ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Alabama is a different animal than anything Michigan football has seen all year. Obviously, the competition level is going to go up once you get to the College Football Playoff, but the Wolverines realize they have a challenge, particularly when it comes to containing the Crimson Tide offense.
Statistically, Alabama isn’t winning many awards. It comes in as the 55th-ranked total offense, 59th passing attack and 47th rushing attack. Just because it isn’t putting up big numbers like other flashy units doesn’t mean it isn’t elite. The Tide aren’t dissimilar from Michigan in this area.
Last week, Michigan team captain and fifth-year cornerback Mike Sainristil shared what makes Alabama so dangerous on that side of the ball. He noted how creative Tommy Rees’ offense can be in unexpected ways.
“They’ll run plays, the same play, a lot of different ways. They find different ways to get to it,” Sainristil said. “They’ll find ways to have you think that they’re in a balanced-set formation, and then they’ll slow the tempo down — and then they’ll have a guy step off the ball. They’ll do it while you’re looking at your sideline. And then next thing you know the ball’s snapped, the next thing you know the ball’s over your head, and it’s like, ‘Wait, what just happened?’
“But they have dynamic receivers, a really good quarterback as well. Throw the ball probably 70 yards in the air. And, yeah, like I said, their receivers are really good tracking the ball down the field. So, it’s a great opportunity for our defense.”
Still, Sainristil believes a few teams have prepared the Wolverines for what they’ll see on Monday, even if it’s much different stylistically and schematically.
“We’ve played very good offenses,” Sainristil said. “We played Maryland, who had a really good quarterback, really good at getting out to pocket, creating plays — something that’s very similar to Milroe. We played Ohio State who has really good receivers. You know, Marvin Harrison won the Biletnikoff. So we’ve definitely had scenarios that have prepared us for a team like Alabama. So, just being able to take everything that we’ve learned throughout the year and just put all forward here going into this game is going to be the best thing for our preparation.”
None of the above are ranked in the upper echelon of college football this year. Ohio State is the top unit Michigan has seen. It was 35th overall. In contrast, Alabama has seen the offenses of No. 1 LSU, No. 8 Georgia, No. 9 Texas, No. 15 Ole Miss and No. 16 Tennessee.
However, seeing a variety of looks is something that helps the Wolverines, Sainrsitil believes. Even though Sainristil did an admirable job of covering Marvin Harrison Jr. in the second half of The Game, he doesn’t believe it stylistically helps him against the Tide. But it does help him and his compatriots in the defensive backfield know they’ve had success against elite receivers such as Harrison, even though Alabama’s players are much different.
“Kind of — not really. Just because they do different things offensively and schematically,” Sainristil said. “But, I guess I would just say being able to take my experience of playing against a very good, NFL top-five probably picked going into this draft type of receiver — so I played a good receiver before. But, everyone’s good in different ways.
“(Isaiah) Bond is probably a 10.2 100-meter track runner — a lot faster than Martin Harrison I would say. So, there’s different things from different guys, but I’ve definitely feel like we’ve all been prepared different ways for this game.”
Michigan and Alabama will kick off the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2024 at 2 p.m. PST.