What they're saying after Michigan's 41-13 win over Purdue
The Michigan Wolverines moved to 9-0 on the year with a 41-13 win over the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday night in Ann Arbor. Coming off an extremely long bye week, there were plenty of reactions from across the college football world.
The performance drew plenty of reaction from local and national voices. Here is a sampling of what prominent outlets were saying after Michigan’s blowout win.
Ryan Van Bergen, TheWolverine.com postgame
Wolverine TV podcast: Postgame reactions to blowout win over Purdue
”I think it presented the opportunity to circle the wagons and try to rally yourselves around the negativity that’s being thrown your way because everything that is being “leaked” and that has kind of been mainstream whether it’s fact or not has been damaging to the resume and the reputation of this team.
“And you watch a football game unfold. And regardless of what may or may not be true, none of that has anything to do with how many times or how much or how many scores the defense has given up so far this year and how many turnovers they’ve created and not having any penalties and some of the different things that this team is able to do and these players have been able to do is being overshadowed by what could be fact could be fiction cloud that has been generated over the last two weeks.
“So it gives you an opportunity as a player to say, ‘Hey, guys, put the phones away, delete the app, whatever you want to do. But listening to this isn’t going to get us to where our goals are. Our goals this year are still all out in front of us. There’s nothing we can do to control what’s going to happen if anything is to happen.’
“So there’s no point in focusing on that. Let’s focus on us. Let’s focus on getting better and let’s focus on what we came here to do. And I feel like this was a good game to come out off of a bye week, knock some rust off and get ready for some big dustups that we’ve been looking forward to this year.”
Chris Balas, The Wolverine
Report Card: Grading Michigan football in a 41-13 thrashing of Purdue
Michigan rushing offense: D
It is what it is at this point — not very good. Even before junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy took a 22-yard sack to end the first half, Michigan had only 2 yards rushing in the second quarter, unable to get anything going. Left tackle LaDarius Henderson got beat across his face on a fourth-and-1 that gave Purdue the ball back at the U-M 34, and a receiver was asked to block a defensive end. No gain for junior back Kalel Mullings.
The end result — 144 gross yards, including only 15 carries for 44 yards for senior Blake Corum. The numbers (4.6 per carry not including sack yardage) were inflated by a 44-yard jet sweep touchdown by frosh Semaj Morgan. Is this going to be the Achilles’ heel that prevents Michigan from winning it all?
Passing offense: B+
McCarthy started quickly but was off in the second quarter, missing on a number of throws. Grad Cornelius Johnson let a touchdown slip through his fingers on a high throw he should have had. And while McCarthy wasn’t sharp after the first quarter, he also had a handful of drops that hindered the effort.
But he picked it up, and on an “off” night finished 24-of-37 passing for 335 yards. The Wolverines averaged 14 yards per completion, and five receivers had a catch of more than 20 yards (two over 30). This is the best part of this offense.
ESPN.com staff picks the playoff
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Blake Baumgartner: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Michigan. 2. Georgia 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Bill Connelly: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Heather Dinich: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Michigan 4. Florida State
David Hale: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Chris Low: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Michigan 4. Florida State
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Ryan McGee: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Washington 4. Oregon
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Dave Wilson: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
David Hale, ESPN.com
College football Week 10 highlights: Top plays, games, takeaways
A quick recap of Michigan’s week:
Jim Harbaugh insulted house plants because he was once offended by a fern wearing an Ohio State hat.
Connor Stalions resigned his post as director of covert oper– ah, graduate assistant. Yeah, that’s it.
Big Ten athletic directors pressured commissioner Tony Petitti to deliver some righteous fury as punishment for the thing for which Michigan has yet to be formally convicted.
A Michigan fan site suggested the spying allegations are all a result of a top-secret investigation by Ryan Day’s brother, who might also just have been Ryan Day wearing a top hat and sunglasses.
Michigan’s president sent a letter to Petitti asking how many Ts are supposed to be in his name and also not to jump to any conclusions about the spying.
From inside his lair hidden deep inside Mt. Rushmore, Harbaugh inched ever closer to acquiring yet another Infinity Stone.
And the Wolverines beat Purdue 41-13 because the Boilermakers are awful and definitely not because Hudson Card is actually a deep-state plant who has actually been working for the Wolverines for the past nine years.
