For the past two years, rival Michigan football fans have decried the non-conference schedule, but this year the Wolverines will be the center of attention come Week 2.
That's because the Blue and Maize will be hosting Texas for the first time. It will be the second time the Wolverines and Longhorns have met, and the first time in the regular season. The home-and-home opener will pit the Big Ten against the new SEC, with Texas representing the new conference in a highly-anticipated matchup to open the season.
And there's one Longhorns player who is eager to get a feel for the Ann Arbor atmosphere: senior quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Ewers earned himself a starting spot at Texas in 2022 but was injured in Week 2 against Alabama. He started all of last year and led Texas to the College Football Playoff semifinals before being replaced by eventual runner-up Washington. But in what could have been the national championship game, Ewers will be wearing a winged helmet on the other side of the line of scrimmage on enemy soil.
But this won't be Ewers' first trip to Ann Arbor — the Ohio State-bound was a reserve in the Wolverines' landmark upset of the Buckeyes in 2021 — but he's excited to be back facing his old rivals.
“This is my second time going, so I'm excited to be going again,” Ewers said at the Manning Pass Academy at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. “They're the defending champions, so it's going to be a great environment, a great crowd and it's going to be a fun time.”
A loss for either team wouldn't necessarily be a shock given how packed both teams' schedules are, but whether Ewers and Texas or the Michigan Wolverines emerge as the winner will set high expectations for the season ahead.
As for the Maize and Blue, they haven't lost a game at the Big House since the ill-fated 2020 COVID season and haven't lost in front of their home fans since the 2019 regular season finale against Ohio State.
The Week 2 matchup between Michigan and Texas will begin at noon EDT and will air on Fox as part of the Big Noon Kickoff.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire
