Michigan football has ‘target’ on its back, says it won’t sleep on Fresno State

College football made it just one game into the 2024 season before a top-10 team went down.

Georgia Tech pulled off an upset to open the college football season on Saturday, when it beat ACC foe and No. 10 ranked Florida State, 24-21, with a game-winning 44-yard field goal as time expired in Dublin, Ireland.

It added insult to injury for the Seminoles, who last year missed out on the College Football Playoff after then-quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury in the final weeks of the year, and now have an uphill climb to get back into the CFP picture.

While some may have seen it as a shock, the Michigan football team wasn’t surprised in the least.

“It’s college football,” said Michigan senior offensive lineman Gio El-Hadi. “Anything could happen. Just like March Madness, you see unranked teams beating No. 1 teams. Anybody could lose on their best day, on their worst day. If you have a target in your back, you gotta play as best possible. Every team we’re going against this year, we have a big target on our back, and we have to play to the best of our abilities.”

MICHIGAN DEPTH CHART PROJECTIONS: Who’ll start at QB for season opener vs. Fresno State?

Michigan has avoided being upset with great success in recent years. Since the start of the 2021 season, U-M has been favored in all but three games (Ohio State 2021, Georgia CFP in 2021, at Ohio State in 2022) and only lost two times (Michigan State 2021, TCU CFP 2022) when it was projected to win.

According to coach Sherrone Moore, it’s because the Wolverines have “a really mature culture” which helps the team make sure it doesn’t overlook any opponent (say, Fresno State) when there may be a somewhat larger matchup on the horizon (say, Texas).

Michigan punt return Semaj Morgan runs against Iowa during the first half the Big Ten championship game…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-football-target-back-says-101052292.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-08-28 10:10:52

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