Jim Harbaugh on Michigan run game, big game enthusiasm, and Ric Flair
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh showed up to Monday’s weekly press conference in a good mood, excited about the “big game” mentality in the building. There was already a “ton of enthusiasm” for the Penn State game, he noted, but it ramped up when former pro wrestler Ric Flair visited, Harbaugh said with a grin.
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“My energy was already sky-high, but then got a visit from the Nature Boy, Ric Flair, a very close friend. It just brought the enthusiasm to a new level,” Harbaugh said.
The Michigan team, meanwhile, has stayed the course despite a media assault in which many outlets have acted in “one-sided fashion,” per other reporters. They haven’t been fazed, Harbaugh said, and he’s excited to see what they do Saturday in Happy Valley against Penn State.
“What I’ve seen from our players, what they do, no matter what happens, what it is, what emotion they’re feeling … list one of the adjectives,” Harbaugh said. “They just work. They want to find some work, do some work. Something could be in their personal lives, something could be in the game of football or school, some kind of stressor or whatever — you’ve just go to work. Find some work, create some work for you to do.
“It clears the mind, it cleanses the soul and — a lot of times — you get the clarity you need. Not every time, but a lot of the time you get the clarity and, bang, that’s where we go from here. Then you have the benefit of the work that you did. It’s always been my personal philosophy, and I see our players doing the same thing.”
The Wolverines will face No. 9 Penn State (8-1) at noon Saturday in State College.
Michigan run game is still not clicking
Michigan running backs still didn’t have much room to run in game 9, a 41-13 victory over Purdue Saturday night. Senior Blake Corum ran 15 times for 46 yards. Junior Donovan Edwards managed 21 yards on 8 carries.
Earlier this year, Harbaugh said his team needed to eliminate some of the “inefficient” runs of three yards or less. There were plenty of those Saturday night, but the Michigan coach didn’t seem concerned.
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“It’s been these football conversations about this all the time,” he said. “You recall last year there was a real emphasis on could we throw the ball down the field? It was weekly that we’d address that in the press conference here. It got to the point, even last year, where teams were saying, ‘We’re going to stop the run and we’re going to make J.J. McCarthy beat us.’
“We’ve seen how that has worked out. There’s an ability … you could drop 8 or 9 and have a really good chance of shutting down or eliminating the passing game. You could put 8 or 9 in the box and have a really good chance [to stop the run]. The safeties playing at linebacker depth, you have a pretty good chance of shutting down the running game. When you can do both, and you can do both effectively, it’s where you want to be as an offense.”
They’re still working on the run, but the Michigan passing game has taken off. McCarthy threw for 335 yards and completed 65 percent of his throws despite having an “off” night, according to some. Expect the Wolverines to continue to take what defenses give them.
“The old sports adage, one of my dad’s favorites, one of my favorites — ‘you live by the sword, you die by the sword,'” the Michigan coach said. “That’s what I would say to that.”
