Mitch McGary throws down one of nine Michigan dunks (Gregory Shamus, Getty Images)

There was a time when Michigan let weaker teams hang around and had to struggle to win. It may happen sometime this season, but that time was not today. The Wolverines got off to a slow start, but dominated the final 30 minutes to beat Iowa by 28 at home on Sunday afternoon.

Iowa started the game with a 7-0 lead before Jordan Morgan got Michigan on the board at the 17:45 mark. Glenn Robinson III recorded the first dunk of the game a minute later, but Iowa responded with a three. The teams traded baskets for the next couple of minutes before Robinson gave Michigan its first lead of the game at 17-16. Once again, Iowa answered with a three. But threes by Caris LeVert and Tim Hardaway Jr. with a Robinson free throw in between put Michigan ahead by three and the Wolverines would never trail again.

Michigan closed the first half with a 17-6 run in the final 3:12 to take a 46-35 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, Michigan continued to pull away. Hardaway hit a three right out of the gate, and after Iowa hit a three of their own, Nik Stauskas drove to his left and threw down a two-handed dunk. It was all Michigan the rest of the way as the Wolverines widened the lead to as many as 35 points at 87-52. The Michigan offense was unstoppable in the second half, converting 20-of-35 shots en route to the 95-67 win.

Robinson led all scorers with 20 points and also recorded 10 rebounds to complete his first career double-double. Trey Burke also had a double-double with 19 points and a career high 12 assists. Hardaway added 19 points and Stauskas scored 13 on 3-of-6 three-point shooting. Mitch McGary scored just five points, but grabbed 11 rebounds and was the catalyst for turning the game from close to a route. LeVert added nine points in 15 minutes of action.

As a team, Michigan shot 58.1 percent from the field and hit 10-of-22 threes. Iowa shot 43.5 percent from the the field and hit just 7-of-20 three-point attempts. The Wolverines also out-rebounded Iowa 41-26, holding the Hawkeyes 15 below their season average.

Michigan hosts Nebraska on Wednesday night and will attempt to tie the record for the best start in program history. The game starts at 7pm and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

#2 Michigan v. Iowa
Sunday, Jan. 6 | 12pm ET | Big Ten Network
14-0 (1-0)	Record	11-3 (0-1)
Slippery Rock 100-62 IUPUI 91-54 Cleveland State 77-47 Pittsburgh 67-62 Kansas State 71-57 NC State 79-72 Bradley 74-66 W. Michigan 73-41 Arkansas 80-67 Binghamton 67-39 West Virginia 81-66 E. Michigan 93-54 C. Michigan 88-73 Northwestern 94-66	Wins	UTPA 86-55 C. Michigan 73-61 Howard 66-36 Gardner-Webb 65-56 W. Kentucky 63-55 Texas A&M-CC 88-59 South Dakota 87-63 Iowa State 80-71 Northern Iowa 80-73 S. Carolina State 90-46 Coppin State 80-50
	Losses	Wichita State 63-75 Virginia Tech 79-95 #5 Indiana 65-69
81.1	Points Per Game	76.1
59.0	Scoring Defense	61.7
423-for-818 (51.7%)	Field Goal %	360-for-814 (44.2%)
317-for-788 (40.2%)	Def. Field Goal %	310-for-838 (37.0%)
125-for-297 (42.1%)	3-point %	81-for-263 (30.8%)
90-for-289 (31.1%)	Def. 3-point %	78-for-280 (27.9%)
164-for-226 (72.6%)	Free Throw %	264-for-369 (71.5%)
11.7	FT Made/Game	18.9
37.6	Rebounds Per Game	41.4
28.6	Opp. Reb. Per Game	34.5
16.4	Assists Per Game	16.7
9.9	Turnovers Per Game	13.7
5.4	Steals Per Game	7.2
2.6	Blocks Per Game	5.2
G – Trey Burke (18.1) G – Tim Hardaway Jr. (16.2)	Leading Scorer	G – Devyn Marble (15.6) F – Aaron White (13.7)
F – Glenn Robinson (5.9) F – Mitch McGary (5.8)	Leading Rebounder	F – Aaron White (6.4) C – Adam Woodbury (5.4)

After dominating Northwestern in the Big Ten opener on Thursday night, Michigan returns home on Sunday afternoon to face the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten home opener at noon on the Big Ten Network.

