After winning the Big Ten Championship on Saturday night against Purdue, the Wolverines finished the regular season undefeated, and the maize and blue reign over the conference for two straight seasons.
On Sunday, Michigan secured the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Even with a loss in the Big-12 Championship on Saturday, TCU remained in the No. 3 spot. The Wolverines will take on the Horned Frogs on Dec. 31 which will mark the first meeting between the two schools.
TCU lost to Kansas State on Saturday, in overtime, but the Horned Frogs still won 12 games in the regular season. In fact, TCU has the best strength of schedule, No. 25, out of the four teams that made the CFP.
See the 2022 Big Ten Championship game program here
There were only two teams in college football that went undefeated this season: Georgia and Michigan. Two other teams had one loss: TCU and Ohio State. The Bulldogs are the reigning national champions, but it doesn’t feel like there is any team that will walk away with a championship this season.
On Sunday, Ronnie Bell told the media how competitive the Big Ten is this season. There weren’t any guaranteed wins and a team like Michigan will always get the best from its opponent. Even in a conference like the Big-12, which has been down recently, but that conference has been solid this year. Bell admitted he hasn’t seen a ton on TCU this season, but he gives the Horned Frogs credit for what they’ve accomplished.
“But this year, everybody in the Big-12 was really competitive, too,” said Bell. “So I mean, I don’t know, I think it’s all around the country, which is really good football. And yeah, like for TCU to be undefeated. As I said, they said beat K State in the regular season. So, you know, for TCU to be successful. There has been I think that’s a huge accomplishment as well.
Michigan had the late game on Saturday, an 8:17 p.m. kickoff. TCU and Kansas State played at noon, so a lot of the Wolverines had a chance to watch the game. Jaylen Harrell was asked what impressed him the most about TCU. Harrell, like most people, like what he saw from Max Duggan.
“I watched the Big-12 championship,” said Harrell. “Quarterback, he’s a dog I like his game. Some pretty good receivers you know, we have a great challenge. We will be ready.”
J.J. McCarthy told the media he watched the entire game on Saturday. Being a quarterback, McCarthy likes to watch other quarterbacks to see what they do and what their strengths are. The sophomore is excited to see how his defense performs against an elite player such as Duggan.
TCU has the 64th-ranked rushing defense in the country allowing 149.4 yards per game on the ground. McCarthy also noted that he sees opportunities for Michigan to use its smash-mouth run offense against the Horned Frogs.
“Yeah, I had time to watch the full game,” said McCarthy “And they’re a great squad, Max Duggan, he’s a great player, but it’ll be awesome to see how he shapes up against our defense.”
“I see a lot of opportunities for our smash (O-line) to kind of take advantage of that. So that definitely excites me. But at the end of the day, who knows what’s going to happen and we’ll be ready for it.”
Michigan and TCU will play on Dec. 31 at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
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