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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In recent memory, when Michigan has been good, it’s had to face Ohio State in Columbus.
Sure, the 2015 team was decent, but it wasn’t necessarily elite like the 2016 or 2018 teams looked close to being. In 2017, the Wolverines were injury-depleted, and went into that game looking like it wouldn’t stand a chance.
This year is different. The maize and blue look as if they’re peaking at the right time, and despite two losses, suddenly look like a team that could take on anybody.
There’s a lot more confidence in this squad than there was earlier in the season, and that’s precisely what head coach Jim Harbaugh sees in his team at the moment.
“We’re excited to play, we’re confident,” Harbaugh said. “Looking forward to today’s preparation. Looking forward to the game, looking forward to playing at home. Looking forward to every possible thing about it.”
It also helps that Michigan just doesn’t often lose at home.
Since Jim Harbaugh arrived in 2015, it’s lost to a grand total of two teams at The Big House. Unfortunately, one of those is Ohio State.
In 2015, Michigan lost to MSU on perhaps the flukiest play in college football history, and then lost to OSU in a blowout, with D.J. Durkin — who had already accepted the Maryland job — seeing his defense get gashed in the second-half.
The Wolverines were undefeated at home in 2016.
In 2017, the team lost in a monsoon to MSU and gave a superior Buckeyes squad all it could handle, despite the various personnel issues.
Michigan was undefeated at home again in 2018.
The Wolverines two losses this year both came on the road at Wisconsin and at Penn State. That means that starting quarterback Shea Patterson has never walked off the field with his head cowered having suffered a loss after touching the banner earlier in the day. Will that trend continue on Saturday?
One thing is for sure, as Harbaugh noted, this team is playing with utmost confidence, and is playing much differently than it was earlier in the season, shellacking Notre Dame and MSU at home and even taking it to a good Indiana team in Bloomington this past week.
Team captain and senior left guard Ben Bredeson says that this is a team that’s playing with more swagger now than before and playing the big games at home is certainly making a difference.
“I think the feel of the team, really started after the Indiana game,” Bredeson said. “Everyone is fired up that (The Game) is finally here. We finally get to play in The Game. Homefield advantage — it’s obviously huge. We love being able to play in front of our fans and just have our home routine. Everything is a lot easier when the game is in Ann Arbor.”
“Yeah, I love playing at home,” Shea Patterson said. “It was always a dream to play at The Big House. Used to come to games all the time with my dad when I was little. It’s a dream come true.”
For Patterson, it wasn’t just about getting another shot against the Buckeyes that helped convince him to come back his senior year.
As the game was dwindling in Columbus a year ago, he huddled with receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones as they formulated a plan to return stronger than ever in 2019, knowing that they’d have homefield advantage this time around.
“I remember we were on the sideline when things got out of hand in the fourth quarter,” Patterson said. “Just sitting there with Donovan (Peoples-Jones), standing up watching the remaining minutes of that game and just remembering that we were going to get another shot at them at a different place.”
We’ll see Saturday, starting at noon EST if Patterson’s magic at The Big House continues, and if he can finish his career undefeated at home.
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