Iowa comes in with an impressive-looking 11-3 record, although when you examine their schedule you’ll see an utter lack of quality opponents. The highest ranked team the Hawkeyes have beaten is Iowa State, which is No. 47 according to Pomeroy. Aside from the Cyclones, Iowa lost to Pomeroy No. 20 Wichita State and lost by just four to 5th-ranked Indiana. The latter was certainly impressive, as Iowa may have pulled it off had leading scorer Devyn Marble shot better than 1-of-14. Still, he scored 14 points thanks to a 12-of-13 performance from the free throw line, but if he had merely shot 21 percent from the field, it may have been good enough.

As a team, Iowa shoots just over 44 percent, but is a good rebounding team, averaging 41.4 per game. That’s good for 19th nationally. By comparison, Michigan averages about four rebounds fewer. On the other hand, Iowa gives up about six more rebounds than Michigan does. The Hawkeyes also average nearly 17 assists per game, which is 24th nationally, but they also turn the ball over nearly 14 times per game.

As mentioned above, Devyn Marble is the main man, averaging 15.6 points per game. He’s also third on the team with 4.5 rebounds a game. The 6-6 guard from Southfield, Mich. dropped 30 and 27 in consecutive games against Northern Iowa and South Carolina State. In those two games, he connected on 10-of-17 threes and 14-of-27 shots overall. But like his poor shooting outing against Indiana, when he’s off, he’s off. He also went 2-of-10 against Iowa State and scored just six points. Perhaps not so coincidentally, those two poor outings were against the best teams Iowa has played so far. Add in his 4-of-12 performance against Wichita State and he shot a combined 10-of-36 against the top three opponents.

Sophomore forward Aaron White is the only other Hawkeye averaging double figures at 13.7 points. He also leads the team in rebounding with a 6.4 average. Unlike Marble, he stepped up in big games, scoring 15 against IU and 18 against Iowa State. Despite being 6’8″, he has the ability to step out and hit the three every now and then, though he’s just 21.7 percent.

Freshman point guard Mike Gesell averages 9.6 points and 3.3 assists. He scored 23 against Northern Iowa, hitting 4-of-6 threes. But he had a 2-of-10 outing against Iowa State and 0-of-8 against Gardner-Webb, so he’s prone to poor shooting nights as well. He’ll have a tough time keeping up with Trey Burke.

Junior forward Melsahn Basabe averages 6.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. His season high is 17 points against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and he only has one other double-digit scoring game on the season.

Freshman guard Anthony Clemmons leads the team with 3.9 assists per game and also has the ability to knock down the three, shooting 41.2 percent.

The center is 7’1″ freshman Adam Woodbury out of Sioux City, Iowa who averages 6.4 points and leads the team with 5.4 rebounds per game. His season high was 13 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. If there’s someone on the team you want to foul, it’s him as he shoots just 51.9 percent from the line.

Iowa is a team Michigan has had some struggles with in the past few years, but that has been on the road. With this game being in Ann Arbor, there should be no cause for concern. The only thing that may make this closer than expected is a letdown from the big 28-point win at Northwestern. Michigan is bound to have a poor shooting night one of these nights, but it shouldn’t matter in this one. The Wolverines have too much talent for the overmatched Hawkeyes and should win by around 15 points.

Following Michigan’s 42-17 win over Iowa on Senior Day, Brady Hoke spoke to the media about Denard, the new offense, and the upcoming battle with Ohio State.

Brady Hoke speaks to the media after the Iowa game (Justin Potts, M&GB)

Opening Statement
“It was a good game, a good football win. The seniors got to go up the tunnel senior victors for the last time in this game and we put a lot of emphasis on that because of the struggles and what they go through when you look at a guy who’s been here for our five years. So it was great for them and great for our team that the younger guys, younger-classmen, went out there and competed for  them. That’s the expectation and the guys who are seniors who were playing in their last game at Michigan Stadium, I thought they did a nice job of going out there and playing 60 minutes of football.”

On how difficult it is to see the seniors perform for the last time in Michigan Stadium…
“It’s always difficult and that’s because I’m a very emotional person, good or bad. Pick your poison. We get very tight, close with the players because we are there to help them grow, so from a personal life standpoint to the academics to social to everything else, they’re your sons. That’s the way we look at it.”

On when he made the decision for Denard to play and come up with the role he played…
“I didn’t make the decision for him to play. Once he got cleared and he felt good health wise, we had talked about doing this for 18 months. Al [Borges], when he got home last week after the Northwestern game that night, he had nine plays ready. And we put six more in. So I think Al Does a tremendous job of taking your personnel and the playmakers that you have on your team and having the ability to get them the ball and let their God-given ability take over.”

