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Mitten Masterkey

Mitten Masterkey: Week 9

There's no shortage of intrigue across the state from the big rivalry showdown to three key Michigan MAC games, so tap in to run down the weekend.

Andrew Graham

— 3 min read
Mitten Masterkey: Week 9
(Rachel Leggett/Mitten Football)

Week 9 is a doozy. 

Aside from the obvious rivalry showdown ending the day, Eastern Michigan is fighting to keep its bowl chances alive, Central Michigan has homecoming and Western Michigan travels to playing a showdown featuring two of the three teams yet to lose in MAC play. 

And yes, Michigan and Michigan State are duking it out for Paul Bunyan. 

Mitten Football will be at…

One guess. Yep: Spartan Stadium. 

The schedule and TV assignments

All games are Saturday this week.

Noon — Eastern Michigan vs. Ohio, CBSSN
3:30 — Central Michigan vs. UMass, ESPN+ streaming
3:30 — Western Michigan at Miami (OH), ESPN+ streaming
7:30 — Michigan State vs. Michigan, NBC/Peacock streaming

And for the uninitiated, this master schedule absolutely rocks (just be aware times are central).

Pregame, halftime reading from Mitten Football and others

Picks and preview

Check them out here with longer previews, but for a brief version (scores not included):

Ohio over Eastern Michigan
Central Michigan over UMass
Western Michigan over Miami (OH)
Michigan over Michigan State

A freshman to watch: Bryce Underwood, Michigan QB

The true freshman quarterback is coming off his best game as a passer in college and now gets what will be the toughest environment of his young career. Playing at Oklahoma and Nebraska is hard, surely, but neither of those crowds will have the pure venom that the Spartan Stadium crowd will for the Wolverines. It’s a different beast.

But Underwood might be, too. It’s taken about half a season for the Michigan passing game to shake out some issues and find a crop of receivers who will catch the ball. With Andrew Marsh, Donaven McCulley and a sprinkling of Semaj Morgan to complement the tight ends, Michigan seems to have a constellation of targets for Underwood to pepper. Continuing his progression with a strong road rivalry outing would be huge for Michigan. And if he crumbles, Michigan State can win.

A unit to watch: Michigan’s front seven

This is just as easily a “Michigan State’s offensive line” category, but we wrote about them here last week and the same is largely true, so we’ll explore it from the other side: Michigan backed off some of Wink Martindale’s more blitz-happy tendencies and smothered Washington this past Saturday. The Huskies and Spartans are far from 1-to-1, but the recipe might be similar for Michigan defensively this week to contain Aidan Chiles. 

In general, if Michigan’s front seven is creating pressure, harassing Chiles and disrupting plays without getting burned on overpursuit, the Wolverines will roll defensively. But if the pressure doesn’t come with four man rushes or Martindale starts blitzing heavily, it just takes one breakdown for Chiles to come up with a massively punishing play. 

A fun prediction: Underwood throws for 300

Underwood has played his best games as a passer of late and has gone over 200 yards in each of his last three starts and thrown for five combined touchdowns with one interception. He’s largely been working in the type of lower-volume passing offense Michigan is happy to play, a complement to the rushing game. And lately, he’s been highly efficient. He went 21-of-27 against Washington and had a few drops mixed in there. 

Michigan State’s secondary has struggled being sticky and challenging throws downfield and the pass rush is inconsistent at disrupting quarterbacks. If things start to unravel for Michigan State defensively, it’s not too much to imagine Michigan hitting a couple downfield explosives and Underwood eclipsing 300 passing yards for the first time in college. 

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