“When they first came out, they were in an (unbalanced formation),” Michigan defensive lineman
Kenneth Grant said. “So we called a timeout, then they came out again, but they flipped the formation; then they called a timeout. When they came out (a third time) we knew it was (an empty set). It was gonna be a quarterback power, and we just stopped it.”
Saban didn’t confirm if there was an option to pass. His attention shifted toward the offensive line not creating enough push to give Milroe’s quarterback keeper a good enough chance.
“(Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees) just felt like the best thing that we could do was have a quarterback run, which was kind of one of our two-point plays for this game,” Saban said. “The ball was on the 3-yard line, which is just like a two-point play, but we didn’t get it blocked so it didn’t work. We didn’t execute it very well and it didn’t work.
“They pressured and we thought they would pressure, but we thought we could gap them and block them and make it work, and it didn’t.”
--- Kenneth Smith III