ANN ARBOR – The week of The Game between the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes has come, and U-M’s four-game win streak is at the top of the list of storylines heading into this one as it looks to add a fifth in a row.
Naturally, the recent dominance has lent itself to narratives around how Michigan is the mentally tougher program, but Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore and his players do not see a through-line from the performance. They take it one week at a time, one game at a time with the clock resetting each matchup.
“I just think we’re just going to go prepare for the game,” Moore told the media on Monday. “I don’t know what [is said] outside the building… none of that really matters. What people think, what people say, doesn’t matter. What matters is how we prepare, how we get ready for this game mentally, and that’s it. So I don’t know what the mental edge piece is, I just know that we’re going to just go prepare to go win the game.”
Michigan captain and senior tight end Marlin Klein said: ”We don’t really think about it that way. I think we just worry about ourselves and what we have to do in our mental space. And that’s really just being the best version of ourselves every single day. So we’re just trying to be the best team that we can be every day and get better and better leading up to Saturday.”
Whether it has a mental edge over the Buckeyes or not, it feels it has developed one over the course of this season internally. The Wolverines have been in College Football Playoff elimination mode since a loss at USC on Oct. 11, but have won five games in a row, capped off by a 45-20 win at Maryland on Saturday.
Can it snowball? Moore seems to think so.
“Momentum is a real thing,” Moore said. “Guys understand how they played, and they prepared that way. So we expected to play well, can’t really worry about what the outcome and the score is going to be, but felt like we played well comparatively, especially on offense with how we played the game before, but can’t say we played extremely bad offense. It was just turning the ball over in the game before.
“So we moved the ball, but we just took care of the football. We scored in the red zone when we needed to and did the things that we thought we could do to win the game. So it gives us good momentum in the game, but again, that doesn’t mean anything. You still have to go prepare for it.”
‘It’s about Michigan’ when it comes to prep for The Game
Michigan can claim it takes things one week at a time, but everything it does throughout the year is to build equity for the defining game of the season. The Towsley Museum of Schembechler Hall, which is where all player and coach media is held, is adorned with several reminders of the Ohio State series and the expectations that come with it.
”That’s something that we talk about really all year,” Klein said. “It’s all over the building and you turn around and you see Michigan/Ohio State, all that stuff over there. That’s something that is in the back of our mind all year long. And now, now it’s here. It’s Monday of Ohio State Week. Now we can let all those emotions get out and let it fly and let it rip on Saturday.
”… This week it’s about us. It’s about Michigan. That’s what it’s always about. This is a playoff game. We win this, we’re in the playoffs. But if you win this game, you’ll be remembered in Ann Arbor forever. So we, especially as seniors, get to put our stamp on this one. We’re just super excited to do that on Saturday.”
Michigan captain and offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi says The Game is a complete reset, too, and nothing about the last four years matters on Saturday.
”We’re not really worried about the last couple of years at all,” he said. “This is a whole new game, whole new team. whole new year. Every day, just keep ramping up a little bit until game time, then you let it all out. That’s kind of like how I feel, especially as a captain for the team, about how we should look at the game.”
El-Hadi and the Wolverines have not always looked their best throughout the battle rhythm of the season, but he sees the progress behind the scenes that Michigan needs to make to be ready for the game, and to win it.
”As a program, I feel like every week we’re getting better,” El-Hadi said. “Better as a program, as an offense, as a defense, as a whole team. And I feel like we’re just reaching our peak at the right time. And this one will be obviously big, and I feel like it’ll be a very good trajectory.
“I just feel like everything we worked for this year has been for this moment. All the blood, sweat and tears we put in throughout the year. All the hard practices, and those hot ass days have been for this one day. So we’re ready for wherever they throw at us.
“At the end of the day, our job is to win.”
No matter what happens, Moore and Michigan do not expect a postgame fracas that defined the postgame last year, and now leads the highlight reels in the marketing for The Game.
“We talked about that at the beginning of the year, and we’ve been pretty good about any post-game interactions,” Moore said. “When we win a game or when you’re in the game, we’re going to go to our student section and go to our band and shake hands, cordial ending and be done with it. And that’s it. So our guys have been good about that, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Michigan and Ohio State kick off at noon on Saturday on FOX. As of Monday afternoon, the Buckeyes are a 9.5-point favorite for Saturday’s showdown in Ann Arbor.