Game Day Skull Session: Get Dumped Then, Team Up North

Call me blessed, but there hasn't been a day in my life I've awoken, earnestly afraid of a Michigan football team besting my beloved Buckeyes.

That ain't starting today.

Maybe I'm alone in that, but look, I'm not about to turn my back on the guy who's 6-0 against the north, 6-0 as an underdog and 83-9 overall in seven seasons because his defense is above average instead of top-five, and passes for 400 yards a game instead of running for 250.

Don't get me wrong, Michigan could win this game. You could even argue Michigan should win this game. But the narrative that's completely writing off a narrow home favorite in a rivalry game its dominated for the past 15 years is just insane to me.

Yeah, the Wolverine defense is good, but it was good last year when Young Simba carved them up like a Thanksgiving turkey in the Big House. And on offense, they've genuinely improved at the quarterback position, but the dinosaur-ass scheme as a whole is still as archaic as their head coach's nutrition beliefs.

Michigan has two great receivers, a five-star dual-threat talent at quarterback and some big lumbering targets at tight end, yet bases the entire offense on an average-at-best running back receiving more than 20 telegraphed carries a game behind a fullback(!) while two genuinely talented receivers rot on the outside, waiting for the occasional opportunity coming almost exclusively on one-man routes.

And everyone is telling me I'm supposed to be trembling at that hilarious mismanagement of assets simply because Ohio State's had some trouble defending against teams actually willing and able to get the ball to their best players in space.

Again, you could argue that Michigan should win this game, and that's just going to make it all the more hilarious when they decidedly don't.

Word of the Day: Eviscerate.

 MICHIGAN PREGAME FIX.

• Game Preview
• Game Trailer
• 10 Reasons to hate
• Going for three
• Roundtable
• Scarlet Letter Saturday
• Five things to know
• Q&A with Kyle Rowland
• Karan Higdon guarantees a Michigan victory.
• Urban Meyer is undefeated as an underdog at Ohio State.
• There's no delusion – this is the most important game of the season.
• Chris Holtmann is ready for The Game.
• a rundown of Ohio State–Michigan hype videos.
• A look at Don Brown's Michigan defense.
• Ohio State will need a huge game from its offensive line.
• What it would take to win the rivalry game through the air.
• 12 seniors will play their final game in Ohio Stadium today.
• Shea Patterson provides the Buckeyes with a new challenge.

 BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. People forget that Dwayne Haskins already unseated Michigan and its vaunted defense on the road in the first meaningful snaps of his college career.

In relief of J.T. Barrett, Haskins went 6-for-7 for 94 yards and added 24 on the ground to lead the Buckeyes to a come-from-behind victory over the rivals to the north.

So when he takes the field today, it won't be as a first-year starter experiencing the rivalry for the first time, it will be as a competitor wanting more – wanting to pick up right where he left off last season.

"They were the No. 1 (pass) defense in the country last year when we played them, too," Haskins said, in a video with UNINTERUPTED.

From how he's talked, there's no game he's prepared harder for and no game that means more to him. This is his everything, and I'll always ride with a guy who wants it more than the other guys do.

 MIKE WEBER GOT CHASED AWAY, ACTUALLY. My favorite thing about recruiting is how the narrative about a player completely switches based on where that player decides to go to school.

If he chooses your favorite college, he's extremely good and probably going to start for multiple years. But if he goes anywhere else, he's actually pretty bad, afraid of competition and the guy you got instead was the guy you wanted all along anyway.

That's how you arrive at this delusion, along with the dozens of Michigan fans in the replies insisting that Karan Higdon is better than both Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins.

Subtweeting my brother when he ran you out of your own state https://t.co/m91uVH9zEq

— Kavon Higdon (@KD_2RAW) November 20, 2018

I know it's been a minute since they've had a legitimate running back (the last one I can remember quarterback for Brady Hoke), but imagine watching Higdon for four years and believing in earnest that he was:

1. Good enough to chase a four-star running back your school rigorously recruited up until signing day out of his home state, especially given that he came back this season to compete with a 1,000-yard rusher for carries
2. Better than either of the two future NFL running backs on Ohio State's roster.

I eagerly await Mike Weber's reply, which will come in the form of his stat line on Saturday.

I also eagerly await Michigan force-feeding 25 carries to the most average player on their roster as part of their recklessly conservative offense they cleverly heisted from Jim Bollman back in 2004.

 FIVE QUICK WINNERS. I went 2-3 last week. The two I won were not even close (shoutout to Nebraska and Michigan State for the field goal fest) and two of the ones I lost were not even close. The other loss was by half a point. My record is now 27-32-1.

Not great, but we move on because I ain't a quitter.

Ohio State and Michigan Under 54.5 Points

Folks take it as a bad omen when I pick the Bucks here, and y'all know my pick anyway, so I'm going a different direction. I don't see this as a very high scoring game. Ohio State's defense has struggled, but it's struggled against spread teams that get athletes in space. Michigan is decidedly not that. The Buckeye offense is potent, but Michigan's defense is legit good. I'm thinking something like 24-20.

Florida State and Florida Under 52 Points

I'm not thinking too hard about this one at all. In this game, I see two rather anemic offenses struggling to score points against defenses that are actually pretty strong – yes, even Florida State's. I don't see either team putting up big numbers in this game as both defenses can stop the run and both offenses are unspectacular through the air.

Kentucky -16.5 against Louisville

This isn't me having confidence in Kentucky so much as it's me having absolutely none in Louisville. The Cardinals are spectacularly, spectacularly bad and whispers are that more than 20(!!!) players have requested paperwork for a transfer. Kentucky hasn't covered 16.5 points since late September, but I cannot emphasize enough how self-destructive Louisville is.

Notre Dame -11 against USC

I said last week when they played Syracuse and I picked them to cover – don't want this to happen, and will be actively rooting for myself to be wrong, but I just have to be real. This game isn't going to be close. USC is a mess. Notre Dame is a drastically more talented team that essentially clinches a College Football Playoff berth with a win. Give me the Irish by multiple touchdowns.

Utah State +3 against Boise State

I told you all the good things about Utah State's magical covering streak and then they didn't cover last week, which is totally expected. That may make you want to run away, but I'm going back to the well again. I think Utah State is the better team here and the only reason Boise is favored is because it's at home. But the secret is, the Broncos have been relatively unspectacular at home this season, losing to San Diego State and winning one-score games against Fresno and BYU. I think Utah State wins outright, but I'll take the points.

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