History vs. Michigan:
Michigan leads all-time series 58-15-2
Last meeting: 2018 at Northwestern - 20-17 Michigan
This Season:
vs Michigan State - L 21-38
vs Indiana State - W 24-6
at Duke - L 23-30
vs Ohio - W 35-6
at Nebraska - L 7-56
vs Rutgers - W 21-7
Quarterback: Ryan Hilinski 6'3" 225 lbs (RS So.)
Hilinski took over the job during the Duke game and has completed 57 of 99 passes (57.5%) with 645 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs.
Running Backs: Evan Hull 5'11" 210 lbs (RS So.), Andrew Clair 5'11" 202 lbs (RS Sr.) & Anthony Tyus III 6'1'' 215 lbs (Fr.)
Northwestern will hand the ball to 3 different backs consistently, led by Hull with 95 rushes for 562 yards (5.9ypc) with 4 TDs and a long of 90. He's also had 11 catches for 74 yards with a longest of 17. Clair has carried the ball 39 times for 234 yards (6.0ypc) with a TD and a long of 32. He's added 4 receptions for 21 yards. Tyus has 44 attempts for 201 yards (4.6ypc) with a TD and a long of 16 to go along with 2 catches for 4 yards.
Wide Receivers: Stephon Robinson Jr. 5'10" 180 lbs (RS Sr.), Malik Washington 5'9" 192 lbs (Jr.) & Bryce Kirtz 6'0" 180 lbs (RS So.)
Robinson has 28 receptions for 424 yards, 2 TDs and a long of 47 yards. He's ran the ball 3 times for 14 yards with a long of 9. Washington has had 18 catches for 255 yards with a long of 64 and 2 TDs. Kirtz has had 19 catches for 203 yards and a long of 44.
Tight End: Charlie Mangieri 6'4" 250 lbs (Sr.)
Mangieri has totaled 8 catches for 51 yards and a TD with a long of 31 yards.
Left Tackle: Peter Skoronski 6'4" 294 lbs (So.)
15 career starts.
Left Guard: Josh Priebe 6'5" 295 lbs (So.)
5 career starts.
Center: Sam Gerak 6'3" 297 lbs (RS Sr.)
25 career starts.
Right Guard: Charlie Schmidt 6'4" 297 lbs (RS Jr.)
7 career starts.
Right Tackle: Ethan Wiederkehr 6'5" 295 lbs (RS Sr.)
17 career starts.
Defensive Tackles: Trevor Kent 6'4" 290 lbs (RS Sr.) & Joe Spivak 6'0'' 300 lbs (RS Sr.)
Kent has 10 tackles with 0.5 behind the line of scrimmage. Spivak has 5 tackles.
Defensive Ends: Adetomiwa Adebawore 6'2'' 265 lbs (Jr.) & Samdup Miller 6'2" 270 lbs (RS RS Sr.)
Adebawore has compiled 22 tackles which includes 7 for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 2 pass deflections and 2 forced fumbles. Miller has 20 tackles with 2.5 for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pass deflection.
Outside Linebackers: Peter McIntyre 6'2" 231 lbs (RS Sr.) & Chris Bergin 5'11" 223 lbs (RS Sr.)
McIntyre has totaled 36 tackles with 3 for negative yardage. Bergin has a total of 63 tackles including 3 for a loss, half a sack, a forced fumble, an INT and a pass breakup.
Middle Linebacker: Khalid Jones 6'1'' 230 lbs (RS Jr.)
Jones has missed the last 2 games as well as the Duke game but may be back. He's only had 4 tackles on the season.
Cornerbacks: A.J. Hampton Jr. 5'11'' 180 lbs (RS Jr.) & Cameron Mitchell 6'0" 195 lbs (RS So.)
Hampton has 21 tackles, 8 pass breakups and a forced fumble. Mitchell has had 18 tackles, 2 pass breakups and a forced and recovered fumble.
Safeties: Brandon Joseph 6'1" 192 lbs (RS So.) & Coco Azema 5'11" 185 lbs (RS So.)
Joseph has 40 tackles on the season to go along with 1 INT, 2 pass breakups and a fumble recovery. Azema has contributed with 32 tackles, 1.5 for a loss, a pass breakup and a recovered fumble.
