Texas Longhorns vs Michigan Wolverines: What fans need to know

AUSTIN, Texas - On Saturday #3 Texas heads on the road to face #10 Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

The Longhorns are coming into the game 1-0 with a shutout win against the Colorado State Rams, while the Wolverines pulled off a 30-10 win against a pesky Fresno State squad.

A lot of questions are at play here ahead of Saturday's game including: 

• Which quarterback will Michigan Head Coach Sherrone Moore choose to challenge the Longhorns' defense, Davis Warren or Alex Orji? 
• Can Donovan Edwards rebound off a lackluster debut against Fresco State? 
• Are the defending champion Wolverines prepared to stop the sheer talent on Texas' Steve Sarkisian-led offense?

FOX 2 Detroit's Jennifer Hammond joins Julian Martinez on the FOX 7 Sports Office to give fans the inside scoop on all things Wolverines Football. 

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A full transcript of the video is below:

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Welcome back to the FOX 7 Sports Office. Julian Martinez here. And big time game on the schedule this week. Longhorns-Michigan. So I got to get an expert opinion. So coming to us from our FOX 2 Detroit station, 2023 sportscaster of the year Jennifer Hammond. Jennifer, thank you so much for being here today.

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Hey, thanks for having me on. Any time it's college football season and I can be talking football. I am a happy girl. 

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Let's talk about how the defending national champions are six point dogs in Ann Arbor. If you told me at the start of the season, we would be talking about this, might have said it was a little crazy, but what do you think?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Yeah, I do think it's crazy. And I actually was in conversation with some of my colleagues the other night about this, and I think it may have even moved to seven. So it is a very fluid line. And it's interesting. This is one of four top 25 opponents that the Wolverines will face, and this is the earliest that they've played this kind of stiff competition. If you look all the way back throughout really the Harbaugh era, they've always played a lot of very easy games in the beginning. I don't want to call them cupcakes because in the Big Ten, there's a lot of talented players. But Michigan has been dominant. They've won 23 straight at home. So for them to be taking on Texas this early in the season, when they've really yet to work out all of their kinks, per se, it is...it's definitely daunting for that team.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: So let's talk about kind of why I think that line shifted. The Fresno State game. It was not an ideal start to the season for them, because you never want to be against a Mountain West team, and it's a six-point game deep into the fourth quarter. And that's exactly what happened against Fresno State. Meanwhile, on the other side, you have the Longhorns taking on Colorado State. And they decide hang 50 on them and shut them out for the first time since, like the mid 2000s. So it was polar opposites against two Mountain West opponents, although I do think Fresno State is better than Colorado State in the long run. What do you think went into that game? Why do you think it was as ugly as it ended up becoming?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Well, I do think the part of the issue is the fact that their offense really lost so many guys. They only have one starter that returned on offense, and the core of that team was the defensive front and the offensive front. And when you lose your offensive line, especially in the Big Ten, in a conference when you guys are completely run oriented, it's going to be a big sell to get those guys back in order and get that line back to what it is, because, I mean, it's the heartbeat of the offense, right? So they lose their quarterback. They also lose receivers. They lose, you know, Blake Corum, a candidate...a Heisman worthy candidate and running back. And the offensive line, they've just lost too many critical pieces. Granted the defense kept them in that Fresno State game. And I do think that it'll be much harder for Texas to turn around and hang 52 on the Wolverines, but at the same time, you've got to score points in this league, and you can't rely on your defense for a pick six late in the game when you're only up six against a team like Fresno State.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Big part of scoring points is going to come down to the quarterback. And they kind of did something unusual in week one. They had two quarterbacks which, the old saying you know, if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. But where does that currently stand when it comes to Alex Orji and Davis Warren? Obviously Davis was charged more with being the actual thrower of the football, while they decide to use Orji as more of like a runner. And he was effective. But like, who do you...How do you think they balance that? Do you think it will be as much of a split as it was against Fresno, or do you think they were just week one...let's try some stuff out?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Well, I think that Sherrone Moore isn't going to tip his hand either way. Going into even one week ago at this time, when we were talking to him in his pre-game press conference about who the starting quarterback was, he said it had to play out over the week. And then again after the game against Fresno State, he kind of reiterated, which I was surprised about, that Davis won the job during the week. I get the sense that maybe he knew all along that it was going to be Davis. He certainly has a little better acumen. I mean, what an incredible story this guy is, who he goes from battling cancer to a walk on, and now he's the starting quarterback at the University of Michigan. It's really inspirational. But he certainly seems to pick things up. He struggled a lot, I think because of the fact that early on they didn't have the run game going, and that's going to hurt any quarterback, especially a guy who can stand in the pocket, deliver a good deep ball. But at the same time, the guys were missing blocks on him. You know, they didn't have a run game going. He didn't have time. He didn't have protection. So I think a lot of his deficiencies were a little bit more well defined if you will, because of that offensive line. So that's one area where Sherrone Moore has said, we've got to get better along the offensive line and every single area as well. Even the defense, as well as they played, there's still room for improvement. But I don't expect that Sherrone Moore will continue to use a two-quarterback system, to your point that if they really had a bona fide starter, they wouldn't be doing these, you know, the split roles. But I mean, give them credit. If Alex Orji does continue to show that he has some mobility and the ability to, you know, run some wildcat, anything like that, make the offense different, throw some things at them that they won't be expecting. I think it's, you know, it's only a bonus for them if they have more offensive weapons on the field, because certainly they lost a lot of them.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: A big part of the offensive weapons is going to be Donovan Edwards, running back there. And he wasn't as efficient as you would have liked in that game. Clearly it seemed like his backup had a little bit more steam behind him going into that game. So what do you think the adjustment is, do you think they give Donovan Edwards more run as the starter, or do you think it's time that they start going to other backs?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: You know, I think Mullings was incredible. And anytime you've got a running back who can churn out yards and he can make something out of nothing or he can get yards after contact, that's what we saw number 20 do that entire game. And that was really what opened the passing game for him to hit Loveland with that touchdown late. And it completely energized the offense. Michigan is a program that wants to run the ball. Sherrone Moore is kind of cut from that Jim Harbaugh cloth: run the ball. And it's not exactly, you know, three yards in a cloud of dust. But they want to be able to...they want to be able to dominate and control the line of scrimmage. And if they have a running back like Mullings who can continue to do that and get those tough yards and those yards after contact, it's going to make everybody's job a whole lot easier included, including Davis Warren, or if they put Alex Orji in there for up for a drive or for a play or two.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: You did also allude to the offensive line as well, five new starters on that offensive line and the defense against the Longhorns, I thought it was actually the biggest story in that win against Colorado State. You expect the offense to have a field day against the Rams, who are one of the worst pass defenses in college football. But what the defense did, completely shutting down that air raid impressed me. So I guess my question there is just going to be how is this offensive line hope to adjust after allowing seven pressures against Fresno State, who is not known as necessarily an elite defense themselves?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Yeah, they're going to have to stack. They're going to have to go heavy. They're going to have to make a lot of adjustments, and they're going to have to prepare their tails off, because this is undoubtedly the toughest challenge that they have faced in the regular season going back at least four years, let alone in the Big House. As I mentioned, this is a team that's won 23 straight games at home. They only play four top 25 this year, but three of them are in their conference. So things are going to be really challenging for the Wolverines early on. And as soon as a team like that, that's built its identity on running the ball on the offensive, you know, pressure protection, power up front starts to slip a little, then people are going to start, you know, questioning and finger pointing. And I think that is one thing that they've got to avoid. We knew this was going to be a down year for Michigan. They lost so many players. They lost Jim Harbaugh. Sherrone Moore is capable obviously of coaching that national championship team that won last year. But they are a very different team. He will really have to earn his money, and we'll have to see if he's able to get the most out of these guys in their toughest game yet. It's going to be a heck of a game and I am fired up to see it. But I'll tell you, I would take Texas laying seven.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: For Sherrone Moore, you know, it's obviously his first year as the coach out there taking over for Jim Harbaugh. Do you think it was the right call for them to stick with Moore without really opening up the coaching search as much? It kind of feels like they made their decision right out the gate after Harbaugh left.

