ANN ARBOR, Mich. >> It was only two months ago when Hawaii and Michigan were BFFs — best football friends.
Their coaching staffs co-headlined a football clinic at Saint Louis School. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh praised the islands while wearing a Marcus Mariota jersey he bought from a street vendor in Los Angeles. A common bond was Tony Tuioti, Michigan’s director of player personnel and a former UH coach, player and teammate of UH coach Nick Rolovich.
Over malasadas and football talk, the fun and good times were rolling and then …
Harbaugh made complimentary comments about the Rainbow Warriors in news conferences leading to today’s game between the teams in the stadium known as The Big House. But he declined to reveal his choice of starting quarterback. Michigan also did not release a depth chart, a standard — if not always accurate — part of game notes distributed to the media and opposing team. UH announced its depth chart on Monday.
The only thing certain about Michigan’s lineup is that Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan will be on the sideline. A security crew assigned to guard both retired superstars had a test run during the Warriors’ scheduled walk-through session Friday in the Big House. No confirmation on whether Lil Wayne, a Michigan supporter, would be in attendance.
Rolovich had drafted a schedule to minimize the distractions. Three hours after arriving on a nonstop charter at 7 a.m. Thursday, the Warriors practiced for two hours at a nearby high school. The intent was to keep the players on a somewhat normal sleep schedule.
On Friday, he let the players take pictures and videos for 10 minutes at the Big House, which is regarded as one of the top venues in college football.
“You can’t fight the selfie game,” Rolovich said. “These guys need to get their pictures, need to get their memories. I wanted to do it today rather than in warm-ups somebody trying to get pictures of himself.”
The team then gathered at midfield.
“I asked them to take a few minutes and walk around and walk to that place on this field where they dream of making that play,” Rolovich said.
After that, Rolovich gave them 15 minutes of free play. The linemen competed in a half-rugby, half-football game. The receivers played a game in which they could only speed walk and not run.
Rolovich said the stopover was beneficial.
“They can get a feel for this beautiful stadium and huge amount of fans that’ll be here,” Rolovich said. “But just to realize the field is still 100 yards long with two end zones. The yard markers, we checked them, are exactly the same as yard markers that we practiced on. And, really, to let them know that what really matters is what happens on this field. That’s all they need to think about.”