Punter and Kicker: Derek Adams 5'11" 195 lbs (RS Sr.) & Charlie Kuhbander 6'0" 195 lbs (RS Sr.)
Adams has 29 punts with an average of 43.2 yards and a long of 55. 16 were fair caught and 11 were downed inside the 20 with no touchbacks. Kuhbander is 4/8 on the year with a long of 47. He's 41/58 on his career with a long of 47.
Returners: Brandon Joseph 6'1" 192 lbs (RS So.) & Raymond Niro III 5'10'' 190 lbs (RS So.)
Joseph is the most recent punt returner for Northwestern. He's averaging 28.5 yards on 4 punt returns with a long of 65. Niro has returned 2 kicks with an average of 14.0 yards and a long of 18.
Players to watch:
DE - Adetomiwa Adebawore
OLB - Chris Bergin
Prediction:DE - Adetomiwa Adebawore
OLB - Chris Bergin
The Wildcats are not very good. Since making the switch to Ryan Hilinski at QB, they have cut down on turnovers with 2 in the last 3 games. They had started the season with 7 in the first 3 games and those were just in the Indiana State and Duke games. Northwestern has some ability to pick up yardage through the air but not at a consistent enough level to reliably sustain drives and score points. The rushing attack is pretty solid on paper with outings of 4.5ypc, 4.9ypc and 7.3ypc against Indiana State, Duke and Ohio which of course are not great competition but disregarding sack yardage, Northwestern managed to pick up 4.8ypc against Michigan State and 4.2ypc against Nebraska. Not bad performances, however they trailed early in both of those games and perhaps the run game wasn't a focal point for the defenses. In the amputee slap flight that was Northwestern vs Rutgers last week, Northwestern only managed 2.8ypc despite Rutgers not generating any sacks. Speaking of sacks. The Wildcats have allowed 12 sacks in their 6 games with Ohio and Rutgers being the only game they've kept the QB clean and the two best defenses they've played (MSU and Nebraska) each got home 4 times.
On defense, Northwestern is not ideal either. Disregarding Ohio and Indiana State and focusing on their 4 games against Power 5 teams which I remind you, include Duke and Rutgers, Northwestern has allowed 93 points.. In the first half of those 4 games. To their credit they've only allowed 38 second half points in those games but in all but the Rutgers game, their opponent pretty much already had the win locked up at halftime. Northwestern's run defense is probably a little worse on paper given the fact that the last 20-30 minutes of most of their games turns into a clock draining, not hurting Pat Fitzgerald's feelings type of games but they certainly aren't good even when they key in on it. Rutgers and Indiana State have been the only rushing attacks squashed by the Wildcats. Their other 4 games saw the likes of Duke, Ohio and a Nebraska team that couldn't get anything up the middle against Michigan run wild like Hulkamania. MSU had 8.8ypc, Duke had 3.9, Ohio had 5.8 and Nebraska had 8.1ypc. That's not even factoring in sack yardage because we don't need to make them feel worse. This is a dreadful matchup for Northwestern and Michigan's backfield should have visions of weeks 1-3 running through their head.
Speaking of sacks again. Northwestern's defense has been decent at finding theirs with 14 in their 6 games, with Nebraska the opponent thus far with a QB that has avoided a Wildcat embrace. The passing defense of Northwestern has been pretty good against who you'd expect and overall pretty meh at best. Opponents are completing 64.9% of passes against NW and an average of 10.2 yards per completion. Did I mention they've played Indiana State, Ohio, Duke and Rutgers?
Special teams has Brandon Joseph looking a little scary on paper in regards to punt returns but after averaging 55.5 yards on 2 returns against Indiana State, he had an average of 1.5 yards per return on 2 against Rutgers last week. I'm not even sure he's the return man this week. The rest of their special teams is what it is. Pretty bad. Although punter Derek Adams, while not having a big leg, seems to have a knack for placing balls inside the 20.
On to MSU.
Michigan wins 42-10
This years predictions:
41-17 vs WMU (47-14 actual)
31-20 vs Washington (31-10 actual)
45-16 vs NIU (63-10 actual)
48-10 vs Rutgers (20-13 actual)
20-24 at Wisconsin (38-17 actual)
35-24 at Nebraska (32-29 actual)
