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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For once, Michigan is finally peaking at the right time, at the end of the season. Nothing exemplifies that more than the beatdown just put upon rival Ohio State, a team that’s boasted how much it’s owned the Wolverines in recent history.
As the maize and blue embark on a new journey, heading to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship Game for the first time, they’ll need to continue their high level of play, something they’re sure they’ll do.
Why though? One of the big reasons is because the bar has been set with the game vs. the Buckeyes. That said, as good as the defense looked, for instance, outside of one player, there’s still a lot of room for growth, junior defensive tackle Mazi Smith says.
“Always keep going,” Smith said. “I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface. I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface. The only person probably scratched the surface on what they can do is Aidan. I just think we keep getting better every game and keep getting more dominant and more dominant.”
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Even with the win over OSU, this team isn’t satisfied. There’s still a lot of work to do, and the potential for three more games — two are guaranteed.
The defense, and the team, are chasing perfection, and they’re still not there yet — either in actual play on the field, or in acquiring the results they hope to achieve.
“The sky’s the limit for all of us,” Smith said. “We’ve all got a lot of talent. We’re all working hard on what we’ve gotta do to get better every day, but on the tape, we haven’t played perfect. That was close. The last game was the closest that we played to perfect, but it was still imperfect, there was a lot to clean up. So, that’s what we’re striving for — perfection.”
For Smith, this is exactly what you want.
It’s a hungry team that wants more, a team that has, thus far, hit the 11-win mark for the first time since 2011, with a chance for 12 on Saturday — a number reached once: in 1997, when the Wolverines won the national championship. Should this team continue to improve, as Smith said, ‘the sky’s the limit.’
“It’s exciting because we done won a lot of games and we haven’t played as clean as we’re supposed to do yet,” Smith said. “So, we’re still striving. Put it all together.”
Of course, to reach that number, which isn’t a plateau even, Michigan has to avoid a letdown in Indianapolis. Smith is convinced that it won’t be. Why? Because in past years, the Wolverines would be sitting at home at this juncture, having lost to Ohio State. This year is different because the team has already met one goal, and the next comes with a win on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the end of the season,” Smith said. “A lot of times in the past, that’s been the last game we played. But we’ve got another one. Now we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do to beat Iowa.”
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