What they're saying about Michigan ahead of College Football Playoff

Michigan Wolverines football is set to take on Georgia in the Orange Bowl Friday night, with a spot in the national title game on the line. Here is a look around the internet at what they’re saying about the Maize and Blue before kickoff.

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Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News: Wojo: How Harbaugh and Wolverines worked their way to the biggest stage

Where does it go from here? Well, it’ll be interesting to see if there are readjustments to Jim Harbaugh’s contract, or if that even matters. He certainly earned it. Asked Thursday about his salary (sliced from $8 million to $4 million), he shrugged and said, “It’s just money. No big deal.”

To get here, in the CFP for the first time, you sometimes have to start way back there, with an eight-game losing streak to Ohio State and other assorted humblings. It takes a commitment change and an ego check, and not just by the head coach.

“Honestly, I really think it was the players, the leaders on this team had had enough, and we knew that something had to change,” McNamara said. “We had to change the way we were doing things, whether we thought we were too cool or whatever. It’s been mentioned this team is really player-driven, and I think that’s true. The guys care what this team looks like, how this team carries itself, and it fits the changes that Coach Harbaugh wanted to make.”

Whether the players inspired the coach or vice versa, doesn’t really matter now. There’s another big game ahead, maybe two, and the Wolverines have more chips they’d love to cash in.

Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports: Michigan vs. Georgia, Orange Bowl 2021: Five keys to help you pick the College Football Playoff semifinal game

Jim Harbaugh is ascending

It took seven years, but Harbaugh has fulfilled his destiny at his alma mater with a Big Ten championship and playoff berth. The Wolverines are playing the way Harbs always expected them to play — with a physical defense and run-based offense. Bo Schembechler would be proud.

After a season of coaching churn, Harbaugh has turned out to be one of the best bargains in the game. Athletic director Warde Manuel made the call in the offseason, extending his coach with a lot of incentives while cutting his salary in half. The players didn’t pay attention to the increased barking of hounds after Harbaugh went 2-4 in 2020.

“We always knew since day one it was Michigan versus everybody,” said cornerback D.J. Turner.

The Wolverines are playing with house money at this point. They’re here for the first time. At least two CFP teams are considered better (Alabama, Georgia). They’re expected to lose. That’s why it would be unwise to dismiss Harbaugh and what he has built this season.

“You can’t pay attention to anybody outside of the building,” defensive end David Ojabo said. “They’re not going through the grind we do. They’re not waking up at 6 a.m. running hills. They’re just watching us on TV. What they’ve got to say don’t really mean anything for real.”

Bill Connelly, ESPN: College Football Playoff semifinals mega-preview: Breaking down Alabama-Cincinnati and Michigan-Georgia

Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum are averaging 31 carries per game, and more than half of those come on first down, when they’re averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Corum evades tackles, Haskins breaks them and Michigan gets awesome linemen out in space, blocking smaller defenders.

Georgia doesn’t do “smaller defenders,” however. The two-deep for their line averages 6-foot-4, 307 pounds, while the linebackers average 6-foot-3, 243 pounds. Michigan has rushed for 200-plus yards seven times, and it hung 297 on Ohio State, but only one Georgia opponent topped 130. This might be where the game is won or lost. If Michigan can win the line of scrimmage on offense, the Wolverines could win the game. If they can’t, they probably won’t. And when it comes to the run game, Georgia hasn’t lost the line of scrimmage all season.

Nick Baumgardner, The Athletic: Already one for the ages, Michigan’s offensive line keeps paving the way

In the days following Michigan’s dominant win over Ohio State last month, Jim Harbaugh got a text from his old buddy John Madden. Madden, who died earlier this week at 85, has shared a bond with Harbaugh that stretches back years. Harbaugh was a hard-nosed quarterback in his playing days, of course. Al Davis gave both Harbaugh and Madden their first full-time jobs as NFL coaches. Harbaugh was, and is, a Madden guy all the way.

