ANN ARBOR – Michigan’s football team (8-0) will kick off in Ann Arbor at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday against Purdue in the Wolverines’ fourth night game of the season.
That’s the most primetime games Michigan has had during any regular season under ninth-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. Saturday also will be the Wolverines’ third night game in their past four games.
Sophomore cornerback Will Johnson isn’t complaining.
“I loved the Friday Night Lights in high school,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I feel like the stars come out at night. So just having that feeling under the lights, it’s always a great feeling for me, personally.”
Saturday’s matchup against the Boilermakers (2-6, 1-4 Big Ten) will be the Wolverines’ second home game under the new LED lights at Michigan Stadium. The Big Ten’s new $8 billion media rights deal included a package for NBC to broadcast a weekly game on Saturday night. This week’s game will be the third time Michigan appears on NBC’s “Big Ten Saturday Night.”
For the players, the start times don’t make much of a difference.
“I don’t feel like the preparation changes too much,” senior receiver Roman Wilson said Monday. “Just make sure you’re getting enough sleep, and because it’s a night game, don’t stay up too late.
“I don’t know, are we playing that many night games? It doesn’t feel like a lot, so nothing really changes.”
If Harbaugh had it his way, No. 3 Michigan would kick off at noon every Saturday in 72 degrees with no humidity. But he also believes his team is built to win in any conditions, recently comparing the Wolverines to field corn rather than a houseplant.
Before the Big Ten’s new media rights deal, both schools would have to mutually agree to play a night game, which Michigan would never approve.
Schools no longer have that veto power, which means the Wolverines could be playing in prime time late in seasons. This year, the Nov. 11 matchup at Penn State and Nov. 25 home game against Ohio State are slated for noon kickoffs. Start time for Maryland on Nov. 18 has not yet been announced.
“Nothing against houseplants,” Harbaugh said Monday. “They have their function. They can be beautiful in the home. They can bring great beauty and value to a home. But the field corn – just drop a seed in a crack of a sidewalk and it’ll burrow down and come up with any energy that it can find and then rise up in a stalk-like fashion and just start producing.”
Tight end AJ Barner said he prefers night games because it gives him more time to go over the game plan.
“I like night games just because you can lock in all day and make sure that you’re 100% focused on your assignments so there’s no chance that you have a mental error in the game,” Barner said. “That’s one thing that I do whenever we play a night game. I’m always in the hotel room, just making sure I go over my stuff two or three times.”
The mission for the coaching staff is to make sure the players are prepared regardless of start time.
“It’s just different,” tight ends coach Grant Newsome said of night games. “Obviously, they’ve done a great job with the renovations of the stadium. It’s a super cool atmosphere and the fans love ‘em.
“Selfishly, in the building, we love a good noon kickoff. Like Coach Harbaugh and Coach Herb always say, ‘We’ll play any time of day, whether it’s an 11 o’clock body time at Nebraska…shoot, next year we might have some late body clock games going out West.’ Whenever the ball is put down, we gotta be ready to play, and our guys are.”
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