On Fitz Toussaint’s injury…
“He’s in the hospital now and he has surgery. I think we’ll leave it at that for now. His mother wasn’t here, he had two brothers here, so we’ll leave it at that.”

On how important it was to work out some of the kinds with Devin and Denard on the field at the same time before next week…
“Next week really never had anything to do with it. We had to beat Iowa. We’re still in a championship race and we wanted to win this game for our seniors and also because we’re still in a race for the championship.”

On whether there was any thought of using Denard as quarterback…
“Well, I think it would be unjust for us not to use him in the best way that we thought would let him be the most successful. He’s throwing the ball a little bit, he’s not throwing it a lot, so we felt this was the best. This kid has put up with a lot of criticism at times [and] he’s been praised at times. He’s a competitive guy who loves the game and loves his teammates and he showed great maturity the last three weeks and great leadership.”

On whether he had to convince Denard that he would play, but not at quarterback…
“No.”

On whether there was any thought of playing him at quarterback…
“Nuh uh. There really wasn’t. I mean it was you wanna play, where could he help us best playing.”

On whether Denard can throw the ball…
“Yeah, but not as well as he’d like to.”

On Denard’s personality of being willing to not “be the boss” in his last home game…
“I think it tells you about what kind of kid he is, what kind of young man, I should say, he is. His development, his growth, his character, and the integrity. This kid has had some unbelievable moments here at Michigan and in Michigan Stadium and he has had some moments that weren’t so good. But he has grown within this team and this is his team. Him and [Jordan] Kovacs – all the seniors have a big piece of it, and I know Devin said it the other day, he has been the face of Michigan football.”

On how comfortable Devin looked scoring six touchdowns…
“He had six touchdowns? See I don’t remember that stuff. [Reporter: "He was pretty good."] Well, I think you answered your questions, he was pretty good [everybody laughs].”

On whether he heard the crowd chanting ‘Beat Ohio’…
“Yeah, and I said to somebody next to me we need to beat Iowa.”

On the comfort level of the team playing at home, having not lost at home in two years…
“Well, I think you see it in all kinds of sports, playing at home is something that’s treated us well and I think the familiarity with everything. I wish I could tell ya, I just think there’s a comfort, I guess.”

On whether his teams have always played well at home…
“I have no clue. Again, it’s something that I don’t think about.”

On whether the offense used against Iowa will be what we see going forward…
“Going forward where?”

Ohio State and the bowl, or could Denard go back to quarterback?…
“Umm, I don’t know. I guess he could. I don’t know. It’s an option.”

On when Denard was cleared, what he had to do to get cleared, and is he able to grip the football…
“Yeah, yeah. What’s today, Saturday? Probably, umm, six days ago.”

On whether Denard is cleared for good now or if he’s still day to day…
“He might be day to day.”

On whether Fitz’s injury was his ankle or leg…
“I’m not going to [get into that]. I want to make sure his mother has been contacted.”

On what it will mean coaching his first game in Columbus as head coach…
“It’s fun. It is fun. Because it’s a great rivalry and there’s a lot of respect on both sides, both programs. So for both programs it’s fun. It’s fun. It’s going to be fun.”

On the success of the downfield passing game today…
“Well, I think some play action set it up. Gallon made a terrific catch with concentration. The ball was where it needed to be and it was defended pretty decently. One of the best throws that was made – and catches – was an out on the sideline to Roy [Roundtree]. I thought Roy did a nice job with his hands. I said this last week, but I think Roy is really catching the ball more with his hands and not as much in his body as he had earlier.”

On when he noticed Roy starting to catch the ball more with his hands…
“Shoot, I don’t know. Sometime. Probably in practice”

On whether the offense threw things out that Ohio State will have to prepare for…
“You know, if I was that smart to do that, I would have done it. But no, we were trying to beat Iowa. We were trying to put our players – it would be very selfish of us as coaches for us not to give these kids the best chance to win a football game. Whatever we do offensively or defensively to prepare, if we don’t do that, then we’re short-selling this program and these seniors and these kids, and we’re not going to do that.”

On what prevented him from using this offense prior to today…
“How would I answer this. [Reporter: "Honestly." Crowd laughs] I would say in doing it it would have been done kind of like we did last year a little bit more when we had both of them on the field and we just added to it. There’s a maturity level for everybody that it takes to be able to handle those kind of things.”

