Davis Warren: ‘Standard hasn’t changed’ after Michigan loss to Texas
Michigan Wolverines quarterback Davis Warren said the reigning national championship team’s “standard hasn’t changed” after losing 31-12 to Texas.
Sherrone Moore wore a downcast expression. He exhaled a deep sigh and folded his arms as he waited to address the reporters in the uncomfortable aftermath of Michigan football’s deflating 31-12 defeat to Texas on Saturday. What could he possibly say following such a complete and thorough destruction of his team?
“For us,” he said, “it’s a loss.”
As he uttered those words, it seemed as if Moore had a hard time accepting them, let alone believing them – especially the last two that spilled out of his mouth.
“You haven’t had one of these in a long time,” he muttered.
Not since the Wolverines fell to TCU in a frenetic, wild Fiesta Bowl barnburner on New Year’s Eve 2022 had another team beaten them. But as shocking as that setback was at the time, it never seemed to signal a potential downturn for the program or a stopping point. Instead, it was considered an isolated bump on the road to glory. Only five weeks later, star running back Blake Corum vowed the Wolverines would win the national championship and “go down in history,” as he put it.
The declaration would prove prophetic. With an experienced cast of talented players, the Wolverines stormed through their schedule, beating every opponent in their path and marching right back into the College Football Playoff. Once there, they beat Alabama in an epic Rose Bowl showdown and then tore through Washington to claim the sport’s greatest prize.
Weeks later, that great team was gutted. Jim Harbaugh bolted for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, triggering a regime change and a complete makeover of the defensive coaching staff.
Eight players, including 10 starters on offense, immediately turned pro. The mass exodus raised questions about whether the program could sustain its remarkable run of success over the previous three seasons, when it won 40 of 43 games, became the kings of the Big Ten and reached the summit of college football.
But Moore, who used to be one of Harbaugh’s top assistants, refused to indulge the skepticism. In August, when a reporter wondered how the Wolverines were going to replace so many top-level contributors, Moore tapped a lectern with a hint of annoyance.
“We’ve got enough talent and we’re going to develop them,” he huffed.
The comment was laced with the same kind of bravado his coordinator Kirk Campbell in the spring, when he predicted the Wolverines would have an “extremely explosive offense.”
Up until Saturday, Moore and his chief lieutenants could sell the idea that all was well in Ann Arbor, that Michigan’s golden age would continue, that it was business as usual on State and Main Streets.
But then the Longhorns charged into the Big House and dominated Michigan, beating the Wolverines at their own game and pulling back the curtain on a program that appears to have begun its inevitable backslide. It felt like a landmark loss because it was one.
The Wolverines hadn’t gone down in the regular season since their soul-crushing defeat to Michigan State back in October 2021. They hadn’t fallen at home since the previous year, when this 108,000-seat stadium sat empty during the middle of a global pandemic.
Sixth-year safety Quinten Johnson remembers those dark days, when Michigan was stuck in the rut.
“A lot of guys on this team aren’t used to being in this position,” Johnson said. “But it’s adversity. It’s manhood. How are you going to respond to it?”
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Based on what transpired on the field Saturday, it’s hard not to be concerned about the answer that may come. After all, the Wolverines looked overmatched on both sides of the ball, as the Longhorns outgained them by more than 100 yards and played with the lead for the final 49 minutes of regulation.
With surgical precision, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers dissected the Wolverines’ defense — delivering a rush of quick throws and screens to his running backs and No. 1 tight end that neutralized Michigan coordinator Wink Martindale’s aggressive tactics. Ewers, a former Ohio State Buckeye, directed four straight scoring drives that lifted his Longhorns to a 24-3 halftime lead and staggered the Wolverines.
Michigan couldn’t muster much of a comeback as it watched its deficit grow. The Wolverines’ weak offense, comprised of a pedestrian running game, limited quarterback and dearth of viable outside skill weapons, cratered when it fell behind by double digits.
Down 14-3, Davis Warren threw the first of two interceptions when he flung an ill-advised pass to Tyler Morris in a crowd of defenders. Mere minutes after Texas extended its advantage to two touchdowns, tight end Colston Loveland fumbled upon turning upfield to run following a catch.
It snowballed from there, as the Longhorns asserted their supremacy.
“It sucks, because you come into this game knowing there is a lot on the line,” Warren said. “We have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and see what type of team we want to be, who we want to be.”
They could have just as easily looked across the field, to the opposite sideline, to get an idea.
Texas, in many ways, is reminiscent of 2023 Michigan. Like those Wolverines, these Longhorns are hungry after suffering a crushing loss in the College Football Playoff semifinal the previous season.
They also appear to be going places, propelled by an elite quarterback, a brawny offensive line and a staunch defense. Michigan doesn’t appear to have any of those championship prerequisites at the moment, a realization that crystallized over the course of dismal loss that may have signaled the end of the Wolverines’ halcyon days.
“We knew we were a new team,” Moore said. “We never tried to rest on our laurels, that we won the national championship last year. So, for us, it was (about) what are we going to do to get better and make this team good. … We’re at where we’re at.”
As many assumed throughout this past offseason, and Moore has reluctantly now come to recognize, it’s nowhere close to where Michigan was last season.
Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.
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Publish date : 2024-09-07 23:08:00
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