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Michchamp
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When: Saturday, August 31, 2024 @ 7:30 PM ET
The University of Michigan Wolverines host the Fresno State University Bulldogs.
Line: UM -21; o/u 45.5
Sagarin Predictor: UM by 22
This game is on Peacock, and I just realized I forgot to cancel my subscription from last season, and have been paying
$6.99/month for no reason.
Dad Joke:
Q: Why does UM have a great record on opening day?
A: They always play a WEAK ONE!
Get it?!? A Weak One in Week One?
But seriously, this year is at least less of a "Weak One" than some prior ones. Fresno St. is decent-ish. This is the first ever meeting between us and them, so we'll need to do a bit of background on them, although, there's not
much there...
Fresno State was founded as a "Normal" school, i.e. a teacher college, in 1911, in Fresno, CA.
Fresno is in the Central Valley, and very much a giant overgrown farm town. It's actually a bigger city than I thought, with over 500,000 residents - everything's bigger in CALI! - and the third largest Hispanic-majority city in the US, behind El Paso and San Antonio.
There's really not much notable in its history; over the course of the 20th century, both the city and the state university there grew larger and larger and in the 21st century that has continued. Fresno St. is now bloated with students and administrators like every other American university.
It seems to rank well into the bottom half of American universities, at least according to US News and World Report, which tracks with me at least, as I've always thought of it as "a place where California hicks (of every race) go."
Famous Alumni
There aren't any really notable famous alumni; mostly political back-benchers and a handful of pro athletes. Lane Kiffin went there. One-time Cal coach Jeff Tedford is a Fresno State alum and former player, and most recently coached them until he resigned recently due to health reasons.
Their mascot is the Bulldog, one of the uglier dog breeds, notable for being ugly and stupid, and not particularly useful at doing anything other than barking and intimidating smaller things. I don't understand why anyone would ever own a bulldog. At least it's not a racist mascot, I suppose, so good for them.
Being that they're in CA, their cheerleaders are pretty good looking. Serious internet research (i.e. going on bing and searching for [insert school] + cheerleaders) indicates better-than-average girls at Fresno St. compared to other opponents.
So at least they got that going for them!
Fresno State Football
Fresno State is a Mountain West Conference team. Occasionally they've made some noise in college football, so you may have heard of them, but more along the lines of "Hey some crappy mid major beat a real team I've heard of." They won 10 games in 2021 and 2022 (under Kalen DeBoer until he went to UW and then Jeff Tedford), but were pretty up and down going back over the 2010's decade.
They Love Their Trophies.
They have more than their share of rivalry trophies. Seriously, they play five (5) different trophy games, for a Milk Can, an Oil Can, "The Valley Trophy," a Victory Bell, and a Bone, (vs. Boise St., SDSU, SJSU, Cal Poly, and LaTech, respectively) and have been planning a sixth trophy for their game against Nevada, "The Sierra Showdown." That's all really fucking dumb!
Last Year.
Fresno St. was decent last season; they went 9-4 (4-4) with a Bowl Win. Struggled a bit against good MWC teams. they did beat both Purdue and ASU, the only two Power 5 teams they played, but both of those teams were lousy last year. ASU went 3-9, and Purdue was hot garbage under their whiny 1st year head coach, Dickhead Johnson.
Fresno St.'s coach - Tim Skipper - is only there on an interim basis. He had served as acting head coach for most of last year with Jeff Tedford out b/c of health reasons. Tedford has now retired, and so Tim Skipper is... skippering the team on his own. This is his first HC gig; he's been all over the place as a longtime assistant going back to 2001.
Rosters
A summary of their starting line up is here if you care to do a deep dive.
5 positions still unsettled as of now, but their QB (Mikey Keene) is a returning starter; put up decent stats in 2023, and is a pocket passer, not a runner. Looks like their offense returned most of their skill positions and 3 out of 5 starters on the OL. Their defense returns about half its starters; they lost a good LB and CB to the NFL. Their safeties are all seniors though.
This should be a decent first week test for us; much better than ECU last year.
Other than QB play, which is like the Mount Everest of things to watch for us, I'm curious to see how Donovan Edwards plays, whether our new WR corps is up to the task, and whether Maryland transfer, Jaishawn Barham, can fill the gap left by Junion Colson's departure at the MIKE position. Our LBs might be shakier than expected if not.
As far as I can tell, our QB will be Alex Orji. Davis Warren is now #2, and Jack Tuttle is #3 b/c of health/durability concerns.
Beyond that, we have Jayden Denegal and true frosh Jadyn Davis (those names are correct here, but confusingly similar).
Record books:
The Wolverines have compiled a 118-23-3 record in season openers, and pertinent here: Michigan has a 100-15-2 record in season openers at home. And for the record a 17-7-1 mark on the road; 1-1 in neutral site openers.
Going back to 2000, we're 18-5 in season openers, with losses to App. St. ('07), Utah (twice '08 and '15), Alabama ('12) and Notre Dame ('18). A bit worse than our historical avg.
Predictions.
Some of the predictions I've seen have the score around UM 35 - FresnoSt. 16. We'll see. I really don't know what to expect, but if I had to make a prediction, and apparently I do, I think a slow-ish start on offense for us, while our defense grinds them into powder over the first 3 quarters. Hope we avoid any Offensive of Special Teams mistakes.
So go ahead and make your picks and post some analysis if you so choose, but as always, leave the woofing and the barking for other threads.
