Embed from Getty Images What can happen in nine days? If you are the Michigan Wolverines football team a lot. Nine days ago the Wolverines suffered the teams second loss on the football season in Happy Valley to Penn State. That loss proved to be a blessing, it seems to have given Michigan a spark.
Saturday night, in front of a sold out Big House on national t.v. Michigan went out on a rain soaked field and hammered the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, earning its second top 10 win of the Jim Harbaugh era. It was a complete team effort.
The game was played in a non stop downpour, the Michigan Wolverines went back to a tried and true gameplan, a solid run game and a relentless defense, set the tone early for Michigan.
The Wolverines chalked up 167 rushing yards before halftime and scored on three consecutive possessions. The offensive line had their best game of the season. Running backs Hassan Haskins and Zach Charbonnet had big holes and a lot of room to run and show off their talent.
With new starters and new coach’s, the adjustment for Michigan has been long and painful at times. Saturday night they seemed to get over that hump and the entire team looked like fans and media thought they would before the season kicked off.
Until this week, Michigan’s season was trending downward. Two weeks ago, the Wolverines gave up 25 consecutive points to Illinois. It scraped an ugly 10-3 win over Iowa in Ann Arbor. It was throttled by Wisconsin, also Michigan had a tough time defeating Army in overtime and could not stop turning the ball over against Middle Tennessee State.
After the game Jim Harbaugh praised his teams ability to “keep working, keep growing.” It appears the Michigan Wolverines worst football is behind them. Michigan has four regular season games remaining, including rivals Michigan State and Ohio State at Michigan Stadium. If they continue to put effort like the team displayed Saturday night. Those games will be interesting.
While it is too late to save this season for the Wolverines, if this is the true direction of Michigan football, head coach Jim Harbaugh might have finally found his winning formula at Michigan.
