Staff Predictions: Michigan football at Rutgers

Michigan travels to Rutgers after pounding Michigan State last week, 29-7, ready to put the “tunnel incident” behind and march toward a showdown with Ohio State. Greg Schiano is struggling to recapture the glory days of 7- and 8-win seasons in his second stint at Rutgers, and for good reason … the Big Ten is so much better than the Big East he left a decade or so ago.

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It is at the top, at least. The Scarlet Knights still get to play MSU, so they’ll likely pick up another win there and recapture The Situation/Axe Body Spray Trophy. This week, though, could well be a challenge to score.

Noah Vedral might have given Rutgers its best chance to win, but he’s been shelved for young quarterback Gavin Wimsatt. Wimsatt will be facing the best defense he’s played this year, and the Rutgers offense was shut out last week, 31-0, at Minnesota.

In that game, Wimsatt had fewer completions than Michigan State had players suspended against Michigan (6 to 8, though the latter could still grow). This will be trial by fire for the young man, and it wouldn’t stun — at all — to see the Michigan defense add to its turnover total.

Congratulations to last week’s winners — we’ll determine the tiebreaker between Balas and Skene on our next podcast. This week’s receives two tickets to the Rutgers – MSU game the following week or a $1 off coupon to Subway, whichever you find more valuable.

The Picks:

CHRIS BALAS: There will likely be as many Michigan fans in the stadium in Piscataway Saturday night as Rutgers fans — and we can almost assure that will be the case by the fourth quarter.

Michigan takes control early and takes care of business again. Michigan 37, Rutgers 6

JOHN BORTON: Michigan may well be past the easy part of its schedule, given the expected blowouts versus Colorado State, Hawai’i and UConn, along with the three-touchdown-plus victories over Penn State (41-17) and Michigan State (29-7). Or maybe the lopsided win bin isn’t full quite yet.

Now it’s the home stretch, with Rutgers figuring to score more points on its home turf than it did at Minnesota last week (that would be zero). The Wolverines begin a hoped-for November To Remember with another comfortable win over Greg Schiano’s Scarlet Blights. Michigan 41, Rutgers 9

CLAYTON SAYFIE: Michigan players and coaches were fuming after the MSU attacks late last Saturday night, and moving on to Rutgers was easier said than done after a rivalry win and the assaults. However, the Maize and Blue have a championship to pursue, and are taking on a “somebody else has to pay” mentality. Per the schedule, that’s Rutgers on Saturday night in Piscataway.

Michigan’s defense has been dominant and will make life miserable for redshirt freshman quarterback Gavin Wimsatt, who’s learning on the fly. The Wolverines capture their second shutout of the season, and Rutgers gets blanked for the second straight week. Michigan 45, Rutgers 0

ANTHONY BROOME: Another year, another emotional recalibration after the Michigan State game. Obviously, this one is wildly different coming off a win, but the postgame situation shook the program to its very core. It has lingered far into the week, but U-M did not let MSU ruin its season last year in a loss, and certainly will not be doing so this week coming off a victory. Like last season, it should only bring this team closer.

Rutgers is a tough game to get up for, and Michigan has been caught sleeping the last few times these two have played. This week is a culture week for Michigan and one where Jim Harbaugh’s assistants have a lot on their plates while the head coach tends to the off-field stuff while also prepping for Rutgers. For once, a night game feels right and should give everyone a few extra hours to take a deep breath and get back to football.

Michigan is very good, Rutgers is very bad. There could be a post-MSU hangover, but it’s stretch run time. Time to turn field goals into touchdowns.

Time to sharpen things up. Time for style points. Michigan 49, Rutgers 6

DOUG SKENE: Sometimes, teams need a road trip to work on things and have fun.  The trip to New Jersey will be a great chance to fine-tune some fundamentals and work to improve the red zone touchdown scoring.  I don’t expect to see any new wrinkles on either side of the ball this week.  

Just got to keep getting better and stay healthy. Michigan 42, Rutgers 13