What they're saying after Michigan's 45-7 win over Nebraska

The Michigan Wolverines, America’s second-ranked team, moved to 5-0 on the season with a dominant 45-7 win at Nebraska on Saturday afternoon in Lincoln. The heat, wind and all-out dominance cleared out Memorial Stadium starting at halftime as U-M played its most complete game of the year.

It drew plenty of reactions across the college football world, who were pleasantly surprised by the team’s return to 2021-22 form. Here are some of the things people are saying after the dust settles on Week 5.

Ryan Van Bergen, TheWolverine.com postgame show

Wolverine TV podcast: Postgame reactions to blowout win at Nebraska
It was a good old-fashioned can of whoop ass. We brought it down to Lincoln and opened it up all over them on a hot, windy day. And this is what I think this team needed from what we’ve seen so far is this road test. Finally feeling like they have to come out and show out. And I feel like all three facets through four quarters, this was a really, really solid team performance.

A topic of this game was the physicality and the toughness that I thought you saw offensively, defensively, it showed up on special teams, even on kick coverage. I felt like this was the most physical that we’ve seen this team. We came in and played some bully football. It was there from the opening drive. It was still there when we had our third and fourth-string quarterbacks taking off with the ball and dropping their shoulder.

That’s what separates Michigan from the other programs that are nationally dominant. Everybody’s kind of got their niche. And it’s specific to their team, but Michigan’s niche has been a ground game and then a physicality and a toughness that’s just, it wears on you and Nebraska, they’re no slouch. They’ve got a tradition of toughness in their program. So for us to come in and bully them the way that we were able to bully them and get what we wanted offensively, defensively, through all four quarters. Not much more to be desired from anyone in any unit today.

Chris Balas, The Wolverine

Michigan 45, Nebraska 7 … Notes, quotes, and observations 
No, this is not your father’s — er, grandfather’s — Nebraska team. Yeah, this was the nation’s No. 1 team against the run because of a) the competition and b) teams’ ability to exploit them in the passing game. But Lincoln is still a tough(ish) place to play, the crowd into it from the get-go. They play hard under Matt Rhule and will improve (if their recruiting does), and to be fair, they were down three of their better defensive players when safety DeShon Singleton went down early. 

But they weren’t going to win without scoring, and … they weren’t going to score on this Michigan defense. Not enough to win, anyway. The Wolverines owned the line of scrimmage, and while the option can be tricky, neither that nor any other offense is going to move the ball if they can’t create some room up front. 

The Wolverines’ front seven was dominant enough, but you know things are good when your 350-pound plus defensive tackle [Michigan sophomore Kenneth Grant] picks off a pass to set up a touchdown, and when you start to clear out another team’s stadium at halftime … and in J.J. McCarthy’s case, getting a kiss from your girlfriend at the end of the third quarter while you watch your teammates play it out with a 35-0 lead. 

It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close. Head coach Jim Harbaugh admitted it ranked “pretty darn high” against the most complete games he’d coached at Michigan. 

Scott Bell, The Scott Bell Newsletter

Quick reaction: Michigan 45, Nebraska 7

When Michigan got through its non-conference schedule and the corresponding Jim Harbaugh suspension, I was very curious what Michigan’s attack would look like. The first three weeks of the season were very balanced between rushing and passing, and with two really solid run defenses next up on the schedule with Rutgers and Nebraska, I wondered if Michigan would break away from the balance and potentially lean a little more into the passing game.

Well, I was half right. Michigan did break away from the 50-50 split. But it wasn’t to lean more into the passing game. Instead, with Jim Harbaugh back on the sidelines, we’re back to Harball. And it’s hard to argue with the results.

A week after a 40:21 split in favor of the run against Rutgers (a 65% pro-run split), Michigan upped that average on Saturday despite the fact that it was facing the No. 1 rush defense in America. The Wolverines ran 51 times compared to just 23 runs (a very nice 69% pro-run split).

It was very much a strength vs. strength, identity vs. identity matchup. And Jim Harbaugh’s strength and identity won out over Nebraska’s run defense, which ended up giving up more rushing yards in the first two drives against Michigan than it had given up in any single game leading up to Saturday’s matchup in Lincoln.

ESPN.com staff picks its playoff top-four

College Football Playoff picks after Week 5
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Blake Baumgartner: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Texas
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Michigan 4. Texas
Bill Connelly: 1. Michigan 2. Washington 3. Georgia 4. Texas
Heather Dinich: 1. Florida State 2. Texas 3. Georgia 4. Washington
David Hale: 1. Georgia 2. Florida State 3. Texas 4. Ohio State
Chris Low: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Texas
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Michigan 4. Texas
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Texas 4. Washington
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Texas
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Michigan 2. Washington 3. Georgia 4. Texas
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Texas 4. Florida State
Dave Wilson: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Michigan 4. Texas

Chris Burke, The Athletic

Michigan makes it look easy on the ground
No. 2 Michigan still has all of its biggest tests left to navigate. But after a string of four nondescript victories to open the season, Jim Harbaugh’s team looked more like its 2021 and ’22 self in a 45-7 win at Nebraska Saturday.

The Wolverines had been struggling to find their usual — and very much Harbaugh-desired — run-pass balance. But they rolled out to a 35-0 third-quarter lead behind two rushing touchdowns (one by Blake Corum, one by short-yardage back/converted linebacker Kalel Mullings), two J.J. McCarthy-to-Roman Wilson TD passes (Wilson’s seventh and eighth scores of the young season), and a 21-yard McCarthy scramble to the end zone. All told, the Wolverines rolled up 249 yards rushing to 187 yards passing, while McCarthy took the last quarter-and-a-half off.

This, against a Nebraska defense that entered Saturday leading the FBS in rush defense (46.2 yards allowed per game, 1.83 yards allowed per attempt).

Harbaugh’s recent Michigan teams have reclaimed Big Ten dominance by controlling the trenches. It had been a struggle to do so through four games, but Saturday might count as a turning point.

Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic

4. Michigan (5-0)
Finally! Against Nebraska, Michigan looked like Michigan is supposed to look. The pieces that make up a very good football team have been there all along, but the Wolverines have been winning rather ugly, with sluggish starts and underwhelming passing performances.

In Lincoln, Michigan cruised to a 45-7 win over a Nebraska defense that hadn’t given up more than 60 rushing yards in a game this season. The Wolverines won with a balanced attack: 249 yards on the ground and 187 in the air. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw a couple of really nice passes, including two touchdowns to Roman Wilson, his favorite target. This was simply a dominant win, secured in exactly the way Michigan wanted.

Chip Patterson, CBS Sports

Tomorrow’s Top 25 Today: Ole Miss surges up college football rankings after shootout win vs. LSU
2. Michigan (2): The competition was supposed to get tougher with the beginning of conference play, but Michigan is dismantling every opponent in the same manner. A 45-7 win at Nebraska in its first road game should bring some confidence to those considering the Wolverines as one of the top teams in the country. 

Richard Johnson, Sports Illustrated

2. Michigan
If you paid attention to Michigan’s 45–7 win over Nebraska, it might have seemed familiar. They’ve played this game before this season, in fact it’s basically the same script every week. The Wolverines get up, and stay up, and there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ll see if anyone can test Michigan before Veterans Day when they face Penn State.