On whether he meant Devin at quarterback and Denard at receiver…
“Maybe. Sort of.”

On how the job of the receivers and the way Devin is throwing the ball is helping the offense pick up where Denard left off…
“I think there’s a lot of truth to all of that. I think our front is blocking better. I think part of that is the play action game. I think part of it’s the play action out of the I-back that has helped.”

On how tough it is for an opposing defense to prepare for a new formation…
“Well, you’ve got to spend some time on it, so sometimes that’s the biggest thing. You’re spending time maybe on a formation that was run three times and thinking what can you do out of it, what can they do out of it, and so as a coach, you’re spending your time and then you’re taking practice time. So, it’s time and there’s one thing that none of us have is a lot of time.”

On how confident he is that the players can put the emotion of the last home game behind them…
“Well, they’re going to have to. I’m pretty confident in how our seniors have led and how we’ve gone to work every Sunday – win and lose.”

On the defense’s performance…
“Yeah, we missed some sacks, we don’t tackle, they’re knocking us off the line of scrimmage early. It was awful.”

On Desmond Morgan’s status…
“I thought he’d be ready, but he’s not.”

On whether he wants to say what the injury is…
“No.”

On Gary Moeller getting honored during a timeout and what it means to him…
“It means a lot. Coach Mo as a person, as a coach, and a man, means a lot. Means a lot to Michigan.”

Michigan scored touchdowns on its first six drives and Devin Gardner had a career day as Michigan routed an Iowa team that had beaten it the past three seasons. Denard Robinson played his last game ever in the Big House, and boy was it a good one.

Michigan 42 – Iowa 17
	Final Stats
42	Final Score	17
8-3, 6-1	Record	4-7, 2-5
513	Total Yards	309
199	Net Rushing Yards	128
314	Net Passing Yards	181
23	First Downs	17
1	Turnovers	0
3-35	Penalties – Yards	3-21
1-43	Punts – Yards	4-165
30:23	Time of Possession	29:37
9-of-12	Third Down Conversions	6-of-14
2-of-2	Fourth Down Conversions	1-of-3
2-7	Sacks By – Yards	0-0
0-for-0	Field Goals	1-for-1
6-for-6	PATs	2-for-2
4-for-4	Red Zone Scores – Chances	3-for-4

With his elbow injury still inhibiting his ability to throw Denard took the field as a running back. Most assumed it was just to let the senior get on the field one last time, but Al Borges had other ideas. In a glimpse of what he might be in the NFL, Denard played a little running back, wide receiver and quarterback, though he did not attempt any passes. He even managed to break a couple of his trademark runs; one came on a reception which he turned back and ran the entire width of the field en route to a big gain. While it was great to see Denard be Denard again it wasn’t all fun and games as Fitz Toussaint had to be carted off the field with a broken leg. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope he can be back to 100 percent come next spring.

Much like Ohio State has been the Braxton Miller show all year, this game was the Devin Gardner show as he accounted for all six Wolverine scores: three in the air and three on the ground. And while the Iowa defense isn’t anything to be feared, Gardner did what any good quarterback should do against a poor defense: torch it. Devin went 18-of-23 for a career high 314 yards passing and added 37 more yards on the ground to go along with the aforementioned six touchdowns.

The game appeared as though it might be a battle at first as Iowa moved within four points with nine minutes to go in the second quarter. But Michigan had other ideas and rattled off 28 unanswered after that and closed out the Hawkeyes in convincing fashion.

After Michigan scored to go up 7-0, Iowa mounted a 75-yard drive on the legs of Mark Weisman and it looked like Iowa was going to run all over Michigan. The Wolverines answered, scoring on a 37-yard pass to Roundtree, who has quite the chemistry with Gardner. Iowa added a field goal on its next possession to cut the lead to 14-10, but that would be as close as they got. Gardner ran in a score, then hit Vincent Smith on a great screen play to put Michigan up 28-10 at the half. The only mistake – if you want to call it that – that Michigan made all day was a Gardner pick in the fourth quarter.

It is yet to be determined whether Denard will resume his duties as quarterback next week against the Buckeyes. If I had to guess I’d say that Hoke and Borges will keep Gardner as the starter and continue to use Denard as a receiver/running back. Denard is the heart and soul of this team but there is no denying they are a much better offensive team with Gardner at the helm. Not to take anything away from what Denard means but Gardner is the better passer, plain and simple. That said, Denard is too deadly of an athlete and leader to keep off the field. The freak nerve injury to his elbow may be just what Michigan needs to get past the surging Buckeyes who are still chock full of elite talent, while Michigan is still rebuilding from its failed RichRod experiment. At the very least, we’ve seen a glimpse of what this offense will look like next season with Gardner as the full time starter. I am in no way saying this should have been the set up all year, but now that we’ve seen it I have to say I like it a lot.

