be built around what works, but between what didn't work last year and all the changes they made, hell if I know what's gonna work.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

May 24th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^

But extrapolating from the 2017 Rebel offense simply because we expect a poor Michigan OL in 2018 misses the mark in terms of context.

Ole Miss's terrible defense probably had more to do with getting blown out by Alabama than their terrible OL. We clearly don't have that problem. And, though it's so obvious that I probably needn't type it, offenses playcall differently when they are down by twenty+ than when tied or within a single score.

Even *if* Michigan's 2018 offense is similar to Ole Miss's 2017 version in personell, I see no reason to conclude there'll be similar output.

dragonchild

May 24th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^

QB was a problem, Harbs did something about it.  WR was a problem, Harbs did something about it.  O-line was a problem. . . you get the idea.

It's almost certain at least one of these position groups has improved, and quite probable all of them did, but how efficient the '18 offense is going to be, and how it's going to look, is going to depend in large part on degrees.  The O-line will be improved but by how much?  QB will be improved but by how much? WR will be improved but by how much?  Gosh, I don't know.  We can comment on Ole Miss with the benefit of hindsight but aside from a huge amount of potential the '18 offense is almost top-to-bottom an unknown.  Not strictly a bad unknown, but I do think any prediction made now can only be right in the way a broken clock can be.

MGoStrength

May 24th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^

Keep in mind that all of those teams do play one Power 5 conference game before they open up B1G play.  OSU playsTCU, PSU plays Pitt, MSU plays Az St, Neb plays Colo, & Wiscy plays BYU.  I think it's probably a toss up between TCU & ND as to wheter UM or OSU has the tougher out of conference Power 5 game, but everyone's got one.

TheLastStraw

May 24th, 2018 at 10:41 AM ^

I love playing these big games opening weekend. I know if we lose it kind of sinks our season, but on the flip side, winning a big game early puts your program on the board.



If Michigan goes into South Bend in what is likely going to be the most hyped game of the weekend and comes out with a victory, Michigan is going to get a lot of attention. If we win this game, it does wonders for recruiting.

BlueChip27

May 24th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^

One of my b*tches with the current 4 team p/o format is that it is a proven fact that a loss at the end of the year is much more costly than a loos at the front end.

Hypothetically if M loses to ND and runs the table including the B10 championship game they should make the playoff (I believe)......sadly beat ND, run the table and lose in the B10 title game and they'd be out. 

This is one of the reasons I believe that an 8 team playoff make perfect sense.

Perkis-Size Me

May 24th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^

This program has more early season hype and September Heismans over the last ten years than most other program out there. If we drop this game it sucks, but winning in November is where this team's bones are going to be made. I'd happily watch this team get ransacked in week 1 if it meant it rounded to form in November and finally beat OSU. 

Our November record over the last ten years has got to be awful. Well below .500. If we can't win there, winning at ND won't mean much. 

SkyPanther

May 24th, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^

Ben Herbert was hired because he has a history of  making players play strong in November, and in 4th qtrs. What better way to find out if it was a good hire by what happens in the 4th qtr  of the last game in November, in the 4th qtr vs Ohio St. We will see then if he was the right hire for the situation Michigan has been in for years. I think he is. I effing can't wait.

JFW

May 24th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^

Not because it's Notre Dame (I hate them). Not because I'm Irish Catholic (Despite that, I still hate them). It's because if we lose to Notre Dame it sucks for bragging rights purposes. If we win, it looks good, but we all know that ND will drop off the face of the earth later in the year and tarnish the win. 

I mean, it's better than playing Eastern, but it's not like we're playing Auburn. 

Don

May 24th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^

Now that Joe Milton is putting the other quarterbacks on notice and steel is sharpening steel, Michigan ought to be favored by at least two touchdowns.