Michigan could possibly schedule Air Force in 2022
Doing some searching after the schedule changes recently on who could fill those remaining open dates in 2022 and 2023. I went through every single FBS team schedule for 2022 and found only FOUR teams that I believe Michigan would schedule for their only open date on September 17 2022.
Keep in mind, Warde has stressed his commitment to having 7 home games minimum every year. The makes a home and home with a Power 5 team unlikely and the Power 5 teams that have open dates on 9/17/2022 aren’t ones who are gonna come play here and not get a return game ala Colorado in 2016. For example, Florida State has an opening that date.
Think Group of 5 opponents. Well it turns out there are only FOUR G5 teams with open dates on 9/17/2022. Michigan has never faced 3 of the 4-
Air Force
FIU
Kent State
Troy
Our other scheduled non-conf games for 2022 are 9/3 vs Colorado State and 9/10 vs Hawaii.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
I didn’t say this was news. Just a Tuesday morning discussion on what might happen. Hence “possibly” being thrown in the title.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
Admit it, though, you clickbaited a little bit.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
Yeah I could’ve probably done a better title. If this was the old site I would’ve changed it by now.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
The title makes it sound like there are rumblings from inside the fort, or insider knowledge that they are looking at it, not just you speculating on schedules.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
Go back to your twitter political messages for trolling, WD.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
I'm glad there's a (loosely enforced) politics prohibition on this site. It's like an oasis in a desert of derp and wharrgarbl.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
Line up a tomato can like playoff-bound teams do.
October 29th, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
Does Concordia have a football team?
October 29th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
They do! They've spruced up the campus nicely in the last 2-3 years. Brightly painted red barn with the school name on it and everything.
October 29th, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^
That's the ticket !
October 29th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
May I offer my very own Siena Heights Saints as tribute?
October 29th, 2019 at 11:00 AM ^
Kent State. Easy choice due to geography.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:07 AM ^
Using the transitive property, Kent State should be the easiest opponent...
We beat Army this year. Pretty sure the last time Army visited Kent State, it was a massacre.....
October 29th, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
Wow. #toosoon?
Not sure if creating an account just for this joke takes away from the accomplishment, but upvoted for chutzpah anyway.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:58 AM ^
It was 49 years ago. Everyone involved should be a minimum of 67! That's just crazy.
I upvoted too, because it made me laugh out loud.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
Nicely played...
Not sure if the young'ins on the board will get it without some historical research, though!
October 29th, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
Air Force doesn’t run the triple option anymore, so that’s better.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:34 PM ^
By law shouldn't they HAVE to run an Air Raid O?
October 29th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
You just gave me an idea for my next NCAA 13 dynasty.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
You didnt check FCS teams to be fair.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:24 AM ^
Delaware State?
October 29th, 2019 at 11:25 AM ^
Noooooo.... Kent would be a great choice
October 29th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
For god's sake, Warde, put anyone on the schedule BUT a service academy.
It's just practical. You have nothing to gain by playing them, and everything to lose. No one but service academies plays the triple option now, so its not prepping you for anyone else on your schedule. If you win, whoop dee-doo, you beat a service academy. If you lose, you're a national laughingstock.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
The other thing is that all that cut blocking is dangerous for guys' legs.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
This is nonsense.
First of all, there's no conceivable reason to limit the search to teams that have an open date. In case you haven't noticed, if the price is right, teams are willing to cancel their scheduled games even with only a couple of years' warning.
Second, are you really suggesting that Michigan will never play another non-conference road game? If they need to do a home-and-home, they'll find a season that works.
FSU would be nice. We owe them a couple.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Question: What happens if no team agrees to fill the open date? Does it just go unfilled and Michigan has one less game than usual?
Put to an extreme, what would happen if no-one wanted to schedule Michigan. We'd have our Big Ten conference games and that's it? Is that even "allowed" per NCAA rules? If not, what would they do about it - mandate a team to play us?
