Coming off of two straight losses, Michigan football needed get tourniquet the bleeding. Given that there are still three ranked teams on the schedule, the Wolverines needed to beat the teams that are equal or worse, and rival MSU came into the game on the rise, albeit with the same 4-3 record as the maize and blue.
On the In the Trenches podcast, senior running back and team captain Donovan Edwards shared why Michigan needed this win more than most other games.
“Very important to have that victory,” Edwards said. “See, we’ve only lost three games in my three years here, and despite the rivalry, it was a must, needed win for us. Just a boost in confidence in the program. And just bringing the electric energy back into the facility, a much-needed win. And it’s always great to win a rivalry game. But despite that, it was just a much-needed win here in Schembechler Hall.”
The Wolverines lost to two unranked teams in Washington and Illinois because they couldn’t stop turning the ball over. Even the loss to Texas came because, also, turnovers.
So Edwards — who has two fumbles this season — says that the offense went back to the basics to ensure that they’d take care of the football and between that and the play-calling, it was all about execution.
“It’s just the fact that we’ve had so many turnovers, and those turnovers just shot us and when you lose a turnover battle, you’re ultimately going to lose the game pretty much,” Edwards said. “And firstly, we just had too many turnovers, and we wanted to minimize that much as possible. And all week, the coaches were just completely emphasizing ball security, and just going back to the fundamentals of how to hold the football and just redirecting us.
“And they ultimately did a great job for us, schematically-wise. I thought Kirk called a hell of a game for us, and the players just went out there and went out there and executed. And that was just something that we were just talking about all week. It doesn’t matter what play call it is or anything like that. It’s one of those players, especially like us leaders were emphasizing that it doesn’t matter (what’s) going on like we have to go out there, play together, play for each other, and just go out there, execute the play calls.”