ANN ARBOR, MI -- All offseason, all the talk was about how Michigan might be too young to contend. Fast forward to Week One, and after the Wolverines took down Florida, the talk shifted to: maybe they don't need the time, and they're ready now. Fast forward another week, and -- well, not so fast, my friend.

Michigan is continuing to make strides, but their youth and inexperience will still play something of a factor on both sides of the ball.

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The Wolverines head coach, Jim Harbaugh, said after the victory over Florida that he wanted to see what kind of improvement the team would make from Week One to Week Two. Well, after Michigan's win over Cincinnati, it looks to be somewhat uneven, as of current.

But, as Harbaugh says, there's nothing that makes up for that experience.

Although, with what he had to say after the game about what he saw out of his team, it seems that he saw a lot of emotion. That seemed to be evident in some negative ways -- like with an unsportsmanlike conduct called on Nolan Ulizio -- or positive -- like Rashan Gary's big moment getting to the quarterback a play after he was called for roughing the passer.

While there can be good and bad ways in which a team can use emotion, Harbaugh would like to see his team be more of a reflection of him -- dead inside.

No, seriously.

"I think we grew in experience," Harbaugh said. "Again, there will be a lot of things for each individual player to think about. And just -- in a number of ways of playing a football game, there's things that you can't experience until you experience them. There's a lot of handling your emotions, handling a week of school for the first time, and being in that environment, that atmosphere. There's nerves, there's butterflies, and you get experience on how to handle them. At somepoint.

"Me, I'm 53, and it's like I've gone dead. I'm dead in here [pointing to his chest]. It's like burnt wood, in terms of nervousness and butterflies, emotions that way.

"But guys that are doing it for the first time, or the second time even, it's not [automatic], it takes some experience. We got some more of that today, and that's a good thing."

A lot of that deadness comes from experience, as Harbaugh alluded to. And like he said, you can't teach experience.

Knowing that he has a young team, he's doing what he can to navigate through those muddy waters, attempting to teach as best he can without overloading them. There's a lot of confidence on this team, and that helps, he says, but until they actually go through the paces, there's only so much you can say.

Like they say in theatre, acting is doing. So, too, must they do in football.

"What you're asking somebody to do, and putting them into a position when they're confident, and really understand it, that's the ideal position," Harbaugh said. "There's a lot of it right now. There's a lot of 'who's really got this,' and you don't know for sure, but it happened.

"It's hard to execute, it's hard to play with a lot of emotions. Better off being dead to them."

While there's a fine line, and elements of needing to tip-toe, or not wanting to overload, Harbaugh also is looking for balance. He doesn't want to go vanilla while his younger players gain experience and build that emotional callous.

Michigan wants to be multiple in all things, and that includes where the younger players are playing. And just like the younger players need the experience to inform them how to act, how to react and what their emotional resolve should be, Harbaugh has learned how to handle this type of situation -- through experience.

It might take time before this, once again, looks like the well-oiled machine that it looked to be a year ago at this time, but Harbaugh is confident that it will get there sooner, than later.

"You try to anticipate, you try to resolve where you can, but the other thing in my mind is: you can't dumb it down Barney-style either," Harbaugh said. "[You can't] line up with two tight ends and a balanced line and think that you're just going to run off-tackle play-after-play-after-play when they have five defensive linemen in the game and are doing a nice job.

"Experience has taught me that they've got to go do it. They've got to go do it and keep moving forward and gaining experience. I know what these guys are made up and they're going to get it. I feel very confident about that."

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