Three weeks into the season, Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore made a change.
At the time, the change everyone focused on was at quarterback, as Moore announced that junior Alex Orji would start against No. 11 Southern California, replacing senior Davis Warren. But Moore also made additional changes behind the scenes at practice.
“We’ve always had kinks, adjustments and things depending on the team,” Moore said Monday. “There’s been a couple things we’ve done as a team, talking to a leadership council, to our captains. … (We) made an adjustment before USC and feel like it’s helped us.”
As Moore noted, practices always differ slightly depending on the upcoming opponent, but his changes went beyond that. After a rocky first three games, he upped the focus and level of competition of the 10th-ranked Wolverines’ practices to maximize their strengths.
“We started practicing more good-on-good, getting good looks against each other so we can be ready for Saturdays,” senior edge rusher TJ Guy said Monday. “Practicing good on good is always good because we got good players and they got good players on offense. So playing good players is going to only elevate your game.”
Michigan’s two games since the tweaks to practice haven’t exactly been pretty — especially in the second half — but they have increased in intensity. Against the Trojans, the Wolverines rushed for 290 yards, overwhelming USC with their physicality in the first half and on their game-winning drive. On the other side of the ball, Michigan’s defense was particularly effective against the run.
Most recently against Minnesota on Saturday, the Wolverines followed a similar script to earn a close win. They rushed for 155 yards while limiting the Golden Gophers to 38, as their physicality up front overpowered Minnesota.
Michigan’s most obvious good-on-good scenario is its running game versus its run defense. So with the new practice strategy, the Wolverines got plenty of reps going against the best of the best on their own team. Presumably, graduate running back Kalel Mullings took lots of snaps against junior defensive linemen Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, preparing each party for crucial contributions come Saturday.
As a result of the changes encouraging extra competition in practice, the intensity increased as well. For senior offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi, “intensity” was the first word that came to mind when asked about what had changed in practice.
“It was always intense, but now it’s a whole other level,” El-Hadi said Monday. “Urgency, not panic, but urgency. Going up to the ball fast, going from station to station fast, whatever it is, just be ready (for) whatever the defense or the scouts are throwing at us. And being in there four, five, eight plays at a time, (we) keep conditioning ourselves to be ready.”
Going on the road for the first time this season to face Washington, Moore is expecting more of that same intensity in practice this week. The biggest change will be boarding a plane on Friday and flying across the country.
The Wolverines made the changes they believed were needed ahead of Big Ten play, and now they see those adjustments working as they enter the heart of their schedule.
The post Michigan hoping to reap the benefits of intensified practices appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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