The five most important games on Michigan’s schedule in 2024

We are two full months away from the new college football season, and the National Champions are going to have a rough year.

A season ago, Maize n Brew described the 2023 season not exactly as a murderer row The Michigan Wolverines had the fortune of playing just two ranked teams throughout the regular season, and their non-conference games featured the Group of Five opponents in East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green.

This will be a completely different picture in 2024. As the Big Ten added more teams, plus a whole new structure to college football, the Wolverines can’t afford to take a breather at any stage in the season. Michigan will play blue blood after blue blood including the Texas Longhorns, USC Trojans, Washington Huskies, Michigan State Spartans, Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

As we have seen there are a plethora of games for Michigan to look forward to in the year 2024 and here are the five most significant games.

5. Sept. 21 vs USC

Generally, USC is entering a tournament after expectedly a below-par 2023 campaign, winning only 8 out of 13 games, although they boasted of the best player in the nation in Caleb Williams. Quarterback Lincoln Riley crossed the Rubicon from Oklahoma and Southern California three seasons ago, but it has not always been rosy in So Cal.

The Trojans have not been bad on the attack as much as they have been abysmal on the defense recently. Last season, the Trojans allowed 419 points in 2023, making them one of the eight teams in the country that can attest to that. USC surrendered 5,266 yards of total offense and 438. 8 yards per game, he ranked 112 out of 124 for those statistics.

concerning the game on September 21, the Trojans are the last of the five consecutive home games that Michigan has before the team embark on a three away match. Riley has always been the guy who could assemble explosive offenses and it will really be examined whether Wink Martindale and Sherrone Moore are capable of stopping them. Who USC will have at quarterback is uncertain but substitute Miller ​​Moss got 681 passing yards, seven touchdowns and an interception in the four games he played as Williams’s replacement last season. When Williams sat out of the Holiday Bowl against Louisville, Moss showed up, passing for 372 yards and six scores.

4. Oct. 5 at Washington

The whole world will be watching the 2023 National Championship rematch in Seattle on October 5. Michigan and Washington are in the same boat as they both will be changing their head coaches, quarterback, starters on both offense and defense and coordinators by the 2024 season.

The Huskies may have lost the likes of Michael Penix Jr. , Rome Odunze and Troy Fautanu but they got 29 players from the transfer portal including Will Rogers, a former four year quarterback at Mississippi State.

In theory, of course, the Huskies should have a slight edge over the Wolverines as they have the luxury of hosting Michigan in Seattle, a venue that is arguably one of the toughest places to play in college basketball. Gotta love head coach Jedd Fisch, an ex-Texas Tech Red Raider and a former NFL assistant, who can sling the ball in the Pac-12 conference; he’ll be the man in the middle with the Lute Olson-led Wildcats at home against the fresh champs.

3. Nov. 2 vs. Oregon

By November 2, Oregon might very well be ranked as the number one football team in the country. Much has been made about the loss of starting quarterback Bo Nix and several other contributors on both offense and defense for the Hogs, but Lanning is all in to win his first championship for his program. To that end, the Ducks recruited 14 transfers such as two starting quarterback talents Moore and Gabriel and a great set of an O-Line.

The only catch, of course, is that the game is played at home suspension and most likely the entire game is played in the freezing cold while the Wolverines do have to play Ohio State a few weeks later. This game was played two seasons ago against Indiana when it was 37 degrees with snow and last season also at night against Purdue when the temperature was 36 degrees. It is not that I am convinced that Oregon cannot play in such weather but Gabriel hails from Hawaii, played for UCF and then moved to Oklahoma. It is going to be a change, and a change may be exactly what Michigan needs.

2. On November 30 the team visited Ohio State.

Well, who would have thought that Michigan could ever one day reach a point where Ohio State on any given year is not their most anticipated game of the year. College football of the new age answered in the negative. Since, seasons when only four teams have qualified for the postseason “The Game” has been the practical first postseason round for the last three years. Now it is almost completely mitigated by a 12-team playoff system. However, they stay at the two slot due to the fact that the Wolverines would maybe need to beat the Buckeyes in Columbus to make the playoff.

It is expected that both the coaches prepare their teams to bag the title each year and being head coach, Ryan Day is not joking this year. Ohio State then proceeded to spend nearly $15m during the summer in hope of constructing a team capable of defeating Michigan and consequently the rest of the country to claim the championship. The stakes should still be in the millions when Thanksgiving arrives.

1. Sept. 7 vs Texas

Texas was all set to meet in Houston last season right down to the final minute is and like most of Michigan’s opposition, they have retooled as well. It remains to be seen whether Texas is the best team Michigan will play all year, but the concept of a Week 2 tilt at Michigan Stadium is check-your-clock exciting.

Any team who can come out and steal a win from the Wolverines on September 2 should be all but assured of at least making the 12 team playoffs and those high stakes for the fans early on in the season are quite rare indeed. UT also welcomed back their starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and retained both starting tackles along with becoming involved in the pursuit of transfer wide receiver Isaiah Bond out of Alabama.

If this game was being played in November like the state of Oregon the probably leans toward the Wolverines. However, the game will be played in the sunshine in early September, and the strength of both teams is balanced; nobody from the college football universe will miss this. Should you be lucky to get this, you are able to get into the playoffs.