Madden, known by multiple generations as a man not just synonymous with football, but offensive lines and all things physical within the game, told Harbaugh quite simply that U-M’s offensive line performance against Ohio State was among the greatest he’d ever seen.

Harbaugh immediately forwarded the text to Moore.

“That’s getting printed,” Moore says now. “And framed.”

Hours before Michigan kicked off its Big Ten championship win over Iowa in Indianapolis earlier this month, Dan Dierdorf stood in the hallway outside his Lucas Oil Field radio booth. Fellow former Michigan offensive linemen Jim Brandstatter and Jon Jansen, all part of the team’s radio crew, were nearby. A grin widened beneath Dierdorf’s trademark mustache.

True to form, he wasn’t ready to crown Michigan’s front just yet. He said they had to prove it again that night against a really good Iowa front (they did, of course). But when the discussion shifted to how proud the group had already made him as a Michigan trench legend, the 72-year-old Pro Football Hall of Famer just smiled even wider. No words needed.

Michigan’s football program got rid of some demons this year and it did so the old way. The familiar way. Which is why Steve Hutchinson made a point to reach out to Moore to tell him how great a job he and his unit were doing — and to tell the coach how much it meant to him as a former Michigan lineman. Same with Jumbo Elliott. Jansen hasn’t stopped smiling since September. Ben Bredeson, Michael Onwenu, Cesar Ruiz and many others have made it known, too.

Michigan football reintroduced itself to the national stage this year and did so behind the best offensive line in college football. The way it used to be. The way many believe it’s supposed to be.

“I know that they know,” Andrew Vastardis says, “that we’re doing this for everybody who’s ever put on a winged helmet.”

Bill Bender, Sporting News: Michigan vs. Georgia odds, prediction, betting trends for Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal

SEC-Big Ten bowl matchups carry extra heat, and this one should be fun. The Bulldogs are 9-2 in bowl games against Big Ten schools, but they have split their last four games. The Wolverines are 8-8 in bowl games against SEC schools, and Harbaugh is 1-3 with three straight losses. Georgia will jump ahead early, and it will take Michigan time to adjust to the Bulldogs’ front seven. Stetson Bennett will find tight end Brock Bowers for a pair of TDs. Cade McNamara will bounce back from a rough first half to lead a rally in the second half, but the Bulldogs stay ahead throughout and set up a rematch with Alabama. 

Final score: Georgia 29, Michigan 21

Stewart Mandel, The Athletic: Stewart Mandel’s college football picks against the spread: New Year’s bowl games edition

There’s a perception out there that these are two low-scoring, grind-it-out teams. They’re actually both quite explosive: Georgia averages 6.9 yards per play (No. 5 nationally), Michigan 6.5 (No. 22). Unfortunately for the Wolverines, the majority of those big plays have come from their running backs. The Dawgs, led by their dominant front seven, allow just 2.6 yards per carry (No. 3 nationally). And Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara is unlikely to go off the way Bryce Young did in the SEC title game.

Georgia 31, Michigan 20
Pick: Georgia -7.5

Palmer Thombs, DawgsHQ: Georgia’s Keys to Victory Versus Michigan

First key: Stop the run

Michigan runs the ball with the best of them. The Wolverines rank No. 10 in the country in rushing yards per game with 223.85. They are No. 3 in rushing touchdowns with 39 scores on the ground. Running behind the Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line for best in the country, Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum have combined for over 2,000 yards and 31 touchdowns between the two of them. Meanwhile, Georgia ranks at the top or near the top of the country in terms of preventing opponents from doing so. The Bulldogs allow 81.69 yards per game, second in the nation, and have given up just three rushing touchdowns, three fewer than any other team.

So, it’s clear to see that one of these trends, some might say cornerstones for success for these two programs, is going to have to give. I wouldn’t say that Georgia has to hold Michigan under 100 yards — and if it does that, the Bulldogs will certainly have a great chance of advancing in the College Football Playoffs — but at the same time, Kirby Smart’s team can’t let Jim Harbaugh’s squad do what they’ve normally done.