Rutgurs and Iowa Confirmed as Night Games

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The Big Ten Conference Office and its television partners announced Monday (May 2) the primetime games for each of its platforms, with two of the University of Michigan's four conference road contests selected for an evening starting time.

The Wolverines will play its Big Ten road opener against Rutgers on Oct. 8 at either 7 or 8 p.m. EDT. This will be the team's second-ever appearance at High Point Solutions Stadium in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Scarlet Knights won the inaugural meeting in primetime, 26-24, on Oct. 4, 2014.

The final primetime tilt on Michigan's regular-season schedule will be played at Iowa on Nov. 12. The Wolverines and the defending Big Ten Western Division champion Hawkeyes will battle at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST from Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. This will be the second time that the two schools have met in primetime, with Iowa winning the match-up, 30-28, on Oct. 10, 2009, at Kinnick Stadium.

The television network for the Rutgers and Iowa games will be selected at a later date. The games could be shown on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

The Wolverines have compiled a 29-20 all-time record in night games.

ChiCityWolverine

May 2nd, 2016 at 12:53 PM ^

I'm as high on this team as anybody, it will easily be our best team since '06 and has an even higher ceiling than that team did if our QB reaches the level we're all hoping/expecting. But lets not completely disregard the history here. Michigan is 3-8 in true road night games since 2008. 

Wins: 2011 over 6-7 Northwestern, 2013 over 3-9 UConn, and 2015 over 6-7 Minnesota. The UConn and Minnesota games came down to the very end. I expect to obliterate Rutgers, but Iowa should be hard fought even in victory.

IIRC, Michigan hasn't beaten a ranked team on the road at any time since 2006 @ #2 Notre Dame. Going 2-1 in our three big road trips this year would a tremendous achievment for the program. 

MichiganTeacher

May 3rd, 2016 at 7:46 AM ^

My guess is tripartite.

1) Lloyd Carr's lack of innovation and almost masochistic predictability allowed Iowa, like many teams, to play far closer against us than the talent level would otherwise have allowed.

2) Rich Rodriguez's M teams were Not Good.

3) Brady Hoke's lack of talent development and almost complete offensive incompetence played perfectly into Iowa's monodefense mindset.

But that's just a guess.

LSAClassOf2000

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^

While they recruit in each other's backyard - that is, a fair number of Rutgers players seem to be from central / eastern Pennsylvania and a fair amount of Penn State's roster seems to come out of New Jersey - yeah, I don't know that this was ever much of a football rivalry. I think Rutgers has a pretty long-standing rivalry with Navy though, not that this matters for Big Ten purposes. They might have the single poorest record of attempting to create rivalries in the Big Ten, in fact. I mean, who is it in hoops? Seton Hall maybe?

tlo2485

May 2nd, 2016 at 12:12 PM ^

PSU's main rivals were Pitt and WVU, but JoePa ended both pretty much by refusing to play either one regularly because he didn't like losing. They don't have a hoops rival.. Rutgers vs PSU women's hoops maybe lol.

Raback Omaba

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^

Iowa winning the match-up, 30-28, on Oct. 10, 2009, at Kinnick Stadium.

I remember this game very well, I was watching it while visiting my Grandmother while she was in care after her stroke (thought she was a goner, but she has mad a great recovery for the most part.)

If I can recall, Tate inexplicably got the hook for a very "green" Denard in the fourth quarter....and we couldn't punch it in.

Was a frustrating game that I thought we could've won.

bklein09

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^

I was at that game, and I thought Tate was injured. Denard came in and did alright. We had the ball last down 2 and he didn't see a wide open WR streaking down the field for what would have likely been a game winning TD or FG attempt. Instead he forced it to the other side and it was picked. Afterwards pics were taken of sad panda Denard. Not trying to rip on him though. It was a tough situation to come into a game. On the road, night game, 15 degrees or so outside. He did his best under those circumstances.



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ijohnb

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:43 AM ^

I remember correctly, Forcier was kind of hurt - kind of benched. I remember there being some back and forth between he and RR as to whether he was going into the game.

So much promise with the Pick 6 by Warren and then tight end mania ensued and we had no answer.

In reply to by ijohnb

JOHNNAVARREISMYHERO

May 3rd, 2016 at 1:23 AM ^

We actually could have won that game.

In 2009 against Iowa, we had what looked like a smilar play call to the 2011 Notre Dame game at the end.  

Remember the pass to Gallon against Notre Dame in 2011?

Well that pass was wide open in 2009 against Iowa - the difference is Denard tried going over the top in 2009 (intercepted, game over).

In 2011, he threw it underneath and the receiver has 50+ yards of free running that led to us winning with the pass to Roundtree.

I never considered the 2011 pass against Notre Dame lucky or fluky at all because I always remembered that play.

Denard had experience and knew the correct place to go, as opposed to being inexperienced in 2009.  

 

jmblue

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^

 

The Wolverines will play its Big Ten road opener against Rutgers on Oct. 8 at either 7 or 8 p.m. EDT.

 

Arrgh subject-verb disagreement.

 

StraightDave

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^

If we don't like it, can we blame Brandon for the night game in Iowa?   I'm not sure were we are in the MGoBitch cycle.  

LKLIII

May 2nd, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^

I hope the administration rethinks not having any night game this year. I like the noon kickoff just as much as the next guy, but it seems that night game atmosphere can be an advantage. Why is it that half the time we are on the road we get to play at night because teams get amped up for their "big game" when we come to town, but then we don't use that same option to our own advantage when a tougher opponent comes to us?



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SpikeFan2016

May 2nd, 2016 at 1:23 PM ^

True both competitively (in terms of winning the big game itself), in terms of recruiting (better atmosphere for visiting recruits), and in terms of national publicity (more TV viewers). 

 

Literally ridiculous that we have an administration that doesn't appreciate this. Ohio State is having a night game vs. Northwestern on Halloween and we can't have one for Wisconsin on October 1st or Penn State in September.