How Michigan football players responded to cheating allegations

This weekend, the No. 3 Wolverines (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) will face the No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) in Happy Valley — the team’s first true test of the 2023 season. Ahead of the game, amid the sign-stealing allegations, NCAA investigation, and more, Jim Harbaugh took time on Monday to explain how his Michigan football players are handling the news and rolling with the punches, staying locked in on a national title along the way.

How Michigan football players responded to sign-stealing allegations

This weekend, Michigan football is set to do battle with a top-10 Penn State team, which comes into this Saturday’s contest with its back against the wall. For Jim Harbaugh and his Wolverines, who are undefeated and have not lost a Big Ten football game since October of 2021, this weekend’s game is crucial — it will go a long way in determining this year’s Big Ten title and College Football Playoff race.

What did Jim Harbaugh say?

As Michigan remains under a microscope due to the sign-stealing allegations and NCAA investigation(s) into the program, beating Penn State must somehow stay at the front of the team’s mind. But how has Michigan football stayed focused on the Nittany Lions? Yesterday, we heard from Jim Harbaugh, who explained that “work” is taking priority over the outside noise.

“What I’ve seen of our players — I think what they do no matter what happens, what it is, what emotion, list one of the adjectives,” Jim Harbaugh said on Monday. “I mean, they just work. They just want to find some work, do some work. Something could be in their personal life; something could be in the game of football or school — some kind of stressor or whatever. You just go to work.

“(They) find some work, create some work for you to do,” Jim Harbaugh continued. “It clears the mind, it cleanses the soul. And a lot of times, you get the clarity you need. Not every time, but a lot of the time, you get the clarity you need, and bang, that’s where we go from here. And then you have the benefit — you have the benefit of the of the work that you did. And that’s always been my personal philosophy. And I see our players doing the same thing.”

Michigan-Penn State ready for massive Big Ten clash on Saturday

In just a few days, despite all that is going on, No. 3 Michigan football and No. 9 Penn State will square off in arguably the biggest Big Ten Conference game of the 2023 season thus far. Kickoff is set for 12:10 PM (ET) and, right now, the Wolverines head into the contest as 6.5-point favorites over the Nittany Lions.

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