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For the first time in nearly 26 years, Michigan football is the nation’s No. 1 team, with the Wolverines jumping to the top of whichever measure you prefer: US LBM Coaches Poll, Associated Press poll or College Football Playoff seedings.
The Wolverines aren’t exactly feeling the love, however, at least according to running back Blake Corum.
When he spoke Thursday following one of his team’s final practices prior to Christmas, the senior pointed out few have treated the Wolverines as favorites since the first weekend in December.
“They flipped it from the jump, as soon as they found out we were playing Alabama,” Corum said. “But we’re going in, like I said last time, as the top dog, the No. 1 team in the nation and we’re going to treat it as such.”
Michigan running back Blake Corum high-fives fans to celebrate U-M’s 26-0 win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023.
BUT PAUUUULLLLL: Finebaum calls Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh a ‘dinosaur in a changing world’
It would seem, at least in part, that Jim Harbaugh’s 13-0 Michigan squad isn’t seen as an overwhelming favorite because its CFP semifinal features a matchup in the Rose Bowl with No. 4 Alabama. Although this year’s iteration of the Crimson Tide is 12-1, Alabama is arguably the greatest program of the past two decades and is led by Nick Saban, arguably the top coach in the sport’s history.
But maybe it’s not just the specter of Alabama: As fifth-year senior captain Mike Sainristil observed Thursday, this isn’t the first time U-M has been seen as the team with something to prove.
“For many reasons,” he said. “Our schedule wasn’t the best, coach (Sherrone) Moore stepping in and doing what he did, and even then, that wasn’t good enough. So we don’t care about that, we just want to prove we are who we say we are, not what anyone else…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jalen-milroe-top-focus-michigan-110640288.html
Author : Detroit Free Press
Publish date : 2023-12-22 11:06:40
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