Michigan football went two full years without losing in the regular season. However, with a confluence of events — Jim Harbaugh leaving for the NFL, roster turnover, still figuring out the quarterback situation — the Wolverines have lost two games in six tries in the 2024 campaign.
To those outside of Schembechler Hall, the season feels over, like this team won’t contend for anything. But with six games left on the schedule, anything can happen — not just for Michigan, but for any team out there. Teams that were hot early can get cold. Teams that looked incapable early can look like world-beaters by the season’s end. It happens almost every year.
Senior team captain and fullback Max Bredeson says these Wolverines know what time it is, and though there’s a sense of urgency, that hasn’t boiled over into pandemonium inside the locker room.
“It’s definitely urgency,” Bredeson said. “You have to find the line between urgency and panic. That’s big thing that we’ve established — can’t be panicked. But there’s a lot of like, sense of gotta roll, gotta get things going. But yeah, basically be urgent, but make sure you don’t cross that line.”
But what does that mean? What does urgency look like?
Part of it is a calmness, but another is having players who aren’t accustomed to losing understanding that it can be a part of football. Another part is just doing what’s needed daily, focusing on the minutiae instead of the overall big picture. Junior cornerback Will Johnson says that everyone inside the locker room understands what time it is and what they need to do in order to keep the eye on the prize.
“I think right now, it’s just making sure everyone knows how serious it is and how urgent it is,” Johnson said. “Like you said, we got some young guys that haven’t been in this type of — haven’t experienced this, had all our experience of losing and things like that. So I think as a whole, we’re just trying to attack every day and be urgent.”
Saturday presents a big challenge for the maize and blue. A game that was thought in the preseason to be a layup now is a huge ranked-on-ranked matchup, on the road, no less. And it’s against an Illinois team that would love nothing more than to get a win over Michigan while celebrating a big upset win over Michigan 100 years ago.
Thus, urgency is paramount. Panic could bring the team down. Thankfully, as Bredeson says, he’s not seen that from his team.
“Thankfully, we’ve never crossed that line,” Bredeson said. “So that’s something we take a lot of pride in here, of mental composure and to cross the line would just look panicked and flustered. Luckily, that’s not the deal due to the training that we’ve had. It’s not how it’s gone.”
Michigan and Illinois will kick off at 3:30 p.m. EDT at Memorial Stadium with the game nationally broadcast on CBS.