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NOTE: CollegeFootballPoll.com's Dave Congrove is a nominating member for the Outland Trophy, presented by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. The Outland Trophy is considered to be the Heisman equivalant for those who strive to be the nation’s best interior lineman on offense or defense. Semifinalists for the 2019 Outland Trophy will be announced on Wed., Nov. 20 and the three finalists will be revealed on Tues., Nov. 26.
Notre Dame (5-1) at Michigan (5-2), 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC: Our weekly Outland Trophy sojourn takes us to the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., for a showcase rivalry game where Notre Dame has no more room for error on its College Football Playoff chances despite being ranked in the top 10 for a 24th consecutive week, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation behind the participants in the last four College Football Playoff National Championships, Alabama, Clemson and Georgia.
Michigan, home to four Watch List members that is second only to Oregon (five), looks to improve its rushing attack – at 154.0 yards per game, it’s seventh and barely in the top half of the run-heavy Big Ten – but it remains among the nation’s best (10th) in protecting its backfield, giving up only 3.86 tackles for losses per game this season. Continuity has been a key there with a consistent starting core backed by three seniors and a junior among its four Watch List members. Cesar Ruiz (#51, Jr., Camden, N.J.) has started 25 consecutive games on the line with Ben Bredeson (#74, Sr., Hartland, Wis.) owning 40 career starts and right guard Michael Onwenu (#50, Sr., Detroit, Mich.) with 29 career starts and 40 career games..
Bredeson has started a team-leading 40 career games, each of them at left guard. Voted as Michigan’s Toughest Player of the Year last season by his teammates, Bredeson has led the Wolverines to 100-plus rushing games in six of their seven games with a season-high of 295 two weeks ago at Illinois. It’s been quite a career for Bredeson, who in 2016 was the first true freshman to start along the offensive line since Mason Cole in 2014. Onwenu (pronounced oh-WAY-new) has received some mid-season All-America attention at the other guard spot.
The Wolverines have had senior left tackle Jon Runyan (#75, Philadelphia, Pa.) back in the starting lineup for the last four games after an undisclosed injury held him out of the Middle Tennessee and Army games. All four Michigan linemen earned at least All-Big Ten honors last season and Runyan earned Michigan’s 2018 Hugh H. Radar Award winner as the team’s top offensive lineman.
On Notre Dame’s offensive line we feature senior right guard Tommy Kraemer (#78, Cincinnati, Ohio) and senior left tackle Liam Eichenberg (#74, Cleveland, Ohio). That pair is coming off a strong game two weeks ago (the Irish were idle last week) in a 30-27 win over USC in which Michigan ran for a season-high 308 yards and running back Tony Jones rushed for a career-high 176 yards.
Also of note on the offensive line’s progress is the Irish remain perfect in red zone scoring percentage, heading into the game 22-of-22 visits and one of only three teams (Iowa, LSU) to be perfect on scoring inside the 20. Nineteen of those 22 red zone drives have ended in touchdowns. The pass protection Kramer and Eichenberg have led has Notre Dame currently tied for 25th nationally with 16 passing touchdowns.
Michigan has won four straight at home in the series and eight of the last 10 in Ann Arbor. More than half of the games (22 of 43) in the series have been decided by seven points or less.
Wisconsin (6-1) at Ohio State (7-0), 12:00 p.m. ET Saturday on FOX: While you’re watching two of the nation’s top running backs – Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor is third nationally with 957 rushing yards and Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins is just 10 yards behind (947) in fourth – we encourage you to look up front to see who is paying the way for them.
Thayer Munford (#75, Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio) missed last week’s game at Northwestern with an undisclosed injury but the two-year starter is pro-jected to return at left tackle where he started the first six weeks. He’s helped set up one of the country’s top offenses that is third in points per game (49.7) and fifth in total offense (526.7) nationally.
Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz (#61, Sr., Amherst, Wis.) has been a key throughout Taylor’s outstanding rushing career. The senior has been call-ing the blocking for three seasons as Taylor last week joined Herschel Walker, Ron Dayne ad LaMichael James as the only players to rush for 5,000 yards before the end of their junior season; Taylor has 5,128 yards heading into Saturday and need just 13 more yards to surpass Montee Ball for second place on the all-time list.
Here’s a stat to watch on short yardage situations and see who the play call intends to run behind: Ohio State leads in the nation in third-down con-versions at 56.1 percent, and Wisconsin is No. 1 at third-down defense giving up only 16.1 percent conversions. Of Ohio State’s 46 third-down con-versions, 27 of them (59 percent) have come via the run and the Buckeyes convert two-thirds (61 percent) of their rushing attempts on third downs.
Five of the last six games in this series have been decided by seven points or less.