Michigan football is on a collision course with Ohio State

Michigan football improved its 2022 season record to 8-0 with a win over in-state rival, Michigan State. The Wolverines currently sit atop the Big Ten East standings with a 5-0 record in conference play, and a 4-0 record in divisional play.

Michigan’s season has gone well, but there is a monster awaiting the Wolverines in late-November.

The Wolverines rebounded from its abysmal 2020 season with a 12-2 campaign last year. They finally got over the Ohio State hump, won the Big Ten Championship, and made the College Football Playoff — all things most doubted Harbaugh could do with the Maize and Blue.

Now, eight games into the 2022 season, Michigan football once again has its eyes on the Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff. So far so good for the Wolverines — eight up, eight down.

Michigan has checked off plenty of smaller boxes this year, though these are more program-oriented goals than anything the national media will care about. The Wolverines once again dominated (then) No. 10 Penn State in the Maize Out a few weeks ago, beat Iowa on the road for the first time in nearly two decades, and destroyed Michigan State to win back the Paul Bunyan Trophy.

All of these goals are nice but were somewhat expected. In fact, the Wolverines are yet to enter a game as an underdog, and likely won’t until the Ohio State game.

Michigan football just needs to take care of the business at hand

For now, Michigan’s attention needs to be on Rutgers. As funny as that may sound, the Wolverines’ last two meetings with the Knights should be enough to keep Michigan football alert this weekend. In 2020 Rutgers took Michigan to three overtimes before the Wolverines eventually won. Last year, the Knights gave Michigan another scare in what ended up being a 20-13 home victory for the Wolverines.

After Rutgers, Michigan will host Nebraska (3-5) and No. 16 Illinois (7-1) before going on the road to face No. 2 Ohio State. The Buckeyes will be Michigan’s real test this year.

In year’s past under Jim Harbaugh, Michigan football averaged about 10 wins per season and frankly hoped to just win two of the three big games in its division (Michigan State, Penn State, and Ohio state). After last year, however, Michigan’s benchmark appears to have changed, and wins over all but Ohio State have been expected to this point.

The Wolverines should win out heading into Columbus, and so should Ohio State. On Nov. 26 I fully expect to see an 11-0 Michigan face an 11-0 Ohio State for the Big Ten East and a College Football Playoff berth.

Michigan and Ohio State are the immovable object and the unstoppable force of the Big Ten. Both have played a few good games and a few questionable games, though no one has truly come close to beating either team. Sure, Maryland was within a touchdown of the Wolverines by game’s end, but that game always felt like Michigan’s ball game and a garbage time touchdown helped Maryland look good on the box score. You could say something similar about Ohio State’s win over Penn State — sloppy at times but mostly in-hand.

When it comes down to it, we are getting back to the olden days of the Big Ten conference. The “Big Two, Little Eight” days were thought to be long gone, but as of right now the conference runs through two cities: Ann Arbor and Columbus. Sadly, someone has to lose between the two juggernauts, and nothing we can say or do will change the fact that we are in for a brawl during ‘The Game’ this year. The Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes are on a collision course, and honestly, we would have it no other way.