Michigan Opens as 3.5 Road Dog at Utah
Commence chest beating, talks of "betting the mortgage", "easy money", and general over analyzing. One of the few shreds of football stuff until August!
Personally think that is pretty generous - the home team usually gets 3 pts so it's basically saying the teams are a wash on a neutral field. Based on the last meeting in the Big House, that's already a big improvement! I was thinking it would be more like 5.5 pts but UM is obviously a name team that gets a lot of money thrown at it. Whittingham has lost some staff from last year but Utah is generally a very sound team full of well coached 3 star mafia and quite tough at home - beat Rose Bowl Stanford even in a down year (2013).
Other fun lines - Minnesota is a 19.5 home dog vs TCU in their rematch from last year - TCU should be ranked top 3 in most polls going into the year. Wisconsin is a 12.5 home dog v Alabama - wait did no one watch the Big 10 domination of the bowl season? Notre Dame is favored by 12.5 at home v Texas. OSU is a whopping 20.5 favorite on the road vs VATech - man that's a lot of points in the first game of the year, on the road, vs a team that usually presents a good defense. Seems like best bet to take the points.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Whittingham recently lose a power struggle at Utah for raising his assistants' salaries resulting in his DC and OC both leaving for greener pastures?
I wonder how that will affect them.
Yes he did. In a Game of Thrones like move, his former DC (Andersen) went to Oregon State and took away his mentor's DC to come make a parallel move at OSUw. His OC went to the SEC to be a position coach!
Well, at least Andersen didn't kill Whittingham with a crossbow while he was in the privy.
just googled it...both their OC and DC left for other schools. That is huge
I thought Whittingham was gone from Utah within 12 months - he took over from Urban and really made that program very solid non P5 and then they moved to the Pac 12 - got all the new money, and they still treat him as a mid major. An absolute bitch to lose your young, well thought of DC in a parallel move WITHIN the conference - to your former DC of all people!
But after all that went down (and talk of major strife with AD) they gave him mo' money and I guess all is well again.
Before Harbaugh I was thinking he was a very good candidate for UM or Nebraska.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:22 PM ^
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April 29th, 2015 at 10:12 AM ^
Including both of their WRs and Nate Orchard.
Here's to hoping our FG kicker is money...seems like that could be the difference....
April 28th, 2015 at 10:05 PM ^
And how well our O-Line develops.
with Harbaugh at the helm.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:54 PM ^
I believe our last victory on the road as a 3 point (or more) underdog involved an 87 yard by Denard in ND's stadium (longest ever) and a certain coach who is now at the University of Arizona.
I would not have been surprised to see us bigger dogs. I hope it motivates the team. I've thought this game would be a toss-up for a long time (I also remember the day, even longer ago, when I looked at 2015's schedule and thought it looked like a road to an NC... sigh).
utah can have whatever is left over. dose dirty utes!
April 28th, 2015 at 10:19 PM ^
Famous last words.
to win the game
April 28th, 2015 at 10:04 PM ^
It will be great to see OSU fans lose a whole bunch of money!
April 28th, 2015 at 10:10 PM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
If that's accurate the money line on Michigan will be pretty nice play too. Personally I'd forgo the points and would just take Michigan straight up cause I dont think you're gonna need the points to win the bet.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:21 PM ^
JH is going to go all out to win this game. I don't think I'd like to be UT. Wrong place at the wrong time.
I too think the money line is going to be a good value in that, while this is going to be a tough game, I think the stars are aligning for a UM win.
Great, proven coach inherits team with underperforming talent. Has won everywhere, and strong suit is developing quarterbacks. Team is program that has been down too long, can be considered sleeping giant. Coach played there himself and wasn't too bad. He takes job in the face of all baseless speculation to the contrary (including Oakland, is it still in play?) because he loves the place and the job. Do you think he will be able to motivate?
Offense may start season slow, but line has a foundation; it has some experience and talent. Coach brings in assistants who seem to be improvements over what was there before.
Defense, though, is solid and should keep us in most if not all games, including this one.
Opening win to start the new era means a lot. Think new coach might get his players to rise to the challenge?
Nothing is a given in sports. The game will be decided on the field. (But at least our coach now knows how to use a headset)
I wouldn't bet the mortgage, but I like the money line a lot.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
It will be really interesting to see how much of Hoke's failure was due to bad scheming and how much was due to bad development.
April 28th, 2015 at 11:02 PM ^
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April 28th, 2015 at 11:57 PM ^
All signs point to yes.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:36 PM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^
We don't have a (proven) quarterback and our performance in road games against anything resembling a competent opponent has been terrible. Seems like a perfectly reasonable line to me.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:57 PM ^
If only we had changed coaches this off season and given ourselves a chance at changing that narrative. Perhaps we could've gone out and, dare I say it, swung for the fences and tried to get somebody with a proven track record of success at both the college and maybe even NFL level. That somebody, if we had gotten him, would certainly make me toss away the last few years of tutility and would make me think of the Michigan of old once again.
If only........
April 28th, 2015 at 11:01 PM ^
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April 28th, 2015 at 11:31 PM ^
Get my head out of the clouds because I think we'll beat Utah? A Utah team that lost both their OC and their DC in the offseason?
Jesus man if that's your standard for unbridled optimism I sure as hell don't want to know what you'd consider a negative outlook on our fortunes.
April 29th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
Yeah, but that fifth year senior QB was really more suited to play wide receiver and was recruited to play that dispicable communist brand of football instead of MANBALL, so he doesn't count.
/s
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April 29th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^
This is me regarding Voltron's point.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
Good! This team needs a fire! I hope they are the underdog in every game. Harbaugh will have them ready to play- Go Blue!
April 28th, 2015 at 11:42 PM ^
That usually means we have the better team. If Harbaugh can't get them ready to play with enthusiasm unknown to mankind when favored, then there's something wrong with him.
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April 28th, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 11:08 PM ^
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April 28th, 2015 at 11:11 PM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^
They lost David Cobb and they're still not very good with the forward pass. I doubt Minnesota will lose by 28, but this game will be over by the third quarter.