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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The last time that Ed Warinner was involved in a battle for The Little Brown Jug, he was on the losing side. Now with his opposition from 2017, he hopes that trend doesn’t continue.
Michigan poached Warinner — the former Ohio State co-offensive coordinator — away from P.J. Fleck’s fledgling staff in Minneapolis just after his first year. Now the two teams will meet for the first time since that night game in Ann Arbor, but this time with higher stakes, as a ranked-on-ranked matchup for the Big Ten season opener.
On Wednesday, Warinner recounted what it was like being on the other side of this rivalry, and where he’s seen the program grow since leaving for Ann Arbor.
“I went there and worked there P.J.’s first year,” Warinner said. “I enjoyed being in his program. He’s very organized and he’s very good at communicating what his objectives are to the team and how he wants to run his program. He has a real clear vision of how he wants to do that. Obviously, how he wanted to build his program, it came to fruition Year Three there, last year with a great year, a great finish to the season.
“Everything about it for me was positive. Now we’re on the other side. And I’m looking forward to going back up there, and I enjoyed Minneapolis that year and I enjoyed being there. I still have a lot of friends on the staff. Really good people that I’m still close to up there. In this particular game, we’ve gotta get after each other and see if we can come out on top.
“But I think he’s doing a fantastic job with the program and how to manage the program in that environment – the university, in the Twin Cities with five pro teams in that town. He’s done an outstanding job in three years of building that thing up.”
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Saturday will be a different animal, however.
The last meeting between the programs featured two unranked teams, whereas this one will be in primetime and broadcast nationally on ABC. ESPN College GameDay is in town for the pregame show, putting even more national attention on the game.
Warinner feels good about where the Wolverines are at the moment, but still — given the odd offseason due to the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no telling precisely where Michigan is until it faces off against a team wearing a different uniform.
“The last time, when I was at Minnesota the one year, we came here to The Big House and played,” Warinner said. “It was a battle for awhile, then Michigan pulled away and controlled the game. I know we haven’t played since. I think prior to that, there were a few close games in there, I believe.
“Obviously, they’ve built the program up. They’re a good team, a really good team. Everybody on their schedule last year, they were capable of beating. They’re breaking out a new team the same as us – no preseason, no non-conference opponents. We all think we know what we have – we don’t know what we have until we play this game. We think we know what we have. I’m sure they’re well-prepared, I’m sure they’ve recruited well, I’m sure they’re ready to go just as we are. I think it’s one of those games – it’s gonna be a typical Big Ten game. We’ve gotta go up there, control the line of scrimmage, take care of the football and create some big plays when we can. Play physical, play smart and I’m sure they’ll try to do the same thing – play great defense, stop the run on defense, all those things. That’s all coachspeak, but I really think that it’s a tight game going in. Somebody will separate themselves as this thing plays out, I think.”
Nonetheless, it can be assured that the Gophers have the Wolverines attention.
There have been times that Michigan has appeared to play down to the competition, but this won’t be one of those times. Sure, they’re both evenly ranked, but the Wolverines are certainly more talented. According the the 247Sports Team Talent Composite, Michigan is ranked No. 18 compared to Minnesota at No. 59.
Still, the Gophers were No. 46 a year ago and took down No. 13 Auburn in the Outback Bowl.
“We are taking them very, very seriously – very seriously,” Warinner said. “This is not a pre-Big Ten – this is a Big Ten, GameDay is there. The whole country thinks this is a big game. We’ve always thought that. We know – we watched Minnesota beat Auburn the same day we played Alabama. But we know what they can do.”
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