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Texas vs Michigan: Two of the top programs in college football set to clash in week 2

By Frank Sciarroni

The Texas Longhorns stand for the playing of The Eyes of Texas after defeating the Colorado State Rams at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on August 31, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
The Texas Longhorns stand for the playing of The Eyes of Texas after defeating the Colorado State Rams at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on August 31, 2024 in Austin, Texas. / Tim Warner/GettyImages
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The Michigan Wolverines and Texas Longhorns will meet on Saturday in the biggest game in Week 2 of the 2024 college football season.

This will be only the second game between the two power programs with Texas winning the lone matchup in the 2005 Rose Bowl by 1 point.

After Week 1 the storyline in this one is two teams that looked very different in their opening games.

Texas dominated in a 52-0 win against Colorado State. The Longhorns were led by third-year starter Quinn Ewers at quarterback going 20/27 for 260 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception. They also found success in the run game rushing for 190 total yards. On the defensive end, Texas was lights out, and similar to last year their defensive line looked dominant.

On the other end, Michigan defeated Fresno St 30-10, but many would call it an underwhelming performance for the defending national champions. The Wolverines really struggled to find any consistent success on offense with Davis Warren at quarterback. Alex Orji did get a decent amount of snaps but was almost exclusively used as a rushing threat.

Overall, the run game struggled as Donovan Edwards only rushed for 27 yards. The only real bright spot for Michigan on offense was tight end Colston Loveland who tallied 8 receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown.

On the defensive end, the Wolverines were stellar excluding one drive where they gave up a touchdown. Outside of that drive they only gave up 169 yards and snagged two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Will Johnson.

Deservedly so, much of the talk heading into this game has been centered around the Wolverines' offense. If Michigan wants to score against a great Texas D they will have to find some sort of identity on offense and will need to see improvement both in the air and on the ground. 

The real question though is how much will the offense have to score. As I expect to be the case for much of the season, the Michigan defense can keep them in this game. While they did look great against Fresno State, we will get a better idea of whether this unit is one of the best in the nation as they take on Quinn Ewers and the high-powered Texas offense.

This first top-ten matchup of the season is set to kickoff at noon in Ann Arbor and will air on FOX.

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