Heather Dinich, ESPN.com
Projecting second College Football Playoff ranking top 12
Why they could stay No. 3: Michigan’s strength of schedule, which was ranked No. 112 entering Saturday’s game against unranked Purdue, will continue to hold it back. “It’s a factor in what we’re looking at,” Corrigan said last week. “Again, when you can point to — from a Georgia standpoint — Florida and Kentucky, with Ohio State when you can point to Penn State, the win at Notre Dame, the win at Wisconsin, while UNLV, Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota are good wins, I think looking at it in total, even with the dominance offensively and defensively, defensively giving up about six points a game, it really turned the committee’s head from that standpoint, but that was the reason they came in at third.” None of that changed on Saturday against Purdue.
Path to playoff: Win the East division and the Big Ten. As good as Michigan has been this season, it likely won’t have enough statement wins on its résumé to finish in the top four if it doesn’t beat Ohio State and Penn State. They are the only two ranked opponents Michigan will face during the regular season. The Wolverines’ nonconference wins were against East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green — all unranked Group of 5 teams that they beat at home. A victory against another ranked opponent in the Big Ten championship game would cement a spot in the top four.
Tom VanHaaren, ESPN.com
ESPN 2023 College Football Power Rankings after Week 10
The Wolverines continued their streak of scoring 40 or more points to five straight conference games, beating Purdue 41-13. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw for 335 yards and completed 24 of 37 passes. The Wolverines relied heavily on the run game in the red zone, with backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards combining for four touchdowns. The Michigan defense was able to keep Purdue from scoring in the third quarter, which means the team has outscored opponents 114-0 in the third quarter this season. It wasn’t a perfect game, but Michigan dominated to stay undefeated. The team’s toughest test is in front of it with Penn State on the road next in addition to the ongoing sign-stealing investigation.
Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic
Auerbach ranks Michigan No. 1 coming out of Week 10
Before the season started, most of us would have thought these Wolverines could be undefeated three-quarters of the way through this schedule. We may not have expected them to win the first three games without head coach Jim Harbaugh or that the program would be under NCAA investigation for a second time this calendar year. But we did expect Michigan to be a very good football team, and that is absolutely true.
The Wolverines rolled to a 41-13 win over Purdue on a night in which they did not play their best. They had some rust to shake off following an off week, and J.J. McCarthy had a few uncharacteristic misfires. But … he still threw for 335 yards and completed at least two passes to seven different receivers, including a really nice 37-yard connection with running back Donovan Edwards, who was utilized a good bit in the passing game. Blake Corum still rushed for three touchdowns. Rinse, repeat.
The task gets much taller next week, as Michigan finally plays a ranked opponent in Penn State on the road. Up next is the three-game gauntlet of a season, and it comes amid league-wide frustrations about Michigan’s alleged scouting and sign-stealing scheme. Officials in Ann Arbor and elsewhere are expecting clarity in the coming days; we’ll soon find out if first-year commissioner Tony Petitti takes action to punish Michigan — and whether that can derail what looks like a national championship-caliber team.
Austin Meek, The Athletic
Michigan football takeaways: Wolverines remain focused, dominate Purdue in Penn State tuneup
That’s the question everybody will be asking as pressure mounts on the Big Ten to take action in response to evidence that Michigan scouted conference opponents in violation of NCAA rules.
The speculation about possible Big Ten discipline isn’t the ideal backdrop for a team preparing for its biggest challenge of the season. Playing at Penn State was going to be tough, even under the best of circumstances. It will be even tougher now.
Harbaugh declined to discuss the possibility of a suspension but suggested his players will use criticism of the program as motivation.
“Yeah, go ahead and question them on why they’re good and how they got good,” Harbaugh said. “It’s practically a priceless gift to get to where we want to go.”
All year, Michigan’s hopes of a third consecutive Big Ten championship have been building toward this final stretch of games against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State. The Wolverines have done everything they needed to do against the first nine teams on their schedule. Despite near-constant off-field drama, their play on the field has rarely wavered.
The degree of difficulty is about to ramp up significantly. It will be up to Michigan to answer the challenge.
Chip Patterson, CBS Sports
2. Michigan (2): No signs of off-field issues having an obvious impact to the Wolverines’ on-field performance as Michigan improved to 9-0 with a 41-13 win over Purdue.
