Big Ten football 2020: 5 bold predictions – Can Ohio State win National Championship?
By John Buhler
4. Michigan loses twice and Jim Harbaugh yields huge criticism for it
Jim Harbaugh’s sixth year back in Ann Arbor will be a riveting one. At times, his Michigan Wolverines will play like a top-10 team in the country. New starting quarterback Joe Milton will be better than Shea Patterson right away, better than what the Wolverines could have hoped for out of Dylan McCaffrey and be better than Jake Rudock going away by the end of 2020.
Unfortunately, the Wolverines’ bugaboo this year won’t be the Ohio State Buckeyes. Yes, they will lose in The Horseshoe. It will not be pretty, but it will be decidedly so. The Buckeyes will be the superior team and everybody watching will attest to that. Their issue will be with the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Right out of the gate, Harbaugh’s Wolverines will fall to P.J. Fleck’s Golden Gophers in the Big Ten season opener in Minneapolis. The Michigan defense will only be able to contain the elite passing tandem of quarterback Tanner Morgan and wide receiver Rashod Bateman for so long. They’ll go to work in the fourth quarter to win this nail-biter in Minneapolis by two scores late.
Because Michigan and Minnesota will remain Top 25 teams throughout the season, fate would have it they’d meet again in Minneapolis as the second-place game with a New Year’s Six Bowl game on the line. This may be an untrodden territory for Minnesota, but not for Fleck. In a game where Harbaugh needs to show up and out-coach Fleck, he won’t and Michigan will be furious.