If you see a group of Michigan defensive linemen out to lunch, they may be fulfilling the terms of a wager.
The 10th-ranked Wolverines’ edge rushers have a friendly competition going to celebrate some of this season’s firsts. Earning Michigan’s first sack of the season on Saturday, senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart won the first prize, which was simply the feeling of having some pressure off his back.
“Now we’re going on to who can get the first strip sack, then going on to who can get the first touchdown or pick six and things like that,” junior defensive end Derrick Moore said Tuesday. “So we got a lot of friendly competition going on in that room.”
According to Moore, the first to earn a strip sack gets the lunch date, while the first to score a touchdown gets “whatever they want.” Although b out of individual competitiveness, the wagers simultaneously demonstrate the tight-knit community of the defensive end room.
With the dangerous Texas offense coming to town on Saturday, the Wolverines’ defense will need all the extra juice it can get. The third-ranked Longhorns rushed for 190 yards against Colorado State last Saturday, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. Their offensive line was physical and in sync, allowing Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers to progress through his reads with ease.
“They got a really good offensive line, so we got to come out and match that physicality and get to the quarterback,” Moore said. “They got a good, experienced quarterback back there, so we gotta make him a little uncomfortable.”
Moore and Stewart showed what they can do coming off the edge against Fresno State. Not only did Stewart notch Michigan’s first sack of the season, but he quickly followed it up with another, marking his second multi-sack game as a Wolverine. With Moore bringing pressure from the other side, the Bulldogs had virtually no escape and only managed nine rushing yards on the day.
The Longhorns are on a whole other level compared to Fresno State, but even if flashy plays like sacks and picks are hard to come by, Michigan hopes to maintain persistent pressure through communicating well and coordinating its moves.
“All the edges, we all kind of just stay together,” Moore said. “We all got one goal, and our one goal is being the best edge room in the country. … We watch film, we talk about certain plays, we talk about certain rushes, even on the sideline, what we could get and how we can probably plan something up to make somebody come free.”
That preparation started to come to fruition against the Bulldogs, and so did the trust the edge rushers have in one another when things don’t go as planned.
“I don’t know if any of y’all saw, but I missed a sack on Saturday, and Josaiah came to clean it up,” Moore said. “I was just happy for him. Sometimes you may miss a play, but then you got your brother right there to clean it up for you.”
There’s a lot on the line for the Wolverines’ edge rushers on Saturday. Facing elite competition provides plenty of external motivation, so their main priority is frustrating Texas’s high-powered offense. But in the back of their minds, they also know that a big play could get them an extra treat from their teammates.
The friendly competition may celebrate individual accomplishments, but at the end of the day it’s an indication of the bond formed between the group that fabricated it.
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