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Newsstand: Oklahoma WR calls Michigan game 'personal'

Anthony Broomeby: Anthony Broome09/02/25anthonytbroome
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The Michigan Wolverines did not recruit Oklahoma wide receiver Deion Burks coming out of high school just down the road at Belleville High School, and that adds a layer to Saturday night’s game for the former Purdue wide receiver.

Burks spent his first three years in West Lafayette playing for head coaches Jeff Brohm and Ryan Walters, respectively, from 2021-23. He transferred to Oklahoma last year and is coming off a 7 catch, 88-yard performance in the season opener.

“I’m from Michigan, so it’s definitely personal for me,” Burks told the media on Monday. “Played them twice—played them once under (Jeff) Brohm and I played them again under coach Ryan Walters. Definitely a nice team. They’re always going to be good on defense, offense as well. But I’m excited. Michigan did not recruit me, so I don’t like them. It’s definitely personal.”

Burks and the Oklahoma passing attack, led by transfer quarterback John Mateer, have Michigan on high alert this weekend. Mateer went 30-for-37 for 392 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win over Illinois State.

“He’s an electric quarterback,” Moore said Monday. “He’s a gunslinger. People keep comparing him to Baker Mayfield because he’s a shorter quarterback, but he’s got his differences. He’s a quarterback who can make every throw, off-schedule throws. He can run the football. So we got to do a good job of keeping him off schedule, but not making sure that he can’t just have free windows and covering guys up when they’re downfield, because they do have speed on the outside lanes to run, and the O-line is good.

“Have a great plan to keep him rattled and change the picture on him so he’s not comfortable. I know they’re going to be fast. I know they’re going to be physical. They’re going to be fundamentally sound and they’re going to try to tackle as well as they can. So, but our job is to try to make a miss and be explosive on offense. So we’ve got to do things to counteract his thought process and how he puts together the plan. So that’s what we’re going to attempt to do.”

Saturday night’s game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.

Tweets of the day

Michigan quote of the day

“I thought he was fantastic. I thought he was smart with the football. Made some incredible throws throughout the night, including the two-minute drill at the end of the first half. You also had the beginning of the third quarter and the little flip to Marlin Klein on a play action pass when they’re backed up on their own six-yard line. Just the trust they have him in him already, I’m excited to watch him in against a much better defense, a much tougher environment to play in.”

– TheWolverine.com’s Clayton Sayfie on Bryce Underwood’s debut at Michigan

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