76 days until Michigan football: Stats on lack of penalties and run game ups and downs
There are 76 days until the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines football team takes the field in the Aug. 31 opener against Fresno State. Each day until then, we’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan’s opponents committed 76 penalties last season, compared to the Wolverines’ 45. The Maize and Blue were tied first in the nation for fewest penalties per game (3), along with Air Force and Minnesota. That amounted to only 27.5 penalty yards per contest.
That discipline was key for Michigan in winning the national championship with an unblemished, 15-0 record.
Another key stat, Michigan’s 2766 rushing yards. The Wolverines averaged 169.1 rushing yards per contest, which actually ranked 55th in the country — far from elite. Even their 4.5 yards per carry average was pedestrian, ranking 52nd in the sport.
In 2022, Michigan was fifth in the country with 238.9 rushing yards per game, averaging 5.6 yards per carry (third).
While much of the talk about the national championship season surrounded how well the Wolverines ran the ball, opposing defenses sold out to stop it most of the time and had some success in doing so. Michigan averaged less than 4 yards per cary in six of 15 outings a year ago — versus Iowa (1.9), Purdue (3.2), Maryland (3.3), Michigan State (3.5), Indiana (3.9) and East Carolina (3.9).
The standard was set high, it’s worth noting. Even after a 35-7 win over UNLV in September in which Michigan rushed for 179 yards (5.4 yards per attempt), much of the public discourse surrounded the Wolverines not putting up massive numbers on the ground and running at will on opponents.
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“The thing I’m looking at is being efficient. The inefficient plays are outnumbering the efficient runs,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said the following Monday. “The efficient runs to me are 4 to 9 [yards], the explosives are 10-plus, and non-efficient runs are 0 to 3. We have far too many of those.
“It’s a combination of really everybody. We’ve got to block better on the perimeter. We’ve got to get the safeties that are blocked by the wide receivers. Tight ends are really playing well. Offensive line, yeah. Missing a guy here … it’s one guy on a play. Guys are coming off the second level and making plays.”
Michigan was still finding its footing at that point, and while the run game didn’t put up those big numbers in most games, it came through when it was needed — especially in short-yardage situations. The highlight for the run game was flexing against Washington with a season-high 303 yards and 4 touchdowns in a 34-13 national championship game win over Washington. It was there, just waiting to break out, all season. And that game was a quintessential Michigan football victory, in addition to being one of the most important in program history.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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