EXCLUSIVE: Rick Neuheisel shares Michigan football 2023 expectations
INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Neuheisel has spent the last near-decade discussing Michigan football on his SiriusXM radio show ‘Full Ride,’ but he’s about to get much closer to the action.
The former head coach of UCLA, Colorado, and Washington is part of a CBS broadcast crew that has switched its media rights from the SEC to the Big Ten this offseason, meaning that the former Jim Harbaugh foe in the Pac-12 will now potentially be on the call for some of his games.
WolverinesWire caught up with Coach Neuheisel at the CBS media breakfast on day one of Big Ten media days to discuss his expectations of the Big Ten as well as the Michigan Wolverines.
Outlook on the Big Ten as a whole
The hierarchy is kind of like it’s been for some time. You start with Michigan and Ohio State. The Bo and Woody days seemed to have been extended. There are different names involved with the programs now but those programs have found a way to stand the test of time and are right there at the top having both made the College Football Playoff a year ago.
Penn State, obviously, is a huge brand in the world of college athletics, in particular college football, they’re right there. James Franklin has got them right where he wants them in terms of prestige and so forth and big expectations of that program. And then all the rest of these programs have proven that they’re dangerous any year. Iowa’s been to the College Football Playoff, USC has not. (Editor Note: Iowa has not been to the playoff.) That gives you an idea of the prowess of a Hawkeye program. Bret Bielema has got Illinois going, Wisconsin now wiht Luke Fickell, a complete about-face from the Barry Alvarez days. But it’s certainly a statement made as to try to get inventive.
So there’s some great programs and the great coaches. P.J. Fleck’s done a wonderful job at Minnesota. I’m gonna be leaving people out, but I’m just telling you, it’s a great league.
What's different about Michigan from before?
Those are the questions I’m really looking forward to asking Jim — what changed? And I’m guessing that it’s going to have a lot of like if you’ve talked to Kirby Smart at Georgia, where he talked about connectivity, which is basically the glue that exists in a locker room with teammates. It’s easy to create relationships with a position group, because you’re in the meetings with them, and you go through all the same things together and you forge friendships. It’s more difficult to do that with people in other position groups, especially on the other side of the ball. And so a head coach and trying to create a culture needs to create opportunities for those people to bond and to create glue, relationships of trust, so that the team is cohesive away from the locker room as it is while you’re playing the game. And that connectivity, I have feeling, is going to be the secret sauce is taken the maize and blue back to the playoffs.
How much does it help J.J. McCarthy to have Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards?
The best thing a quarterback can have is a running back. One, it gives you a play off. You hand it off and you can relax and not have to worry about making the right read, knowing down and distance and all that kind of stuff. It’s just an easy down to participate in. Carry out a fake and you’re good, right? A running game forces extra people in the box, which creates easier defensive looks to either play action pass or even drop back pass. Because single-high creates more space for five receivers, there’s usually only four underneath defenders. So now you can throw what we call horizontal reads which are easier. One-on-one reads outside with your wide receivers.
The more you are leaning to the pass or put yourself in long-yardage situations and more two safeties show up in defense the more now you have to be more accurate, you have to be much more careful with the football. That becomes more problematic.
So the best thing you can have is a running game. And in particular, a running game that can also feature your legs because that’s an extra hat in the box that is mandatory when the quarterback can run.
What players are you most excited to see?
J.J. and Blake are headliners, but Donovan Edwards, that guy to me has kind of the heart of the Wolverines. For him to play as injured as he played last year and to be as explosive as he was, to me is kind of maybe a leader behind the scenes. I’m anxious to watch Donovan play — as well as the trenches. I mean, Jimmy Harbaugh when he was at Stanford and I was at UCLA you knew you were going to be in a war when it came to the trenches. That will also be the case when you’re playing the Wolverines.
The dynamics of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry
When you look at Ohio State, Ryan Day’s version of Ohio State, what is he? 34-2 in Big Ten play? Those two losses are so much bigger than common sense would have them be because they are in the hands of Michigan and Jim Harbaugh and the rival and it’s astounding, that that’s the situation, but it’s the reality. And you lose those two games and you lose them soundly, the pressure to change that narrative gets exponential.
There’s big-time pressure on the scarlet and gray to change their fortunes in that particular rivalry.
