In just four weeks, Michigan football will take the field to open the 2024 season and the quest to defend the national championship won just this past year. And there will be a lot of new in this upcoming season.
Not only will there be a new head coach in Sherrone Moore roaming the sidelines, there will be a much different look in terms of the teams that the maize and blue will see this year. The Big Ten has expanded, having added four former Pac-12 teams from the West Coast — of which the Wolverines play three — and then the nonconference schedule is much more difficult than in past years.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the schedule, and rank the upcoming opponents by degree of difficulty, from worst to first.
As far as nonconference, Group of Five, teams go, Arkansas State is no slouch. Head coach and Michigan native Butch Jones is no slouch, but the Red Wolves tend to contend against top-tier teams for a quarter, or maybe a half, and usually end up getting out-muscled and out-talented. Such will likely be the case in Week 3, though, being sandwiched between Texas and the Big Ten opener against USC, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a little bit of a mental struggle from the Wolverines.
Still, this is the most beatable opponent on the schedule.
Curt Cignetti speaks a big game, but there are still talent issues in Bloomington. While Indiana has, at times, played Michigan extremely tough — and we’re sure that Cignetti will likely have the Hoosiers on the rise in short order — this is a new regime. And much of the time where Indiana really gave the Wolverines fits, either Tom Allen was the head coach, or the defensive coordinator under Kevin Wilson. The game is in Bloomington, which does up the difficulty factor, but the only time that Michigan has lost to IU since 1986 was the COVID year, 2020.
Much of what was just said about Indiana can also be said about MSU. Jonathan Smith has been very successful, particularly at his alma mater (Oregon State). But he has a lot of talent issues, especially on the front on either side of the ball. He’ll get a tough welcome to the rivalry by traveling to Ann Arbor for his first go.
However, if Aidan Chiles at quarterback ends up being one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten, this game could move up the ranks of difficulty in a hurry.
Just a few short years ago, no one wanted to see Minnesota on the schedule. Penn State found that out the hard way. But now, the Golden Gophers are somewhat deficient offensively, no longer boasting beast-mode running backs with a gunslinger at quarterback. The defense will still be tough, but the offense is still a big question mark given the past year and a half.
8. Week 1: Fresno State Bulldogs (Aug. 31)
Jeff Tedford may have stepped down this offseason, perhaps taking the teeth out of Fresno State, but the offensive-minded Group of Five program has tended to give programs fits. And given that this is the first game of the season, and with a new head coach, it’s a difficult team to prepare for.
This should still be a win for the maize and blue given the disparity between the two teams, but it could be an uncomfortable start to the season if Michigan isn’t careful.
Illinois under Bret Bielema can be a bit of a wildcard. The defense has gotten to be much tougher under his tutelage, but the offense has been up and down, often struggling with turnovers — at least in the past year.
The last time the Wolverines traveled to Champaign, it looked like they were running away with the game before the Illini surged and nearly upset the maize and blue with a furious comeback. That was under Lovie Smith, but Bielema would be even more adept at having his team ready to go against a Michigan team he’s tended to coach well against.
Though David Braun has done a masterful job in his one year leading the Wildcats after Pat Fitzgerald was summarily fired last offseason, it’s not because Northwestern is a daunting threat that they end up in the upper half of the list. No, it’s because this is the game before The Game.
Though Michigan has been able to blow out some teams the week before Ohio State, the past two years has seen the Wolverines in nailbiters. If Northwestern is in any shape to push the envelope, it could make this one rather uncomfortable, if not a flat-out debacle.
Washington may have lost a bit of its teeth compared to the national championship game, but the remaining Huskies will be eager for revenge. It’s the first road game of the year, clear across the country, against a (former Michigan assistant) head coach in Jedd Fisch who will be looking for a statement win. Fisch could take some time to get the ball rolling, but with Will Rogers at the helm of the offense, it wouldn’t be surprising if it didn’t take him much time at all.
Given how USC performed last year, some of the luster of this game may have worn off a bit, but it shouldn’t. It will be huge to see the Trojans playing Michigan in Ann Arbor rather than in the Rose Bowl. Miller Moss may not be Caleb Williams, but you can rest assured that Lincoln Riley will field a high-flying offense. Though USC has often been derided for the lack of defensive prowess, the hire of D’Anton Lynn as defensive coordinator, along with some of the transfer additions, that could turn around in a hurry.
This one will be a Big Ten opener unlike any other.
General convention, plus offseason hype, would place Ohio State at No. 1, and we wouldn’t begrudge that opinion. This is a road game at the end of the season at a place Michigan…
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