We’ve reached the halfway point of the college football regular season, and to the surprise of maybe no one, Michigan is a perfect 6-0.
Oh, they’re also beating their opponents by an average of more than 30 points. But I digress.
Before we get into the comments of Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck, whose squad was handed a 52-10 defeat at Huntington Bank Stadium by the Wolverines last week, allow me to share the perspective of a pundit from a completely different sport, provided in a context that seemingly doesn’t have anything to do with this season for the Maize and Blue. That commentator is Mixed Martial Arts talking head and former championship-level contender for basically every promotion in the sport, Chael Sonnen. When waxing poetic about the ‘unnatural’ nature of 5-round championship fights, Sonnen has frequently offered the following perspective:
“A fighter’s greatest fear isn’t getting finished. It’s not getting knocked out or submitted. It’s not failing to bring their tools with them into the cage. A fighter’s greatest fear is fatigue. It’s reaching a level of exhaustion where they are no longer able to defend themselves.”
So where am I going with this? Well, let’s look into Michigan’s point differentials for the season in each of the first three quarters.
In the first quarter, Michigan is +42
In the second quarter, they’re +59
In the third quarter, they’re +76
Or, to put it in a different perspective, if you’re playing the Wolverines, you’re only losing by a touchdown after the first quarter – but going into the fourth quarter? You’re losing by more than four touchdowns.
And with that, let us now observe the comments of Coach Fleck:
“I think they’re the best football team I’ve seen in 11 years of being a head coach. I’ve never seen a football team, like, that, that deep. I’m not sure if this is true, but I was told this coming off the field. I think they traveled 75 people and played like 74 of them…They’re one of the deepest teams, one of the best teams, one of the biggest teams, fastest teams, strongest teams, and they do not make mistakes. They are truly like a boa constrictor. They do not beat themselves. They’re very good at each position. They’re very aligned with everything they do. They know who they are.”
This year’s Michigan team, if we’re being frank, is far from the flashiest we’ve seen under Harbaugh. It doesn’t boast the man who would go on to be the NFL leader in QB pressures five weeks into this season – nor is it as gaudy as when the duo of Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards still had that new car smell. Even with JJ McCarthy playing as well under center as any quarterback for the Wolverines in modern memory, this passing offense hasn’t put up 300 yards in a single game. So why is this being considered, both by fan and foe alike, to be arguably the best Michigan squad of this century?
It’s not a riddle, really.
Michigan has elevated themselves as the cardio kings of college football. Sure, you can learn how to play their brand of gritty, physical, balanced and ball-control-centered game. And yes, there’s a good chance you can keep it competitive going that route for about 15 minutes (which, ironically, is the equivalent of three rounds in MMA). But once the Wolverines are lining up on the other side of your team in the championship rounds, the problem isn’t playcalling or technique, it’s that you just don’t have the bodies to keep fending them off any longer. And while every sports fan loves a great shootout or highlight-worthy knockout, the competitors know that the scariest proposition they can face…is fatigue.
Michigan returns to Ann Arbor to face Indiana this Saturday, kicking off at Noon ET from The Big House.