October 29th, 2019 at 11:48 AM ^
I think this never comes up because games = money, so why wouldn't a team want to play every game they can? You still make money even if you have to pay a tomato can (and I guess you would even if you had to pay off a different tomato can to free up the date).
But sufficiently shitty programs do seem to go to extremes to fill their schedules, so maybe it's required? IDK.
Background: New Mexico State and Liberty had hard times filling their schedules, and came up with playing each other twice per year as a solution: https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/08/27/liberty-new-mexico-state-schedule-fbs-independents
October 29th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Hey, that's life as an independent living on the fringes of FBS football!
October 29th, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
The Fear Of Service Academy around here is consistently one of the absolute dumbest things about MGoBlog from the proprietor down to the lowliest poster.
Everybody on the planet is kicking Army's ass right now. If we weren't in the "dysfunctional" stage of the #SpeedInSpace transition, we'd have beat Army by 40.
We've played both Army and Air Force in the past three years, and I'm pretty sure there have been a grand total of 0 defensive line knee injuries from their deadly chop blocking (which they don't actually do despite Brian and Seth's insistence). Not to mention we held both of these terrifying offenses to recent record lows.
Stop being a weenie. It's a service academy. They have the lowest talent level of any FBS program. There is no evidence of increased injury risk. It's an auto-win for a program like Michigan.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:58 AM ^
Tell that to Oklahoma who also nearly lost to Army last year.
You left out one key point: it wastes time preparing for the triple option. No reason to waste valuable practice time doing that when you could just paste a MAC school and do literally anything else
October 29th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
Totally agree.
If we are to schedule a tomato can, it's best to pick one that in as many ways as possible represents a poor man's version of Ohio State's schemes.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
Um. We already play Indiana every year and recently we play them right before The Game. This poor man's version of that team narrative doesn't stand up very well.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^
Reggie, hey, first time long time. Love your stuff 99% of the time. Gotta disagree with your take here. I think you should reconsider with Ihglrkwg's (dude, buy a vowel) point above.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Completely agree.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
"lowliest poster"
Watch it, buddy. I resemble that remark.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
could not agree more.
we've played service academies...let's see...three times in the last 37 years, all since 2012. our struggles against them have had way, way more to do with our own mediocrity / general crappiness at those particular junctures than anything else.
the triple option flat-out isn't that hard to defend. put your facemask in the quarterback's chest every time, and you're fine. it's not really any kind of different approach. we scheduled run-and-shoot houston back in the day - that was much weirder than a triple option - and kicked the hell out of them because we were a much better team. same thing.
might as well not schedule umass, or akron, or toledo, if weird outcomes are the reason we don't schedule particular opponents.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
AF? No thanks.
October 29th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
I'll take Kent State for $1,000 Alex
October 29th, 2019 at 11:57 AM ^
I'm not un-convinced that Michigan isn't intentionally scheduling service academies for some undisclosed reason. We didn't play any service academies from 1981-2011 and now they're showing up on the schedule again. If Air Force and Michigan have the same date open, I'm betting they'll schedule AFA over another cupcake despite ample reasons not to do that
October 29th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
Here come the 6 months to prepare and everyone is going to get injured false narratives.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
The lost opportuity cost in preparation is not a false narrative.
There are only so many hours available off-season to scout/prepare for teams for our staff. There are only so many hours available in-season for our players to study film & to practice the game plans the staff has developed. The more unique schemes we play in the OOC schedule, the less prepared we are for the in-conference games.
As a result, the best approach is to--as much as possible--schedule OOC teams that have essentially similar (but usually watered down) versions of the schemes we will fact against tougher opponents in-conference.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:39 PM ^
Please no Air Force. I would say bring FIU in or Kent State
October 29th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
Cue Michael Scott no no noooo gif
October 29th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
</wanking motion>
October 29th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
My knees hurt already.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
So air Force can low cut our QB breaks his leg and our season is over?
October 29th, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
IIRC, same problem if we play Purdon't?
October 29th, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
have you seen wisconsin lately? oh yeah, you have. they thug it up as much as anyone.
October 29th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Schedule Minnesota, play for the Jug.