Michigan football to channel wolfpack energy ahead of national championship game

HOUSTON — On the eve of the College Football Playoff championship game, and the Wolverines are still preparing for the football fight of their collective lives.

Those were coach Jim Harbaugh’s words Sunday morning in Liberty Hall, a banquet room adjacent to the JW Marriott in downtown Houston, where he and the Huskies’ head man, Kalen DeBoer, gave their final remarks before Michigan football and Washington square off Monday night at NRG Stadium.

All season long, on the night before U-M’s games, Harbaugh has had his team watch videos and documentaries on different predatory animals hoping to “get the red blood pumping.”

It’s a tradition he planned to continue Sunday evening.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh speaks during CFP national championship coaches news conference at Liberty Hall in Houston on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.

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“Tigers, cheetah, lions, really great stuff,” Harbaugh said. “Seemed to resonate with the guys … when it gets to how the world wants to turn you into something, we allow ourselves to devolve into a pack of wolves.

“That’s what we want to channel, probably nature’s greatest fighting unit.”

For the second day in a row, Harbaugh, 60, was asked about his future but wouldn’t take the bait. Instead, he discussed the importance of living in the moment and how his group has been able to stay united and together as one throughout a season of turmoil as outside forces tried to pull it apart.

It’s the same mentality he wants his team to continue to channel when it’s on the field, a mentality he sees in one of the animals featured most in this pre-game rituals.

“The perfect fighting unit to me is a pack of wolves,” Harbaugh said. “You see them gathered together before the fight. You see them together going to the fight….


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-football-channel-wolfpack-energy-190658637.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-01-07 19:06:58

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