Entering the Week 13 game at Ohio State, without Blake Corum,
just about no one game Michigan football a chance to beat, let alone dominate the Buckeyes.
Yet, there the Wolverines were, making plays we haven’t seen all season, from big,
explosive deep-ball passes, to trick plays, to the game-sealing 75 and 85-yard runs by Donovan Edwards.
As a result, the maize and blue advance to the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis vs. Purdue on Saturday,
while Ohio State has to sit at home, hoping that something happens with either TCU or USC to allow the Buckeyes to advance into the College Football Playoff.
On Wednesday, Michigan co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss shared more insight about the offense’s plan and execution vs. OSU,
as well as what he’s seen from the Purdue defense.
Here is everything he had to say.
How much new was there in the passing game for Ohio State?
Yes, good question. We had a lot of great stuff ready to go.
And we were ready for everything — for overtime,
for two-point, shoot out — whatever came up. As it turned out,
the big plays made it so we didn’t really need to use a lot of stuff we had saved up that was ready.
Really, a lot of the big plays we hit was with base, day-one training camp stuff.
The first big play to C.J. was a check by J.J. He’s so smart and so well prepared that we’re able to put most of the checks on him.
A lot of college teams look to the sideline.
But he correctly identified that was a zero blitz, he did the check that we had discussed and just made a great play to drift away from the free rusher,
throw a hitch, and C.J. did the rest. So really, really just basic stuff.