ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Some Michigan football players didn’t wait long to start getting an idea of what Penn State and Ohio State were doing once bye week started. In fact, many started looking at both teams before the last game.
Michigan’s last game, last Saturday at Michigan State, started at 7:30 p.m. EDT. With Penn State playing Ohio State at noon, some of the players took that as an opportunity to catch some of the game.
Edge rusher Braiden McGregor started watching the game with Jaylen Harrell, but the duo decided to move on while the contest was still in question.
“Yeah, so Coach Harbaugh always tells us don’t get too invested in the games when you’re sitting there,” McGregor said. “So you know, (Jaylen Harrell) and I were sitting in the room, we were watching it. And, we didn’t really watch too much of it, we ended up going down in the hotel hot tubs in there and get our bodies loose and just kind of just chat with each other about what we expect and our game plan for Michigan State.
“I think a big thing for us to focus on when we’re playing, obviously, looking at who we’re gonna play at the end of the year. But I think just watching them, they’re both really good teams are both ranked top 10. You got to come to play against them and just continue to (be ourselves) and we’ll be alright.”
Similar was true for quarterback J.J. McCarthy in terms of tuning into the game live. But McCarthy took it to another level.
Once his game was over, on Sunday, McCarthy delved into the film to get a clearer picture of both teams. While the star quarterback says the team focus is certainly on the Wolverines’ next opponent, Purdue, it certainly didn’t hurt to start in on both of his future opponents.
“I watched all of it, I already watched the all-22 cut of it,” McCarthy said. “But you know, it’s a lot of stuff on tape that we’re — I would just say, it’s good to observe it, stuff that, where we think we can attack them, just finding weaknesses and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, we’re focused on Purdue. And that’s the only focus so far.”
Michigan will play Purdue at 7:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 4, but Penn State looms the following week. Ohio State is still four weeks away.