Michigan
Northwestern or Illinois? Ohio State or Michigan? The CFB Week 14 picks — including one huge upset — are in
All “Hat,” no battle?
Heading into the season, Northwestern (+7) at Illinois (6:30 p.m. Saturday, Fox 32, 720-AM, 890-AM) didn’t project as a difficult matchup to size up. The Wildcats were scrapping toward being competitive again, while the Illini were coming off a 10-win season and widely viewed as a College Football Playoff hopeful.
But the visitors are 6-5 and trending up, and the hosts are 7-4 and needing to hold on to the Land of Lincoln trophy — “the Hat,” as it’s known — just to feel OK about where they’re at.
“Nothing better than the last opportunity together,” Illini coach Bret Bielema said about the regular-season finale at Memorial Stadium.
Home field should matter. Quarterback Luke Altmyer should give the Illini an edge. But the weather — cold, with snow in the forecast — is a factor not to be overlooked, and it’s the Wildcats who run the football far more reliably, averaging 174 rushing yards per game. Their QB, Preston Stone, also happens to be the Big Ten’s reigning offensive player of the week, and terrific wide receiver Griffin Wilde is coming off an 11-catch game.
“We’re treating this as postseason play,” Northwestern coach David Braun said. “I know it’s the regular season, but we’re playing for a trophy.”
A battle, it shall be, but I’ve got the Illini eking it out 27-24.
And now, let’s get to what Week 14 is really about: the games — including “The Game” — that will shape the playoff picture heading into conference championship weekend. (All games Saturday unless otherwise noted.)
No. 7 Ole Miss (-7) at Mississippi State (11 a.m. Friday, ABC 7): The Rebels have won four of the last five Egg Bowl games, none by fewer than seven points. Dak Prescott isn’t running through that tunnel for the Bulldogs. Rebs by 10 and on to the CFP.
No. 4 Georgia (-14½) vs. No. 23 Georgia Tech (2:30 p.m. Friday, ABC 7): It’ll be a great scene at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They don’t call it Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate for nothing. Georgia wins but doesn’t cover.
No. 2 Indiana (-28½) at Purdue (6:30 p.m. Friday, NBC 5, Peacock): Boiler Up? Oh, stop. Hoosiers, 38-14.
No. 1 Ohio State (-10) at No. 15 Michigan (11 a.m., Fox 32): OSU has become a stand-alone superpower, better than everybody else, no ifs, ands or Bucknuts. Also true, insanely: Michigan, which has a real shot at joining the Buckeyes in the playoff if it springs a stop-the-presses upset, has won the last four games over its bitter rival. The edge between the ears is real — until it isn’t. Buckeyes by 14.
No. 12 Miami (-7) at No. 22 Pittsburgh (11 a.m., ABC 7): It’s win or forget the playoff for the Hurricanes. The Panthers still have a path if they take down the U and either SMU or Virginia loses, putting them in the ACC title game with a shot at an automatic bid. Upset? Almost. ’Canes by a kick.
No. 6 Oregon (-7) at Washington (2:30 p.m., CBS 2): The Huskies have won three of the last four, and five of the last nine, in this underrated series. The Ducks are more likely than not to be in the playoff even with a loss, but the pressure on them against a dangerous three-loss team in a supercharged environment will be extreme. Upset? Yep, I’m calling it, 31-30.
LSU (+10) at No. 8 Oklahoma (2:30 p.m., ABC 7): Tigers quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr., in for injured starter Garrett Nussmeier, has done just enough the last two games to squeak past Arkansas and Western Kentucky. If that prepared him for the Sooners’ monstrous defensive front, I can’t imagine how. The Sooners — their offense puzzlingly stuck in low gear, too — are cooked on the playoff front, though, if they go down here. OU, 24-13.
No. 14 Vanderbilt (+2½) at No. 19 Tennessee (2:30 p.m., ESPN): Vandy still has a fair-to-middling shot to be the last at-large in — the Volunteers have no shot — but the dream has to die at some point, doesn’t it? Take Rocky Top.
No. 10 Alabama (-6) at Auburn (6:30 p.m., ABC 7): Weird things happen in the Iron Bowl, and weird things are expected by many in this one. I dig weird — who doesn’t? — but I’m rolling with the Tide, 27-14.
