Opinion: Big Ten play is approaching, but Michigan football is ready for the challenge
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ANN ARBOR, Mich — Michigan is off to a 3-0 start to the season after obliterating NIU 63-10 on Saturday.
The Wolverines have gotten through nonconference play unmatched while beating two teams that all the pundits thought they would and defeating a Washington team that we truly don’t know enough about just yet.
The maize and blue are outscoring their opponents 141-34 through three games, which is a welcome surprise, and it seems that this is one of the more explosive Wolverine offenses that we have seen in quite some time.
Michigan has rushed for over 300 yards in each of the three games so far, and it now sits at 1,051 rushing yards this season. It can be argued that the Wolverines have the best rushing attack in all of college football while also being hard to believe anyone has a better duo than Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum at the moment.
So, what should your expectations be for the Wolverines?
Be excited and be very optimistic, because this appears to be a very good, energetic, and hungry football team. But remember, Big Ten play has not begun yet.
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The Wolverines just sleepwalked out of nonconference play unscathed, but things will most certainly get more challenging with the gauntlet of the Big Ten swiftly approaching. Teams like Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State will be salivating to get a taste of the Wolverines, and all of them will want to flex their muscles to try and get on top of the Big Ten.
Every week in the postgame press conferences, after all three games, players have said that they ‘haven’t done anything’ yet. They said it after Western Michigan, Washington, and now Blake Corum is saying it again after the NIU win.
“I think this is a good start, but once again we haven’t really done much yet,” Corum said. “This is definitely a great win against a good team in the MAC. Right now we have Big Ten play coming up, keep our heads down, keep pushing, and keep getting better each practice”
Coach Jim Harbaugh doesn’t exactly agree, but he also said that there are things to improve on.
“I wouldn’t say they haven’t done anything,” Harbaugh said. “They’ve done some stuff! Things that are good, you want to build on. The team does have big goals and now you start playing for the championship, the Big Ten championship and ultimately, that’s what they want to achieve — and it starts next week.”
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Everyone is going to have their own opinion of whether the Wolverines are good or not because they ‘beat two MAC teams,’ but you have to play who’s on your schedule. We have seen Michigan teams in the past come out extremely lackadaisical against middling teams and start extremely slow. The 2021 Michigan team has come out fighting right from the first whistle, and it plays so hard that it has gotten to play its backups in the third quarter of two games.
Yeah, maybe the players are right, they haven’t done anything yet. They have yet to when the Big Ten, make the playoffs, or beat Ohio State.
What I love about the statement that Aidan Hutchinson and Blake Corum have constantly made is that they are hungry and they are not getting overly confident — another deadly trait that has haunted Michigan in the past. They appear serious about taking this one game at a time and defeating whoever is next on the schedule — while focusing a little on Ohio State each day.
This feels like a different year, the energy and aura are something that we have not seen nor felt at Michigan in a very long time. Be optimistic Michigan fans, you just may be in for a glorious ride.
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