Saturday NCAA: Notre Dame (1-0) at Michigan (1-0)
Well, look what game is nationally relevant again? Indeed, Notre Dame and Michigan is probably the second-most anticipated game of the weekend behind Southern Cal-Ohio State.
The Irish have opened as 3-point road favorites on WagerWeb.com.
It’s amazing what a difference a week makes. Notre Dame looked as good as an Irish team has in years in beating 35-0. QB Jimmy Clausen has looked like a future Heisman winner in his past two games – last week he threw for 315 yards and four touchdowns on the heels of a great bowl game at the end of 2008.
Notre Dame’s offense, inept for much of last year, might now be one of the best in the country. It has top-flight talent at running back (Armando Allen) and receiver (Michael Floyd and Golden Tate). Plus the Irish have one of the most veteran offensive lines in the country. Last week against the Wolf Pack, five of Notre Dame’s first six drives went for touchdowns, covering 67, 72, 79, 80 and 99 yards.
The Wolverines looked nearly as impressive in their 31-7 victory against Western Michigan. Freshman QB Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes in the first half — two of them deep throws to Junior Hemingway — with no interceptions, and fellow freshman QB Denard Robinson added a 43-yard touchdown run. Michigan had touchdown drives of 52, 38, 68 and 80, all in the first half, for 31 points. Last year’s Wolverines only scored 31 points in an entire game once. Forcier will start again this week, but coach Rich Rodriguez said he would continue to rotate Forcier with freshman Denard Robinson and junior Nick Sheridan.
Two years ago in this game, the Michigan defense pressured then-freshman Clausen, who took the worst beating of his career – UM had eight sacks and won 38-0. Last year, the Wolverines played mostly zone and were routinely beaten on short and intermediate throws — The Irish beat Michigan 35-17 in South Bend despite being outgained 388-260.
It doesn’t seem that the Michigan secondary has enough to matchup with Floyd, Tate and Irish TE Kyle Rudolph. That should be the difference.
The Irish and Wolverines have played 27 times since The Associated Press poll began in 1936. Twenty-five times at least one team has been ranked, 21 times both have been ranked and eight times they were both ranked in the top 10. The Irish are No. 18 this week, with Michigan unranked.
Michigan leads the series 20-15-1 and has an 11-7 edge in Ann Arbor, including 38-0 victories in 2003 and 2007. The Irish have lost nine of their last 12 road openers.
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