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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — ‘Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.’
Back in August, Michigan defensive coordinator boiled the failures of the 2018 regular season to 38 total minutes — 19 minutes to start the season, and 19 minutes to end the season.
And he wasn’t wrong.
“If you look at our season, regular season – that’s all I’m talking about – the first 19 minutes of the regular season were not very good for Michigan defense,” Brown said. “The next 10 game stretch was pretty damn good. And then, we’ve got 19 minutes left in the Ohio State game, and it’s a 7 point game or an 8 point game – 26-19 or whatever it is. And the last 17 minutes weren’t very good.
“If we would have just squeezed out the first 19 and the last 19, which is probably the result of the things we can control – five drives – it might have been a historic year. Well, it wasn’t. So what are you gonna do about it? You’ve gotta squeeze out the first 19, squeeze out the last 19. That means mentally you’ve gotta be tougher. That means, from a preparation standpoint, we’ve gotta be better. That means from my standpoint, I’ve gotta be better. So that’s really the challenge.”
2019 has been more of a mixed bag. The defense started the season slow, reaching the nadir of its mediocre play at Wisconsin, where it got gashed for 35 unanswered points.
It coalesced from there, to some degree, but had similar issues to start the Penn State game, the seventh of the season. However, from there, the defense has clamped down, allowing just 9.3 points-per-game starting with the second half in Happy Valley. Notre Dame could get nothing going. Maryland’s only score was on special teams. Michigan State got an early touchdown and nothing else. Indiana started hot, but was inept offensively after scoring with less than a minute into the second quarter.
So with Ohio State and the nation’s No. 6-rated offense on deck, these Wolverines can’t help but think back to the last 19 minutes of last year’s version of The Game, when a two-score game ballooned into three. Michigan’s offense managed to keep putting points on the board, but Ohio State could not be stopped, scoring on every single possession in the second-half, save for the first.
For Michigan, it’s equated into wholesale changes on defense. Though the overall aggressive philosophy has been the same, Brown has implemented a lot more zone concepts.
Seemingly, everything Michigan has done since the 62-39 shellacking in Columbus has been in response to what happened a year ago, and a desire to keep that from happening again.
“It’s fueled us a lot, just knowing that the last 19 minutes didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” senior VIPER Khaleke Hudson said. “We’ve been doing everything throughout this whole year and we’ll do everything throughout this week to change that — to play 60 minutes to the best of our ability.”
Now that The Game is mere days away, while Ohio State seems like an unbeatable monolith, it’s the spectre of last year’s season finale that keeps these Wolverines going.
While some games — won or lost — quickly make their way into the rearview, for players like team captain Carlo Kemp, the constant reminder of how things fell apart in Columbus have kept him and his teammates going as they’ve prepared for this moment.
Last year, it was the revenge tour. This year, particularly against the Buckeyes, it feels more like seeeking redemption.
“(It means) a lot — personally, I can think about that, because I’m part of those last 19 minutes,” Kemp said. “You can’t erase none of that film. Whatever’s out there is what happened. I’ve been thinking about those plays and those 19 minutes that (Don Brown) talks about, and I take it personally, because I was a part of it and I wasn’t able to help nobody that played for Michigan that day. I wasn’t able to help the defense, I wasn’t able to help the offense. Wasn’t able to help the special teams. It’s just something you think about.
“And being able to have another chance this week to go out there and perform, it’s a huge opportunity.”
It’ll be a tall task for this Michigan team, however. Ohio State shows few — if any — weaknesses, and have won every single game by double digits.
However, at the moment, the Buckeyes are favored by just 8.5 points, a full score less than any other game this season.
The Wolverines are playing with confidence and a knowledge that they weren’t good enough last year. Will that make them good enough this year, against and even stronger OSU team?
We’ll find out at noon on Saturday.
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