Michigan won the national championship last season amid controversy. The offseason drama continues to follow the Wolverines, but they’re intent on successfully defending their title.
The No. 9 Wolverines open their season with a nonconference game against Fresno State on Saturday night in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Michigan was embroiled in a sign-stealing scandal last season, which led to a league-imposed suspension for then-head coach Jim Harbaugh late in the regular season. It didn’t prevent the Wolverines from going undefeated, culminating in a 34-13 victory over Washington in the College Football Playoff championship.
Harbaugh departed to become head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Sherrone Moore, who served as acting head coach in four games last season, was named head coach in January.
Over the weekend, Michigan received the final version of a notice of allegations from the NCAA related to the sign-stealing investigation. Moore was among those alleged to have committed violations.
He deflected questions about the NCAA inquiry during a Monday press conference.
“You guys can write about that,” he said. “We’re just worried about playing.”
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy — a first-round draft pick for the Minnesota Vikings — led the Wolverines to the championship. His replacement has yet to be named. Holdovers Alex Orji and Davis Warren are dueling for the starting job.
“We’ll just see who practices better these next couple of days,” Moore said. “Then we’ll make a decision.”
While the Wolverines enter the season with a top-10 ranking, they’re below three other Big Ten teams — No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon and No. 8 Penn State.
They also have the added pressure of being the defending champions.
“We always had a target on our back,” offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi said. “Now, it’s even bigger than ever. We know what we have to do. We know what our job is. We know how big that target is. We’re everybody’s Super Bowl and we have to treat it the same way.”
The Wolverines face No. 4 Texas next week but Fresno State is no pushover. The Bulldogs finished 9-4 last season, including a New Mexico Bowl victory over New Mexico State.
“They’re a good football team,” Moore said. “They’re tough, they’re blue-collar. They play extremely hard, so it’s going to be a challenge for us to make sure we do the same thing.”
Jeff Tedford stepped down as Fresno State’s head coach in July due to health concerns. He was replaced on an interim basis by Tim Skipper, who’s fired up at the prospect of playing on national TV against the defending champions.
“I love hostile environments, to be honest with you,” he said. “That’s the magic of college football. You get (110,000) in the stadium. It’s loud, it’s rocking, you can’t hear. You want it to be as hard as it can possibly be.”
Mikey Keene returns as the Bulldogs’ quarterback. He passed for 2,976 yards and 24 touchdowns with 10 interceptions last season.
“We’ve got to keep him contained and confuse him a little bit with the coverages and the things we do and make it messy for him,” Moore said.
