Following a chaotic Week 2 of college football featuring three major upsets, the top 25 looks vastly different than it did just three weeks ago. However, despite the chaos, Michigan is left unscathed. Heading into their third game of the season, Michigan should have easy sailings against UConn.
Here is a preview of the Wolverines matchup versus the Huskies.
Michigan will look to continue its dominance this season
Head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines have gained criticism for their lenient schedule to start their 2022 season. For their first three games, the Wolverines played Colorado State, Hawaii, and now UConn. All three of the teams are on pace to be some of the worst teams for the 2022 season.
Meanwhile, critics point to their Big Ten counterparts. They state how Ohio State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin have all scheduled challenging games to kick off their 2022 seasons. However, Michigan has not done so.
The argument may be compelling and definitely has some truth to it, however, given Week 2, no team should be overlooked, and no win should be taken for granted. Furthermore, Michigan is not only beating teams. They are simply dominating.
Michigan defeated Colorado State and Hawaii by over 44 points. Despite being “lower” competition for Michigan’s standards, it still is a positive sign, the way they are handling business. They seem to have no sense of overlooking their competition.
Sadly, for the Huskies, this is bad news. One of the biggest factors in pulling off a 47-point underdog upset is having the team that is the favorite overlook the matchup. However, so far, Michigan has proven they are not in that mindset this year.
UConn needs to take the success found versus Utah State and apply it to Michigan
Week 0 might seem like ages ago. It hasn’t been a month since UConn almost pulled off the upset versus the 2021 Mountain West Champions, Utah State. The Huskies may not have gotten the result they were looking for, but they simply were the better team in that matchup.
If the Huskies have any chance of upsetting Michigan, they will need to do what they did versus Utah State, run the ball and control time of possession. However, it is way easier said than done. Michigan has one of the best defenses in the country ranking 13th in total defense while the Aggies have some holes across their team ranking as one of the worst defenses in the country at 111th. Furthermore, if UConn is forced to pass the ball, the pass rush is far superior at Michigan than at Utah State.
It is college football, so anything is possible. UConn will need to dominate the time of possession and run the ball all game long.
How will JJ McCarthy play after winning the starting job?
Harbaugh started off the season with one of the most unconventional methods in deciding a quarterback battle. Each quarterback would start one week during the first two weeks. Whoever played better would win the starting job. This supports the criticism that Michigan’s schedule is easy to start the season. It seems to be so easy that Harbaugh seemed to be content with having a full fledge quarterback battle in the first two weeks of the season.
Well, now that the two weeks have concluded, JJ McCarthy is the one left with the starting job.
The universal statement that seems to be surrounding this football team is that the team will go as far as the quarterback takes them. The same applies to this game versus UConn. McCarthy will be the determining factor if this game ends up as a blowout or if UConn puts Michigan on upset alert.