Michigan vs Fresno State Preview & Prediction: Does Alex Orji Start?

the Michigan Wolverines for the first time in school history are playing the Fresno State Bulldogs Michigan is favored by 21 and a half points and this is in Ann Arbor in the big house and you can clearly see that Vegas is factoring in the fact that Michigan's only returning 40% of their production that they have a new very unproven quarterback and that Fresno State returns Mikey Keane I mean that's that's what the pause was for is Fresno State has a good quarterback they don't have a bum they don't have someone who was once good but they have a good quarterback good as in now Mikey Keane had 24 passing touchdowns 10 interceptions 2,976 passing yards last season at UCF in two seasons he had 22 passing touchdowns seven interceptions over 2,000 passing yards and one rushing touchdown and he's played behind good offensive lines at UCF and Fresno State and in good offensive systems he only had last season a 76th placement in terms of qbr he had a 56.6 qbr but I would classify him as a good quarterback you have to remember that being at Fresno State his Supporting Cast is limited and qbr does like teams that are good they don't just really factor in the quarterback you will notice that the best QBs are typically on the best teams in qbr more than passer rating or more than any other metric and that's typically the case in college football but there are sometimes some exceptions to that and Mikey King can certainly be that for Fresno State Fresno State also has some challenging players at running back with Malik sherad Malik sherad last last year had 966 rushing yards nine rushing touchdowns averaged 5.6 yards per carry on the ground M Delena Jaylen moss and shedon James are the projected starting wide receivers maena last year he had he's actually yeah he had 509 receiving yards three receiving touchdowns Jaylen Moss had 706 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns there are piece is on the offensive line who are back all starters are going to be seniors except for Right Guard Campbell mcard on defense last season Fresno State had 30 sacks 42 passes defended 17 17 interceptions their leader in sacks last year was Jacob Holmes and he is going to be in the rotation at defensive tackle their leader in interceptions last season actually passes defended was Maurice Norris and Maurice Norris is not back with the program but that secondary is still deep returns a lot of good players Carlton Johnson was first in interceptions last year with fourth he doesn't return but as I as I already have said those are great players who left last year a lot of the good players still return so the defense the offense give something to to test Michigan a bit I think in Fresno State but Michigan returns a plethora of talent defensively that's why they're favored by 21 points which if you took away Vegas's home field advantage number and this was neutral Field Michigan would be favored by 18 they'd be favored by 15 points on the road and this is over one of the better group of five teams they did lose their head coach Jeff Tedford to health issues prayers to him and hopefully he gets healthier but this is still a very Talent Ed team the question for Michigan is how good will the quarterbacks play Davis Warren had five passing attempts last year he threw a pick didn't complete any of his passes he actually had a negative 40 pass rating last year he's competing with Alex orgy who threw no passes last year but orgy to his credit ran for 86 yards and a touchdown and is I would say just watching him and how he's played against whether it's oh Ohio State or Alabama or some of these smaller schools in in design run packages he is a good Scrambler those two are the quarterbacks for Michigan and a winner of the competition hasn't been decided yet I would say that Alex orgy is the front runner but the competition is still pretty tight right now and that leads me to believe that Michigan's quarterback room isn't great maybe it's good at best or above average average could even be below average or bad we'll have to see but that's the big question mark because I mean heck Maybe I'm Wrong maybe Davis Warren's transformed and Alex orgy's Lamar Jackson or maybe you know Alex orgy's Tate forcier and Davis Warren is Nick Sheridan I mean the range of outcomes are that big we just we don't know what they are yet and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle there Michigan will probably have just an above average average maybe good quarterback room and the starter won't be top 25 but probably will be top 50 top 40 maybe a little higher than there that's the question how do the QBs play especially with the fact that Michigan's returning leading wide receiver is samage Morgan with 204 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns their leading receiver not wide receiver is tight end Colston Loveland who would 649 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns last year Donovan Edwards also had 249 receiving yards last season so how do these players Tyler Morris samage Morgan Donovan Edwards coulston Loveland how do they perform in the passing game and how does Davis Warren Andor Alex orgy if we see both of them or just one of them perform in the passing game and and even in their duties to escape the pocket sense pressure escape the pocket how does Michigan's offensive line hold up against a Fresno State Defense that was a respectable unit last season Michigan defensively I just think returns far too much talent to let Fresno State come in and win a game like this so I have Michigan winning and covering 34 to 27 but I don't have Michigan winning by more than 30 points and I think that's because a challenging opener Michigan still is unsure a little bit about their identity on offense and at quarterback I shouldn't have said identity on offense they're still going to ground and pound I think have one of the best rushing attacks in the country but they're unsure about their their passing game and their quarterback position especially that's number one the fact that they're facing a tough opponent with as much turnover as they have that's that's the obvious a number two is also pretty obvious once you peel over the the first layer or two of the onion is Texas is the following week and I think Michigan is going to play this game ugly a little Bland and try and save some things for Texas and I expect the same thing by the way with Texas against Colorado State I wouldn't touch that game or this game in terms of betting whatsoever I just think that Michigan will win they'll win 34 to7 kick a few field goals score some touchdowns with long drives and just get on out of there after maybe being challenged for like the first half or maybe for the first quarter or maybe they look ugly in all four quarters but just look like the better team in all four quarters as well and win this game covering the spread i' I believe Michigan just with what they bring back at running back and on the o line which doesn't look like much but is more than people believe and also defensively with Mason Graham returning Mason Graham had three sacks last year Kenneth Grant had three and a half Josiah Stewart had five and a half Derek Moore had five with them returning on the defensive line and also will Johnson returning at corner he had four interceptions and four passes defended I do think Michigan wins this game handily probably run for over I would say 200 or at least 150 rushing yards um pass I would say for over over 150 or over 200 and then the defense will put on a pretty constricting performance thank you for watching this cut of touchdown talk remember to like the video subscribe to the channel click the notification Bell comment your thoughts down below and share this video around to other college football fans I want to give a special shout out to my patreon members for sponsoring this Channel and video thanks to crash 2488 and brascar Rascal for being Heisman members thanks to Chris Lane Conor little o 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