Kickoff time, TV channel set for Michigan football national title rematch vs. Washington

Posted by author September 23, 2024 Football

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The kickoff time has been set for Michigan football’s first road trip of the season and it will be a night kick.

Well, sort of.

No. 12 Michigan (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) and Washington (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) will meet for the second time in the 2024 calendar year − the first was of course Michigan’s 34-11 victory in the national championship − with the rematch scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

Though that will be a night kick for folks in Ann Arbor as well as on the eastern side of the United States, Michigan will actually fly more than 2,000 miles to the Pacific Northwest for this game in Seattle, which will kickoff at 4:30 p.m. local − not a bad time for those who want to try out sail-gating on Lake Washington ahead of time.

This will also mark the third different TV network and kickoff time in a three-week span for head coach Sherrone Moore’s team. Michigan’s 27-24 upset victory over USC in its first Big Ten game came on CBS and next week against Minnesota (2-2, 0-1) the Wolverines are scheduled to play at noon on Fox as the network’s ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ game before Week 5 when U-M travels to U-W for a kick on NBC.

Though the two sides met just less than 10 months ago, the teams are wildly different from that time. The Wolverines lost 17 of 22 starters from that squad including 10 on offense and at least two of each level of the defense while the Huskies lost their coach, Kalen DeBoer, who replaced Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa and instead brought in former Arizona coach (and ex Michigan offensive coordinator) Jedd Fisch to lead the way.

WHO DID WELL: Michigan football winners and losers: Kalel Mullings soars, Alex Orji has room to grow

While Donovan Edwards, who ran for more than 100 yards and two scores in the national title game, is always a threat to break a big rush, Michigan is largely a new-look group, with Alex Orji now at quarterback, Kalel Mullings the new star at running back and an entirely new offensive line from when these teams met in Houston in January.

That said, one thing that hasn’t changed, U-M’s defense remains ferocious.

Projected first-round picks Kenneth Grant, Mason Graham and Will Johnson all made game-changing plays in the national title game and will look to do so again when U-M plays away from the Big House for the first time since that program-defining night in Houston