Jim Harbaugh shares what Michigan must do to beat MSU

It’s as big of a matchup as it gets in college football — a game between top 10 teams, and a rivalry game to boot.

Both Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN’s College GameDay will be in East Lansing for No. 6 Michigan at No. 8 Michigan State, where the winner will move to 8-0 and the 7-1 loser will have to hope the other will falter somewhere down the stretch to stay alive in the Big Ten.

For Michigan, if it wants to regain possession of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, Jim Harbaugh says that there are two big keys: starting fast and having superior preparation.

He shared with Jon Jansen on the Inside Michigan Football radio show on the IMG Sports Network that it’s of paramount importance that the Wolverines set the tone coming out of the locker room, both at the start of the game and after halftime.

“There’s a high percentage of winning the game when you get the first touchdown, coming out of the — starting the game and starting the second half,” “Yeah, you want to start fast, you want to be consistent throughout the game. The momentum will swing, as it does. You wanna get it back as fast as possible. It just comes down to playing good. You play good, and in a road game, you’ve gotta pack your defense and play extremely well on the road.”

The other element, preparation, is what will help the team from getting blinded by the lights. Harbaugh says that if you prepare correctly, then you won’t find yourself getting nervous.

“Preparation, it really comes down to that,” Harbaugh said. “I’ve found that to be the case and I think our players realize it and understand it too. When they’re prepared, when you’re prepared to do a job, that’s a thing where you don’t feel that pressure. Whether it’s practice, it’s in a game, whether it’s in a big game, whether it’s in a rivalry game. All the way up to the highest level. When you’re not prepared, you get real nervous. You get very unsettled. The thing you can do, put yourself in the best position, is prepare as well as you possibly can. That goes for football or radio shows – anything! Whatever you do, you’re a lot more confident and not nervous when you’re prepared.”

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So what does Michigan have to prepare for, anyhow? Well, MSU is pretty much a complete team, with a solid defense, offense and special teams.

As far as Harbaugh sees the defense, the Wolverines will need to unload several key facets to their arsenal to continually keep the Spartans off-balance. Because no matter what other teams do, Michigan State’s defense, led by defensive end Jacub Panasiuk and the linebacking corps with Quavaris Crouch, will be ready for whatever is thrown at them.

“They’re really good up front,” Harbaugh said. “They have a very good defensive front, four-down front. They also have a player that’s of high caliber, like we do. On both sides. And stout up the middle. Linebackers that are very athletic. Again, a secondary that’s very good. They’re sound. They play very athletic and they have a nose for the ball. Yeah, they’re really good, they’re really good defending the play-action pass, they’re really good defending the RPOs, the run schemes. Just really solid and good. We’re gonna have to play really good. That’ll be the theme, and it always is, but especially this week.”

On the other side of the ball, Harbaugh has long been on high alert for running back Kenneth Walker III. But he’s not the only one that makes big plays.

Harbaugh notes that the Michigan defense will need to keep contain, because quarterback Payton Thorne can scramble to extend plays or take off down the field at any moment. Even more, he tends to get rid of the ball so quickly, that it can neutralize even the fastest pass rush.

“They’re very effective running the football, excellent running back. Fast back who is also a big back that gets a lot of yards after contact. Quarterback that distributes the ball very effectively and also can pick up first downs on his own, whether it’s scrambling or the quarterback-driven runs that some of the zone schemes and quarterback derivatives that come off of that.

They do a really good job of getting the ball out quick, whether it’s in their RPOs or their quick passing game. Very good, very sound.”

We’ll see how Michigan football handles Michigan State come Saturday when the Wolverines and Spartans kick off in East Lansing at noon EDT.

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