The Fiesta Bowl narrative has already been established, and TCU will have to wait until kickoff of Saturday’s College Football Playoff to change it.
Big bad bruising Michigan (13-0) is going to do what it has done all year long, and dare TCU (12-1) to stop it, if you believe the conventional wisdom. Think irresistible force and movable object.
For his part, TCU leading rusher Kendre Miller has already heard enough about the Horned Frogs not being able to handle Michigan’s physicality.
“I feel like we’re very prepared. And anybody who says we can’t, you should just look at the film,” Miller said. “We come out and play every week. I feel like everybody is saying they are playing a big boy-little boy role with a Big 12 [team] and Big Ten physicality.”
Michigan has made no apologies for its style of play or its attitude.
This isn’t Ohio State and C.J. Stroud throwing the ball all over the field.
This is old school pound-the-rock Big Ten football, the kind Michigan coaching legend Bo Schembechler preached relentlessly and the kind Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh played.
For Michigan, it’s about imposing its will on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“Practice is a big part of it,” Michigan co-defensive coordinator Sherrone Moore said. “If you don’t have that mentality, you’ll get bullied. And our guys, they just want to be the bully.”
The toughest matchup for TCU may be against Michigan’s offensive line. The unit repeated as the Joe Moore Award winner, given to the nation’s top offensive line.
The last team to slow Michigan was national champion Georgia and its all-world defense in last year’s CFP semifinals. An already elite group was buoyed thanks to center Olusegun Oluwatimi, a Virginia transfer who won the Outland Trophy this season.
If you’re one of those football nerds who’s into size and measurables, the Wolverines are tall and wide (a 308-pound average), a combination that has worked well. Michigan ranks fifth nationally in rushing at 243 yards per game and has allowed just 13 sacks in 13 games.
The Big 12 comparison made most by TCU players and coaches is to Kansas State, followed by Texas, both of which are physical teams with run-first mentalities.
Each is talented, but neither is Michigan.
“These guys are not going to make mistakes and there’s not anything that they haven’t seen,” TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie said. “It’s not like we’re going to go out there and throw something at them from a defensive standpoint that’s going to wow them or confuse them or anything like that. Obviously these guys understand football and their IQ is extremely high.”
Or as TCU linebacker Dee Winters put it succinctly to reporters this week: “They have a pretty huge O-line.”
It doesn’t matter who has carried the ball. Doak Walker finalist Blake Corum rushed for 1,463 yards and 18 touchdowns before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the final game of the regular season. Backup Donovan Edwards has run for 401 yards and three touchdowns in Michigan’s last two games against Ohio State and Purdue.
“When you look at Michigan, obviously you’ve got the Big Ten champion. … Big Ten football is big, strong people,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said.
“They are going to try to run the football. It’s going to be important for us to do everything we can to get the run game stopped.”
TCU finished fifth in rushing defense in the Big 12. While TCU struggled against opponents’ running games early in the season, the Horned Frogs shut down Texas and Bijan Robinson late in the season.
Dykes said his team can avoid being bullied by Michigan.
“Our goal is to always try to dominate the line of scrimmage and win the line of scrimmage,” Dykes said. “It will be a big challenge for us on Saturday. But we look forward to the challenge.”
