Desmond Howard believes the Big Ten is there for the taking for the Michigan Wolverines.
The No. 15-ranked Wolverines will take on the No. 18-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in Norman this weekend in college football’s biggest game of the weekend. It’ll be their first big test of the season as they’ll match up against one of the best-dual threat quarterbacks in the nation in John Mateer, a highly-regarded transfer from Washington State.
While Howard won’t be making any picks until Saturday – he’s a member of ESPN’s College Gameday – he says the key to the game will be “adjustments.”
“The key to the game is it’s going to come down to adjustments,” says Howard in a one-on-one interview. “Whichever team makes the best adjustments in game or halftime adjustments is going to be victorious. I think both defenses are very good, and they’re going to come out and try to sack the quarterback. Take away what the quarterback does well, seeing how they make those sort of adjustments – either in game or halftime – will determine who comes out victorious in this matchup.”
The Wolverines will enter the game as underdogs, with the line currently pegged at -5.5 points.
One of the major keys to the game on Michigan’s side of the ball is freshman Bryce Underwood. The 18-year-old true freshman made his first career start against New Mexico, leading the Wolverines to a 34-17 victory. He went 21-for-31 with 251 passing yards and a touchdown.
However, the No. 1-ranked high school football player in the nation will be going through a whole another litmus test against the likes of the Mateer-led Sooners.
“On the flip side, obviously have the freshman Bryce Underwood, who was the No. 1 recruit,” says Howard of Underwood. “Big kid, maybe about six-foot-four, probably 215-to-220 pounds. First start against New Mexico, I thought he played well. You just look for certain things when you are watching a freshman quarterback for the first time and he had poise. He’s very confident.
“Seemed like he had a really good command of the offense,” Howard continues to say. “That’s not all him, that has a lot to do with Sherrone Moore and the offense, and in the OC that they have named Chip Lindsay, and the way that they prepared him for the game, the way they called the game, especially the game is in action. Good matchup, it should be an exciting game.”
Desmond Howard Says Big Ten Is ‘Wide Open Conference’
As far as the Big Ten itself, Howard downplays the perceived dominance that teams such as the Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions and Oregon Ducks have recently shown.
The Wolverines alum acknowledges that the Nittany Lions are the favorites with some people saying they can win it all, but he needs to see them close out big games.
“Penn State, obviously is the one who I think people are saying should win the conference this year,” says Howard. “You may have some people out there saying they should win it all. It’s just one of those situations that you kind of got to see it. Coach (James) Franklin and the Nittany Lions, they’ve had some really, really good rosters. They’ve been in some really good games, some tough, hard-fought games, but they’ve managed to come up on the short end of the stick in those games. It’s kind of like you got to see it.”
The former Heisman Trophy winner says the conference basically comes down to a two or three-game season in which each of the aforementioned teams match up against each other to determine the Big Ten winner.
“Those games are the games where the team on the other sideline is equally talented to them,” says Howard. “Now I get to see how you perform when you’re lined up against a team that is on the same level as you, talent wise, and you talk about Penn State. I’m looking at their season. – it’s pretty much a two-game season where I would tell who they are.
“This year they have to play Oregon, and that game’s at home, and that’s actually at the end of this month, and then they have to travel to Columbus and take on Ohio State beginning of November,” Howard continues to say. “They don’t have Michigan this year. They have some other games that could be tough. But when you look at their rosters, Oregon is pretty much on the same tier roster wise as Penn State. And then of course, you could say the same thing about the Buckeyes.”
Howard once again refers to it as a wide-open conference, leaving the door open for a team like the Wolverines.
“Yes, I do think it’s a wide open conference,” says Howard. “I really do. Those games are going to really tell us what’s going on.”
Desmond Howard Partners With Samsung To Bring Lee Corso Ultimate Gameday Experience
Following Lee Corso’s final appearance on “College Gameday,” Howard is teaming up with Samsung to bring the legendary broadcaster an epic setup for his television-viewing experience.
Howard – along with fan-contributed ideas – helped outfit the retired broadcaster’s living room with an 85-inch television, the Samsung Neo QLED 4K TV. Fans can also get half off of the TV by using the promo code “TVLIKELEE” at checkout through September 7.
“Lee Corso, I call him the grandfather of college football, and he decided to hang them up,” says Howard. “We just had a fantastic show celebrating him and his career. Samsung they understood that Lee loves to watch the games on the field all the time, he’s right there on the sideline. Since he’s not going to be able to do that anymore, they wanted to do something special. We hooked up and figured that we’d give Lee this ultimate game day setup.
“He has this setup where we reached out to the fans and we got their input, and they started to chime in that we should add to this ultimate Samsung Game Day setup, and it turned out fantastic,” Howard continues to say. “Lee’s always on the sideline and he’s always chasing the ball. He’s always going up and down the sideline with the ball, but since he’s no longer able to do that, he’s going to have a huge, 85-inch Samsung television with the pictures so clear that it’s like he’s standing on the field or sitting up there with us watching the games. It’s tremendous.”
Corso – who was a legendary coach in the college ranks – carved out such an iconic career as a broadcaster that people remember him more for the latter than the former. Howard compares his colleague to the impact that John Madden had in the NFL and on football. Madden was a Super Bowl-winning coach, but more people remember him for his broadcasting career and video game series than him as a head coach.
“I’ve been blessed to have a person of his character, his principles and his magnitude as part of my life, especially at the point in which we connected, which was after my NFL career was over and I was getting into television,” says Howard of Corso. “You mentioned the influence that he’s had and I like to say that when it comes to influential figures, sports or especially in football that were not – quote unquote – players, I would say he should be on that Mount Rushmore with guys like Keith Jackson, John Madden because of the influence they’ve had on the sport of football.”