ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After Michigan football beat Northwestern, 50-6, on Saturday, senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart sat at the podium and was asked, despite being a heavy underdog vs. Ohio State, if he expected to win.
“Are you serious?” Stewart retorted. “Yeah. Yeah.”
Despite being 6-5 compared to the Buckeyes at 10-1, these Wolverines still have pride. They won the national championship not even a year ago, and have beaten OSU three straight years. There’s not a clear path to a win this week in Columbus, but the belief is still there, even coming off the high of the Northwestern win.
On Tuesday, following what Kenneth Grant called an energetic practice, Stewart explained more about why he feels the Wolverines will go into The Shoe and expect to win. No, the team hasn’t looked nearly as good as anticipated in the preseason, but this also may be a team that’s finally rediscovering its mojo from a year ago.
“Just as a team, we’re a real resilient group,” Stewart said. “We’ve been through adversity this whole year, and we know what it takes to overcome it. Especially last year, we know what it takes in a game like this. There’s no settling short anything but a W.”
It’s taken some time for Ohio State’s strength of schedule to get close to Michigan’s this year — an inverse of last season. The Wolverines had a lot to figure out early in 2024, but it didn’t have much time to do so. Texas came to town in Week 2; though in a down year, a then-ranked USC came to Ann Arbor in Week 4. Ranked Illinois, Oregon, and Indiana teams were also on the schedule. Ohio State didn’t face its first ranked team until midyear, when it went to Happy Valley to beat Penn State, though it lost at Oregon, and suffocated ranked Indiana just this past week.
Senior running back Donovan Edwards thinks that having that front-loaded schedule may help the maize and blue, especially as there have been glimpses throughout the year that Michigan was putting some pieces together. Texas wasn’t much of a contest from the jump, Oregon was a surprising fight late, and the Wolverines had the ball in their hands with a chance to beat Indiana with time waning.
Given how much depth has needed to be developed over the course of the year, Edwards thinks that the younger players will be able to come in and play fast and loose, having now gotten past the learning curve experienced earlier this season.
“Yeah, I think it prepares us a lot, and especially for the younger guys — like the freshmen and the sophomores who are being relied on currently and that have played against Texas, Oregon, and Michigan State, and Indiana — games like that,” Edwards said. “They know what it’s really about, playing against top-rated teams and rivals. So, I think that that helps a lot, just the experience that they have been able to get, that they have been able to get in. Guys like myself and Mason and Colston and Will and K.G., guys who have played previously — and Myles — guys who played already, being able to have already gotten the experience before, already.”
Michigan and Ohio State kick off at noon EST at Ohio Stadium. The Game will be broadcast nationally on Fox.