Michigan’s final tune-up before Big Ten play comes Saturday at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, and four Detroit News writers see little suspense in it. Their predictions for the UTEP game all point to a Wolverines win, with final scores ranging from 34-7 to 42-7.
The matchup is set for 3:30 p.m. and will air on Big Ten Network and 94.7 FM. Angelique S. Chengelis picked Michigan 41-3, Connor Earegood had it 34-7, John Niyo chose 42-7 and Bob Wojnowski went with 37-6. The spread tells part of the story, too: Michigan was favored by 35 points after scoring only 30 points all season, even as its defense carried the team through its first two games.
That defense has been the safe place. Michigan beat Oklahoma 17-10, and its first two games showed a unit that could keep almost anything in reach while the offense searched for answers. UTEP, meanwhile, was 1-1 after a 51-0 loss to Oklahoma in its opener, which is why this game has been framed less as a test than a chance to clean up the parts of Michigan’s attack that have lagged behind.
Chengelis said Michigan’s defense has carried the Wolverines through two games and that Saturday should give the offense a chance to work on the run game. Earegood took the same basic view, writing that the Miners were minor and that Paydirt Pete might not reach paydirt often. Niyo was even blunter, noting that UTEP was shut out 51-0 by Oklahoma and that there should be no excuse for anything less than a blowout as Michigan braces for the Big Ten season. Wojnowski, meanwhile, pushed back against the idea that a rout is automatic, joking that predicting a 58-0 score would not be how this works.
That is the friction inside the prediction. Michigan’s defense looked fearsome with a healthy John Henry Daley, but the offense has managed only four touchdowns in two games, and one of them came on a controversial Hail Mary against Western Michigan. Bryce Underwood led Michigan in rushing last week, a sign of both his talent and the imbalance the offense has lived with, while Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter were identified as backs who need to be more productive and Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan as receivers who should be involved more.
This is the kind of Saturday that can either reinforce the same pattern or start to change it before Iowa arrives. If Michigan controls UTEP the way the writers expect, the result will not settle every question about the offense, but it should at least show whether the Wolverines can do more than lean on defense and punting while the Big Ten schedule closes in.
