For as much excitement as the West Coast newcomers have brought to the Big Ten the last two seasons, the issue of cross-country trips is something that’s yet to fully resolve itself. Through two years,
we’ve seen our fair share of teams struggling when making long trips. In Michigan’s case, its lost both of its matchups — a 27-17 loss to Washington in 2024 and the 31-13 loss to USC last weekend.
Ahead of its game against USC, Michigan made notable adjustments to the travel schedule by arriving in Los Angeles on Thursday instead of Friday and got in its final practice at the Los Angeles Chargers facility. The effort proved to be fruitless though, as the Wolverines managed to look worse this time around than it did against Washington last year.
Washington is no stranger to the issues that plague teams making cross-country travel either. Earlier this season, the Huskies made a rather long trek to Maryland and found themselves in a 20-0 hole in the third quarter. Washington was able to battle back and win, but is now faced with another trip out east this week when it comes to Ann Arbor. As an added bonus, the game kicks off at noon — translating to a 9 a.m. body-clock game.
When asked about the issues with early road games on the east coast in his weekly press conference, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch spoke about the adjustments NFL teams make with their more frequent cross-country travel. Furthermore, he mentioned he’d reached out to former Michigan defensive coordinator and current Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald for advice.
“I want to be like the Seahawks and be on a nine-game road win streak,” Fisch said. “I talked to coach (Mike) Macdonald and I’ve asked him a bunch of things . We adjusted our schedule when we played Maryland to make it similar to what the Seahawks do for a four o’clock kickoff and we adjusted our schedule this week to make it similar to what the Seahawks do for a 10 a.m. kickoff.”
As Fisch mentioned, Macdonald and the Seahawks have been successful as of late on the road and have experience dealing with the early kickoffs on the east coast. Just last weekend, Macdonald’s team made the trip to Jacksonville for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff and ended up defeating the Jaguars by a 20-12 final score.
The Wolverines are hoping the adjustments Washington makes this week aren’t so successful, as Washington brings a talented offense to the Big House led by quarterback Demond Williams. Michigan was exposed to Williams last season in their matchup, as the then-freshman was brought into the game to run the ball on several occasions. But the player the Wolverines will see this year has blossomed into one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. In fact, he’s coming off a matchup against Rutgers where he threw for 402 yards and ran for an additional 136 yards with four total touchdowns.
Regardless of how prepared Washington will be for the matchup, the Wolverines will have adjustments to make of their own to ensure their season doesn’t start to go off the rails like it did at this time last year.
