In anticipation of the national championship game, Michigan football will channel Wolfpack energy.
The Wolverines are still getting ready for the football match of their life on the eve of the College Football Playoff title game.
Before Michigan football and Washington football play on Monday night at NRG Stadium, head coach Jim Harbaugh and head coach Kalen DeBoer of the Huskies made their parting remarks Sunday morning in Liberty Hall, a banquet room next to the JW Marriott in downtown Houston.
Throughout the season, Harbaugh has required his squad to view documentaries and films on various predatory creatures the night before U-M’s games in an effort to “get the red blood pumping.”
He intended to carry on with the custom on Sunday night.”Amazing stuff, tigers, cheetahs, lions,” remarked Harbaugh. “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 aim to harness, perhaps the most formidable fighting force in nature.”
The 60-year-old Hartbaugh was questioned about his future for the second day in a row, but he refused to bite. Rather, he talked on the value of being present in the moment and how his crew overcame a turbulent season as a team despite attempts by outside forces to tear it apart.
He finds in one of the animals most frequently featured in these pre-game rituals the same mentality that he wants his players to carry over into the game.
“A pack of wolves, in my opinion, makes the ideal fighting unit,” stated Harbaugh. “Prior to the combat, you saw them congregated. You catch them all heading to the fight together. Together, you can see them in the battle. After the brawl, you witness them having fun.