There has been a lot of talk about Michigan and how they do in step up games, but when you look at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly they may even be worse. JIm Harbough is getting beat up in the press, and this is the type of game he absolutely needs and I think he gets with his most experienced roster yet with 17 returning starters and transfer Shea Patterson. The loss of Tarik Black is a big one at WR, but they can overcome that with a star QB in Patterson. Michigan's defense is arguably the best in the country, and return 9 starters with Don Brown's system and the defense played better than expected a year ago. Now without Amazon following them around I feel like this is a breakout year for the Wolverines and watch out for Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich to make some noise on the defense in this game against a one dimensional Notre Dame team.
Notre Dame is one dimensional until proven otherwise. They lose their top RB, WR, and 2 offensive lineman to the NFL, and Wimbush returns, but has not impressed in camp following a season he completed less than 50% of his passes. Notre Dame went 0-3 when they could not rush for more than 3.5 yards per carry. 2.72 in losses, 7.19 in wins and that will be the key here as they lost to teams ranking 32nd, 20th, and 78th against the run a year ago. Michigan fully healthy should shut this unit down in my opinion.
Notre Dame is also basically a dog here when they are ranked higher in the polls is very puzzling. As I spoke in the off-season fading the ap top 10 pre-season teams in their first 3 games gets you a 56% ATS mark since 2013. Taking out last year's anomaly it's actually 60% winners. Notre Dame also off a 8-5 ATS season has failed to follow that up with a winning season under Kelly going 14-24 ATS the following year, 5-9 ATS as a home favorite, and just 8-22 ATS vs. power 5 opponents. The only thing that is helping Notre Dame here is that they are at home, but under Kelly they have actually lost at home 5 times in the last two years alone and to teams like Duke, and Navy so you are not talking about top tier teams.
