ESPN Analyst Discredits Michigan Football Win Over Penn State

When it comes to college sports, and more specifically, college football media, there is a lot of narrative pushing that happens on a regular basis. One narrative that almost every ESPN analyst loves is to punch down on Michigan football, even after the Wolverines crush a top 10 team in one of the toughest environments in the sport en route to a 10-0 start to the season. Well, following Michigan’s 24-15 win at No. 10 Penn State yesterday, Booger McFarland did exactly that — he moved the goalposts for a Jim Harbaugh-less Michigan team once again.

Michigan football handles business at No. 10 Penn State, even without Jim Harbaugh

Jim Harbaugh is suspended from coaching on the sideline for the remainder of the regular season, at least for now. While the University of Michigan continues to fight the Big Ten Conference in the courtroom, the No. 3 Wolverines are doing just fine for themselves on the football field.

Over the weekend, Michigan improved to 10-0 overall and 7-0 in Big Ten play with an impressive two-score win at No. 10 Penn State, whose only loss heading into the matchup was an 8-point loss at No. 1 Ohio State.

ESPN analyst Booger McFarland discredits Michigan’s top-10 win

Still, even a road win in Beaver Stadium against a top-10 Penn State squad was not enough for ESPN analyst Booger McFarland to declare that Michigan football is simply good — instead, he discredited the win, stating that it boiled down to the Nittany Lions being bad, not the Wolverines being good.

“We came into today saying, ‘Let’s see how good Michigan is based on this being the first test of the season.’ Well, this wasn’t a test,” McFarland said on Saturday via social media. “The Penn State offense is as bad of an offense as I have seen all year. Just nothing explosive about it.”

Doesn’t matter what Booger thinks — it’s on to Maryland for the Maize and Blue

Regardless of what Booger McFarland or any other ESPN analyst has to say about Michigan football, the Wolverines are 10-0 for the second season in a row heading into this weekend’s contest at 6-4 Maryland. If Michigan can avoid upset this weekend, with or without Jim Harbaugh, the program will earn its 1,000th all-time win, improving to 11-0 on the season heading into the Ohio State game for the second year in a row.

It’s also worth noting that the 2023 season, like nearly all other Michigan football seasons, will come down to one game for the Wolverines: a battle against No. 1 Ohio State on November 25th at the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI.

Additionally, regardless of what ESPN’s analysts and talking heads may think, their own rankings just jumped Michigan football over Ohio State into the No. 1 spot heading into Week 12 (below).

Despite what their TV talking heads may say, today's ESPN rankings have moved Ohio State down and Michigan football up… to No. 1 in the country! #GoBlue

STORY: https://t.co/bXWvAVuFoS pic.twitter.com/Hl4D0lyIcj

— Blue By 90 (@bluebyninety) November 12, 2023

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