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Michigan football: Will too many cupcakes leave the Wolverines feeling sick in the end?

Luke Glusco

By Luke Glusco

Published:

Michigan’s plan to stay home and devour cupcakes for an entire month is working out just fine. The only bellyaching going on is coming from outside of Ann Arbor.

The timing for this exercise in gluttony couldn’t have been better.

Want to begin a season with a rich, empty-calorie non-conference schedule rated the easiest in the country for a Power 5 program? Well, it’ll help to begin the campaign as a top 10 team coming off a berth in the College Football Playoff. Check and check.

This is the first time in 78 years that Michigan won’t play a nonconference game against a current Power 5 member or Notre Dame, according to ESPN’s Chris Low, one many many national writers and commentators who noticed the snoozers on UM’s September slate.

Let them scoff. Let them mock. Michigan will take its 8 home dates in 2022 all the way to the bank.

This is all working out just fine for 8th-year coach Jim Harbaugh, who needed an extended preseason anyway to resolve his quarterback situation.

Michigan carries a No. 4 ranking in the AP poll into its second consecutive home scrimmage against a preseason bottom 10 opponent. The Wolverines will torment UConn and former NFL head coach Jim Mora (the younger) for a few hours beginning at noon Saturday at The Big House. This will be a step up in class, too. The Huskies are only getting 47.5 points from the sharps, not the 51.5 that Hawaii’s long-distance road dogs covered in this past week’s late-night hazing incident.

So far, there’s no indication that fans are tiring of the spectacle at their version of the Roman Coliseum.

Big Blue Nation showed up 109,575 strong for the 51-7 opening victory over Colorado State and 110,012 strong to watch JJ McCarthy win the QB job in a 56-10 takedown of Hawaii. Penn State will remain 2nd in the nation in average attendance for another year.

Harbaugh could really make this fun and give Alan Bowman or Davis Warren a start at quarterback. But no, the coach has settled on McCarthy for this Week 3 contest — and almost certainly for the rest of the season. McCarthy’s competition with incumbent starter Cade McNamara brought some intrigue to the festivities, but now the Wolverines need to make sure they’re ready for Big Ten play.

So far, they certainly are firing on all cylinders with the B1G opener vs. Maryland 12 days away.

Firing on all cylinders

McCarthy, the 5-star recruit from the 2021 class, brings a run (and home run) threat to the offense that McNamara just can’t match. And so far this year, McCarthy is completing 93.8% of his passes, with 3 TDs, no INTs and a QBR of 291.6. Oh, he’s also averaging 16.5 yards on 4 rushing attempts.

The running game is gaining 6.9 yards per attempt, led by Blake Corum, who is averaging 82 yards and a TD on 11 carries per game. Roman Wilson, a healthy-again Ronnie Moore and senior Cornelius Johnson lead a solid receiver corps.

The defense is giving up only 236 yards per game, and many of those in garbage time. Hawaii had only 47 yards at halftime.

In short, it’s hard to find a weak spot on this Michigan squad right now. The only thing that has slowed the team down so far was a weather delay that pushed back the start of the Hawaii rout by about an hour.

Just keep winning

Already up from No. 8 to No. 4 in the AP poll, Michigan won’t be hurt in any way by its soft September, as long as it keeps winning. The toughest game on the slate, the annual showdown with Ohio State, is set for the regular season’s final weekend in Columbus. So UM still has more than 2 months to fine-tune and prepare.

With its soft start, Michigan has avoided any potential early-season pitfalls like the ones that have already befallen B1G brethren Iowa, Wisconsin and Purdue.

The opening of league play should allow UM to further hone its game.

Maryland visits on Sept. 24, bringing hotshot quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa and a dynamic offense to Michigan Stadium. Still, the Terps are given only an 18% shot at winning according ESPN’s FPI and will likely be a double-digit underdog.

Michigan finally leaves its home state to visit Iowa on Oct. 1. The Hawkeyes play stout defense but can’t score against much lesser teams than the Wolverines. Next.

After traveling to Indiana on Oct. 8, UM hosts Penn State and then — after a bye week — stays home to face Michigan State. We’ll know more about those East challengers soon. Penn State can’t match up in the trenches, and MSU hasn’t looked totally sharp through 2 wins, as QB Payton Thorne has admitted.

So, either Michigan beats itself somewhere along the way, or it arrives at its Nov. 26 date with the Buckeyes undefeated. At that point, any negative thoughts about a weak opening schedule will have been long forgotten.

Michigan can have its cake and eat it too. For this season, anyway.

Luke Glusco

Luke Glusco is a Penn State graduate and veteran journalist. He covers Penn State and occasionally writes about other Big Ten programs and topics. He also serves as the primary copy editor for Saturday Tradition.