Following the loss to Penn State, the Michigan defense had some regrouping to do after the unit played its worst game of the season, allowing 506 yards and 43 points to the Nittany Lions.
Leading into Monday’s practice, fifth-year senior defensive tackle Maurice “Mo” Hurst, sent out a group text to the defensive line saying they needed to step up and make the necessary corrections.
“It’s a bad feeling, I don’t like it,” sophomore defensive lineman Rashan Gary said. “We didn’t play how we normally play and didn’t meet our expectations for each other. … At the end of the day, we didn’t play Michigan defense how we normally play Michigan defense.”
Gary said the team has watched a lot of film and is working on playing the right rush lanes and playing blocks differently. This week is devoted to getting back on track, he says.
“That game hurt, I’m not going to lie,” Gary said. “But it’s one of the games where you just have to come back together and say I got your back. We just have to keep pushing forward.”
After Penn State’s quick strike to start the game, Gary said that defensive coordinator Don Brown brought the defense together and calmed them down on the sideline. Penn State running back Saquon Barkley took the second play from scrimmage 69 yards for a touchdown. Gary said that the crazy thing was that Michigan had prepared for that exact play in practice.
“In practice, [Brown] threw it in there,” Gary said. “We had it schemed up in practice, seeing that and seeing how we did in the game, we were stuck just like wow, not having that one person right there opened up the whole thing. We weren’t tricked by it, it was just something we didn’t execute on.”
Barkely had 15 carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns along with three catches for 53 yards and a score. When asked about Barkley, Gary gave him his due.
“He’s good,” Gary said. “I’m not going to give him too much props, but he’s the real deal.”
In order to get back on track, Michigan will have to beat Rutgers, the school that first offered Gary. He remembers the offer and thought briefly about staying home before offers from other major programs started rolling in.
He will have plenty of friends and family out to watch the game from his home state of new Jersey this weekend.
“It just makes me want to go out there and give a little extra, to put on a show for them since they’re there supporting me,” Gary said.
He added that everyone is ready to get back on the field and play better.
“I feel like to be the team that we want to be, we need to go through times like that to push us to be greater and better,” Gary said. “Things like this happen for a reason and it’s only going to make us come together and play harder as a team.”
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