The No. 14 Michigan Wolverines Feeling Confident After Impressive Showing In Madison
Heading into Saturday's contest between No. 14 Michigan and Wisconsin, most were predicting a typical knock-down-drag-out Big Ten football game. Instead, fans were treated to a full afternoon of the Wolverines bullying the Badgers in their own building - walking out of Camp Randall with a 38-17 victory.
Following Michigan's dominant win, a video emerged from the Wolverines locker room where Michigan safety RJ Moten had a message for the Big Ten conference:
In case you missed it, the message was clear: "We run the Big Ten."
Look, I know this is going to rub a lot of Michigan fans the wrong way - particularly when the Wolverines haven't won a Big Ten championship since 2004. On the other hand, this is the type of energy and belief that you want in your football program if you're Jim Harbaugh.
The leading narrative for the Michigan Football program heading into the 2021 season seemed to center around a drastically improved culture, Saturday gave credibility to that narrative.
Speaking at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis over the summer, senior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson didn't hold back when talking about the culture issues of the past - while also expressing optimism about the future.
“Clearly in 2018, 2019, something wasn’t right about the culture,” he said. “We shouldn’t be getting blown out by Ohio State if we’re competing at just as high a level as them, and it just didn’t make sense. Coach Harbaugh has been doing a great job of adapting and seeing what our team needs and changing what needs to be changed.”
Leading up to the week one match up against Western Michigan, senior wideout Ronnie Bell spoke about a sense of brotherhood that he's never experienced before.
"The team morale is the highest and best that I've ever seen on any team that I think I've ever been on - counting every basketball team, every baseball team, you name it," said Bell. "This team, and how much we love and care for one another, it's so - it just passes along so well throughout this team."
Much like Hutchinson, Bell gave much of the credit to head coach Jim Harbaugh.
"He's the head of the sword, he's the boss man," said Bell. "I feel like he's always been striving to get this energy. I feel like this has been the overall goal from the standpoint of how he wanted things to flow, team chemistry, team morale and how we love and care for one another."
Following Saturday's dominant 38-17 win over the Badgers, it certainly looks like Harbaugh might finally have the Michigan team he's been searching for - just ask RJ Moten.
