14 days until Michigan football: Remembering a 2016 blowout of Penn State
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan and Penn State will do battle this year in a game that sets up the pecking order in the Big Ten East heading into the stretch run. But in 2016, they played a game early on that had a unique twist.
The fourth-ranked Wolverines grabbed their 14th win under head coach Jim Harbaugh that day, blowing out the Nittany Lions by a score of 49-10 at the Big House. The victory sent Michigan to a 4-0 record, while Penn State stumbled to 2-2 on the season.
Khalid Hill and De’Veon Smith got the Wolverines on the board with a pair of first-quarter touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead. In the second quarter, tight end Devin Asiasi caught a three-yard pass from Wilton Speight to give Michigan a 21-0 advantage. With 46 seconds to go in the half, Karan Higdon scored from two yards out to give U-M a 28-0 lead heading into the locker room.
Penn State got on the board with a field goal early in the third quarter before Chris Evans found the endzone from three yards out with 2:42 to play to go up 35-3. PSU wide receiver Chris Godwin caught a touchdown from Trace McSorley before touchdown runs from Higdon (40 yards) and Isaac (3 yards) closed out the game for Michigan.
Michigan unfortunately would drop a pair of conference games late in the year at Iowa and Ohio State. Penn State won out the rest of the way, winning its first and only Big Ten title under James Franklin. The Nittany Lions then lost a 52-49 classic in the Rose Bowl to USC.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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