Desmond Howard shares his biggest concern for Michigan in Rose Bowl

The stage is set for the College Football Playoff as top-ranked Michigan will take on No. 4 Alabama in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl. It will be the third consecutive playoff appearance for the Wolverines, while the Crimson Tide return to the CFP for the eighth time in its 10-year existence.

A marquee postseason matchup between two of college football’s most iconic programs comes with a lot of excitement, but during ‘The Rich Eisen Show’ on Monday Michigan alum and college football analyst Desmond Howard shared what his biggest concern is regarding the Wolverines in their upcoming matchup.

“My biggest concern is [Zak] Zinter not being there, best offensive lineman, and you’re talking about a group that prides itself on dominating the trenches,” Howard said. “I mean that’s Michigan football, they want to dominate the trenches and this is going to be a tall task based on what I saw against Iowa.”

Zinter’s season came to an end in the third quarter of Michigan’s win over Ohio State in the regular season finale, with the Wolverines not just losing their standout right guard, but a leader that’s well respected by his peers in Ann Arbor.

Michigan faced Iowa in their Big Ten Championship matchup which marked their first game of the season without Zinter and it showed early, with the Wolverines only leading 10-0 at halftime before eventually taking home a commanding 26-0 win. But Howard made it clear that the Hawkeyes are no slouches.

“You can’t take anything away from Iowa, I hope your listeners and their viewers understand that Iowa is one of the best defenses in all of college football. Like not the Big Ten, all of college football, and it’s not because they have a roster, a defensive lineup littered with four and five-star players. That’s not the case. They’re just one of the best coaches, most disciplined defensive units you’ll ever come across in college football,” Howard explained. “So it’s always going to be hard to score on them, the problem is they just don’t have an offense and that’s been their issue.”

The Wolverines face an Alabama team that’s also predicated on a strong defense, holding opponents to just 18.4 points per game this season. But unlike Iowa, they’ve got the offense to compliment their defense, which helped lead the Crimson Tide to an SEC Championship over Georgia snapping their 29-game winning streak.

“So to watch Michigan’s offense without Zinter, they had to reshuffle some offensive lineman, [I] was like okay they’ll figure it out. Because I think Michigan’s a really good second half team, they make great adjustments,” Howard said. “But now they’re about to go up against a different type of animal with the offensive line and defensive lines of Alabama.”

Michigan and Alabama will square off on January 1 at 5:00 p.m. ET in a CFP Semifinal matchup airing on ESPN.