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College GameDay panel weighs in on importance of Michigan ‘showing up’ vs. Iowa
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
After a terrible showing on the road against Wisconsin two weeks ago, Michigan rebounded with a nice home victory versus Rutgers last Saturday. But the doubters still want to see more from the Wolverines before saying they are completely “over” the humbling loss in Madison.
A home matchup with Iowa gives Michigan the opportunity to silence its critics Saturday.
The panel of analysts on ESPN’s College GameDay weighed in on the importance of Michigan “showing up” against Iowa.
“I’d like to see Michigan play a basic, sound game with a sense of urgency and pride,” Lee Corso said on the ESPN pregame show. “Just like the Michigan teams I used to coach against. They don’t look like the same teams.”
Former Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard echoed those sentiments.
“(They need) a clean game — no pre-snap penalties, no turnovers, and the defense is going to have to play much better,” he said.
Kirk Herbstreit dove a little bit deeper with his analysis.
“It’s impossible for them (Michigan), right now, to run wide. They can’t pull linemen. They look heavy, they look heavy-footed, slow, every time they pull, there’s penetration,” Herbstreit said. “They better run downhill, that’s their only chance of running the ball, and they don’t have a dynamic back.
“To me, Shea Patterson has got to be the guy who is going to have to make things happen today, running and throwing and getting the ball to his receivers.”
The last analyst on the panel, David Pollack, said he isn’t “burying Michigan yet,” but he also added that “if (the Wolverines) don’t come out and respond today, Harbaugh’s tenure is in trouble.”
Michigan hasn’t beaten a ranked Iowa team since 1997, which is the last time the Wolverines won a national championship.
Iowa-Michigan will kick off at 12 pm ET on FOX.