Podcast: What to watch for, predictions — Michigan football vs. New Mexico

On this episode of The Wolverine Podcast, Clayton Sayfie, Anthony Broome and Chris Balas preview Michigan football vs. New Mexico and make predictions, before picking week one college football games with lines provided by BetMGM.

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Michigan will face New Mexico quarterback Jack Layne, an Idaho transfer who came from Idaho with head coach Jason Eck and much of the staff.

The Idaho transfer completed 100 of his 155 pass attempts (64.5 percent) last season, amassing 1,472 yards and 14 touchdowns in seven outings, before getting hurt.

Sayfie said Layne reminds him of Michigan graduate quarterback Mikey Keene, who faced the Wolverines as the signal caller for Fresno State to open last year.

Here’s what New Mexico writer Sean Reider said about Layne that sparked that comparison:

“Doesn’t make a lot of mistakes and throws with accuracy and touch,” Reider said. “His arm isn’t super strong, but he’s got outstanding football IQ and knows this offense in and out after playing in it for the last few years. I don’t know if he has a huge day — especially against this defense — but I’m not expecting a meltdown under center so long as UNM can protect him.”

The hosts went through keys to the game and what they want to see from Michigan, before picking their offensive and defensive players of the game and X-factors.

Coincidentally enough, all three picked running backs for offensive player of the game, and they all had EDGE TJ Guy on defense. Broome and Balas both had guy, before Sayfie zagged, however, and gave senior linebacker Jaishawn Barham a nod.

Michigan has had a lot of success in season openers, especially lately.

The Wolverines are 119-23-3 to begin seasons, looking to improve upon that mark when they take on New Mexico at 7:36 p.m. ET on NBC.

Michigan has won 14 of its last 18 and 49 of its last 62 season openers. The Wolverines have come out on top in nine of their last 11, too, with the only setbacks coming away from Ann Arbor — at Utah in 2015 and at Notre Dame in 2018.

That 24-17 loss to Utah actually marks the last and only time the Maize and Blue have fallen to a Mountain West opponent. New Mexico hails from that league, which Michigan has had great success against. U-M is 14-1 against Mountain West programs at the time the game was played and 13-0 versus teams currently in the league. Utah, of course, moved to the Pac-12 ahead of the 2011 season and is now a member of the Big 12.