Michigan travels to Columbus to take on the undefeated Buckeyes in what is essentially OSU’s bowl game. Before the season I predicted a Michigan loss, but with Devin Gardner under center and Denard Robinson being utilized in other ways I may just change my mind. I will save my prediction for our weekly staff picks later this week.

Michigan beat Iowa 42-17 and Denard Robinson, in his last game in Michigan Stadium saw snaps at quarterback, running back, and receiver. He started the game at running back in his first game since his injury suffered at Nebraska and amassed 122 total yards (98 rushing, 24 receiving). He spoke to the media afterwards and got a little bit choked up at times.

Denard speaks to the media after his last game in Michigan Stadium (Justin Potts, M&GB)

On what it meant to be a senior leader and a Michigan quarterback…
“It means a lot. It’s hard to put into words what this means to me. Being the leader on this team and being one of the guys that was picked by the team to be a captain and a leader, it’s kind of hard to swallow right now because it’s come to an end.”

On when he knew he would play today and when he started working on playing running back/receiver…
“I’ve been getting treatment a lot and [it] has been getting better and better, so once I got a chance to get the go-ahead, I went out and started practicing, started playing a lot of stuff.”

On how desperately he wanted to play in his last game and whether he had to campaign the coaches to do so…
“Oh no. I think everybody knew. They know me, and they know that I’ll do whatever it takes for the team. I’m the kind of person that if I can go, I’m going to go and I won’t hold back. I’ll do whatever for this team – that’s my family.”

On how his elbow feels now, and whether he could have thrown the ball if he had to…
“It feels pretty good. I threw the ball in warmups, so we’ll see next week.”

On who’s idea it was to play the role he did today…
“Coach. Coach Borges. He dialed up some good stuff and I was all for it.”

On getting the ball from Devin Gardner instead of him throwing to Devin like it was in the first half of the season…
“It is kind of funny, but we never talked about it. It was just, let’s go with it.”

On what he was thinking about walking up the tunnel for the last time…
“All the memories that I had with the team and being with these guys. Everything we went through – the ups and downs in the stadium – just memories that kept going through my head.”

On whether there is a memory that stands out more than others…
“Not really. I think just thinking about it being my last time playing in the Big House. It just blows my mind because time went by so fast. It just surprised me that it went by so fast. I guess we were having fun, and when you’re having fun, time goes.”

On when he started practicing again…
“This week, I got the go-ahead.”

On whether he practiced the last couple of weeks…
“I did a little bit, and it was day to day what I could do and what I couldn’t do.”

On whether he has any discomfort at all with his elbow. It looked like he grimaced after patting an Iowa defender on the helmet after a play…
“No, I was good. He made a good hit on me so I gave him a slap on the hat.”

On Devin Gardner’s performance the last three weeks…
“He’s doing great and he’s been playing well. We all faith in him and we all knew he could do it. I’m behind him 100 percent. I support him and we support him. He’s doing a great job and I can’t wait to see what he can do in the future.”

On his comfort level with the role he played today and what the challenge was in that role…
“Of course, going against another defense, but our offensive line did well when I did run the ball. When I did get it off a screen pass or something like that I feel like they did a great job blocking. I just had to try to make a play.”

On whether this gives Ohio State more to think about for next week…
“Oh yeah (laughs), oh yeah. It’s going to be a great game and it’s going to be a physical game, but right now we’re focused on this win.”

On Fitz Toussaint’s injury…
“That’s our brother. You know, it’s always sad and it’s always bad when you see one of your brothers on the ground and you can’t help him right then and there. So it was bad, but he’s a strong guy and I know he will bounce back  and our prayers go out to him.”

On whether there was a point after his elbow injury where he didn’t know if he was going to be able to come back and play, and how easy it was to embrace this new role…
“When I had the time off and they said I couldn’t play those two weeks, I was just like ‘man,’ it was a bad feeling, because I never miss big games. I missed one game and that was like my first year playing football. I’ve missed three games my whole life, so it was different for me being on the sidelines and cheering them on. It was tough, but when I got the chance to get back on the field, there was no question. It was like let’s just go out there and have fun and enjoy being with your team.”

