JD PicKell previews Week 2 matchup between Texas, Michigan

One college football analyst weighs in on Texas vs. Michigan.

Seldom does a Week 2 game determine a team’s postseason fate. One early meeting in Ann Arbor has playoff implications for two blue bloods.

The Texas Longhorns and Michigan Wolverines play this season. It’s their first meeting since Texas quarterback Vince Young carried the Longhorns to a Rose Bowl one-point victory in the 2004 season.

The winner of the game launches itself toward the top of college football. The loser significantly decreases its margin for error.

On3 Sports’ JD PicKell described the Michigan team Texas will face on his show, The Hard Count.

“You’ve got some really key pieces back… with Kenneth Grant (and) Mason Graham on the D-line, with (tight end) Coleston Loveland, but it’s a new team in regards to, you’re gonna have a new quarterback, I believe they are 128th in returning production. For context, there’s only 134 teams.”

In contrast, PicKell views the game as an opportunity to prove Texas’ 2023 season wasn’t a fluke.

”For Texas, this is a chance for them to reemphasize what happened last year and say, ‘no, no, no. That’s who we are now. Folks talk about Texas having a flash in the pan… ‘Texas will come back to being Texas. Don’t worry about it.’ You go and beat the national champion at their place early on in the season? That is an identity defining thing for this team and for Steve Sarkisian and what he’s built there.”

Despite the above points in Texas’ favor, PicKell reasons that a game played in the 20’s could favor Michigan. The Wolverines figure to have a strong defense despite all that they lose. That said, there’s a reason Texas has been viewed as a road favorite. The reason is the other side of the football.

Michigan is set to replace starting quarterback JJ McCarthy, all five offensive linemen and its top two wideouts from last season. It’s not much different than what LSU lost on offense after its 2019 national title season. The Tigers fell back to earth the following season.

More concerning for the team is the inability to exploit the Longhorns’ defensive weakness: Its pass defense.

Without returning its downfield threats, Michigan can’t stress the Texas secondary like teams with speedy downfield threats could in Oklahoma and Washington. And while Coleston Loveland is an elite tight end, Texas could neutralize him far easier than it could slow Washington receivers.

The Texas defense could thrive against a run-dependent attack forced to play football in a 20-yard box. Alex Orji, who has just one college pass attempt, could be asked to lead the Michigan offense at quarterback with few viable downfield receiving threats. He could need an offensive line with five new starters to dominate the line of scrimmage.

It’s possible that Texas struggles against the Michigan defense, but it’s unlikely they get outplayed by the Wolverines offense. Should Texas score 20 or more points, the Longhorns might be in the driver’s seat.

We’ll see how the game unfolds when Texas and Michigan battle in Week 2.

College Football Playoff Committee announces format for 12-team playoff: How could it look?

The College Football Playoff Committee announced the format for the expanded 12-team playoff. How would it have looked based on the final 2023 CFP rankings?

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams in 2024. However, it hadn’t yet been settled how the 12 teams would be selected.

On Tuesday, the College Football Playoff Committee announced a 5+7 model for selecting the 12 teams that will vie for the national championship through the expanded playoff. This is a change from the originally agreed upon 6+6 model that included the six highest-ranked conference champions. This comes after the Pac-12 was reduced to just Oregon State and Washington State after the latest round of realignment.

The assumption is the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC will receive four of those five automatic bids and the other could come from the Pac-12 or a Group of Five conference.

The five highest-ranked conference champions will receive automatic bids. The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye, with seeds 5-12 facing each other at the home venues of seeds 5-8.

According to a release from the College Football Playoff Committee, the quarterfinals and semifinal games will be played at the sites of the New Year’s Six bowl venues. The national title game will continue to be played at a neutral site.

Though there will be automatic qualifiers, no conference is guaranteed a spot in the playoff and there are no limitations on the number of teams each conference can send to the playoff. Why does this caveat matter? Well, the Pac-12 is now the Pac-2, with only Oregon State and Washington State remaining. Their schedule may not warrant consideration for an automatic bid in the playoff if they aren’t one of the top five conference champions.

Conversely, the SEC, which is arguably the most competitive conference, had four teams ranked in the top 12 of the final College Football Playoff rankings for 2023. Throw Oklahoma and Texas into the mix and that’s six programs that will play football in 2024 from the SEC in the top 12 with LSU at No. 13. What will make up the Big Ten in 2024 had five teams inside the top 12.

So what would the 2023 [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] field look like if it had been a 12-team playoff?

