Michigan Football will play their home opener on Saturday afternoon against Air Force. To read my game preview click here: Michigan vs Air Force. For the Extra Points, read on.
Michigan will unretire Bennie Oosterbaan’s #47 jersey for this game. The coaches will decide which player is going to wear the fabled number.
Oosterbaan is the greatest athlete in Michigan history. He was a three-time All-American wide receiver and a two-time All-American basketball player. See where he landed on these lists;
- Michigan Football’s All-Time 10 Best Wide Receivers
- Michigan Football’s All-Time 10 Best Coaches
- Michigan Basketball’s All-Time 10 Best Small Forwards
Despite their struggles on offense, the Wolverines had four offensive plays of 20+ yards in the season opener against Alabama. Jeremy Gallon’s career-best 71-yard reception, quarterback/wide receiver Devin Gardner’s 44-yard touchdown catch, Vincent Smith’s 22-yard run and wide receiver Drew Dileo’s 20-yard reception.
Running back Fitz Toussaint and defensive end Frank Clark will play against Air Force, after serving a one game suspension. I have a hunch that Toussaint will run wild against the Falcons.
If you missed any of our video series from Michigan Football Media Day, you can check out the videos on our YouTube channel
Brady Hoke on freshman linebacker James Ross III: He’s a pretty instinctive guy, picked up everything very well for a young guy, physical, and he has a knack for getting off blocks and accelerating, hits, things that you like to see a linebacker do, good vision.” Ross had 2 tackles and half a sack against Alabama.
Against the Crimson Tide, true freshman Dennis Norfleet returned 8 kicks for 177 yards (22.1 average) with a long of 33 yards.
Michigan has won 15 straight games at the Big House in the month of September.
Denard Robison is not worried about the Twitter shenanigans from the Michigan State players. ”I heard about it, but I’m not going to worry about that right now,” Robinson said.
Starting with this game against Air Force, Michigan will no longer put the player’s uniform number on the side of the helmets.
The picture of the week (below) comes from espn.com, click to enlarge.
Michigan is ranked 19th in both polls. According to Jeff Sagarin, Michigan’s strength of schedule is ranked #1 nationally.
In the Alabama game, 3 Wolverines made their first career starts; Elliott Mealer at center, William Campbell at defensive tackle and Brennen Beyer at defensive end.
ESPNs accuscore projects Michigan will win 42-24. Teamrankings.com is predicting a 38-15 Michigan victory. In my game preview, I picked Michigan to win 45-10
Michigan and Air Force have played one other time. That was at Michigan Stadium in 1964, a game the Wolverines won 24-7.
Denard Robinson needs 221 passing yards to move past Tom Brady and into 6th place on Michigan’s career passing yardage list.
Robinson needs 62 rushing yards to move past Rob Lytle and into 7th place on Michigan’s career rushing yardage list.
Vincent Smith ranks 10th all-time at Michigan for career receiving yards by a running back (372).
With 26 more tackles, Jordan Kovacs will become the 15th player and first defensive back in school history to join the 300 tackle club. ”He’s fun to coach,” said defensive backs coach Curt Mallory. “As good a player as he is on the field, he’s an even better young man off it.”
Devin Gardner made his first career start against Alabama and hauled in his first career reception – a 44 yard touchdown.
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About Rob White
Good stuff Rob…well done.
Good stuff Rob…well done.