COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The game before The Game usually is a little closer, a little tighter than it should be. And the aftermath is usually not about what happened in the 60 game minutes prior. But with Michigan football being the first program at any level to reach 1,000 wins, the celebration over the win against Maryland took immediate precedence.
But once that was over, it was time to focus on the task at hand: Ohio State.
It’s no secret that both rival teams are clamoring for each other, with Michigan entering the game undefeated and OSU (at the time of this writing) likely to do so with a multiple-score lead over Minnesota. Despite all of the off-field adversity which was met with on-field adversity, really, for the first time all year at SECU Stadium, these Wolverines are ready for their crack at the scarlet and gray for the Big Ten East division title.
“We all know what time it is. Once this game was over, we knew where our attention was gonna go,” sixth-year linebacker Mike Barrett said. “It feels great to be a part of this kind of game, coming into the game undefeated with everything going on, how the team’s able to kind of face adversity, kind of work through adversity, keep that one-track mind that we’ve been preaching all year. And just being able to be here at this point — it’s a great feeling.”
Michigan looked uncharacteristically sloppy throughout much of Saturday’s contest. The offense didn’t move as it had been, and the defense gave up points in the third quarter for the first time this season.
It’s not unlike last year when the maize and blue hosted Illinois in the penultimate regular season contest and found themselves in a dogfight.
Blake Corum doesn’t think that looking ahead had any bearing on Saturday’s contest, but what he does know is that many of his teammates have been getting extra work in for weeks, if not months, in preparation for the Buckeyes.
“Individually, I know a lot of guys have watched film throughout…
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