Podcast: Michigan can take the next step with win at USC

The Michigan Wolverines sit at 4-1 and head to Los Angeles this weekend for a showdown with the USC Trojans. It is the third part of a three-act trilogy of defining road games on the schedule in the first six weeks of the regular season, and one that has College Football Playoff implications.

TheWolverine.com’s Anthony Broome, Chris Balas and Clayton Sayfie discussed the stage during their Monday night live show and what is on the line when it comes to the outlook the rest of the season.

 ”It is a defining game,” Balas said on the show, “If you win, then you are in the conversation for the playoff and really have a great opportunity here going forward with the schedule and the way it is lining up to make the Ohio State game a play-in game for the Big Ten title game. And even if you lose to Ohio State, if you beat USC, then I think there’s still an outside chance or a chance at least that you are getting some playoff consideration.

“We’ll see how it goes. None of those [October] games, there are three [more] of them. You look at Washington at home, maybe a trap game after coming back from Southern Cal, Michigan State on the road, you’d better win, right? But stranger things have happened up there. That’s not a good football team. Purdue and Northwestern are gimmes, and then at Maryland might be a little bit tricky. A lot riding on this one. I think they know it. It is really hard to win out there. It has been for Michigan and we’ve said that so many times and we’ve seen it for Big Ten teams going both ways.

“Washington had to overcome a 20-point deficit to win at Maryland. Penn State goes out to UCLA and gets beat. … This is the one, and if you can go out there and win this game on the road, then you are in really, really good shape and you can really change the narrative that they can’t win on the road. But it’s going be a tough one, no question.”

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