{"id":20217,"date":"2021-12-03T20:35:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T20:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=20217"},"modified":"2021-12-03T20:35:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T20:35:58","slug":"college-football-preview-michigan-wolverines-vs-iowa-hawkeyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/college-football-preview-michigan-wolverines-vs-iowa-hawkeyes\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Preview \u2013 Michigan Wolverines vs. Iowa Hawkeyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At long last, the Michigan Wolverines have vanquished the Ohio State Buckeyes. Jim Harbaugh can finally claim a victory over Michigan\u2019s biggest rival, giving the Wolverines their first division title in the Big Ten. Now, the Wolverines have their sights set on a Big Ten title and a spot in the College Football Playoff, and a win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in Indianapolis would give them both of those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michigan vs Iowa Big Ten Championship Predictions | BetOnline All Access College Football Picks\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DyKPvZ4moPE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Big Ten Championship Game will see the Michigan Wolverines take on the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, December 4, 2021, at 8 p.m. ET on FOX from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>College Football Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Michigan -11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iowa +11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total 43.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michigan has had its best season yet under Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines were unable to beat Michigan State in East Lansing, but they housed their three non-conference opponents and crushed Wisconsin in Camp Randal too. Their 42-27 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">win and cover over Ohio State<\/a> last week announced that the Wolverines were ready for the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa needed a little help to get to the Big Ten Championship Game. The Hawkeyes had to come from behind to beat 3-8 Nebraska on Black Friday, and then they needed Wisconsin to lose to Minnesota. That gave Iowa its first division title since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Michigan Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This offensive line is one of the best in the nation. Michigan\u2019s big boys up front have paved the way for an overpowering run game, allowing Hassan Haskins to run for 1,232 yards (5.0 YPC) and 18 touchdowns and Blake Corum to run for 865 yards (6.4 YPC) and 10 TDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cade McNamara hasn\u2019t been asked to do much for the Wolverines at quarterback. He is completing 64.4% of his passes for 2,301 yards with 14 touchdowns and three interceptions. McNamara has only been sacked six times, and J.J. McCarthy can come off the bench to provide a spark too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa ranks tenth in total defense (315.8 YPG) and tenth in scoring defense (17.3 PPG). The Hawkeyes lead the nation in interceptions, and that has really helped this team be opportunistic. They don\u2019t get a lot of pressure on the quarterback though, ranking 91<sup>st<\/sup> nationally in sack rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Iowa Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spencer Petras is listed as the starter under center for the Hawkeyes on Saturday. Petras has completed 58.1% of his passes for 1,532 yards (6.5 YPA) with nine touchdowns and six interceptions this year. Iowa used Alex Padilla at quarterback in recent weeks, but Padilla is completing under 47% of his passes on the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two players to watch on this offense. Tyler Goodson is the workhorse running back, picking up 1,101 yards and six touchdowns on the ground this season. Tight end Sam LaPorta is the team\u2019s leading receiver with 40 receptions for 486 yards and two touchdowns and is a good run blocker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michigan has a formidable defense. The Wolverines are allowing 17.2 PPG and 318.8 YPG, and they have a top ten pick in defensive end Aidan Hutchinson. Hutchinson has 13 sacks to set a new single season record for Michigan, and David Ojabo has 11 sacks too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both of these defenses are great, so there shouldn\u2019t be much scoring. Michigan\u2019s offense is much better though, and that should allow the Wolverines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/football\/ncaa\">to win by double digits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\"><em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a><em> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to<\/em> <em>our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At long last, the Michigan Wolverines have vanquished the Ohio State Buckeyes. Jim Harbaugh can finally claim a victory over&#8230;<\/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-20217","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\/20217","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=20217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20234,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20217\/revisions\/20234"}],"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=20217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}