The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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and French toast," said junior safety Jarrod Wilson, who is particular about his syrup. "I don't drown the French toast, just enough to coat it." MARCHING TO THEIR OWN DRUMMER For a noon game, Michigan will conduct its walk-through after break- fast. For a 3:30 game, the Wolverines will cross the street to the parking lot of the church after their small break- fast and before their bigger team meal. They then split into groups — offense, defense, special teams — and sometimes smaller factions will break off (usually by position group), and then there is discretionary time for each individual. "I always go to chapel service with some of the guys to get the word of the day and to say the Lord's prayer," Wilson said. "Then we have a 10-minute meeting for defense, and a five-minute team meeting." "The defensive line will get together for a walk around the block to let the food settle, and just to remove our- selves a little bit from everything so we can think about our job that day," Wormley added. "We walk back in and watch film as a defensive line and then for about 90 minutes we watch TV. If it's a 3:30 game, I'll watch the first quarter or so of a noon game. "Get comfortable, relax, and when you get to The Big House it's all busi- ness. We're there to win a game." The Maize and Blue can sometimes catch ESPN's "College GameDay" program, and they're quick to point out the famed cast of Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler almost never sides with Michigan. Now that former U-M great Desmond Howard is a regular, the Wolverines count on him to pick his alma mater, and he usually does. Wearing khakis, shirt and tie, and blue sport coats — some players are more stylish than others and put tre- mendous effort into their shirt and tie combinations to stand out from the pack — the Wolverines load Listening to music is an important part of the pregame routine for players such as Devin Gardner (right) and Shane Morris (left). PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL