In October, who would have thought the Michigan Wolverines, or “Ypsilanti’s Big Ten team” would be underdogs at Northwestern come mid-November? *This guy*
I said then that UM was possibly the worst 5-0 team in the history of college football. Back then the Michigan Wolverines were undefeated because sometimes, words have no meaning at all. You saw what “Kalamazoo’s Big Ten team,” their so-called little brother did to them a couple weeks ago. It’s really hard for me to fathom that just three months ago, while on conference call, I heard a reporter ask Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit about the Michigan Wolverines national title hopes…without laughing!
On the other side of the ball, you have another team with a very similar 2013 story arc- peaked in October. Just like Michigan, the Wildcats were extremely overrated in October.
Of course Michigan Wolverines vs. Northwestern Wildcats will go down in history as the “controversial jingoistic uniform game,” as that’s the main storyline. Maybe something incredible will happen Saturday to overshadow it? The unis are a topic I’ve already touched on enough here and here.
SPREAD: NU -3 (ALTHOUGH THAT WOULD BE LISTED AS “NW” BY ESPN AND FOX)
TV: BTN, RADIO WGN 720
Northwestern preview:
Building on what I said in the intro, it’s been a season of diminishing expectations for NU. Rose Bowl and BCS dreams were put to bed by the soul-crushing loss to Ohio State. The “Citrus Bowl play-in game” rout at Wisconsin the next week crushed their spirits. Then they blew the game that appeared to be the easiest of all on paper at home versus Minnesota in the BW3 Bowl play-in game. Then questionable coaching and decision-making in the Heart of Dallas Bowl play-in game loss to Iowa.
Has any high-major team ever hosted ESPN College Gameday in October and later not made a bowl? Is this perhaps the worst high-major team to have ever hosted Gameday? Kind of like how the Michigan Wolverines are probably the worst 5-0 team in history.
By the time we reached the NU bowl, NU lost to NU in a way that only NW can. There was no possible way to “go more Northwestern” in a loss than the Hail Mary defeat. It’s been two weeks since they were done in by the doughy-looking on television third string QB RK3, who became the Spike Albrecht of college football, at least for a week. (Watch this video to see what I’m talking about)
Then came BYE, and the ‘Cats were victorious over Brigham Young East B.Y.E.
It was made official yesterday, what we already knew for some time, Venric Mark is done for the year. We’ll see if he gets a medical redshirt year and comes back. He should; he deserves it. He’s a talent. LB Collin Ellis, RB Warren Long, CB Nick VanHoose and S Jimmy Hall were “full-go” in walk-through today. RB Stephon Buckley won’t likely return to football until after spring ball next year, so it’s the Treyvon Green and Mike Trumpy show on Saturday.
Michigan Wolverines preview:
I read something where the author, who’s a UM graduate, said you could replace the Michigan Wolverines OL with inanimate objects and still get the same, or better results. FUNNY! I guess I better take Taylor Lewan out of my NFL mock draft then. He was the first Big Ten player I had being mock drafted. Better fix that. Michigan is really bad at handing the ball to someone and having them run with it. Sometimes, to their credit, they are able to properly execute the hand-off, but most of the time it still ends up going nowhere. Their rushing attack is so bad, that I even heard a Big Ten Network talking head say “they are no getting no running attack from the tailback position; none.”
When the BTN slams something done by a BTN team this badly……they didn’t even use the word “struggling,” the favored euphemism of propagandists everywhere. The Michigan Wolverines running backs are as bad at football as Katy Perry is bad at music.
Really who wants to talk anymore about this game?
No one. Even though it it should be noted that the University President sounded extremely drunk while giving a halftime speech to the Michigan Wolverines faithful this past Saturday.
Brutally Honest record: 69-25
Brutally Honest prediction: Northwestern 27, Michigan Wolverines 24
Because someone has to win. And both teams cannot lose
Catch me Tuesdays at 10:30 AM Central talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN Omaha, Fox Sports Radio
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS