Harbaugh: Rutgers win one 'Bo Schembechler would've been really proud of'
When two like-minded, physical, run-first teams meet on the gridiron, the clock runs more than normal, and the game tends to go considerably faster. That certainly was the case on Saturday when Rutgers visited the Big House to take on Michigan.
The game lasted just 2 hours and 50 minutes, finishing well before many of the other noon games in college football.
Rutgers wore out its first three opponents of the 2023 season prior to the meeting with Michigan, and the Scarlet Knights featured a strong identity centered around running the football in each of those contests.
Greg Schiano's team accumulated rushing totals of 122 yards, 254 yards and 256 yards in the three games leading up to Saturday's contest, but the stout Michigan defense held Kyle Monangai and the Scarlet Knights to just 77 rushing yards in week 4.
Playing complimentary football between the offense and defense, as Jesse Minter alluded to earlier in the week, Michigan's offense was humming, putting together five drives that lasted more than five minutes.
The complimentary football produced a 31-7 win that featured Michigan beating Rutgers at its own game.
Jim Harbaugh said after the game that the win was one that former Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler would have loved.
"That's the kind of game I think Bo Schembechler would've been really proud of," Harbaugh said during his postgame press conference.
Immediately following Harbaugh's remark on Schembechler, Jack Harbaugh, the father of the Michigan head coach, shouted from the back of the room:
"Grinding meat!"
"Grinding some meat," the younger Harbaugh followed up with.
Michigan ran the ball 40 times — exactly as many times as it did in last year's Big Ten opener against Maryland — for 201 yards as it wore down a Rutgers defense that had only allowed more than 70 rushing yards once this season.
Although Michigan strayed from its hope of maintaining a 50/50 run/pass split — U-M had 40 rushes compared to 21 passes — the Wolverines were able to methodically pick apart Rutgers' defense, keeping the Scarlet Knights on their toes.
"[The] 94-yard drive was huge," Harbaugh said. "If you can use all five, six minutes on the clock at the end of the game, churn out, grind meat, as Jack Harbaugh would like to say... that warms the cockles of the heart."
Michigan finished with 200 yards on the ground and through the air, something Harbaugh said Schembechler used to always desire.
"[Schembechler] always used to talk about, every game we went into, he wants to see 200 yards of rushing, 200 yards on the ground and 200 yards through the air. That was accomplished today."
It was the first time since last year's Ohio State game that the Wolverines accomplished the 200-200 feat.
Michigan will now hit the road for the first time all season as it heads to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Ironically, the last time Harbaugh and the Wolverines visited Lincoln, they rushed and passed for 200 yards, one of the few such occasions in the past few seasons.
The Wolverines and Cornhuskers are set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET, and the game will air on FOX.
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