No. 6 Michigan Must Prove It Can Execute In Big Games If This Season Is Going To Be Different

With the sixth-ranked Wolverines taking on the No. 8 Michigan State this Saturday, Michigan must earn its first road win against a top-15 opponent under Jim Harbaugh if it hopes to continue its undefeated season. The Wolverines have struggled in big games under Harbaugh, but culture and attitude changes as well as strong execution give Michigan a chance to topple the Spartans and continue what could prove to be a special run.

To leave East Lansing with an 8-0 record on Saturday, the sixth-ranked Wolverines will have to earn something which they are yet to achieve in coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure — they will need to win a road game against a top-15 opponent.

Michigan State, itself ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll, is no easy out. After seven games, the Spartans have legitimate College Football Playoff hopes just as Michigan does, and they may take solace in the fact that the Wolverines are 0-8 in road games against top-15 opponents since Harbaugh took the helm.

There is no mystery surrounding the narrative on Harbaugh’s time at Michigan. The Wolverines win the games they are supposed to win, but they consistently falter in big matchups. The stat cited above certainly exemplifies this, as does Harbaugh’s 0-5 record against Ohio State and 3-3 record against Michigan State. A loss this Saturday to the Spartans would do the same.

However, this season looks as though it could be the one in which that narrative shifts. Michigan’s play has appeared to be of a higher caliber than years prior; en route to a 7-0 start, the Wolverines have played sound, error-free football, and shown a propensity for finding a way to win close games — a skill which it previously appeared that they lacked.

In explaining the source of these changes, Michigan players and coaches have consistently touted positive changes in team culture in attitude between the team’s dismal 2-4 campaign in 2020 and the start of this season. Wolverines’ offensive line coach Sherrone Moore added to this growing list of change statements Oct. 27.

“From an offensive standpoint, we’re just executing better,” Moore said. “The intensity is great, but the energy is even better. The energy is really what sparked us to the next level where we needed to be, and we’re all feeding off of it. So the biggest thing is the energy; how much fun the guys are having.

You can see it in the guys’ eyes when they walk in the building, how much they love being around, how much they all love each other. So that’s been the hugest part of the change.”

Moore finds this new energy to be of immense value, describing it as contagious as well.

“The kids are out there having fun,” Moore said. “It’s like they’re in the backyard playing football again. And when you get that, when you see it, when you feel it, it just jumps on your back. You get that burst of energy just like they do. They feed off of us, but we feed off of them just as much.”

This newfound energy provides Wolverine faithful with the hope that Michigan will finally make good on a hot start to the season, that Michigan’s Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff hopes will not be dashed by mistakes and poor play at Michigan State this weekend nor by a devastating loss in the Wolverines’ matchup against No. 5 Ohio State in the season’s finale.

And yet disappointment is entirely possible; energy is not enough for the Wolverines’ big-game outcomes to change.

“Listen,” Michigan defensive line coach Shaun Nua said. “I’ve been a part of a lot of rivalries: Holy War, Army-Navy, here, the Desert Duel (Arizona State-Arizona). It all comes down to who can control their emotions and get their assignment done.”

And, as such, clean and consistent execution will be key for Michigan in winning its marquis matchups throughout the remainder of the season, starting with Saturday’s matchup in Spartan Stadium.

The Wolverines’ nation-lowest one total turnover on the season seems to indicate that Michigan is as well-prepared as any team in the country to execute and avoid the mistakes that come with emotional play, but the rest of the Wolverines’ season poses challenges the likes of which they have not faced through seven games.

Standing in the way of Michigan’s first-ever Big Ten Championship appearance are a road matchup against No. 8 Michigan State, another possible top-15 road matchup against now-No. 20 Penn State, and a home affair against No. 5 Ohio State that’s difficulty needs no further explanation. As Nua explained, execution will be paramount, and the Wolverines can’t afford to let up in this domain nor in their energy.

The next five weeks could go one of two ways for Michigan: either they constitute another disappointing end of season in which the Wolverines have their season ruined by major rivals or they represent the end of the first campaign after which Michigan fans are not wondering whether or not Jim Harbaugh can win big games. That all starts this weekend, and determining which of these eventualities comes to fruition is entirely in the Wolverines’ hands.

“It all comes down to them executing,” Nua said. “ [...] Know your job, know your assignment, do your job. [...] They’ve just gotta execute. They’ve gotta control their emotions, and I think they’re ready. We’ve got a great group of men.”