The No. 18 Michigan football team is done with its second bye week and heading into what Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore calls the ‘third quarter’ of the season, with the optimistic expectation that Michigan will continue playing into the College Football Playoff.
To make the playoff, the Wolverines need to win their remaining three regular season matchups — that starts with Northwestern at Wrigley Field. The Wildcats are also playing with heightened stakes; at 5-4, they’re one win away from qualifying for a bowl game.
Ahead of Saturday’s matchup, The Michigan Daily spoke with Anna Watson, The Daily Northwestern’s Gameday Editor.
The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Evaluate Preston Stone through nine games. What does he do well, what does he do poorly?
So pros, he has that veteran mindset, that veteran leadership. He brought SMU to the summit. He was just one game away after breaking his leg, he had to go watch Kevin Jennings do it. So it’s there, the pieces are there.
But he’s struggled to put it together at times. At times he’ll miss throws and they result in interceptions. He throws into places he shouldn’t really be throwing into, and that’s when Northwestern gets into trouble, when he throws multiple interceptions in a game that’s when Northwestern loses. Every game except USC, where he’s thrown multiple interceptions, Northwestern has lost. So the big thing for Michigan is going to be creating turnovers, and for Northwestern, it’s going to be, how do we limit turnovers for Stone.
What goes into Northwestern’s tackling troubles, and how are the Wildcats addressing that?
They haven’t really said anything about how they’re addressing it. They had 16 missed tackles against USC and 17 against Nebraska, and that’s a problem. We saw those problems earlier in the season, and when Northwestern found its groove and was getting to that five-win mark and the wheels were churning, the defense got strong. And it’s easy to say that in that stretch, Northwestern didn’t play the highest caliber of opponents.
Specifically against USC, just a ton of talent in the quarterback position with quarterback Jayden Maiava, the wide receiver position with Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane. That just caught them off guard. There were a lot of times against Nebraska where we struggled to make tackles, that would’ve had plays stop with short gains but they turned into bigger plays. That was more of just like, ‘Come on, what are we doing?’ Against USC, it was having these open-field opportunities against these super athletes that, quite frankly, Northwestern, doesn’t bring in talent like that quite often. That’s a big reason why that’s happening.
A part of it is also that that defense has been banged up, especially that secondary, pieces coming in and out. Every week it’s like, ‘Who’s going to play?’ So that also plays a role in it.
Running back Cam Porter goes down early in the season and Caleb Komolafe steps up, what does he do well as a rusher?
He’s fun to watch. He’s super smart. That big run he broke against Nebraska, you see him just be super patient behind the line, wait for the hole to open up and then just take off. That explosiveness is super helpful. And another thing is, I feel like there hasn’t been a game, at least that I can think of this season, where I’ve been like, ‘Man, Komolafe has been off, or Komolafe isn’t having a good day.’ He’s just been super consistent when the passing offense hasn’t been consistent, he’s been someone that they can really rely on.
He’s also had a great partnership with Joseph Himon, who didn’t see the field against USC. He was dealing with a little injury, coach David Braun said he was hopeful that he’d go Saturday, but that’s been a really nice partnership as well, and Northwestern’s really been missing that explosive, strong and smart running back. Porter’s obviously got a wealth of experience, but I don’t know if he’s ever been as explosive as I’ve seen Komolafe be.
Northwestern has a really solid, balanced offensive line. Who stands out on that line, and why?
There’s been a lot of stars on that line. Caleb Tiernan, the left tackle, is probably the flashiest piece. There’s been lots of buzz around him. He’s expected to be that leader that has been around for a while, and he’s just really solid.
But our center, Jackson Carsello, has probably made one of the most impressive jumps on this line. He’s been one of the best centers around, definitely in the Big Ten, maybe in the nation. This whole season, he’s gotten lots of national recognition. He’s very balanced in his game, in the run blocking and the pass blocking game. He doesn’t let Preston Stone get hit a lot. And I really don’t think people expected Carsello to come out and make this big of an impact, and he’s really been one of these stronger pieces on the line.
Offensively, how do you expect Northwestern to approach this game?
I know Michigan has got a good run defense, but I still think everything Northwestern is going to do is about establishing the run, especially when you have a guy like Komolafe, who’s really been the engine of the offense. They’re gonna try to get Griffin Wilde more involved, he’s really their strongest piece in the wide receiver room.
But it’s gonna start with Komolafe, and then it’s gonna be like, ‘Okay, can we get Stone going? Can we get some of these short completions going?’ We saw a lot of screen passes to receiver Drew Wagner against USC, ‘Can we get Stone to get comfortable? Can we get them to get these short yardages?’ And then we’ll start opening it up. We’ll start maybe seeing if we can move Wilde around, and then if they stick to Wilde like glue, see what wide receiver Hayden Eligon is doing. So that’s kind of the order of operations Northwestern is going to have to go through.
The game’s at Wrigley Field. Is that exciting to Northwestern coaches or players? Are they talking about that? What do you expect the fan turnout and distribution to be?
I asked Braun about this on Monday. He downplayed it, so they’re trying to downplay it because they’ve played there the past few seasons and they’ve experienced playing there. But in terms of fan turnout, Braun was like, ‘This is just like any home game for us, this is like any home game.’
In reality, it’s really going to be more like a Michigan home game. I would expect to see more blue and yellow in the stands than purple. It’s going to be loud for the Michigan fans. It’s gonna be tricky for Northwestern in that environment. But there’s a good amount of students who will come out, but it’s obviously hard for students to get tickets to this kind of game. I’d expect a good Michigan turnout and some loud Michigan cheers when Northwestern’s on the field.
Finally, do you have a score prediction?
24-14, Michigan.
