B1G play starts this week and for the second time in three seasons, the Michigan Wolverines get it going with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Michigan Stadium. Rutgers is 3-0 on the season, a win over Northwestern followed by non-conference wins over Temple and Virginia Tech. Is this squad something to fear, or merely coasting against three very bad opponents? We will settle that debate this week in our two part breakdown, starting today with the offense. The Film: None of these three opponents are anywhere close to the same caliber as Michigan, but being two P5 schools, I decided to pick between Northwestern and Virginia Tech. Both teams are brutal this season, with VT having fallen a shockingly far ways from the perennial 10 win days of the Frank Beamer era and Northwestern is going through a scandal we are all familiar with by this point. Per SP+, Virginia Tech is a bit better of a team this season than the 'Cats and so I decided to lean towards the Hokies. Also, the VT ga
Essentials WHAT #2 Michigan (3-0) vs Rutgers (3-0) WHERE Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI WHEN Noon Eastern THE LINE M –24 (Vegas) M -26 (Bill C) TELEVISION BTN PBP: Cory Provus Color: Jake Butt TICKETS From $94. WEATHER sunny minimal wind around 70 Overview Rutgers! We meet again. Hooray. The one unambiguously good thing about the Big Ten inflating to ludicrous proportions is that this annual "rivalry" is likely to get shelved for a while as the Big Ten ceases to schedule one of the least interesting games in college football. With the exception of a Brady Hoke pratfall, for years and years this game has been Rutgers trundling to 200 yards of offense one three-yard crossing route at a time as Michigan either blows the doors off (Ash era) or screws around with a Tecmo Bowl-level playbook waiting for Rutgers to self-immolate (Schiano era). This looks like more of the same. [AFTER THE JUMP: hope you like screens]