7 days until Michigan football: Desmond Howard picks Wolverines to win national title
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 football kicks the season off in one week against East Carolina at The Big House. College football begins today, though, with Week 0, and with that comes ESPN’s College GameDay. The show wasn’t on the road this week, instead broadcasting from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., and previewed the college football season.
Analysts Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit made their College Football Playoff picks on the show, and all three had Michigan making the four-team field for a third straight season. Howard, the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner and a Michigan legend, picked the Maize and Blue to win their first national championship this century.
The show also discussed Michigan and the Big Ten more in depth. Howard discussed why he believes the Wolverines will compete for the national title.
“I think so,” Howard said when asked if Michigan can make a run. “When you look at what they’re bringing back to the table, they have the most talented running back room in the country with [senior] Blake Corum and [junior] Donovan Edwards, obviously [junior quarterback] J.J. McCarthy — people thought he couldn’t throw the ball, get it down the field. In the second half of the season, especially against Ohio State and TCU, he proved it, he can go vertical. The defense is intact.
“The only question mark is the cornerback position. Obviously, [sophomore] Will Johnson is a lockdown corner on one side, but the corner opposite him, I think they’re still trying to figure that out. I think they can make another run at that.”
“Michigan, with everything they’ve got cooking, let’s go,” McAfee said.
The panel also broke down head coach Jim Harbaugh‘s Michigan school-imposed three-game suspension for an alleged NCAA violation. The Wolverines announced their plan for interim head coaches for the first three games, as follows:
• Game one: Sept. 2 vs. East Carolina — defensive coordinator Jesse Minter
• Game two: Sept. 9 vs. UNLV — special teams coordinator and safeties coach Jay Harbaugh (first half) and run game coordinator and running backs coach Mike Hart (second half)
• Game three: Sept. 16 vs. Bowling Green — offensive coordinator and line coach Sherrone Moore
“I like that he’s kind of trolling it all,” McAfee said. “What a joke. I don’t understand how this is a real thing that we’re doing in the world that we’re in. It’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re in a completely different world, but also, let’s hop in a portal, but let’s go back into a different world and punish you for that now.’ It just seems like a lot of dumb decisions being made by the NCAA, but hey, who am I to say?”
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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