9. Michigan’s road woes will be significantly lessened
The Wolverines hit the road five times in 2020, with three problem areas: the season opener at Washington, mid-season at Minnesota and the regular season finale at Ohio State.
The latter is obviously the most troubling, but the maize and blue should win the other two, so long as it isn’t typical road fare. Washington will be breaking in a new head coach and new quarterback, but Michigan still has to survive with a new QB of its own in hostile territory. However, the Wolverines roster is more aptly suited than the Huskies to win this one. Minnesota, likewise, doesn’t have as much overall talent as Michigan, but we’ve seen the Golden Gophers beat a good team at home a year ago when Penn State headed to Minneapolis. Then there’s the Buckeyes, and we all know how that rivalry has gone the past two decades.
Mid-season at MSU is no slam dunk, but the Spartans have a new head coach and some serious talent issues across the board, to go along with multiple key departures. Rutgers hasn’t been a serious contender to win any in-conference game, home or away, but with Greg Schiano back in charge that should eventually change — but not this year.
So it’s the three mentioned above that are issues. Michigan should be poised to go 2-for-3, but it wouldn’t surprise us if they went either 1-for-3 or 0-for-3. Still, out of the five road games, we think 3-of-5 is likely, while 4-of-5 is certainly well within the realm of possibility.
Which brings us to…