Podcast: Michigan wins the Jim Harbaugh way, J.J. McCarthy decision, way-too-early rankings, more
On this episode of TheWolverine.com podcast, Clayton Sayfie, Anthony Broome and Chris Balas discuss Michigan Wolverines football winning the national championship, junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s upcoming NFL decision, way-too-early rankings, a transfer out, basketball and more.
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“The offense, the fact that they were able to get this done the way [head coach Jim Harbaugh] wants to win, the way that warms the cockles of his heart, as he says, is pretty cool to see,” Sayfie said.
“It warms the cockles of my heart, too, because I love man ball,” Balas said with a smile. “It’s amazing … all these sites and all these bloggers, you know, ‘Ah, it’s antiquated. You can’t win that win!’ And I’m like, ‘Since when can’t you win with outstanding play in the trenches?’ That’s how everybody wins, even if it’s a good passing offense, right? There have been times that Michigan hasn’t been prepared for it or maybe were lacking an interior defensive linemen or two, like this year they have four, maybe five guys, if we’re being honest, that were difference makers to this team. I love a great defensive football team, I love winning with defense and I love that Jim Harbaugh got back to his roots, because I think after the Ohio State debacles, when they were giving up huge points, I think a few people talked him into, ‘Ok, you have to change your approach.’ Speed in space — we saw what a disaster that was with Josh Gattis. But it gets back to the play in the trenches.
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“I said on every radio show — I’d gone back and said, ‘Jim Harbaugh needs to get back his edge.’ He needs to be the coach that he was at Stanford and at San Francisco, if he’s going to succeed here, and that’s what he did. And I gave him credit for that, for knowing who he is and how he wins, and not apologizing for it. And he’s proven he can win that way.
“Now, Michigan threw for a ton of yards against Michigan State and they opened it up against terrible passing defenses when they had to and they were able to run the ball down Washington’s throat for a good portion of that game the way they had the last couple of years. It was great to see. To me, there is no better brand of football than bleeding them to death by running the ball down their throats and watching them be helpless to do anything about it. And then when you are just absolutely dominating, too, on defense and getting to Michael Penix, who was walking out of there like he had just been through a war, that was just fantastic.”
