Michigan Wolverines Football: Time To See What This Team Is Made Of
Michigan is 4-1, where many expected the Wolverines would be five games into the season, and they’re a good bet to be 5-1 after Saturday’s homecoming game with Maryland.
Now, though, is when we find out what this team really is.
November is when championships are won and lost, but October is when you separate the men from the boys. Last year was a huge disappointment in that respect, with U-M going 2-2 with an inexplicable loss to Michigan State and a blowout loss at Penn State.
The Wolverines even needed overtime to beat Indiana, 27-20.
In the two years prior, however, Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan teams went 3-1 and 4-0, in the thick of the Big Ten hunt. The only loss … the giveaway game to Michigan State in which punter Blake O’Neill dropped a snap that led to an MSU touchdown as time expired.
The Wolverines had to hold on to beat Minnesota two week later with a goal line stand, but they did, setting up key games in November.
Harbaugh said they feel like they’ve got a handle on their strengths and weaknesses heading into the meat of the schedule.
“You know your team much better after you’ve played the first four or five games in the month of September,” he said. “You know who the starters are, who the backups are, how they continue to improve of course in every area.
“The players and participants have been set. Now if you had a book you’d have an opening, a middle and a conclusion. To use a book analogy, we’re in the middle of the action. The characters have been defined; we know who they are. The plot has been set.”
But the climax and conclusion have yet to be determined, and there’s still plenty to prove. There’s also still time for characters to get bumped off (in this case, replaced) if they aren’t playing well, even if it’s less likely.
Maryland has been playing well and might not be a walk in the park. The Wolverines will get Wisconsin at night the following week before playing at Michigan State, where the Spartans will bring plenty of juice and be frothing at the mouth to face the Wolverines … then it’s a bye week before Penn State comes to town November 3.
Win two of three and the Wolverines will have a shot at a Big Ten East title in Columbus, where U-M outplayed the Buckeyes and should have won two years ago.
To get there, though, they’ll have to improve up front and get off to quicker starts both offensively and defensively … something the characters have yet to prove they can do against the better teams on the schedule.
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