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This Week at The Wolverine Den

Game Weather

Game Preview

The Michigan Wolverines head out on the road for the second time this season. The opponent is the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Rutgers is known as the "Birthplace of College Football". Rutgers played Princeton in 1869 in the first college football game. They won the game 6-4 (scoring rules were different back then) and went on to win their only National Championship. But this year, Rutgers has been one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, and among the worst of all power 4 teams. They are 2-5 overall, with wins against FCS Howard and Maryland. The loss by Maryland resulted in the Terrapins firing their head coach. Rutgers is only 1-3 at home this season.

Rutgers is led by QB Dylan Lonergan. But he was injured last week and is out for the game. His replacement quarterbacks competed only 33% of their passes last week (9-27) for only 100 yards. Rutgers has one of the best receivers in the nation. KJ Duff is 6th in receiving yards this year and 8th in TDs. But he is officially listed as doubtful this week. Without a passing game last week, Rutgers went rush-heavy and actually had two backs each over 100 yards. Expect more of the same.

On defense, Rutgers is statistically the worst team in the Big Ten - ranking 123rd in Total Defense in the nation. All of it is bad - rushing defense ranks 129th and passing defense ranks 123rd.

The Wolverine Den Trivia

Rutgers is one of only 6 Big Ten teams that have never won the Big Ten Championship in football. Who are the others?

Michigan will be looking to get back on track after the disappointment against Indiana last week. It's hard to say who will start at quarterback, but it will likely be Tommy Carr. After rushing for over 200 yards against Penn State, Michigan failed to have a single rush over 10 yards last week. There is no better opponent to right the ship. And the Michigan defense should have a banner day, especially with Lonergan and Duff out. Michigan has not scored over 21 points in any game this year (except for the UTEP game). It's time to put some points on the board and dominate the game.

Michigan is 9-1 all-time against Rutgers and has won the last nine games in a row in the series. Michigan is 5-6 in road games since the National Championship. But this is a game that we should win easily and set the team up for success down the stretch.

The Wolverines are only a 14½-point favorite.

Brown's Prediction

31-7

Craig's Prediction

41-10

Tim's Prediction

28-14

Steve's Prediction

31-13

Brown 22½, Steve 16½, Tim 15½, Craig 15½