Josh Gattis blown away by Michigan offense in practices before College Football Playoff
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — Some of the talk as it pertains to Michigan football’s Capital One Orange Bowl tilt against Georgia on Friday is whether or not the Wolverines will be able to replicate their incredible play before the near monthlong layoff.
The maize and blue had some solid momentum, taking the comeback Penn State win, turning into a trouncing victory over Maryland, before putting up 42 points on both Ohio State and Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game. But now, it’s having to rekindle some potential momentum lost.
Or so it would seem.
When Michigan arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Christmas Day, quarterback Cade McNamara espoused how incredible practices had been thus far.
“I think we’ve honestly done a really good job of picking right up where we left off at the Big Ten Championship over the last couple of weeks in practice,” McNamara said. “I think as we come back here as the environment shifts just a little bit, I think myself and the other leaders on this team are just going to do the best we can to make sure that that momentum carries into practice because however we practice it’ll reflect to how we play in the game.”
But how would that translate once the Wolverines got out of the controlled environment of Al Glick Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor?
The maize and blue practiced on Sunday in Hollywood, Florida, and while offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was also concerned that the sharpness would wear off to some degree, he was more than pleasantly surprised by what he saw on the field when his offense suited up.
”Yeah, I think the challenge was after we won the Big Ten Championship Game, if we could just ball ourselves up and then ship ourselves to Miami and just play the next day, and we were ready to go,” Gattis said. “Leading up to our bowl practices, we had phenomenal practices back at campus, and then the next challenge came, okay, would we be able to carry that over with all the excitement, with all the different distractions that can potentially come with bowl preparations down in Miami.
”I’ll tell you what, I was blown away yesterday. The type of urgency, the effort, seeing how fast our guys fly around, it’s different for us because we’re coming south, so when you put us out here in warm weather and we’re able to run around nice and fast, we look different. We’re used to practicing in 30-degree, 20-degree weather right now wrapped up in clothes.
”So just having the great weather, having a great surface, the practice facility at the DNR Stadium was unbelievable, or International Miami Stadium, I think called — I can’t remember the exact name, but it was unbelievable. Just was a fast surface, allowed our guys to fly around and execute, playing with tremendous confidence.
“I think the maturity of our team and the leadership of our team obviously led us to have a great season, but it’s also prepared us to have a great night on Friday. We couldn’t be more pleased with the effort that our guys are playing with and the attention to detail.”
Michigan and Georgia will kick off on Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The winner will advance to the Jan. 10 national championship game in Indianapolis.
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What Josh Gattis said about Michigan football vs. Georgia in the College Football Playoff
