Week 7 picks, preview: Battle for the Victory Cannon, Pat Fitzgerald facing former team highlight slate
Elsewhere Eastern Michigan hosts a major MAC matchup and Michigan welcomes Penn State to Ann Arbor.
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It's a four pack of games this weekend, with a major rivalry showdown in Mt. Pleasant between Central Michigan and Western Michigan highlighting the slate.
Elsewhere, Michigan State hosts Northwestern in the Pat Fitzgerald-Aidan Chiles bowl, while Michigan welcomes Penn State in a battle of two fanbases with misgivings about their Big 12 coaching import. Just a few miles away from that, Eastern Michigan hosts Toledo in a showdown with plenty of MAC title race implications.
Michigan State vs. Northwestern, noon, Spartan Stadium
Well this one could get ugly. And that’s really because Northwestern is actually pretty good, and MSU is playing a roster ravaged by injury. Here’s an incomplete list of who MSU will be without: Star LB Jordan Hall, starting LB Brady Pretzlaff, starting LT Ben Murawski, three cornerbacks, at a minimum, and star RB Cam Edwards, who is out for the season. There’s just not a ton to work with in terms of the top talent MSU had planned on having on the field this season. That leaves a lot on the plate of one Alessio Milivojevic at quarterback and for a plethora of fill-ins on defense.
And while Milivojevic has played well this season in spells, and looked good against Illinois, he and a patchwork defense and offensive line are probably going to be in for a long day. Northwestern, featuring former MSU quarterback Aidan Chiles in a diabolical offense cooked up by Chip Kelly, are running plays out of old-school wing option formations and feasting on opposing defenses in the run game. Chiles has yet to throw an interception, either. It’s all clicking for Northwestern this year, and is very much not for Pat Fitzgerald’s Michigan State in Year 1. His first chance to beat his alma mater and former team ends up in a loss.
Northwestern 31, Michigan State 14
Central Michigan vs. Western Michigan, 1:30 p.m., Kelly/Shorts Stadium
This game came down to a late Western Michigan touchdown and a subsequent sack-fumble by the Broncos to seal a 24-21 win at Waldo Stadium on Sat., Nov. 1, 2025. It was Matt Drinkall’s first taste of the rivalry as a head coach, as the game came back to a Saturday for the first time in years. Now it’s still on Saturday, and in Mt. Pleasant on the weekend for the first time since 2018. Drinkall and the Chippewas are hopeful for a fortress-like environment from the maroon and gold-clad fans on Saturday, and will have their hands very full trying to outfox Western Michigan.
The Broncos, on paper, are the slightly better team. Quarterback Broc Lowry and the offense flashed a higher gear against Kent State than that group has shown to date, and the defense has really figured out how to weaponize a deep pass rush with 10 sacks in two MAC games. The defending MAC champs are 2-0 in the league for a reason. But Central Michigan’s defense, outside of two lopsided halves vs. New Mexico and Ohio, has been stingy (Miami notwithstanding), and the offense can chew up a game and the opponent when the run game executes. But all told, Western Michigan just has a few more clubs in the bag than Central Michigan and can make a few more winning plays in what’s another very close game that either team can credibly win.
Western Michigan 27, Central Michigan 22
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
Michigan vs. Penn State, 3:30 p.m., Michigan Stadium
What this publication is informally branding the Dyspepsia Bowl, neither the Wolverines nor Nittany Lions are terribly happy with respective Big 12 coaching imports, Kyle Whittingham and Matt Campbell. The contours of the displeasure are somewhat different, if ultimately landing the same questioning place. Campbell basically went for the portal-a-team plan, bringing 21 Iowa State players to Penn State and, in essence, fielding a worse roster than James Franklin had the past five seasons. Whittingham’s Michigan appears to have one of the more complete rosters, absent questions about the quarterback, but the group has underperformed. The real bottom line if the duo has started 0-5 vs. Big Ten competition.
Which means one of them is about to get their first win in the Big Ten. And for as mind-bogglingly frustrating as Michigan has been, it’s shown far more upside and capability than Penn State. The Nittany Lions got bludgeoned off the field by Northwestern, Campbell himself got badly outflanked in late game coaching by Lincoln Riley in a loss to USC, both after dropping a home game to Wisconsin. Michigan credibly could be 1-1 in the league, and probably should’ve beaten Iowa and had a defensive performance that could’ve delivered a mucky win vs. Minnesota had the offense not let it down. Basically, Michigan can win this with defense and a merely bad-but-not-melting down offensive performance. Penn State just seems like its in for a long year.
Michigan 21, Penn State 16
Eastern Michigan vs. Toledo, 3:30 p.m., Rynearson Stadium
This one might be fixing for some real offensive fireworks. As Mitten Football wrote yesterday, EMU has given up plenty of intermediate chunks that the Toledo offense is very happy to take. Rockets quarterback John Alan Richter leads the MAC with 1565 passing yards and 13 touchdowns (with one interception) as he’s launched it downfield plenty to preferred target Adjatay Dabbs, who has four touchdowns on the year (including a pair vs. Michigan State in the opener).
Buffalo had some success staying on top of the big plays and snuffing out the Toledo offense from that point in a win where the Rockets scored just eight points last week. EMU will probably borrow some principles and concepts from that game plan while gunning still for the takeaways and havoc plays that have helped this defense be an effective force for the Eagles. A strong day from Noah Kim and some good health on the offensive line could make this a competitive and exciting game. But after flirting with a loss last week, EMU finally gets dinged in conference play.
Toledo 31, Eastern Michigan 28
