Know Your 2018 Penn State Football Enemy: Michigan Wolverines

Special Teams

Both place kicker Quinn Nordin, former PSU commit and Harbaugh sleepover fame, and punter Brad Robbins return for their Sophomore seasons.  Nordin has a strong leg, evidenced by his six field goals of longer than 50 yards.  At times he was erratic, though, missing on three PAT attempts and a success rate of only 79 percent (19 of 24) on FG tries.  With his Freshman year under his belt, Robbins looks to improve on a 40.4 yard punting average that placed him in the lower third of the Big Ten.

Punt returner Donovan Peoples-Jones and kickoff returner Ambry Thomas provide the strength of the Michigan special teams unit.  Peoples-Jones averaged eight yards per punt return and even took one to the house against Air Force in 2017.  For his part, Thomas averaged nearly 20 yards per kickoff return last season.

Dating back to his time at Stanford, Harbaugh has always had a solid special teams unit.  For a Wolverines squad with title aspirations, the special teams will need to be better than they were in 2017.

2018 Outlook

Jim Harbaugh always seems to find himself embroiled in some type of controversy over something he’s done or said on social media, but this offseason has been relatively quiet.  With former University of Florida Head Coach Jim McElwain brought in to help the offense, a resurgence of the anemic Wolverine offense, which ranked 91st nationally in scoring offense, should be in store.

Besides the play of the Wolverine offense, Michigan also plays on of the most difficult schedules in the country (third-most difficult according to Phil Steele).  A season-opener at Notre Dame should immediately show which direction the 2018 Wolverines are headed.

Michigan should be one of the best defensive units in the country again this year, but the biggest question mark is how will the offense respond with Shea Patterson under center.  If he resembles the highly touted quarterback that Ole Miss had prior to his injury, then Michigan could have themselves a legitimate shot at winning the Big Ten and possibly more.  Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

Expectations in Ann Arbor have never been higher, and Jim Harbaugh has arguably his best team.  Eventually expectation need to match results or Harbaugh’s tenure could come to sudden end.