Skip to main content
michigan logo

Michigan lineman hints at wrinkles in store for Buckeyes

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•11/22/23•

anthonytbroome

Zak Zinter
(Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

The Michigan Wolverines will face off against the rival Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor with the Big Ten East title on the line. For Michigan, it’s the latest in a set of goals that could define how this season is viewed historically.

The Wolverines could have two games left or as many as four. Saturday is the key to all of it.

“It’s just one of the goals that we’ve had all year, to beat Michigan State and Penn State,” senior offensive lineman Zak Zinter said this week. “[Ohio State] is the next one up. We’re gonna do everything we can do that. 

“They’re a good team, so you’ve got to respect that. You can’t just go in there and expect to win, you got to prepare your ass off all week and focus on the details. So there’s a lot of respect there for them at that, but, at the same time, it is a rivalry game. There is a form of that as well, but you definitely still have to respect them.”

Michigan knows that in order to win, it will need to get its run game going. The winner of this rivalry game historically has taken care of business in that area. Over the last few years, U-M has racked up 549 yards total on the ground.

“We know we have to get the run game going. If we get the run game going, it’s going to open up the pass game. It’s going to make everything a whole lot easier. As an offensive line, we know that going into the game. And the energy is going to be there. The fans are going to be on our side and going crazy. I think it’s a little bit of everything.”

Michigan’s offensive line has been a step or two below the Joe Moore Award-winning performances of the last few seasons. In recent weeks, a lot of criticism has been thrown the way of graduate Karsen Barnhart for some bad snaps on the field. Zinter is preaching patience and confidence to his teammate.

“Everyone has a bad rep here or there,” Everyone’s got a bad game or a rep you’d want back here and there. That’s every game as an offense lineman. You get beat sometimes too. Those guys are D1 athletes too on the other side. I think that’s just part of the game. Just tell him to be him.”

Michigan and Ohio State enter this game as 11-0 teams that are mostly known commodities, but there are going to be wrinkles each squad saved for each other that get deployed this weekend. Zinter isn’t sharing state secrets but says U-M has something up its sleeve.

“We obviously watch all the games that they play,” Zinter said. “They watch all the games we play. So, obviously, they’re not going to show something that they’re going to give us. They’re going to have a new blitz, a new something for us, to have to be able to pick up. We’re going to have something that they haven’t seen, obviously. It’s part of the game. It goes both ways, honestly.”

Saturday will be an uphill battle for Michigan without head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is serving the third game of a Big Ten-imposed three-game suspension over an alleged illegal scouting ring.

But needing to fight through adversity to take down the Buckeyes is nothing new to the team. Zinter expects a similar fight ahead of them.

“I think it goes back to the 2020 season, everyone was against us and we wanted to prove something to everyone in 2021,” Zinter said. “We were both one-loss teams that year and it was really going to come down to whoever won that game was going to move on and keep going.

“We took that personally. We wanted to prove to everyone outside this building that we had what it took.”

You may also like