Texas Is Missing Too Many Guys To Cover This Number

Michigan vs. Texas, 3:00 ET

Happy New Year's Eve! I'm sure you don't need to hear it from some guy that you're reading a sports article about, but I'll say it anyway: A DUI is significantly more expensive than an Uber or Lyft, and a crash is much worse off for you and anyone else's life. Go out, have a good time, but be safe. With that out of the way, let's get down to business. This afternoon, before all the partying starts, let's get our bar tabs paid for as we put a play on the Cheez-It Bowl between Michigan and Texas. 

It really is a shame that Michigan hasn't been able to make any headlines since their season ended. I'm being facetious, as you probably understand. We can probably just get this out of the way immediately: Michigan will not have their head coach. However, they should have a pretty full roster outside of that. Their interim coach will be Biff Poggi, who was the associate head coach before Sherrone Moore was fired. Overall, Michigan had a decent year going 9-3 prior to Moore's dismissal. They lost to Oklahoma in the second game of the year (one that Outkick readers made some scratch on, by the way). They then lost again to USC in early October, dropping that game 31-13. Their final loss of the season was against Ohio State when they hosted the Buckeyes and could only muster 9 points, another one that Outkick readers took home cash on. They don't have an overwhelmingly impressive win on the schedule, but I'll give them some credit for taking care of business against pretty much everyone else. They scored 13 or fewer in losses, and in wins averaged 33 points per game. This is a run-first, and run-second team with only nine passing touchdowns on the year. 

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Texas is a team that has to be very disappointed in itself this season. They came into the year with expectations that they were going to compete for the National Championship, ranked as the best school in the nation. When it will all be said and done, they won't even have competed in the College Football Playoffs. I suppose you could be happy that the team found a way to go 9-3 for the year, and at least was still in the conversation for getting entry to the Playoffs, but overall, they didn't get the job done. I think the opening week loss was a bit of an acceptable fate from their Ohio State game, but the loss to Florida was what really did them in. That came after a Bye Week, which makes the loss even more brutal. They dropped that game 29-21, getting nothing going on the ground. Sure, they won after, but two of their road games they looked anything but dominant, needing overtime to grab the win. Their other loss was close for a while but Georgia turned it on and beat them 35-10, basically eliminating them from the playoffs. Arch Manning, supposedly the next great quarterback, showed flashes, but overall was bad on the road. He completed just 57.7% of passes, for 6.6 yards, and had seven touchdowns and five interceptions on the road. 

This isn't a home game for either team, being that it takes place in Orlando. I'd also argue that both teams are nationally recognized, so there probably won't be a huge edge for either one in the game. If there was, I'd fade Texas instantly. The numbers don't lie - Manning is bad on the road. Texas as a team is the 10th best defense against the run which is a good reason to believe they can win against Michigan. Texas is going to be without seven of its top 11 defenders in terms of snap counts, though, so I'm not sure why they are giving so many points to Michigan. I'm going to take them. I know there is some risk with the Wolverines not having their coach, and more opt-outs coming, but based on what I'm reading, major ones have not been confirmed, only speculated, and the entire team traveled to Orlando. Give me the Wolverines +7.5. 

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