The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503142
6 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2023 FOOTBALL PREVIEW MICHIGAN FOOTBALL It's 'A Natty Or Nothing' For A 'Locked In' Michigan Team 144 MICHIGAN FOOTBALL MICHIGAN FOOTBALL BY CLAYTON SAYFIE W hen the 2023 Michigan football team convened at the beginning of winter conditioning in mid-January, director of strength and conditioning Ben Herbert wrote on the white board, "We're a 13-1 football team." In 2022, the Wolverines won 13 games for the first time in program history and were crowned Big Ten champions for a second straight season, but they fell to TCU, 51-45, in the Fiesta Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. "We know what that looks like, feels like," Herbert said of last year's success. "There are two options for us to improve: 14-1 or 15-0." That's the mission for Team 144 at Michigan — to use 2022 as another building block and jumping off point for the future. There are two things left to achieve, advancing to the national cham- pionship game in Houston Jan. 8, 2024, and winning it all. That goal of winning the program's first title since 1997 is ex- pressed each day, one way or another. Television screens inside Schembechler Hall, for example, display the amount of days until the season, show how long until the Wolverines face Ohio State and conclude with "HOUSTON OR BUST." "It's a natty or nothing," junior safety Rod Moore proclaimed. "We're not going to be satisfied with one-and-done in the playoffs, two-and-done — we've got to go to the national championship and win it, because that's all that's left." This year, more than anything, Herbert has the Wolverines focusing on the finer details, taking the notion that "how you do anything is how you do everything" to heart. Herbert said players are instructed to put dumbbells and workout bands back meticulously and line up their shoes against the wall in a specific way, in addi- tion to carrying out their responsibilities during workouts. "No cutting corners on anything," Herbert noted. "That's the challenge, and that's the challenge we embrace. "When you see these guys, when they set their Gatorade bottle down, the 'G' better be facing the right way. And it's not about the Gatorade bottle — it's about the attention to detail, the instruction. The attention to detail is going to carry forward to their footwork, to their hand placement, to their eyes, to their ability to listen and receive instruction from their coaches. It all matters." Sophomore cornerback Will Johnson, unknowingly, has been setting his shoes down at his apartment the way Herbert has instructed the team in the weight room. Jim Harbaugh calls director of strength and conditioning Ben Herbert U-M's 'secret weapon.' In the offseason, Herbert challenged the players to carry forward their attention to detail from the weight room to the football field, with an emphasis on not cutting any corners. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY