The Michigan players support Jim Harbaugh before the Ohio State match.
MIAMI, Ann Arbor — Both Michigan and Ohio State will be vying for a berth in the College Football Playoff and a position in the Big Ten title game when they play on Saturday.
But Jim Harbaugh, the head coach, won’t be seeing the Wolverines play.
Harbaugh’s ban will keep him out of the coaching duo for the sixth game this season, meaning the third-ranked Wolverines will be without him.
But with second-ranked Ohio State hosting undefeated Michigan, this is the biggest game of the season with the most amount on the line.
The athletes and coaches at Michigan remain confident despite Harbaugh’s absence.
Running back for the Wolverines Blake Corum stated on Monday, “A lot of us would run through a wall for [Harbaugh], so it’s definitely been tough, and going into the game without him, this is kind of just like adding fuel to the fire.”
We may play a little harder for him and make sure we give him the game ball at the conclusion of the game, but we’re still going to play hard.
We’ll make sure we do that for Coach because when you give a game ball to someone, you say you’re going to give one to someone, and you have to win.”
The Wolverines are adopting a “Michigan vs. Everybody” approach and utilizing Harbaugh’s absence as motivation rather than seeing it as a setback.
During his Monday press conference, Corum, who was wearing those words on a sweatshirt, stated that Michigan has been inspired by what has happened this season off the field. J.J.
McCarthy, the quarterback for the Wolverines, echoed the notion, saying it has strengthened the team’s bond.
McCarthy feels that the Wolverines have experienced enough without Harbaugh to be able to weather any additional pressure or particular circumstances that might emerge against Ohio State, even though this is a historic rivalry that means a great deal to both institutions this season.
“Just the whole process and throughout the day of just not having him there,” said McCarthy. “At first, it was distinct.
And because it’s one of the biggest games coming Saturday, it will be extremely beneficial for us now that we have that experience and know how things operate, how the coaches respond to certain situations, and how they approach coaching the game.”
Harbaugh talked about giving his coaches the freedom to manage this without him, calling his club a battle-tested one. He contrasted
