The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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70 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2023 FOOTBALL PREVIEW BY CHRIS BALAS W e want the Big Ten cham- pionship, and we're gonna win it as a Team. They can throw out all those great backs, and great quarterbacks, and great defensive players, throughout the country and in this conference, but there's gonna be one Team that's gonna play solely as a Team. "No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. "The Team, The Team, The Team." Bo Schembechler's words still ring through the building that bears his name on the Michigan campus, present in every drill, every rep, every practice. The late U-M coach knew something about win- ning, capturing 13 Big Ten titles in his 21 years as coach, and he also understood one other thing about competing in the Big Ten: It's a lot easier when you have great line play. It's no surprise then that head coach Jim Harbaugh, as a Schembechler dis- ciple, has captured consecutive titles do- ing it the way his mentor did. The U-M offensive line has won two straight Joe Moore Awards as the nation's top line unit, an unprecedented feat, and might be one of the favorites for a third. O n e b i g rea s o n why ( 6 - fo o t - 6, 305 pounds big, to be exact) — Trevor Keegan's return. The grad student left guard and senior right guard Zak Zinter caught each other's eye immediately af- ter a 51-45 Fiesta Bowl loss to TCU, and that's when the wheels started turning. "When I was walking off the field, I just had this feeling in my gut," Keegan recalled. "My whole mindset the whole time we were down there was, 'Man — we're going to the national championship game.' "When it didn't happen, it just crushed me. I just looked at Zak and said, 'Man, we can't finish like this.' So, after that we just had to make a decision. We talked to a lot of people, family and friends, people like that. At the end of day, we kind of had an idea we were going to come back." They'll have a sole goal, he said — to win it all. It was tough enough losing in the semifinals for a second straight sea- son, even harder to know they were heav- ily favored heading into this year's. After- ward, some blamed "overconfidence" or looking past the Horned Frogs. Keegan reluctantly acknowledged that might have played a factor, though he believed the coaches had them well-pre- pared. "I do think we might have been over- confident, but I don't at the same time, because that's how we were the whole season," Keegan said. "We didn't want to change the way we looked at teams or anything like that. I think we did a great job playing as a team coming back, trying to make it a game … little things like that. "But obviously, it was definitely our fault we lost that game … just dumb mis- takes. They got off to a fast start, but we had two pick-sixes, a fumble on the 1-yard line. Those three plays alone, you take those away and we're winning that game. But that's football." They won't look back, he said — only forward. He and his linemates can only control what they can control. For the last two years, that's been mauling people up front and paving the way for elite run- ning performances. They're ready for an encore. "We want to do the same thing again, but we want that national champion- ship," Keegan said. "We've done ev- erything we had to up to the semifinal games. We want to be in the national championship and win it. I feel like we've got the team and coaching staff to be able to get there. I 100 percent believe that." Beat the Buckeyes A big reason for that, of course, is the newfound confidence they have as the new king of the hill in the Big Ten. The days of being intimidated by Ohio State are over, and one play summed it up on a snowy Nov. 26, 2021, in Ann Arbor. OSU defensive back Cameron Brown got tangled up with Michigan receiver Roman Wilson in the end zone. He grabbed Wilson's face mask and ripped his helmet off near the goal line, throwing it down the field. As quickly as he did, Keegan and two fellow offensive linemen were in Brown's face, backing him off like a — well, like a wolverine cornering its prey. There was nothing over the top — no pushing or punches thrown — just notice that there was a new sheriff in town, and it was time to have a seat. Keegan and his teammates punished the Buckeyes for 297 yards rushing in a 42-27 pasting. Michigan didn't even have to throw on its last touchdown drive, marching the field to clinch it behind a dominant line. "It was special, just because the whole offseason it was our only goal," Keegan said. "We didn't really care about any- thing else. During conditioning tests, our coaches would always test us — what is OSU doing? What are they doing right now? The whole season, we just had a picture of, 'What are you doing to beat Ohio State today?' "We embodied that the whole season, every single day. When it happened, it was a joy like no other." It took Keegan two hours to get back to his apartment with his family, two hours more to get the pizza they ordered, he recalled. But nothing could diminish the sense of accomplishment, nor the confi- dence it instilled. They were having none of it when the Ohio State players and fan base deemed it a one-off. The Buckeyes used every excuse in the book to write it off — snowflakes, flu, you name it. So, Keegan and his teammates set out for Co- lumbus in 2022 with an undefeated team with nothing but confidence. The Wolverines hadn't beaten OSU on its own turf since 2000. In the back of his mind, Keegan recalled a conversation he had with Harbaugh the night before he committed. Penn State and Georgia were making their final pushes, but Har- baugh ended his with, "You're going to be part of the class that beats Ohio State and turns this thing around." One win was one win. Two, though, One Last Ride Trevor Keegan Can Leave A Legacy As One Of The Best Guards To Have Played At Michigan For Keegan, the decision to return for another season at U-M began taking shape immediately after the Wolverines' 51-45 Fiesta Bowl loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL "