A record crowd for the first night football game in Michigan Stadium history is a spectacle, but the outcome is what Michigan coach Brady Hoke will remember.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

It is the first football night game in Michigan Stadium history, and it is expected to draw the Big House’s biggest-ever crowd. There will be different uniforms and a different atmosphere, yet the same gritty rivalry.

It’ll be a spectacle.

But one thing is very clear: This mostly is for the fans and school.

Players don’t like night games, because they have nothing to do during the day but sit around in hotel rooms watching football games. And they’d rather play in them.

Coaches don’t like night games, because their players have nothing to do during the day but sit around in hotel rooms watching football games instead of playing in them.

This is a fairly standard conversation with a coach or player:

Question: Do you actually like night games?

Answer: Do I?

Question: Yeah, do ya?

Answer: No. ... I like 12 o'clock games, and so do you guys.

That was an exact exchange with coach Brady Hoke this week, but it could have been anyone. They all feel the same about the late start time, because it forces them to try to stay loose and focused throughout the day, yet not peak too early. That's a tricky proposition for a game with so much at stake.

So, who does like night games?

Students, because they don’t have to wake up at 8 a.m. to tailgate (although some surely will, anyway).

TV executives, because of primetime slots and the ad dollars they command.

And in this case, the Michigan athletic director. Dave Brandon gets to build his brand in front of a national audience. He gets to market Brady Hoke to the country. He can sell legacy jerseys for $80.

He can create the highest demand for a ticket in the history of his program, and pack darn near 115,000 in the joint.

A lot of winners, and none of them strap on shoulder pads.

Yet, those who do have the most at stake. Michigan can move to 2-0, and will be favored in every game for the next month. Win this game, and the Wolverines have a real shot at being 5-0 before their first road game Oct. 8 at Northwestern.

And of course, there’s Hoke, the first-year coach who had a whirlwind off-season. He changed the culture of a program that had three disappointing (and in some ways, historically bad) seasons, and did it without playing a game.

Now, he's playing his first big one, because of the stage and stakes and "national rivalry," as he calls it, with the Irish. Noon or 8, this game is crucial for him.

It's his first real shot to show people that this, for God sakes, is a new Michigan.

PREDICTION
Notre Dame is 3-0 all-time against Michigan in night games (none of which were in Ann Arbor, naturally), yet the Wolverines have beaten the Irish twice in a row. One has to give. Which is it?

It won’t be the latter.

While not a lot can be gleaned from a rain-shortened season-opener against Directional Michigan, this much we know: Michigan still can score, and its defense is light years ahead of where it was last year. Although it struggled to stop Western Michigan early, it did later, and showed two great improvements: Ability to prevent the big play — no matter how badly things are going — and a much surer ability to tackle.

The Wolverines will need both to harness Notre Dame’s offensive attack. With a raucous crowd at their back, they will. Barely.

Michigan 31, Notre Dame 28

Kyle Meinke covers Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2588, by email at kylemeinke@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @kmeinke.