No. 9 Notre Dame (-32½) at Stanford (9:30 p.m., ESPN): The playoff committee can’t get away with ranking the two-loss Irish any higher, but eyeballs know there aren’t eight better teams out there. Blowout, 38-7.
Last week: 6-1 straight-up, 4-3 against the spread.
Season to date: 65-26, 45-46.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources opened applications through Feb. 1 for Michigan’s spring turkey season.
Officials say there are some changes to the 2026 season, such as the number of turkey management units, which are designated areas open to hunters.
“These regulation changes uphold the goals for the spring turkey hunting season: maximizing hunter opportunity while also maintaining satisfactory hunting experiences across the state,” said Adam Bump, DNR upland game bird specialist.
Here’s what to know about licenses for the upcoming turkey season. For more information on other regulations, visit the DNR’s website.
How much do the applications cost?
Turkey season applications cost $5 each and are available online on the DNR’s website, at any license agent or through the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app.
A map of license agents is available online.
Who is eligible to apply?
Hunters aged 17 and older during the hunting period are eligible to apply for a license as long as they have a hunter education certificate or an apprentice license.
Anyone between the ages of 10 and 16 can purchase a turkey youth license. Anyone age 9 and under can participate through a mentored hunting program to receive a license. Youth turkey licenses are valid for all three management units and season dates.
Where and when can I hunt?
In 2026, the DNR announced that it had reduced the turkey management unit from 14 to three — Upper Peninsula, northern Lower Peninsula and southern Lower Peninsula. The units also determine the type of license hunters can obtain and when they can hunt.
View a map of the turkey management units below:
A Hunt 0110 license is for the Upper Peninsula, with an April 18-May 31 hunting season. Hunt 0134 license is valid for the northern Lower Peninsula and is available from April 18 to May 1. The Hunt 0302 license is available for the southern Lower Peninsula from April 18 to May 1. A Hunt 0303 license is also available for the Southern Lower Peninsula (May 2-31).
These licenses have a limited number available.
Other licenses include Hunt 0234, which is for statewide (April 25-May 31), and Hunt 0301, which is for private land (April 18-May 31). Hunt 0234 is valid on private and public lands in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, but private only in the southern Lower Peninsula, as well as Fort Custer military lands, with permission.
How can I get a license?
Hunters who apply for a license are entered into a random drawing system. The drawing results are available on March 2.
The Hunt 0234 license (statewide) and Hunt 0301 license (private land) do not require people to enter a drawing. These licenses can be purchased beginning at 10 a.m. on March 16. Hunters can check their drawing results online or on the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app.
“These changes will give hunters longer seasons and bigger units to hunt in,” said Bump.
Anyone who is not selected in the drawing can purchase a leftover license beginning at 10 a.m. on March 9. Anyone who did not enter the drawing can purchase a leftover license on March 16.
How many licenses are available?
There is a 6,000-license quota for Hunt 0110 (Upper Peninsula), an 18,000-license quota for Hunt 0134 (northern Lower Peninsula), a 6,000-license quota for Hunt 0302 (southern Lower Peninsula April season) and an 8,000-license quota for Hunt 0303 (southern Lower Peninsula May season).
Hunt 0234 (statewide) and Hunt 0301 (private land) licenses are unlimited.
Michigan football moved quickly to help fill its running back room on Thursday, adding the No. 1-ranked rusher in the 2024 recruiting class to the roster.
Taylor Tatum, who spent the last two seasons at Oklahoma, signed with the Wolverines for the 2026 season, The Ann Arbor News/MLive confirmed.
Tatum, listed at 5-foot-10 and 212 pounds, has three seasons of college eligibility remaining.
He appeared in 12 games for the Sooners, most of it during his true-freshman season in 2024. That first season, Tatum rushed for 278 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a five-carry, 69-yard game in Oklahoma’s season opener against Temple.
Tatum was hampered by injuries in 2025, appearing in just one game against South Carolina, where he rushed once for negative-1 yard.
A former four-star recruit, Tatum was considered the nation’s No. 1 running back in 2024 out of Longview High School in Texas, where he set the school record for career rushing touchdowns (53). He picked Oklahoma over Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, USC, among others.