On whether he was he tempted to throw the ball at all…
“I wasn’t tempted, I mean Coach made some good calls and I was ready to do what I had to do to try to help the team out.”

On whether he has ever played a game where he was the quarterback but never threw the ball…
“No, I haven’t.”

On what he and Devin Gardner said when they embraced after the game…
“I just told him to keep going. Keep leading, keep playing your game. We’re behind you. That’s all.”

On how he would evaluate his career based on what he thought he would accomplish when he first got here…
“I couldn’t imagine what I have done. I didn’t think I’d have as much success as I’ve had. I think God blessed me to give me the opportunity to play and start for three years and keep going at it. To have the opportunity to graduate next semester. I feel like it’s a blessing to be here and it means a lot. It means a lot.”

On how surreal it was to be in the huddle but not calling the plays…
“It was different, but practice kind of made me go ‘Ok, you’re not going to call the plays right now’ so I was in the back of the huddles trying to listen to what was going on. It was kind of different.”

On his thoughts on his last game in front of the home fans…
“It is just an honor to be playing in front of so many people. They cheer for you and they can’t wait to see you play or see the team come out of the tunnel and the winged helmet being on the field. I want to say thank you to everybody that ever came out and supported us and personally, I love them, I love the fans, and appreciate them.”

The final home game of the season is upon us and Michigan will be looking to send its seniors off in style with a win over the Iowa Hawkeyes. At this point, the Hawkweys hold the longest winning streak of any opponent over Michigan – three games – and Brady Hoke would love to end that just as he did to the streaks Ohio State and Michigan State had accumulated.

For the third straight week, uncertainty surrounds the quarterback position as Denard Robinson has yet to be publicly cleared to play. Devin Gardner has filled in nicely the past two weeks and will likely be tasked to do the same tomorrow. Michigan remains in contention for the Big Ten Legends division title and a spot in the championship game, but must win out.

Iowa should provide a nice tune-up for the epic showdown that looms in Columbus a week from tomorrow. The Hawkeyes come in needing a win to stay alive for bowl contention. At 4-6, Iowa must win its last two to get a bowl bid. Iowa’s four wins were over Northern Illinois (18-17), Northern Iowa (27-16), Minnesota (31-13), and Michigan State (19-16 OT). The Hawkeyes lost to Iowa State (9-6), Central Michigan (32-31), Penn State (38-14), Northwestern (28-17), Indiana (24-21), and Purdue (27-24). The latter four of those losses have come consecutively in the last four weeks following the overtime victory over MSU. Can Iowa somehow rekindle the magic it found in East Lansing? Or will Michigan ensure the ‘Hawks will be home for the holidays? Let’s take a look at the matchups.

When Iowa has the ball

As I explained in Monday’s First Look, Iowa’s offense has been downright anemic this season under new offensive coordinator Greg Davis. The man who coordinated Texas’ offense for 13 seasons hasn’t been able to get things going, but he also doesn’t have Vince Young at his disposal.

James Vandenberg is a competent quarterback, but doesn’t have much to throw to due to the departure of Marvin McNutt. Vandenberg has completed 56.9 percent of his passes for 1,976 yards, five touchdowns, and six interceptions. He hasn’t thrown for 250 yards in a game all season and hasn’t thrown multiple touchdowns in a single game either. Penn State held him to just 47.2 percent completions for 189 yards, a touchdown, and two picks and his numbers against Iowa State, Michigan State, and Purdue were similar.

As mentioned above, he lacks top-notch receivers like he had with McNutt. The leaders are Kennan Davis and Kevonte Martin-Manley who have 46 catches for 560 yards and 47 catches for 545 yards, respectively. But only Martin-Manley has multiple touchdown grabs (two). Mammoth tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz 31 receptions for 278 yards and a touchdown. The main issue has been big plays. The entire offense has just 14 plays of 25 yards or more this season. McNutt had 15 by himself a year ago.

James Vandenberg led the Big Ten in passing last season, but has just five TDs in 2012

In the backfield, Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God has struck again. The leading rusher, Mark Weisman, had four straight 100-yard games, including a 217-yard performance against Central Michigan and 116 yards against Michigan State. But he left the Northwestern game with an ankle injury and has missed the last two games. He’s likely out this week as well. In his stead, sophomore Damon Bullock has been up and down. He rushed for 107 yards against Northwestern and 150 in the season opener, but has averaged just 2.6 yards per carry in the last two weeks. Purdue, who Michigan shredded for 304 yards rushing, held him to just 43 yards on 23 carries.

