Michigan-Notre Dame Preview: Why Does Anyone Care?

The University of Michigan vs. the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, they are calling this the most important game in the history of college football when two unranked teams played each other. I can honestly say that I do not understand how they could say that.

Yes, Michigan was supposed to be a national title contender, but wasn't Notre Dame predicted to go 1-7 by Lee Corso and 2-6 by Kirk Herbstreit? Well since Notre Dame was supposed to be awful this year, is it really a story that they are 0-2 heading into the Big House? The only story here is the fact that Michigan is 0-2 and they were supposed to be fighting for a national title. We already know that Appalachian State beat them 34-32 but then when the University of Oregon came into the Big House and beat them 39-7 the whole world knew that Michigan football was in trouble and Lloyd Carr was basically on the door step of no longer having a job in Michigan. Just when Michigan thought things could not get worse, they did.

First, Chad Henne their starting Quarterback went down with an injury and he is now out for Saturday's game against the Irish. Second, Michael Hart also was slow to bounce up after a couple of hits and his overall total of yards was slow as well. He only rushed for a 127 yards on 25 carries. For a normal back that is a great day but for Hart that needs to improve if they want to win. Lastly, Michigan's future quarterback in Ryan Mallett played the entire 2nd half and went 6-17 for 49 yards and an interception. Now Mr. Mallett needs to take that performance and try to start a game against the Irish.

The Irish have had there own struggles on offense but don't expect much better from Michigan now that the Freshman has taken over. Michael Hart will be the deciding factor in this game and he will need to back up his guarantee win over the Irish. If Hart can not take control of the game, then look for the Irish to capatlize on Freshman mistakes. My prediction for the game is that Mr. Hart does control the game and he rushes 30+ times for over 175 yards and two touchdowns.

As for Ryan Mallett I see him completing more than 50% of his passes and he gets his first career touchdown pass to the best reciever that Michigan has in Mario Manningham. Notre Dame will stay in the game because I predict that Mallett will throw two picks and the Irish Offense will capatlize on them. My predicted final score is Michigan 24 and Notre Dame 17. I see this game coming down to the wire but Michigan holds on in the end and Lloyd Carr holds onto his job for at least one more week.