Podcast: What to watch for, predictions — Michigan vs. Fresno State
On this episode of The Wolverine Podcast, Clayton Sayfie, Anthony Broome and Chris Balas preview Michigan Wolverines football vs. Fresno State, give final score predictions and more.
Watch this episode in the video player at the top of the screen or on our YouTube channel. Listen in the embed below or search ‘The Wolverine’ wherever you get your podcasts.
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Here are estimated time stamps for the podcast:
(00:00) – Intro
(01:20) – Memorable openers
(04:55) – Michigan defending national title
(09:00) – PrizePicks promo
(11:55) – Sherrone Moore / Tim Skipper debuts
(19:25) – Michigan offense vs. Fresno State defense
( 31:05) – Jaishawn Barham hype continues
(36:45) – Michigan defense vs. Fresno State offense
(42:30) – Special teams
(43:35) – Michigan vs. Fresno State predictions
(40:50) – Week 1 CFB picks against the spread
The hosts discussed their thoughts on Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore making his debut against Fresno State interim head man Tim Skipper, who took over following Jeff Tedford’s resignation over medical concerns.
“You know what, good for them coming in here with confidence,” Balas said of Fresno State. “And who knows what to expect? I think they’re going to have a hard time moving the ball on this Michigan defense, but this is a good program, this is a solid program that has done some thing against bigger schools and knows how to win football games and has been around a while.
“This is not Bowling Green coming in here or somebody like that. So it’ll be a good first test for Michigan, and hopefully you work out some of the kinks. Everybody’s pointing toward that Texas game, but this is a team that can do some things, has some athletes, as we’ve seen, some transfers from bigger schools, as well.
“This is not one of those games where you show up and you expect to win. They’re going to have to play and do some good things out there.”
“I don’t think this team is looking ahead to Texas, either,” Broome said of Michigan. “I think there’s too much newness everywhere, there are too many guys who are kind of hungry to hit someone else, as we heard from players on the roster this week. Fresno State is getting paid $1.85 million to come to Ann Arbor and play this game. And I’m not going to say they’re good enough to win this game — we’ll talk about the matchup here in a little bit — but this is a team that a lot of people expect to compete for or win the Mountain West, which is not the Sun Belt, it’s not the MAC. Obviously, it’s not the Big Ten, but there’s some good football and there are some good football players out there and some good players on this Fresno State roster. So in their minds, they’re not coming to collect a pay check. They’re coming to compete and try to win a football game.”
