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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Every year, in any of Michigan’s three rivalry games, but especially against Ohio State, there’s an expectation that the Wolverines will break something new or unexpected out. Perhaps it’s a counter to something we’ve already seen. Or maybe something new entirely.
Take Jabrill Peppers coming out as the wildcat quarterback against MSU in 2015 — which forced the Spartans to take consecutive timeouts. Or even in the non-rivalry big games, like Shea Patterson keeping the ball by design against Wisconsin last year.
But, against the Buckeyes, it doesn’t seem like Michigan has pulled an ace out of its sleeve in the same regard.
Yes, in 2016, it did on the defensive side of the ball, which was significantly less obvious to the casual observer. The Wolverines confused OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett rolling out a mixture of man and zone coverages, which allowed plenty of time for the defensive line to wreak havoc. Short, quick passes on offense gave the maize and blue a fighting chance despite being overmatched in 2017.
But otherwise — like last year — it just seemed like Michigan was intent to just come out and play its game.
And that didn’t work.
This year, the Wolverines seem more tight-lipped than normal. While it’s not unusual for head coach Jim Harbaugh to only talk for 13 minutes at his Monday press conference, in recent weeks, he’s spoken in excess of 15-20. Per a Michigan spokesperson, whereas the media gets two assistant coaches regularly on Wednesday for media availability, there will be no such availability this week.
Meanwhile, both sides of the ball have diversified extensively. We’re seeing more of speedy freshman wideout Giles Jackson on offense. The defense has mixed in more and more zone looks all year, with players like hybrid linebacker-defensive end Josh Uche mixing whether he goes at the quarterback or drops into coverage.
There has been a litany of formations on both sides of the ball that indicate radical change from the season opener against Middle Tennessee.
That in mind, Michigan is seemingly peaking at the right time in most facets, which is perfect since the No. 2 Buckeyes are coming to town as a seemingly unbeatable force.
Starting with the defense, Harbaugh credited the job that defensive coordinator Don Brown has done at making adjustments and keeping things fresh. All offseason, fans clamored for more diversity than the typical 4-man down front with constant blitzing. It burned the Wolverines in Columbus a year ago, and it seems that Brown has been preparing his team for this challenge — facing an explosive Ohio State offense — all season long.
“We’re not really gonna talk schematics going into any game, but there’s been a multitude of different fronts, different blitz packages, coverages,” Harbaugh said. “It’s pretty high volume, and (Don Brown) does a great job of calling the defense, he does a great job of making adjustments during the week, in-game. All of it. As well as I’ve ever seen it done.
“And to say everything’s possible. Everything’s possible for this game. Just everything, everything we’ve done, everything that could be done could be changed. Anything could be added. Don’t mind your opponents knowing that. All things are possible, schematically. Specifically schematically.”
And it’s worked, mostly.
Yes, the defense was gashed at Wisconsin, and initially at Penn State before it settled in about 20 minutes into the game. But many of the teams that Michigan has faced have seen less-than-normal outputs. That was certainly on display this past week, as a vaunted Indiana offense that was averaging 448 yards-per-game to just 321 total yards — with 48 coming as the Hoosiers were just trying to get out of their own stadium on an 8-plus minute drive to end the game. It was IU’s second-lowest output all season.
But Saturday presents a bigger challenge. Ohio State has the No. 6 offense in the country, and its lowest output this year was just this last week against Penn State, after some self-inflicted wounds held it back.
Perhaps it’s a sign that, should Michigan’s defense play at its potential — and more so, if it thinks it has the blueprint to slow Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins & Co. — that the Wolverines could hold the Buckeyes lower than that season-low of 421 yards of offense.
The way that senior VIPER Khaleke Hudson sees the offense, OSU will do everything in its power to come out fast. But he sees a path to slowing down the high-flying attack.
“Just the way that they control the game, how they want to put the game in their hands,” Hudson said. “They want to control, put points on the board early and fast, try to get ahead really quickly, put our offense in bad situations where we have to pass the ball more than we want to or vice versa. Just letting them not do that, have the defense control the game. Getting pressures on the quarterback. Playing tight man and zone behind the pressure and just going out there and letting it all out.”
But the other side of the ball could be quite interesting.
Since the offense started firing on all cylinders in the second-half against Penn State, we’ve seen significantly more diversity. In the play-calling, in the personnel groups and the variety of formations.
Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has often said the goal of his ‘speed in space’ offense is to put the defense in conflict. We’ve seen that more in recent weeks, evident on plays such as Cornelius Johnson’s late touchdown against MSU — when an RPO play had quarterback Shea Patterson keep the ball, roll out and when the defender chose to come at him, instead of holding on, he threw to Johnson, who streaked into the endzone.
That was at the end of the game. But perhaps a more telling aspect has been fellow true freshman Giles Jackson’s inclusion into the offense early in games.
Jackson reeled in a 50-yarder on Michigan’s first drive against Indiana, which set up Patterson’s strike to Ronnie Bell to tie the game up at 7-all. He also got the ball twice rushing, and while he only got 7 total yards on that front, it feels like Michigan is setting something up for The Game.
If anyone knows about Jackson’s talent, it’s star wideout Nico Collins, who sees big things coming from the Antioch, California native — not just in this game, but overall.
“Giles, man — he’s a really great kid,” Collins said. “He’s growing up. You can tell he’s gonna be a big impact on this offense. He’s showing it, what he can do with the ball in his hands.
“He’s a freshman, so he’s got a long time here! But you can tell each game he’s getting (more) comfortable and comfortable. At the end of the day, (you get better) just playing football. We appreciate Giles a lot.
“(And) Mikey (Sainristil), Cornelius (Johnson) — everybody. Just having a huge impact on the offense.”
So does Michigan have an ace up its sleeve? The evidence is mounting, but we’ll have to wait until Saturday to find out.
Like Jim Harbaugh said: anything can happen.
The Wolverines host the Buckeyes at The Big House at noon EST. The Game will be broadcast nationally on FOX.
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