The University of Michigan Wolverines host the Fresno State University Bulldogs.
Line: UM -21; o/u 45.5
Sagarin Predictor: UM by 22
This game is on Peacock, and I just realized I forgot to cancel my subscription from last season, and have been paying
$6.99/month for no reason.
Dad Joke:
Q: Why does UM have a great record on opening day?
A: They always play a WEAK ONE!
Get it?!? A Weak One in Week One?
But seriously, this year is at least less of a "Weak One" than some prior ones. Fresno St. is decent-ish. This is the first ever meeting between us and them, so we'll need to do a bit of background on them, although, there's not
much there...
Fresno State was founded as a "Normal" school, i.e. a teacher college, in 1911, in Fresno, CA.
Fresno is in the Central Valley, and very much a giant overgrown farm town. It's actually a bigger city than I thought, with over 500,000 residents - everything's bigger in CALI! - and the third largest Hispanic-majority city in the US, behind El Paso and San Antonio.
There's really not much notable in its history; over the course of the 20th century, both the city and the state university there grew larger and larger and in the 21st century that has continued. Fresno St. is now bloated with students and administrators like every other American university.
It seems to rank well into the bottom half of American universities, at least according to US News and World Report, which tracks with me at least, as I've always thought of it as "a place where California hicks (of every race) go."
Famous Alumni
There aren't any really notable famous alumni; mostly political back-benchers and a handful of pro athletes. Lane Kiffin went there. One-time Cal coach Jeff Tedford is a Fresno State alum and former player, and most recently coached them until he resigned recently due to health reasons.
Their mascot is the Bulldog, one of the uglier dog breeds, notable for being ugly and stupid, and not particularly useful at doing anything other than barking and intimidating smaller things. I don't understand why anyone would ever own a bulldog. At least it's not a racist mascot, I suppose, so good for them.
Being that they're in CA, their cheerleaders are pretty good looking. Serious internet research (i.e. going on bing and searching for [insert school] + cheerleaders) indicates better-than-average girls at Fresno St. compared to other opponents.
So at least they got that going for them!
Fresno State Football
Fresno State is a Mountain West Conference team. Occasionally they've made some noise in college football, so you may have heard of them, but more along the lines of "Hey some crappy mid major beat a real team I've heard of." They won 10 games in 2021 and 2022 (under Kalen DeBoer until he went to UW and then Jeff Tedford), but were pretty up and down going back over the 2010's decade.
They Love Their Trophies.
They have more than their share of rivalry trophies. Seriously, they play five (5) different trophy games, for a Milk Can, an Oil Can, "The Valley Trophy," a Victory Bell, and a Bone, (vs. Boise St., SDSU, SJSU, Cal Poly, and LaTech, respectively) and have been planning a sixth trophy for their game against Nevada, "The Sierra Showdown." That's all really fucking dumb!
Last Year.
Fresno St. was decent last season; they went 9-4 (4-4) with a Bowl Win. Struggled a bit against good MWC teams. they did beat both Purdue and ASU, the only two Power 5 teams they played, but both of those teams were lousy last year. ASU went 3-9, and Purdue was hot garbage under their whiny 1st year head coach, Dickhead Johnson.
Fresno St.'s coach - Tim Skipper - is only there on an interim basis. He had served as acting head coach for most of last year with Jeff Tedford out b/c of health reasons. Tedford has now retired, and so Tim Skipper is... skippering the team on his own. This is his first HC gig; he's been all over the place as a longtime assistant going back to 2001.
Rosters
A summary of their starting line up is here if you care to do a deep dive.
5 positions still unsettled as of now, but their QB (Mikey Keene) is a returning starter; put up decent stats in 2023, and is a pocket passer, not a runner. Looks like their offense returned most of their skill positions and 3 out of 5 starters on the OL. Their defense returns about half its starters; they lost a good LB and CB to the NFL. Their safeties are all seniors though.
This should be a decent first week test for us; much better than ECU last year.
Other than QB play, which is like the Mount Everest of things to watch for us, I'm curious to see how Donovan Edwards plays, whether our new WR corps is up to the task, and whether Maryland transfer, Jaishawn Barham, can fill the gap left by Junion Colson's departure at the MIKE position. Our LBs might be shakier than expected if not.
As far as I can tell, our QB will be Alex Orji. Davis Warren is now #2, and Jack Tuttle is #3 b/c of health/durability concerns.
Beyond that, we have Jayden Denegal and true frosh Jadyn Davis (those names are correct here, but confusingly similar).
Record books:
The Wolverines have compiled a 118-23-3 record in season openers, and pertinent here: Michigan has a 100-15-2 record in season openers at home. And for the record a 17-7-1 mark on the road; 1-1 in neutral site openers.
Going back to 2000, we're 18-5 in season openers, with losses to App. St. ('07), Utah (twice '08 and '15), Alabama ('12) and Notre Dame ('18). A bit worse than our historical avg.
Predictions.
Some of the predictions I've seen have the score around UM 35 - FresnoSt. 16. We'll see. I really don't know what to expect, but if I had to make a prediction, and apparently I do, I think a slow-ish start on offense for us, while our defense grinds them into powder over the first 3 quarters. Hope we avoid any Offensive of Special Teams mistakes.
So go ahead and make your picks and post some analysis if you so choose, but as always, leave the woofing and the barking for other threads.