Four-star defensive lineman’s recruitment seemingly wide open again

Four-star defensive lineman’s recruitment seemingly wide open again

Four-star defensive lineman Jaylen Williams, whom the Badgers have offered, sparked a frenzy on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. The class of 2025 athlete seemed headed to Michigan, but his recruitment appears to be back up in the air.

Williams was projected by 247Sports to join the Wolverines after his final year of high school in 2024-2025 at Palatine High School in Illinois, but his post from Tuesday stating “gone have to change that crystal ball” seems to suggest that he will not be headed to Ann Arbor.

Michigan’s head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter have both moved on to the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL, which has likely led the athlete’s comments.

The Badgers offered the four-star athlete in January 2023, and Williams currently has 23 Division I offers with plenty of time to decide where he wants to go in 2025.

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Looking at what we know Texas will face against Michigan

We look at what Michigan team Texas will face in Week 2.

The premier nonconference matchup of the 2024 football season is set for the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns will travel to Ann Arbor to face the blue blood Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan comes off its first national title since the 1997 season. The defending national champs are usually not the team you want to draw in Week 2, but the Wolverines that Texas will face will not be the same team that won the national championship. In fact, it will be a much different team.

What Michigan loses is well documented. Its entire offensive line departs as well as nearly the entire defensive line. Starting quarterback JJ McCarthy leaves as does star running back Blake Corum, top receiving target Roman Wilson and leading tackler Junior Colson. We haven’t yet mentioned that head coach Jim Harbaugh is gone.

As you might have noticed, that leaves several key players for the Wolverines to replace. So what team will Texas face in 2024? Let’s look at what the Longhorns’ nonconference opponent could look like in Week 2 next season.

Michigan hopes to run the ball the way it did in 1993 Rose Bowl vs Washington

The 1993 Rose Bowl was a blueprint for how Michigan still wants to play today under Jim Harbaugh.

The Michigan Wolverines, in 2023, loved to run the ball. They hope to run the ball well in 2024 in Monday night’s title game against Washington.

If UM can run the ball with success, it would be a lot like the last Rose Bowl meeting between the two schools.

In back-to-back years in the early 1990s, Michigan and Washington faced each other in the Rose Bowl. The schools alternated wins and losses. In the 1992 Rose Bowl, Washington won. In 1993, Michigan defeated Washington 38-31 in a rematch, ruining the Huskies’ attempt at a third straight Rose Bowl victory.

This was a back-and-forth game, and Michigan took the lead with a Tony McGee touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Washington quarterback Mark Brunell, who went on to have a long NFL career, led the way for the Huskies. However, Michigan running back Tyrone Wheatley exploded in this game, rushing for 235 on just 15 carries (15+ yards per carry) and three touchdowns. Wheatley was named the unquestioned Rose Bowl Player of the Game.

As it turns out, this would be the final game for Washington coach Don James, who later resigned following this Rose Bowl contest.

Now, three decades later, these two programs meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, the last ever Pac-12 football game before Washington moves to the Big Ten Conference.

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Michigan-Washington national title game recalls 1992 Rose Bowl showdown

The biggest Michigan-UW football game is Monday night. The second-biggest game was the 1992 Rose Bowl.

The Washington Huskies play the Michigan Wolverines for the national championship on Monday. No Washington-Michigan game from the past was bigger than the 1992 Rose Bowl.

The Washington-Michigan Rose Bowl results went back and forth. The Huskies won the first one in 1978, then Michigan won in 1981 as Bo Schembechler finally got a bowl game victory.

Eleven years after the 1981 game, the two programs faced off in the Rose Bowl again. This time it was all Washington. The Huskies dominated in a 34-14 rout of Michigan in 1992.

The Huskies finished No. 1 in the Coaches Poll, splitting the national title with Miami. The Hurricanes hammered Nebraska later on New Year’s Day of 1992 and finished first in the Associated Press Poll. Washington, like Miami, finished the season undefeated.

UW entered the 1992 Rose Bowl ranked No. 2, Michigan at No. 4. No. 3 Florida lost in the 1992 Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame, which meant that if Michigan had beaten Washington, the Wolverines would have finished No. 2 in the country.

The Huskies scored 21 points in the second half to run away with the 1992 Rose Bowl. They made great halftime adjustments to stake their claim to a split national title. UW’s Billy Joe Hobert (quarterback) and Steve Emtman (defensive tackle) were named the players of the game.

Don James’ Husky program had been very good for 15 years. Washington finished No. 2 in the country in the 1984 season, narrowly missing a national title. Several years later, the Huskies finally reached the summit.

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Bo Schembechler, defeated by USC, finally won his first Rose Bowl vs Washington

Bo Schembechler was 0-3 vs USC and 0-5 overall in the Rose Bowl before breaking through in 1981 vs Washington.

Washington plays Michigan for the national title on Monday night. In another significant episode of past Michigan-Washington matchups, let us examine the Rose Bowl game in 1981.

USC fans know that the Trojans hounded and haunted Michigan and Bo Schembechler in the Rose Bowl. John McKay beat Bo in the Michigan coach’s first Rose Bowl game in January of 1970. John Robinson then beat Bo and Michigan in the 1977 and 1979 Rose Bowls. Schembechler also lost the 1978 Rose Bowl to Washington. When was Bo ever going to break through and win the Granddaddy?

This is where we return to 1981. This was a memorable Rose Bowl for the Wolverines. Schembechler finally got the monkey off his back with a 23-6 win over Washington in the 67th edition of the legendary game.

The only points Washington scored came in the second quarter, and it was all Michigan from that point on.

John Wangler was the quarterback for the Wolverines this season. Butch Woolfolk, a future pro who had a solid NFL career, earned Rose Bowl Player of the Game honors with 26 carries for 182 yards in a massive performance.

The Michigan defense flexed its muscles in this game, limiting Washington to just 105 yards in the second half.

The Wolverines scored 16 unanswered points to finish the game. The infamous Schembechler Rose Bowl drought was snapped. Beyond that, Schembechler won his first bowl of any kind after seven consecutive losses heading into this game. Schembechler lost three Rose Bowls to USC in the 1970s. He also lost the 1972 Rose Bowl to Stanford, the 1976 Orange Bowl to Oklahoma, the 1978 Rose Bowl to Washington, and the 1979 Gator Bowl to North Carolina. The 1981 Rose Bowl lifted a weight off Bo’s shoulders, and his players carried him on their shoulders after the final seconds ticked off the clock in Pasadena.

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Two 2024 Big Ten teams will play for the national championship of college football

This is truly a #B1G game next Monday. It’s the old guard versus the new kid on the block in the Big Ten.

The College Football Playoff National Championship Game will be on January 8, 2024. After Michigan defeated Nick Saban and Alabama on a questionable last play call by the Crimson Tide, Washington defeated Texas in a game the Huskies dominated but nearly lost on a late meltdown by Kalen DeBoer and Company.

Now, Washington and Michigan will face off with everything on the line. This is a future Big Ten Conference showdown with Washington joining the Big Ten in 2024.

With USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington joining the Big Ten in 2024, things will look a lot different, and the playoff in general will change drastically with these programs coming in to compete for a spot in the expanded 12-team field next season.

For now, all week long we can talk about the future of the Big Ten and how both teams playing for the national title are going to be members of the 18-team conference for the foreseeable future.

This game between Michigan and Washington has plenty of storylines: Jim Harbaugh potentially leaving for the NFL after the game, Michael Penix increasing his NFL draft stock, and Kalen DeBoer’s mismanagement that could force Dillon Johnson to miss the game. This Big Ten showdown will be a popular one. The SEC is not in the national title game for the first time since the 2014 season.

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The College Football Playoff has major interest for some Commanders

There are Washington players representing each school in the College Football Playoff. Alabama, of course, leads the way.

The 2023 College Football Playoff kicks off today with the two semifinals.

First, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, will be the Michigan Wolverines, this season’s top seed, facing the fourth-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide. Kickoff is scheduled for shortly after 5 pm.

Part two of the CFP doubleheader will be played at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Second seeded Washington Huskies will be matched up against the third-seeded Texas Longhorns. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:45 pm.

How are these four colleges represented on the Washington Commanders:

247Sports predicts College Football Playoff and New Years Six games

247Sports likes the ‘Horns to advance to the national championship.

We are almost to the beginning of the New Year’s Six slate of games. The Texas Longhorns are at the apex of the games capping New Year’s Day in the primetime game of the College Football Playoff.

No. 3 Texas (12-1) takes on the No. 2 Washington Huskies (13-0) in what should be an epic shootout between two great offenses. Washington quarterback Michael Penix has three outstanding receivers at his disposal. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers has four great receiving targets as well.

On the other end of the playoff bracket stand the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines and the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide. The game is one of the more polarizing matchups of the college football postseason. Some believe Alabama will roll past No. 1 seeded Michigan while others see the Wolverines holding their own.

Several other high profile matchups complete the six game showcase. Here’s how 247Sports analysts Brad Crawford and Chris Hummer see the games unfolding.