Michigan absolutely dragged Nebraska on Saturday. The Wolverines were up 39-0 on the Huskers at halftime. It became 46-0 before a Nebraska field goal in the third quarter, and would be 56-10 by the time the clock hit triple zero.
Nebraska and Scott Frost both talked tough about Michigan. Jim Harbaugh was not merciful.
Harbaugh appeared to have no problem running it up.
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Previously, Nebraska AD Bill Moos at talked some mess about Michigan.
After hiring Scott Frost in the winter, Moos lumped in the Wolverines with Ohio State and said those teams were “running a little bit scared right now” but wouldn’t admit it:
“We’re gonna run that uptempo offense we saw (at the spring game), and we’re gonna get the Blackshirts back to being Blackshirts. And that’s extremely important,” Moos said. “You’ve got Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh thinking, ‘We better put a little more into that Nebraska game coming up.’ And that’s the way we want it. They’re running a little bit scared right now. And they won’t admit it. We’ll leave that at that.”
While he was still at UCF, Frost said his own tough stuff about Michigan.
In 2016, Frost’s Knights lost a 51-14 game at the Big House. But afterward, he said UCF had “outhit” its Big Ten opponents, who had to scrap to get to 100 ground yards:
“It’s hard to say when the score is what it is, but we came in here and outhit those guys today,” Frost said. “Standing on the sideline, there was no doubt who was hitting harder. Our guys came in hungry and wanting to do that. It’s rare you can come into Michigan and rush for 300 yards on them. They had to run a fly sweep in the fourth quarter to get to 100.
Think Michigan’s players forgot? Nope. Maize n Brew reports:
OT Jon Runyan:
“We took that to heart, we didn’t forget that, and we remembered over there the coach’s comments they had the last time we played against him.”
LB Devin Bush:
“Coach Brown came in the meeting and he re-stated what he (Frost) said two years ago about UCF. We really took that to heart. We wanted to make a statement where yo say something, make sure it’s true.”
DE Chase Winovich:
“Everyone knows about coach Frost’s comments how they (UCF) ‘outhit’ us last time even though they lost by like 50 points, so we were motivated.”
“I think we outhit him today.”
Anyway, with Michigan up 39-0 and facing fourth-and-7 at the Nebraska 42 with seconds left in the first half, Jim Harbaugh tried to score on a deep pass.
The Huskers narrowly broke it up.
Later, with Michigan up 49-3, the Wolverines scored a 56-yard touchdown on a deep route down the right sideline.
Backup QB Dylan McCaffrey was in, but I’ll bet you that was more about Harbaugh wanting to develop his guys than wanting to take things easy on the Huskers.
Harbaugh’s never really cared about running up scores.
His 2009 Stanford team ran up the score late in a stunning upset of No. 8 USC, prompting Harbaugh and Pete Carroll to verbally scuffle at midfield afterward.
“What’s your deal?” Carroll asked, and Harbaugh responded the same way.
Harbaugh’s Michigan teams have long had a penchant for being ruthless. That’s included things like calling fake punts while up 34 points in the fourth quarter against hapless Illinois and twice in consecutive seasons going for two-point conversions with four-possession leads against Rutgers. Harbaugh does not view any of this as his problem.
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