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Yeah, they did pretty quickly and I don't have a problem with it. I think that Sherrone Moore certainly is a guy who is qualified. These players love him. That is part of the element that did get him that job, tipped the scales in his favor. But also he proved himself in an interim position at the beginning of the year in one game and then in the final three games of the season, most notably coaching that team to a win against Ohio State. And I think that he definitely deserved it. He's a guy that's been very entrenched in that offense. Their offensive line has been, you know, award worthy the last two seasons. So he's a guy that's been there, done that. He's also got a lot of recruits out on the trail, guys that he's really won and secured in Ann Arbor. So that's a huge selling point for the team to keep him in there. And I do think that they're going to find their way under Sherrone. I don't think that he's outmatched or the job is too big for him. But any time any national champ loses more than a dozen starters, you're going to be, you know, up against it. There's a lot of...There's a lot of growing pains that this team has to go through. And the fact that they get Texas so early in the season, it's definitely going to be a challenge game for them.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: What do you make of the Wink Martindale influence, him coming over as the DC [defensive coordinator]? Did you see it in week one? And how aggressive do you think this defense will be?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: [00:10:04] Yeah. You know, we did start to see some of that aggressive play. Certainly they were burned by it a little bit. But then you had that amazing pick six. I mean these guys are good. They've got a really talented defensive front. Wink Martindale is the kind of guy who wants to just blitz every chance he gets. He even admitted we didn't blitz nearly as much as we wanted to. So maybe they're keeping something up their sleeve for Texas, but I think that could be problematic. You know, you got to have the guys in the back end to cover. And there were a lot of times. You know, he loves to also play a defense where they play a lot of nickel dime, even going to a 25 personnel. And there were some times where they got burned on the back end because they didn't have their studs out there on the corner. So they have got to make sure that they've got all of their T's crossed and all of the I's dotted, especially on defense, because that unit is going to really have to win this game for them.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Final score prediction?

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Well, it's not going to be 52. I'd say, let's go, 31-17 Texas.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Okay, okay. Nice. I'm sure the fans here in Austin will appreciate that...

JENNIFER HAMMOND: Don't tell my friends in Ann Arbor.

JULIAN MARTINEZ: Your secret is safe here. Thank you so much, Jennifer Hammond, Fox Detroit. We'll see you next time. 

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