Predicting Oklahoma vs. Michigan: Why the game will be a blowout

If not for those famous markings on Michigan’s helmet, more people would also be projecting similar scores for this matchup. 

The No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners host No. 15 Michigan at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Gaylord Family-Memorial Stadium. The clash between top-20 blue bloods earned the primetime slot on ABC and even drew ESPN College GameDay to Norman. 

Score prediction for Oklahoma vs. Michigan

Not only is Oklahoma the better team, but everything is in the Sooners’ favor. Michigan’s Bryce Underwood will be a great quarterback one day, but he’s still an 18-year-old freshman making his second career start in the worst situation imaginable. Underwood will step out there under the lights in primetime and in front of a sold-out SEC crowd of nearly 90,000 fans. He will then get terrorized all night by one of the best and deepest defensive lines in the country. 

Underwood will make mistakes on Saturday night. It’s not if, but when. The Sooners will then capitalize on those mishaps, especially early, to get comfortable as Underwood and the Wolverines feel the need to force things even more. And the Wolverines are not built to come from behind. 

And just like the rest of us, the Wolverines also have no idea what to expect from a full-go Ben Arbuckle offense that actually includes running back Jaydn Ott, a healthier offensive line and quarterback John Mateer all amped up. OU barely even released a preview last week.

Mateer broke an OU debut record with 392 passing yards last week with an extremely vanilla game plan that didn’t even try to utilize his rushing ability. The Sooners were also (mostly) without presumed lead back Jaydn Ott, so obviously their run game looked lackluster. 

Arbuckle has teased wanting to line Ott up in the slot. Ott will be in motion, sprinting out of the backfield and be an option with Mateer. Michigan hasn’t seen any of that to prepare for. That's much different than OU head coach Brent Venables having to prepare for just one player with little film on.

Michigan could regroup at halftime, but because of the way the Wolverines are built with a freshman QB, it’ll already be too late. 

College football wants this rare meeting between two blue bloods to be great so bad. And it will be for Sooner Nation. And thanks to that logo of Michigan’s, this will go down as a monumental win and assertive statement for the Sooners to catapult them as serious College Football Playoff contenders with Mateer as the Heisman Trophy favorite. 

Prediction: Oklahoma 30, Michigan 13 

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