It is something which frustrates Michigan football fans to no end: The Wolverines, in 10 seasons of Big Ten divisional play, have not yet been to the Big Ten Championship Game. Under the old setup of the Big Ten Legends and Leaders Divisions, or in the current setup of the Big Ten East and Big Ten West, the Wolverines have never won a division title. They have not been able to figure out Ohio State, but more than that, they haven\u2019t been able to be strong enough in the Big Ten to win a single division championship. Can that change this year? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offseason Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest change at Michigan is quarterback, where Shea Patterson left. Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffrey will battle to replace him. This quarterback competition is viewed as 50-50, so one should expect both Milton and McCaffrey to get some meaningful playing time unless one of the two men completely dominates the quarterback competition in camp and then plays brilliantly to start the season. If neither man is overwhelmingly strong, you might see a two-man rotation during the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Linebacker Khaleke Hudson is gone, arguably the biggest loss on Michigan\u2019s defense. Younger linebackers will need to replace his production and impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wolverines Will Succeed If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Milton or McCaffrey dazzles. It really is this simple with Michigan: The program has not had a great quarterback in a very long time. Even when the Wolverines made the Sugar Bowl in the 2011 season, their quarterback play was not great. It was decent but hardly spectacular. Michigan needs its quarterback to be a cornerstone player on their offense, and if that happens, the Wolverines can be great again. Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis inherited Shea Patterson. Now he will get a quarterback he can mold into something special. If Gattis and his quarterbacks click, this could become a great team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wolverines Will Fail If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They can\u2019t get faster on defense. Ohio State\u2019s offense regularly embarrasses Michigan\u2019s defense. The Buckeyes\u2019 speed and athleticism have been way too much for the Wolverines\u2019 defense the past few years. OSU has scored more than 55 points in each of the last two games against Michigan. That simply has to change. Ohio State has been a few notches better than the Wolverines. Michigan can be as motivated as it wants to be, but motivation means little if the other guy is bigger, faster and stronger. Ohio State is bigger, faster, and stronger. Michigan needs to show a lot more physical prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Michigan simply isn\u2019t in Ohio State\u2019s league. The Wolverines\u2019 most realistic goal this season is to beat Penn State at home and finish second in the Big Ten East. Penn State has had a better defense and better overall speed than Michigan in most of the past three seasons. It just doesn\u2019t seem logical to think Michigan is going to figure things out. This program will continue to struggle. Jim Harbaugh won\u2019t be fired, but he will enter the 2021 season with Michigan fans still grumbling about his performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction: 3rd In Big Ten East<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is something which frustrates Michigan football fans to no end: The Wolverines, in 10 seasons of Big Ten divisional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13165,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions\/13165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}