Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh was pleased with his squad’s 49-24 victory over Minnesota in week one. The Wolverines now have momentum heading into their next game against Michigan State, while the Spartans fell to Rutgers in their opener.
“It feels good,” Harbaugh said of ‘victory Mondays,’ while appearing on the Inside Michigan Football radio show with host and former U-M All-American Jon Jansen. “The air breathes a little better, it feels cleaner and crisper. And the food tastes better. It’s just a better day.”
How the Wolverines got to feeling that good on Monday was behind an emerging offense, led by coordinator Josh Gattis, a revamped offensive line and a new quarterback in redshirt sophomore Joe Milton.
In his first start, Milton completed 18-of-25 passes for 225 yards and one touchdown, while also rushing eight times for 52 yards and a score. It was an impressive starting debut, Harbaugh noted.
“I thought it was really good,” Harbaugh said of Milton’s performance. “There were things we were game planning for that they took away, but I thought he did a good job of getting to the secondary and third receivers.
“Nobody’s ever perfect in the game, but I thought he really had a lot of maturity, really cool. The big stage, so to speak, didn’t rattle him at all in his first game as a starter. He went out and executed. He showed the touch that we’d been talking about and seeing on the bubble screens, but also showed the really strong arm on the throw to [sophomore wideout] Mike Sainristil. Mikey made an incredible catch, got one foot down. Just overall [Joe was] really good — poised, mature and talented. All the things we’ve been seeing really came out in the game.”
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Sainristil was one of nine receivers to catch a pass from Milton on Saturday night. Harbaugh gave credit to Gattis for his ability to utilize the plethora of weapons he has at running back, wide receiver and tight end.
Harbaugh also lauded the play calling. Perhaps the best example of Gattis’ progression running the U-M offense was his decision to go right back to sophomore tight end Erick All following his uncharacteristic drop on a play that would’ve been a touchdown had he hung on. On the next play, he took a short pass 27 yards down to the Minnesota three-yard line to set up an eventual U-M score.
“I thought that was a great play call by Josh,” Harbaugh said. “First, it was a great play call and Joe made a heck of a throw, right on the money. And Erick is such a sure-handed catcher — I mean, he catches everything. He might be our best catcher on the team. And he’s so confident in his catching ability, he just takes it for granted that he’s going to catch the ball, and he turned his eyes away and he ended up bobbling it and dropping the ball. He’s going to definitely learn from that and keep his eye on the ball the whole time.
“When I heard the next play called and knew it was going to Erick, I was like, ‘That’s really knowing your team. That’s knowing your football team.’”
There were some growing pains in year one under Gattis, as he overhauled the offense and transformed it from pro style to a spread attack. But after U-M’s 49 points and 481 yards on Saturday night, the unit appears to have taken a next step.
“That just really puts an exclamation on the point that — year two — he knows our players, his players, extremely well,” Harbaugh said. “And being his offense and our offense, he knows it the best and has made improvements to it. — fixed some things and made it better. But I think he’s doing a great job of using all the personnel and the weapons and playing to their strengths, putting guys in positions to play to their strengths.”
Michigan Made Explosive Plays, But Harbaugh Still Wants More
The Wolverines had several big plays on Saturday offensively, including sophomore running back Zach Charbonnet‘s 70-yard touchdown run on the team’s second possession and redshirt sophomore running back Hassan Haskins‘ 66-yard run in the third quarter.
Defensively, U-M created what Harbaugh called “havoc plays” — one interception, a forced fumble with a recovery and return for a touchdown, and five sacks on the night.
Still, he’s looking for more on both sides of the ball.
“It was good,” Harbaugh said. “They had quite a few explosives, too. My count was like seven to six, they had one more than we did. We want to win the explosive play battle, but that was a huge run by Zach. There were so many times we were able to get the momentum back with the big play.
[Redshirt sophomore viper linebacker Mike Barrett doing that for us on defense with the big hit and forced fumble return for a touchdown. [And] a big kickoff return by Mike Barrett. Big fumble recovery when we fumbled on the kickoff return.
“The offensive line was really run blocking well and pass protecting the entire game. Our pass rush was terrific. Our two corners — [redshirt sophomores] Vince Gray and Gemon Green. The hustle, the physicality, and the other thing is just how emotionally invested everybody on the team was. There were unheralded guys. Erick All had a great game blocking and caught a couple balls and ran. [Redshirt sophomore defensive end] Taylor Upshaw had a great play to keep their back out of the end zone, stop him at the one-yard line, and eventually we forced a field goal. I could keep going. It was a great night in all those aspects.”
Overall, he was more than pleased with how well and together his team played.
“The hustling really stood out,” he added. “The genuineness of the guys just happy for the other guy’s success, too, really stood out. A guy made a play, our guys were really happy for him and there were genuine celebrations for another guy doing something really good.”
Harbaugh, Michigan Not Overlooking Michigan State
While Michigan State fell to Rutgers on the Big Ten’s opening weekend, U-M knows not to overlook their cross-state rival. The Spartans turned the ball over seven times on Saturday, something Harbaugh said they won’t do this weekend, meaning the Wolverines will have to bring it.
“We know they’re really, really talented and how physical this game is going to be, mainly because every player that steps onto that field on Saturday is going to be emotionally invested,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to be 60 minutes of that kind of play. It’s going to be all out for 60 minutes. I know that we’re not going to see a team that’s going to turn the ball over seven times. I know Coach [Mel] Tucker and his staff will get that fixed. So it’ll be a big challenge for us.”
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