ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Michigan football team was in pretty much this exact same spot 10 years ago, and it didn’t end well.
On Saturday, Michigan hosts Northwestern at the Big House for the final home game of what’s been a deeply disappointing season. Coming off a 15-0 national championship run, the Wolverines are 5-5 and completely out of the playoff discussion.
If Michigan beats Northwestern, it will at least qualify for a bowl game. If not, well, I think we all know what’s coming next week in Columbus.
Ohio State is projected to be more than a three-touchdown favorite, and considering the home team has a much better team and three years' worth of pent-up frustration, it sure doesn’t seem like Michigan has any shot to win The Game for a fourth year in a row.
That means the Northwestern game will essentially determine whether the Wolverines make a bowl for the ninth year in a row (not counting COVID).
Does that sound familiar? Well, this situation is eerily similar to 2014, when Michigan came home for a game against Maryland the week before Ohio State.
Michigan was 5-5, and nobody expected the Ohio State game to be competitive the following week. So that final home game against Maryland pretty much served as a bowl play-in.
That Maryland team might have been a little better than Northwestern is this year, but the point remains: It’s a team Michigan is expected to beat at home, especially when there’s something on the line.
Instead, Michigan got outscored 14-0 in the fourth quarter to lose the game. It finished with a 5-7 record after a 42-28 loss in Columbus.
Obviously, the 2014 team was not coming off a national title, and I don’t expect Sherrone Moore would be fired if Michigan loses to Northwestern, like Brady Hoke was in 2014.
So these aren’t identical scenarios, but the big picture is the same. If Michigan wants to make a bowl game this season, it had better take care of business this weekend.
Otherwise, 2024 will go from disappointing to abject disaster.
