Northern Illinois coach says Michigan is 'built to beat' Ohio State

Michigan completely dominated Northern Illinois on Saturday, coming away with a 63-10 victory. After the game, Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock and NIU quarterback Rocky Lombardi had strong words about Michigan’s team. Hammock went as far to say that Michigan built its team specifically to beat Ohio State, and that they did a good job doing so.

“What I see, they built their team to beat Ohio State,” Hammock said after the game via Football Scoop’s Doug Samuels. “You’re not going to out-athlete Ohio State and so they said, ‘We’re going to get dirty.’ And you know what? Credit to them because they stay committed to that. They have a good team.”

Hammock has previously worked as an assistant at both Minnesota and Wisconsin, and he has worked in the NFL as well. After Michigan literally ran away with the game against Hammock’s Northern Illinois team, he still took the time to praise how good Michigan looks right now. Ohio State at Michigan late in the year just got a lot more interesting.

Michigan had a 35-3 lead at halftime. The Wolverines scored 49 points in the second and third quarter alone. Michigan ran for 373 and eight touchdowns while averaging 7.8 yards per carry as a team on 48 carries.

NIU QB Rocky Lombardi is very familiar with facing Michigan

Michigan against Ohio State figures to be one of the best matchups of the seaosn in November. Lombardi spent the first three seasons of his collegiate career with Michigan State. Last season, he threw for 1,090 yards, eight touchdowns, and nine interceptions with the Spartans.

In Michigan State’s 27-24 victory over Michigan last season, Lombardi started and had arguably the best game of his career. Lombardi had 323 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Saturday’s matchup, though was a different story.

Lombardi completed nine of his 17 passes with 46 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Northern Illinois against Michigan on Saturday. He also had 72 yards rushing. Lombardi said after the game that Michigan looked way better on Saturday than they did last year.

“They run a completely different scheme,” Lombardi said. “They looked better on film than they did last year. The scheme helps them out. They’re much softer now in coverage. They don’t like to give up many deep shots.

“They do a lot better job this year of disguising things. They’re not a very blitz-heavy team. When they do disguise, I think they do a good job because they play base so well.”

Michigan and Ohio State will face off in the final week of the regular season on November 27. The Wolverines are now 3-0, as the Buckeyes sit at 2-1 after week three.