... and talks about Michigan's opportunity, on the podcast. He touched on...
• Where Michigan stands: "I remember talking after the Notre Dame game with you and I said this on the talk show: Look, the fact that Michigan was down, 21-3, in that game, and battled back and made it a one-touchdown game might not seem like a big deal, because everybody's upset, but let's see how this loss ages.
"It's aged very well. It's the best loss in the country right now. Michigan has gotten a lot of respect as a one-loss team. Notre Dame has turned out to be pretty legit. And very importantly, the 21-3 deficit didn't turn into a rout. As we learned last year with Ohio State, a rout gets you disqualified. Do not get routed.
"They battled back and made it a football game, and they had the ball with a chance to win. Would they love another shot at Notre Dame? You bet, and maybe they'll get that. But that loss … nobody really wanted or felt like getting perspective, but we had to wait and see how the season progressed. The season has progressed exactly the way you'd want.
"The gauntlet — they ran through it, they dominated. The most unbelievable stat, is through that three-game gauntlet [Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State] there were 37 opponent possessions, and 20 three-and outs. Twenty times, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State went three-and-out. That's remarkable. That's total domination — 101-27 was the score.
"It wasn't like they just happened to win the three games. They dominated the three games. And it's setting up very nicely. This is an Ohio State team that has a lot of talent, but appears to have a degree of dysfunction…
"There have been some injuries for the teams [Michigan] has played, but nobody said, 'Oh, Michigan had a third-string quarterback in against Ohio State last year,' or 'They had a third-string quarterback start against Michigan State last year.'
"One of the things you have to do is develop depth. That's the thing … [Jim] Harbaugh's got it up and running, because when he's lost starters like [sophomore wideout] Tarik Black and [junior defensive end] Rashan Gary, Grant Newsome — guys who were going to be starters on the depth chart — they've managed to show that the dropoff wasn't that much."
• Michigan's defense against an Alabama or a Clemson: "I don't know. So many people have talked about how fast they are. They have elite speed. I see it every week. Plays that look like they’re there get shut down immediately.
“From field level, I’ll see a swing pass to a running back, and I’ll think, that’s going to go for big yardage. Then it goes for a two-year gain. There will be a guy open, and I’ll think, there’s a completed pass, and it will get broken up by one of the members of the secondary…
“It would be great to see. How many Michigan fans remember the years and years and years of hearing about the Big Ten’s bulk and the Pac-12 speed, or the SEC speed? Now it looks like Don Brown’s got that bullet in his chamber to take into a match-up like that.”
• The Wolverines avoiding a trap game against Indiana: "There have been minor hiccups, but none of them have lasted four quarters. The first quarter and a half against Notre Dame, and the first quarter against Northwestern. Other than that, there has been a play here and a play there, but the defense has been so dominant.
"It feels like they would have to do something completely out of character, and do something they haven't done all year, which is not play well for four quarters. They'd have to turn it over and help Indiana's effort.
"All these things could happen. But in 10 weeks of experience here, it just seems so incredibly unlikely. To their credit, they did what they needed to do to beat Rutgers, and if anybody can talk about losing on their senior day, with a huge Ohio State game looming and national championship implications, it's Jim Harbaugh. Hopefully, he can warn his team about avoiding what happened to them back in '86.
"The reality is, it's hard to imagine, because the effort has been so consistent for this group. I don't see much drop-off."
Here's the full podcast: https://michigan.rivals.com/news/michigan-wolverines-football-podcast-doug-karsch-with-john-borton-4
• Where Michigan stands: "I remember talking after the Notre Dame game with you and I said this on the talk show: Look, the fact that Michigan was down, 21-3, in that game, and battled back and made it a one-touchdown game might not seem like a big deal, because everybody's upset, but let's see how this loss ages.
"It's aged very well. It's the best loss in the country right now. Michigan has gotten a lot of respect as a one-loss team. Notre Dame has turned out to be pretty legit. And very importantly, the 21-3 deficit didn't turn into a rout. As we learned last year with Ohio State, a rout gets you disqualified. Do not get routed.
"They battled back and made it a football game, and they had the ball with a chance to win. Would they love another shot at Notre Dame? You bet, and maybe they'll get that. But that loss … nobody really wanted or felt like getting perspective, but we had to wait and see how the season progressed. The season has progressed exactly the way you'd want.
"The gauntlet — they ran through it, they dominated. The most unbelievable stat, is through that three-game gauntlet [Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State] there were 37 opponent possessions, and 20 three-and outs. Twenty times, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State went three-and-out. That's remarkable. That's total domination — 101-27 was the score.
"It wasn't like they just happened to win the three games. They dominated the three games. And it's setting up very nicely. This is an Ohio State team that has a lot of talent, but appears to have a degree of dysfunction…
"There have been some injuries for the teams [Michigan] has played, but nobody said, 'Oh, Michigan had a third-string quarterback in against Ohio State last year,' or 'They had a third-string quarterback start against Michigan State last year.'
"One of the things you have to do is develop depth. That's the thing … [Jim] Harbaugh's got it up and running, because when he's lost starters like [sophomore wideout] Tarik Black and [junior defensive end] Rashan Gary, Grant Newsome — guys who were going to be starters on the depth chart — they've managed to show that the dropoff wasn't that much."
• Michigan's defense against an Alabama or a Clemson: "I don't know. So many people have talked about how fast they are. They have elite speed. I see it every week. Plays that look like they’re there get shut down immediately.
“From field level, I’ll see a swing pass to a running back, and I’ll think, that’s going to go for big yardage. Then it goes for a two-year gain. There will be a guy open, and I’ll think, there’s a completed pass, and it will get broken up by one of the members of the secondary…
“It would be great to see. How many Michigan fans remember the years and years and years of hearing about the Big Ten’s bulk and the Pac-12 speed, or the SEC speed? Now it looks like Don Brown’s got that bullet in his chamber to take into a match-up like that.”
• The Wolverines avoiding a trap game against Indiana: "There have been minor hiccups, but none of them have lasted four quarters. The first quarter and a half against Notre Dame, and the first quarter against Northwestern. Other than that, there has been a play here and a play there, but the defense has been so dominant.
"It feels like they would have to do something completely out of character, and do something they haven't done all year, which is not play well for four quarters. They'd have to turn it over and help Indiana's effort.
"All these things could happen. But in 10 weeks of experience here, it just seems so incredibly unlikely. To their credit, they did what they needed to do to beat Rutgers, and if anybody can talk about losing on their senior day, with a huge Ohio State game looming and national championship implications, it's Jim Harbaugh. Hopefully, he can warn his team about avoiding what happened to them back in '86.
"The reality is, it's hard to imagine, because the effort has been so consistent for this group. I don't see much drop-off."
Here's the full podcast: https://michigan.rivals.com/news/michigan-wolverines-football-podcast-doug-karsch-with-john-borton-4