Tatum was also a member of the Oklahoma baseball team, though he didn’t appear in a game in 2025.
The signing comes just a day after Michigan’s leading rusher in 2025, Jordan Marshall, announced his return to the Wolverines. Since the transfer portal opened last Friday, reserve running backs Bryson Kuzdzal and Jasper Parker have entered. Parker has since signed to play at Arkansas next season.
Meanwhile, Michigan awaits a decision from its other star back, Justice Haynes, who’s left the door open to a return to college. A pair of freshmen backs, Savion Hiter and Jonathan Brown, also joined the team this week.
Tony Alford, Michigan’s running backs coach, was one of three assistants retained by new head coach Kyle Whittingham.
Kyle Whittingham says appeal of Michigan football job was obvious
New Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham said the appeal of the job was obvious on Sunday, Dec. 28, in Orlando.
Michigan football is primed to win now, new coach Kyle Whittingham said this week on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
The Wolverines have made far too many headlines off the field, which is why Whittingham told Patrick the organization needs to simply get back to focusing on the reason they’re all together as a team − football.
“The place doesn’t need a rebuild, it needs a reboot of trust and getting rid of the drama and just get back to playing Michigan football without all the distractions,” Whittingham said. “It didn’t come from the players. The players were not involved. It was not some player issue – it was just the peripheral.
“Guys here have a great attitude, I met with everyone of them last week at the bowl site. Quality young men, care about academics, excited to be at Michigan, but they’ve dealt with a lot over the last few years.”
Whittingham, 66, takes over as the 22nd head coach in program history after a pair of scandals rocked the previous two men who held his job.
Jim Harbaugh led the Wolverines from 2015-23 − and left on top by winning a national championship − but also was found to have a lack of institutional control in his program by NCAA investigators after two separate NCAA violations occurred under his watch: impermissible recruiting and illegal sign-stealing.
More recently, Sherrone Moore was fired in scandal after he was found to have had a relationship with a subordinate and was subsequently arrested after he allegedly went to her house and threatened his own life − he was jailed for two nights and charged with felony home invasion, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering.
Patrick asked if there was any selling point Whittingham needed to hear specifically from Michigan. Whittingham said when he stepped away from Utah in mid-December there were only a handful of program’s he would have even entertained. He called Michigan “a special place.”
“Needed to hear that Michigan was what I thought it was,” he said. “Hey’re committed to winning here, we do have some challenges with entrance requirements, there is a little bit of a hurdle there, but talk about athletes, resources, tradition − it’s all here at Michigan.”
Whittingham also quipped about the irony of previously being a team that wore red (Utah) whose primary rival wore blue (BYU) to flipping that. It’s also not lost on him that his mentor, Urban Meyer, went 7-0 against Michigan in his tenure in Columbus − Whittingham joked at his opening press conference that Meyer’s name alone might be considered a “four-letter word” in Ann Arbor.
“Blue was our rival at Utah for years,” he said. “Now I’ve got to get used to saying, ‘Go Blue.’”
Whittingham is in the throes of one of the busiest times on the college football calendar. The transfer portal opened for a 15-day window Jan. 2-16, setting off a scramble to both retain players, scout the database and find appropriate fits for the team.
Whittingham has only known his roster and coaches for approximately 10 days – he said while down in Florida he was going to “lock himself” in a room at Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor to watch film on the players on his roster. He has been able to keep Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Andrew Babalola, Blake Frazier, Evan Link, Jake Guarnera and Zeke Berry − the last two of whom had put their names in the transfer portal before indicating their return to U-M for 2026.
With money flowing, back-channeling frequent and poaching at an all-time high, Whittingham doesn’t see college football’s current model as something that will last as currently constructed for more than a handful of years.
“It is not sustainable, there’s no question about that,” Whittingham said. “Something’s gotta give. Within a 2- to 4-, 5-year window, you’re going to see a major overhaul of Division I football. I think it’s going to become more of a minor league NFL model. I think you’re gonna see a salary cap, collective bargaining, players as employees.
“I think all that’s coming because we cannot maintain this pace.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
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