Urban Meyer questions Michigan schedule, expresses belief in Matt Rhule, Nebraska

Urban Meyer has been critical of Michigan‘s strength of schedule for a while now, and believes it could come back to haunt them Saturday against Nebraska.

In fact, the former Ohio State head coach believes that if Matt Rhule and the Cornhuskers can keep their offense on the field — it could turn into a long afternoon in Lincoln.

“The Wolverines have played a schedule that is not very good,” Meyer said on Big Noon Kickoff. “You play bad schedules — I’ve been there before. You just don’t get better. If you’re the same team you were in September that you are in October, you’re not a very good team. I believe in Matt Rhule. I believe in Nebraska.

“We saw, they should have beat Minnesota. If you don’t turn the ball over [at Colorado] a couple weeks ago, they’re right in that game. Don’t turn the ball over, let that 3-3-5 defense play, they’ve got good players on defense. I think it’s going to be a close game in Lincoln.”

Earlier this week, Meyer said reminded everyone that when the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams next year, these so-called pancake games could become the norm moving forward. Scheduling could become strategic to where as long as teams win — they can make the expanded field with less of an effort.

He flat out said that Michigan, “shouldn’t be allowed to play that schedule.” That goes for Georgia, too. Both teams occupy to top two spots in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, but aside from their lone conference games from last week haven’t played a non-conference Power Five opponent.

Michigan only has conference opponents on its schedule for the rest of the season, and Georgia has rival Georgia Tech on the docket to end the season. Still, Urban feels as though teams with legitimate national championship desires should have some type of outside regulation around their scheduling moving forward.

He’s not just saying that to rain on the Wolverines and Bulldogs. Instead, it’s to help them in the sense that if they aren’t playing worthy opponents — how will they be ready for the daunting task that comes with playing a Big Ten and SEC schedule, respectively.

Saturday’s matchup against the Huskers will be very telling if the ECU-UNLV-Bowling Green-Rutgers warmup month will help or hurt the Wolverines in the long run.

Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET live on FOX.