Michigan football didn’t need more motivation, but it got more

On Monday, the Michigan football program announced that Head Coach Jim Harbaugh will miss the entire non-conference slate this year due to a self-imposed three-game suspension. Despite the NCAA’s delay, the Wolverines went ahead and took action and suspended their own coach — if you think that the Maize and Blue are hanging their heads over this news, you are out of the loop about the attitude of this year’s team. The Wolverines didn’t need more motivation, but now they have it.

Michigan football gained extra motivation

On Monday, a few players addressed the Jim Harbaugh suspension news a mere hours after it happened — according to these players, the locker room was not really impacted by the news. In fact, any impact that the three-game self-imposed suspension had will be bad for opposing teams, especially East Carolina, Bowling Green, and UNLV, who already had the tall task of facing Michigan in Ann Arbor.

This is nothing new for Michigan football, though; in fact, back in July (during Big Ten Media Day), Michigan football star running back Blake Corum had this to say about Jim Harbaugh being suspended:

“I don’t know too much about the situation (with the NCAA), but as a leader, just rallying my guys,” Blake Corum said. “If anything, it’s going to make us go even harder. Maybe a little motivation — light a fire under us. I’m going to rally my troops, get them going, and we’re going to do this for coach (Jim) Harbaugh if that is the case. But I don’t really know what’s going on too much. Really just bring my guys together and do what we do, (which is) play ball, leave it all on the field and get the job done.”

Senior leader Mike Sainristil added, “We’ll go out there and play the football that (Jim Harbaugh) wants us to play. I know whether he’s there or not, he’s going to be happy to watch us play. Not happy to not be coaching out there, but we’re going to go out there and do what he’d want us to do.”

Jim Harbaugh suspension lighting a fire under his players

On Monday, a lot of similar things were said following the news of Jim Harbaugh’s suspension. In fact, according to sophomore defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, Michigan football is ready to bring more “firepower” to the field this fall.

“We’re definitely going to bring some fire to the field. In the next three games, we’re gonna rally behind him for sure,” Grant said. “… I was surprised a little bit, but it really doesn’t affect us. The group of guys we’ve got, we’re really resilient, so we’re gonna come with even more firepower.”

Now, there are some long-term upsides for Michigan football with all of this news, which I outlined on Monday, but it is clear that Michigan football is using any negative outside noise they hear as motivation. East Carolina isn’t Ohio State and is not exactly seen as a threat in Ann Arbor, but expect the Maize and Blue to come out and play with some fire due to Jim Harbaugh’s absence.

Michigan football is looking to win another Big Ten Championship and appear in the College Football Playoff once again this year; while Jim Harbaugh will only be suspended for three games, the Wolverines are clearly ready to play harder than ever before in his absence, which should carry over into his Week 4 return and beyond.

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