Michigan football continues silently shouting its message, loud and clear: THIS IS NOT 2020.
The Wolverines underscored it again, in a resounding, 63-10 win over Northern Illinois on Saturday. In doing so, they recorded in 15 days of the 2021 season more wins than they secured in the entirety of last fall’s forgettable pratfall.
The game ended at 3:08 p.m. ET, but this one was over at 12:49, 48 minutes after it began. That’s when redshirt sophomore tailback Hassan Haskins flew over the top of a pile of humanity, extended the ball and made it 20-3 Wolverines.
An NIU team that began the season winning at Georgia Tech became not-so-Husky road kill in The Big House. Its quarterback found out firsthand, these are not last year’s Wolverines.
Rocky Lombardi waltzed into Michigan Stadium a year ago with Michigan State, hurling throw after throw over the heads of a non-adjusting defense. He strode away with 323 yards passing, three touchdowns and a shocker of a win for his former team.
That was then. This is ow.
Lombardi looked as effective as current-day Vince Lombardi against Michigan’s reconfigured defense. He threw for all of 46 yards and one touchdown, that one long after the game — for all practical purposes — was in the books.
While the Wolverines were piling up a 35-3 halftime lead, Lombardi produced 20 passing yards, an 0-for-7 effort on third-down conversions and almost as many three-and-outs as completions.
Well, that’s NIU, not Michigan State, right? Right — a 2021 NIU team that upset the Yellow Jackets on the road, and a 2020 MSU crew that somehow wound up even worse last year (2-5) than Michigan (2-4).
Yes, the Wolverines still have plenty to prove, against the best teams in the Big Ten. But they’ve already proved something significant. All the lucky if they’re .500 gloom and doom carrying on for months leading up to the season amounted to as much hot air as you’d encounter on a hike through Death Valley.
“It think this is a good start,” allowed freshman tailback Blake Corum, who racked up 125 yards and three TDs on a mere 13 carries. “We haven’t done much yet. It was definitely a great win against a good team in the MAC, but right now, it’s about this Big Ten play that’s coming up. Keep your head down, keep pushing, keep getting better.
“We’re going to celebrate this win today, but tomorrow, next week, it’s about Rutgers. There’s a long season ahead of us. We’ve played three games, and we’ve got to put those behind us.”
Jim Harbaugh’s crew definitely put behind them the post-Washington grumbling that it can’t throw the ball. The answer — 233 yards passing, including an 87-yard bomb from redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara to sophomore wideout Cornelius Johnson.
McNamara went a crisp 8-of-11 passing (72.7 percent) for 191 yards and the one TD, then called it an afternoon. True freshman J.J. McCarthy took over the Husky burial, going 4 of 6 through the air for 42 yards and breaking off a 16-yard scamper to set up a touchdown.
McNamara proved succinct in the dismissal of the murmurs, noting Michigan plans differently for each opponent.
“I heard some stuff,” he said. “It didn’t really affect us.”
Neither did the Huskies.
Redshirt sophomore cornerback Gemon Green picked off a tipped pass, racing 27 yards to the NIU 3. Michigan’s first interception of the season set up the true freshman tailback Donovan Edwards’ first career touchdown.
Two minutes and 27 seconds later, he sprinted away 58 yards for his second. A split-second of hesitation allowed the hole to open, and Edwards shot through like a paydirt-seeking missile. His 86 second-half yards pushed Michigan’s total to 373 on the day, the third straight 300-yard rushing game for the home team.
The Wolverines cashed in touchdowns on their first nine possessions of the game, including eight on the ground.
“As you can see, we’re having a lot of fun,” Corum said. “We’re all cheering for each other. We’re all happy for each other’s success, offense and defense. We talk to each other throughout the game, so we’re all having a blast.
“That’s what football is about. It’s about having fun, doing the things you love to do, with your brothers. That’s what we’re doing so far, and I can’t wait to see … it’s just going to keep building, every week.”
Let’s stipulate here: a week-three blowout over a Mid-American Conference team never secured a Big Ten championship. But for a team determined to show it wouldn’t look anything like the one directly preceding it, this non-conference romp caps three weeks of deeply coveted domination.
Harbaugh’s crew stared down a non-conference slate where it was expected to go 2-1, at best (1-2 for the most severely affected PTSD victims). The Wolverines came out 3-0, outscoring the opposition, 141-34.
Different coaches, different attitude, different results. For the Wolverines, it’s bring on the Big Ten, without a hint of trepidation.
“I wouldn’t say they haven’t done anything,” Harbaugh said, in response to the player mantra to that effect the past couple of weeks.
“They’ve done some stuff. Things that are good, you want to build on … now you start playing for the championship, the Big Ten championship. Ultimately, that’s what they want to achieve. That starts next week.”
They look a whole lot closer to competing for it than most outside of Schembechler Hall imagined, and that IS something.
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