#2 MICHIGAN (12-0) vs #16 IOWA (10-2); 8 PM ET; FOX … Conference championship Saturday wraps up with the Big Ten title game which means absolutely nothing. Nada! Zilch! Zippo! Michigan is already in the CFP playoffs win, lose or draft while if the Hawkeyes pull the upset they don’t even get to go to the Rose Bowl as it is one of this year’s CFP semi-final venues. If there is a silver lining to this game its that folks will get one more chance to check out the Wolverines pretty good draft class including QB J.J. McCarthy (#9, 6-2, 205), who has another opportunity to show pro scouts that he is more than just a very efficient game manager as he appears to be still being thought of as a late first round prospect who lacks elite physical tools these days. In fact, Michigan doesn’t appear to have anyone who is necessarily a lock to be picked in this year’s first round, although both DT Kris Jenkins (#94, 6-2, 305) and rising WR Roman Wilson (#1, 6-0, 195) are also close along with McCarthy. Michigan, though, does feature one of the best RB tandems in the country in Blake Corum (#2, 5-8, 215), who has made a nice comeback from a knee injury last season, and Donovan Edwards (#7, 6-0, 210) who is arguably the better athlete, but whose carries are way down this fall with Corum back in uniform. The Wolverines also have one of the better interior line groups around including veteran OG Trevor Keegan (#77, 6-5, 320) and C Drake Nugent (#60, 6-2, 305), but the loss of OG Zak Zinter (#65, 6-5, 325), the unit’s best player, to a gruesome leg injury in last week’s win over arch-rival Ohio State thins out the unit. The Wolverines also have a solid pair of ILB’s in Junior Colson (#25, 6-2, 245) and Mike Barrett (#23, 6-0, 240) who are 1-2 on the team in tackles, although neither makes a lot of impact plays. Meanwhile, other Michigan players to watch include WR Cornelius Johnson (#6, 6-2, 210), OT LaDarius Henderson (#73, 6-4, 315), DT Karsen Barnhart (#52, 6-5, 315), DE Josaiah Stewart (#5, 6-1, 245), and DB Mike Sainistril (#0, 5-10, 180).
Unfortunately, Iowa will be without star CB Cooper Dejean, who would arguably been the top overall prospect in this game, after he suffered a season-ending lower leg injury at practice last month. The good news for Dejean is that it does not appear to be an ACL problem. Needless to say, the loss of Dejean takes a huge chunk out of the Hawkeyes defence, but it remains the strength of the team. In fact, the Iowa defence allowed just 12.2 points per game this season, 4th best in the country. And with Dejean sidelined players to watch include the dynamic LB duo of Jay Higgins (#34, 6-2, 235) and Nick Jackson (#10, 6-1, 240) who had 141 and 91 tackles respectively over the regular season, along with DE Joe Evans (#13, 6-2, 255) and DT Logan Lee (#85, 6-5, 290).
