Michigan’s defense leads to short field, season-opening TD from Donovan Edwards

Michigan’s defense did not waste any time picking up where it left off in the 2023 national championship season.

Facing Fresno State in Week 1, the Wolverine defense needed just 3 plays before forcing its first takeaway of the season. The 3rd-and-5 pass from Fresno State was bothered by Kenneth Grant at the line of scrimmage, and Zeke Berry snagged a clean interception on the backend.

It gave Michigan’s offense the ball around the 30-yard line to begin their drive:

😎 time‼️

Zeke Berry gets the @UMichFootball INT on the third play of the game.#B1GFootball on NBC 📺 pic.twitter.com/w1R4oxHKky

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) August 31, 2024

Davis Warren would get the start at quarterback in the season opener and made some nice plays on the drive, but Michigan turned to Alex Orji on 2nd-and-goal. Head coach Sherrone Moore said ahead of kickoff that Warren would be starting but expected Orji to play throughout.

The end result was a short and quick touchdown connection from Orji to Donovan Edwards. It was an easy pitch-and-catch with a walk-in score for Edwards to et the campaign started on the right foot.

Orji 👉 Edwards@AlexORJ1 gets his first career @UMichFootball TD pass on his first snap of the season.#B1GFootball on NBC 📺 pic.twitter.com/zzxSENv82f

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) August 31, 2024

We’ll see how Michigan settles into the season opener, but that’s the kind of defensive prowess and quick scoring drive fans saw throughout 2023.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.