Michigan football to travel to Los Angeles early, practice Friday at 'The Bolt,' home of the Chargers

Michigan Wolverines football is changing things up. After traveling to Washington on Friday — the normal travel day for college football teams before a Saturday game — ahead of a 27-17 loss in 2024, the Wolverines are making a switch and will arrive in Los Angeles Thursday for their Saturday game against USC.

Head coach Sherrone Moore and his staff learned from the experience a season ago and decided to make the change. The Maize and Blue will get in Thursday night, before practicing at ‘The Bolt’ in El Segundo — the home of the Los Angeles Chargers, who are coached by former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.

“We’re going to leave Thursday,” Moore said. “Last year, the West Coast trip to Washington, we felt like [we were] a little groggy, a little slow start. The guys played well, but felt like we needed a little more time.

“I talked to a lot of different people during the offseason and, obviously, having [defensive coordinator] Wink [Martindale] here with his NFL background, we’re going to leave Thursday. We’re going to do everything normal on Thursday. I know guys probably want to leave early Thursday, but they have to go to class; they’re still student athletes. So, they’ll go to class, do all that. We’ll leave Thursday, be there Friday.

“We’ll get a chance to practice at ‘The Bolt,’ which is cool. I know [the Chargers] have an away game [at Miami Sunday]. So, that’s another great Michigan connection. ‘Michigan West.’

“We’ll leave Thursday, get there Friday, spend all day Friday and make it as normal as possible for the kids and then play on Saturday.”

Big Ten teams went 6-22 playing games multiple time zones away in 2024, and they’re 5-5 this season.

“It’s the same thing when you travel just in general when you’re going time zones,” Moore said. “You’re adjusting on the clock and you’re adjusting with the air [travel]. Flying dehydrates you — that’s one thing. You have to recover a little bit more. So, I think it’s just different, different atmospheres, not just being away.

“It’s just a challenge you have to attack. You go to the NFL, you’ve got to do the same thing. If a team is flying this way, you’ve got to adjust, as well. I think you can’t make those things an excuse. You’ve got to just go attack them and figure out ways to get better with it. That’s why we’re flying out Thursday, to hopefully have a better grasp on trying to make that like it’s Ann Arbor over there.”

Just last week, Penn State — coming off an overtime loss to Oregon at home — lost to then-winless UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, 42-37. Everyone in the college football world, including those inside Schembechler Hall, saw the result, but Michigan won’t discuss it in any official capacity.

“Nah, that’s their game,” Moore said of Penn State. “That’s what happened to them. I’m not going to refer back to that.

“They all saw it, they all know, they all understood what happened. We’re not them.

“Our narrative and our focus will be on us and how do we go win this game — execution and our plan and our goal of what we’re going to do. I can’t speak to what they did and how they played, so we’re just going to worry about us.”

Michigan has eight players from California on its roster, and they’re likely excited to play in their home state.

“I don’t make it too much of a deal, because at the end of the day, we’re going to somebody else’s place, and we’re not celebrating going to the Coliseum. There are no picture or selfies because we’re at the nice Coliseum.

“It’s sold out, but it’s sold out because Michigan’s coming.

“So, we’re excited about the opportunity for guys to be able to go back home and see family, and family be closer and friends, but not making too much of a deal there.”