Davis’ offense is of the pro-style variety and calls for a zone running scheme and an underneath passing game. The offensive line has been through its share of injuries this season and has been a major factor in the lack of a run game. The lack of a true deep threat like McNutt has caused the underneath routes to be less effective. Expect Greg Mattison to unleash a blitz scheme designed to pressure Vandenberg into making quick decisions.

When Michigan has the ball

Like the offense, Iowa’s defense is guided by a new coordinator this season. Phil Parker has a solid group of linebackers but not much else. Despite the new coordinator it’s essentially the same defensive style as what Norm Parker ran, as Phil Parker was the team’s defensive backs coach for the previous 13 seasons.

While the Hawkeyes rank 29th nationally in points allowed, the total defense is a mediocre 51st. Each of the last four opponents have racked up over 400 yards of offense, and Penn State surpassed 500.

Junior linebacker Anthony Hitchens is the Big Ten’s leading tackler by a wide margin with 114, while James Morris ranks third and Christian Kirksey ranks 12th. Each of the three has more tackles than Michigan’s leading tackler, Desmond Morgan and they’re all solid linebackers.

The rest of the defense, not so much. Tackle Joe Gaglione has five sacks and nine tackles for loss, but no one else on the team has more than two sacks. The line has trouble getting pressure on the quarterback, ranking 111th nationally with just 11 sacks in 10 games.

The secondary has a pair of experienced corners in Micah Hyde and B.J. Lowery. Hyde is the team’s fourth leading tackler with 67, has a pair of fumble recoveries, and ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 12 pass breakups. The three-year starter doesn’t get beat often. Lowery, you might remember for knocking down Michigan’s final pass in the end zone last year, thwarting the comeback attempt.

The 4-3 defense employed by Parker isn’t overly aggressive and prefers to sit back and let the play come to it. The last four opponents have scored just an average of just over 29 points per game, and there’s no reason to think Michigan won’t do otherwise.

The other third

Kicker Mike Meyer has converted 16-of-19 field goals on the season with a long of 50. He made 14-of-20 last season and 14-of-17 in 2010 for a career average of 78.6. Punter Connor Kornbrath has an average of 37.4, which ranks 10th in the conference. Former Michigan quarterback commit John Wienke has also punted a dozen times with similar results.

The return game is below average, although Jordan Cotton leads the Big Ten with a 27.9-yard kick return average with one touchdown. Hyde handles punt return duties with an average of 5.4 yards per return. The Hawkeyes do defend returns pretty well, ranking 31st and 27th nationally in kick and punt return coverage, respectively.

Prediction

The biggest danger for Michigan in this one is overlooking the Hawkeyes for next week’s battle in Columbus. But a couple of factors exist that won’t allow that to happen. First of all, it’s Senior Day, so Denard, Jordan Kovacs, et al. will want to go off in style. Secondly, Michigan has the nation’s second longest home winning streak and hasn’t lost in the Big House since Hoke took over. Finally, Iowa has won the last three meetings and you can bet Hoke won’t let the team overlook that fact. Michigan will come to battle Iowa as if the Hawkeyes were the Buckeyes.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Denard didn’t play much. Michigan can win this one without him and needs him fully healthy for Ohio State, a possible Big Ten championship game, and the bowl game. There’s no use in letting him re-aggravate the elbow in this one. That being said, it is his final game in Michigan Stadium, so he may start and play a series or see a few plays here and there, but don’t expect him to play the full game.

With Gardner at quarterback, Michigan’s offense will look like it has the past two weeks. Fitz Toussaint and Thomas Rawls will split time in the backfield, although Vincent Smith will likely get some time as well since he’s a senior. Gardner will have another big day throwing and Michigan will cruise to a win, setting up the big one next Saturday.

Michigan 35 – Iowa 17

For this week’s edition of Friend vs. Foe, we are proud to welcome RossWB from the ever popular Iowa SB Nation blog Black Heart Gold Pants.  He will provide his perspective on how or why Iowa can beat Michigan on Saturday. Remember, this is not an actual game prediction. It is an attempt to describe how or why each team can win from each side of the matchup.

The case for Iowa
by RossWB

How can Iowa win this game? If Michigan contracts a serious case of food poisoning on Saturday morning, Iowa could win this game. If the Iowa bus gets lost and they wind up playing the game against a team of Ann Arbor middle schoolers, Iowa could win this game. If Kirk Ferentz is allowed to use a time machine, Iowa could win this game.

But as far as serious ways for Iowa to win this game…well, if you’ve seen the highlights – or even just read the box scores – from the last four weeks, then you probably know why it’s hard to have even a sliver of confidence in Iowa winning this game. They’ve lost four games in a row in Big Ten play, twice to decent opponents (Penn State and Northwestern) and twice to the Big Ten’s Indiana contingent. And the “decent” opponents absolutely massacred Iowa. The Indiana and Purdue games were close losses that, truth be told, were probably only close because of too many turnovers and penalties by those teams.

The Iowa offense hasn’t put up 20 points on their own since September, when they scored 24 of Iowa’s 31 points against Minnesota. (Iowa scored 21 and 24 points the last two weeks, but each game featured a defensive touchdown by Iowa.) The offense was bad to begin with, but it went from bad to farcical when it lost probably its two best players in back-to-back games (RB Mark Weisman against Michigan State, OT Brandon Scherff against Penn State). Now the offensive line can’t do much of anything, the receivers can’t get open, and the quarterback is a jittery mess still trying to adjust to life as a square peg in the round hole that is Greg Davis’ offense.

Only one of Iowa’s past four opponents has cracked 30 points (Penn State), but the other teams easily could have cracked 30 points if not for some untimely turnovers and red zone miscues. Each of Iowa’s last four opponents has amassed over 400 yards of offense and they’ve done it in a variety of ways; Penn State killed Iowa with balance, Northwestern ripped Iowa to bits on the ground, Indiana shredded them through the air, and Purdue did a little bit of everything. The defensive line can’t get pressure, the secondary struggles to cover, and two of the top three linebackers ended the previous game on the bench, for injuries or other reasons.

So how can Iowa win? They’ll probably need touchdowns from defense and special teams, for one. (And actual touchdowns, not just short fields – I have zero confidence in the Iowa offense being able to take advantage of a short field and score touchdowns themselves.) They’ll need Michigan’s offense to have an absolutely miserable day and turn the ball over several times. They’ll probably need the Michigan defense to forget how to tackle. And they’ll probably need to lock Greg Davis in a closet, give James Vandenberg a playbook from 2011, and hope for the best. Iowa has won three in a row over Michigan and they did pull an upset over Big Blue last year, but that was a better Iowa team, one that wasn’t bereft of talent, good ideas, and confidence. To win this year, Iowa probably needs a minor miracle.

The case for Michigan
by Justin

It’s hard to imagine Michigan losing this one unless Denard doesn’t play and Devin Gardner gets hurt too. Then it’s anyone’s guess. Iowa has surrendered over 400 yards to each of its past four opponents, one of which being a Purdue squad that was previously winless in conference play. Regardless of whether Denard or Devin is piloting the offense, Michigan should be able to move the ball.

But Iowa’s main problems are on the offensive side of the ball where the Hawkeyes are averaging just 19 points per game over the last five. The run game ranks second to last in the Big Ten and took a big hit when Mark Weisman went down two weeks ago. James Vandenberg is a decent quarterback, and the best way for Iowa to try to attack Michigan would be with the passing game. We all saw how Northwestern’s Trevor Siemian was able to shred the Michigan secondary the few series he was in last week. The main difference was that NW had a running game that Michigan was having trouble stopping as well. Despite the No.1 overall pass defense, Michigan’s secondary has been vulnerable to the deep ball all season; opposing quarterbacks just haven’t been accurate with it. If Iowa can hit a couple of them they could back Michigan’s defense off.

But make no mistake about it. If Michigan scores more than 20 points, it will win. And there’s absolutely no reason to think the Wolverines will be held below 20. I have a hard time believing Denard will play much if at all this weekend, so the offense will be the same as it has been the past two weeks: pro-style, power running with a better passing game. Devin Gardner’s command of the offense will continue to improve and he’ll be able to exploit the Hawkeye defense just as the past four opponents have.

The main thing Michigan has to worry about in this one is not looking ahead to undefeated Ohio State next week. That’s where the last three years come into play. Iowa’s three-game winning streak over Michigan allows Brady Hoke to keep the team focused on ending the streak, just like it did against OSU last year and Michigan State a few weeks ago. On Senior Day, you can bet the 18 seniors won’t want their careers to expire having never beaten the Hawkeyes.  In addition to that, Michigan is still in the hunt for the Legends division title, so expect another big day by Garnder leading Michigan to a win setting up a huge showdown in Columbus next Saturday.