Things to watch this week in the Big Ten Conference: No. 10 Michigan (4-1, 2-0) at Washington (3-2, 1-1), Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
ET (NBC) It’s a rematch of last year’s national championship game that Michigan won 34-13, but a whole lot has changed in the nine months since. Both head coaches are gone, as Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh left for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers while Alabama hired Kalen DeBoer away from Washington. The quarterbacks from that game have departed as well after Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
went eighth and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy went 10th in this year’s NFL draft.
The teams combined for three losses by the end of September. Last year, they both carried unbeaten records into the championship game. Michigan lost 31-12 at home to No.
2 Texas but has won three straight since. Sherrone Moore’s Wolverines are relying on a Kalel Mullings-led rushing attack, as they totaled just 118 yards passing the last two weeks in victories over Southern California and Minnesota. Washington has lost two of its last three games, including a 21-18 setback at Rutgers last week, as the Huskies endure growing pains under new coach Jedd Fisch.
BetMGM Sportsbook still has the Huskies as 2 1/2-point favorites. Iowa (3-1, 1-0) at No. 3 Ohio State (4-0, 1-0).
The Hawkeyes have scored at least 31 points in three of its first four games under new coordinator Tim Lester, a big step forward for a team that exceeded 26 points just once last season and got shut out in its final .