Wolverines take on Fighting Irish in first ever night game at The Big House

This is a big game for Michigan, but a must win for Notre Dame.  If Notre Dame loses, it will be the second time in school history they start the season 0-2.  The only other time they started 0-2, they faced another school going 0-2 for the first time as well, Michigan.  The Wolverines won that game with great defense, and hope to repeat that performance again this year.

If Notre Dame loses, they can kiss their chances for a BCS game good bye.  I realize they have a moderately easy schedule after they get this game out of the way, but starting 0-2 is a hard path to come back from.  Notre Dame has a quarterback controversy going on as well, something they could obviously do without.  This is because ND's Coach, Brian Kelly will have started two different quarterbacks in their last two losses, guaranteeing some heat from the front office. 

If Michigan does lose, they'll be 1-1. Now I'll admit this would be a bitter loss because of the nature of the rivalry and because of the fact this is the first night game at the Big House. But let's be honest, if they lose this game, Brady Hoke's job won't be in jepeardy.  

Its pretty obvious that Notre Dame has a lot more riding on this game than Michigan does. Irish fans had a lot of expectations for year two of the Kelly era, especially with how they finished last season. Michigan fans had expectations too, but they were more about moving past the Rich Rodriguez era. A lot of the excitement surrounding Hoke has centered on his recruiting for next year. There are still some holes on the defensive side of the ball, but in time those will fill up.

I'm most interested to see how Denard Robinson, the Wolverine's QB, fares in this game.  Last year he single handily won the game in South Bend, and this year I look for him to do the same.  He's going into his junior season now, so this is probably the game where we'll see if he's worthy of Heisman talk.  

No matter who wins this game, the excitement surrounding it, and the rivalry of Notre Dame and Michigan should make for some great football.  I'll take Michigan by 14.