Rose Bowl preview: Keys, X-factors for No. 1 Michigan vs. Alabama
The Michigan Insider
247Sports, Michigan Football, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan, Michigan athletics, College Football
4.6 • 855 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2024
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Zach Shaw and Alejandro Zúñiga break down their biggest takeaways from a week in Los Angeles as the Wolverines prepare for the Rose Bowl against Alabama.
They open with a discussion about Michigan’s final preparations for the CFP after talking to coaches and players from both teams. They discuss why the Wolverines are better prepared for the CFP than in years past and some of their observations from Michigan’s practices.
Conversation then turns to breaking down the Rose Bowl itself. Shaw and Zúñiga give their offensive and defensive keys to the game — including what it’ll take to stop Jalen Milroe, and what the Wolverines need to do to move the ball against an excellent Crimson Tide edge group and secondary.
The conversation then ends with X factors, discussing some of the underrated players and keys that could be the deciding factor at the Rose Bowl. Zúñiga and Shaw then make their picks: Will Michigan be heading to Houston, or does the dream season end in Pasadena?
Transcript
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| 0:15.4 | Hello, everybody. |
| 0:16.1 | Welcome to the Wolverine 24-7 podcast, your audio source for all things, Michigan football, basketball, and recruiting. |
| 0:21.6 | I'm your host, Zach Shaw. |
| 0:22.6 | Alejandro Zuniga here with me in downtown Los Angeles. |
| 0:26.3 | It's been quite a week for us as we cover Michigan versus Alabama in the Rose Bowl. |
| 0:31.9 | The bowl games, it's one of the cool things they do is they have a whole week of really good access. |
| 0:36.8 | You know, we got to see some |
| 0:37.6 | practices. We got to talk to a lot of players one-on-one that we don't normally get to talk to one-on-one. |
| 0:43.2 | And so it's been a good time. So this podcast, Steve was sick. I forgot my microphone. So we didn't |
| 0:49.8 | get to do our traditional preview. So we're going to kind of try to combine them both here on New Year's Eve. |
| 0:55.8 | We'll talk a little bit about what we learned this week at Rose Bowl Media Week. |
| 1:00.9 | And then we'll also talk about our biggest keys to this game, offense and defense. |
| 1:05.0 | And then we'll close with our predictions. |
| 1:07.1 | Man, this is a huge, huge game. |
| 1:09.5 | One of the biggest, I was thinking about this, one of the biggest games in Michigan football history, undefeated Wolverines 13 and O going up against a 12 and 1 Alabama team that just beat another number one team, Georgia, in the SEC championship game in Atlanta. |
| 1:24.8 | So Alej, let's start with thinking about Michigan, what we |
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