The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2025 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 21 where you're really helping to drive championship-level performance. You can't, in my opinion, build the level of success that we expect, each and every year, by only doing it through transfers. We need to continue to embrace both. "I know you were referring to foot- ball. I think they are doing a tremen- dous job at figuring out the right kind of people. I was talking to one of our coaches who said, 'It's not just us who are talking about people with character. Our student-athletes are telling us when we have somebody in and they're not the type of character we want, and they wouldn't be great teammates from our perspective. They're sharing that infor- mation with us.' That's what I remember doing when I was playing here. "It's not that it went away, but it's good to hear that it's still there. It's not just about this is a really talented kid. There are a lot of talented kids. It's about finding the people with the right talent to come in here and fit on this team, and play with the right purpose, rather than for your in- dividual statistics. Look at the way Blake [Corum] and J.J. [McCarthy] talked about The Team. That team was full of guys like that, and this team is full of those kinds of kids who embrace that it's about what we do, not just about what I do. "Now, they each want to perform well, and they each want to do a lot to help the team. Helping the team includes making downfield blocks, pursuing the football and making the tackle. Getting the turn- over because you're giving the effort. Those things are really important, and that's what we have. I know Sherrone is very happy with the effort and the way kids are embracing each other." T he Wolverine: T he Big Ten is tougher than ever to win in foot- ball. The College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams. What are your year-to-year expecta- tions for the program in those two particular areas? Manuel: "We always want to compete to win the Big Ten, and we always want to compete to go into the Playoff. When it was two, when it was four, now when it's 12 and if it expands, we want to be a part of that. Nothing here changes about that expectation. I mean, nothing." The Wolverine: So, there's no, we'd like to be in the Playoff two out of every three years, or anything like that? Manuel: "No. It's every year. If we compete the way we should compete and prepare the way we should prepare, we're going to compete for Big Ten championships and we're going to have the ability to compete for a national championship. "That's never going to change. The expectation is to win the Big Ten. In or- der to do that, you've got to compete. You've got to take it game by game. No- body's going to give it to you. "At Michigan, we expect people will give us their best performance, because they want to beat us. That's the burden we have to bear, and realize, and live up to — always." The Wolverine: It was floated in the press that the Big Ten was talking about a greatly expanded Playoff. Any thoughts about that? Manuel: "There's a lot of vitriol across the country towards [Big Ten commis- sioner] Tony Petitti that I think is un- necessary. What I think Tony's trying to say is, in many people's minds, there is a subjective committee, which I've chaired and which I believe strongly in. It's there to choose the top 25 and then the top 12 of those who, in various ways, go into the Playoff. "I say in various ways because of this idea that the highest-ranked five confer- ence champions are in the Playoff. How- ever, you have Clemson winning the ACC last year but being out of the top 12, for example. "Tony's idea and the ideas that were generated through conversation with the ADs was, let's look at a way to play into it. What people didn't like was Tony saying, the Big Ten and the SEC should get X, and the ACC and the Big 12 should get X, and the Group of Five should get X, and everybody should play in. You need some kind of system in order to do that. "We had a weekend where we saw three games where top-10 teams were playing each other. But we also have ath- letic directors and football coaches say- ing, 'Why should we play those games?' You can't get to a system like you have in pro football with college, because you have too many teams. So, the question is, how can you do something different to actually play into a Playoff in your conference? "Nonconference still matters. Your record still matters. But what also mat- ters is, how did you play in your confer- ence in order to get you into the Play- off? The representatives of the Big Ten play games that matter at the end of the season to say who gets into the Play- off. I think it's something to be consid- ered and be discussed, and not to just be dismissed. The same people who are dismissing it are some of the same people who are complaining when their teams don't make it into the Playoff. If you want your team to have a shot to make it into the Playoff without — in their minds, not in my mind — subjec- tive people sitting in a room trying to compare schedules and this and that, then do something where people have to play in. "Guess what's going to happen? Those games are going to matter, and people are going to watch. Teams are going to participate, and they're going to know, if I win this particular game, I'm in, as opposed to, I'm sitting at home waiting on a committee to decide on how this is figured out to align the Playoff. "People just need to stop reacting to an idea without thinking the idea through. I don't understand how the same people that dismiss the current setup also dismiss any idea that's dif- ferent than the current setup. You can't have it both ways. What do you want? Do you want to complain to complain? My sense of it is, it will get worked out. "I'm not saying this is the way it should be done. But don't be so dismis- sive. Nobody wanted computers when it was the computers making the deci- sions. Nobody liked four, that wasn't big enough. Now it's 12, and all of a sudden people … It's like the NCAA [Basket- ball] Tournament — no matter how big you make it, the people who get left out are going to be the ones complaining the most. That's my point. Then let's come up with some kind of a system that actually makes sense and figure it out from there."