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Newsstand: Michigan opens as a favorite for Nebraska game

Anthony Broomeby: Anthony Broome5 hours agoanthonytbroome
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The Michigan Wolverines got themselves back on the right track with a 63-3 win over Central Michigan in Week 3 and now turn their attention to the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their Big Ten opener on Saturday in Lincoln (3:30 p.m., CBS).

Michigan’s blowout win over CMU made believers out of the Vegas oddsmakers, too.

BetMGM has Michigan as a 1.5-point favorite for Saturday’s tilt between upstart programs. The over/under for total points scored is set for 44.5 as of late Sunday evening. The total had opened at 42.5 before moving up a bit over the weekend.

Michigan grabbed its first cover of the season in Saturday’s win over Central Michigan with the game line set at -27.5 points. The Cornhuskers are 3-0 and have wins over Cincinnati (20-17 in Kansas City), Akron (68-0) and Houston Christian (59-7). It is the first game this season the Cornhuskers are underdogs, while michigan has been favored in 3 of 4 games thus far.

Michigan will be dealing with the second and final game of head coach Sherrone Moore’s two-game suspension for this season in response to the NCAA’s investigation into advanced scouting allegations from the 2021-23 seasons. Moore was able to coach in practice last week, but stepped away from the team at midnight last Saturday and will be out through midnight the Sunday after the Nebraska game.

The operation will be a little bit different this week.

“Well, it’s going to be a lot different, right?” associate head coach Biff Poggi said after the game on Saturday. “And I’m going to try to do everything as I think he would do it because the players are used to that. And I will say this to you, I’ve been around a lot of coaches, a lot of really good coaches. Sherrone, he’s a young superstar. He’s a superstar.”

Tweets of the day

Michigan quote of the day

The Wolverines have enough physical talent to beat most, if not all, of the remaining teams on the schedule. That includes Nebraska, a team Michigan matches up with much better than Oklahoma. The environment will be tough next week, but the Wolverines have better athletes and should be able to “out-talent” the ‘Huskers at most positions (minus the offensive line, which still scares us). It should be the same with Michigan State, Purdue, Maryland, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Washington, etc., though the Huskies could be tricky, even at home. Take care of those — and they need to — and the playoff potential comes down to two games … at USC and Ohio State. But it would be disappointing, especially with the way they unleashed Bryce Underwood and how good he can be, if they lost to anyone else.

– TheWolverine.com’s Chris Balas on Michigan football’s outlook moving forward

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Michigan reset its identity and unleashed Bryce Underwood – Sherrone Moore deserves credit
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