Trevor Keegan stood on the stage at Michigan football’s national championship celebration and thanked the U-M fans who showed up at the Rose Bowl and at NRG Stadium, and who supported the Wolverines throughout their undefeated run.
“You guys came up big when we needed you,” the captain said. “… You guys lifted us up. And especially in the Rose Bowl, when they started playing that ‘Dixieland Delight’ bulls—.”
There were points during the overtime win over Alabama, and throughout the big first and fourth quarters against Washington, when venues far from Ann Arbor felt like the Big House. And in addition to the Michigan players who gave fans something to cheer for, one person in particular deserves credit for hyping up the U-M crowd: Zack Marshall.
The freshman tight end knew that barring unprecedented injuries, he wouldn’t see the field during U-M’s run through the College Football Playoff run. So he embraced a new role: “Going nuts” on the sideline, often climbing onto benches and facing the stands to make sure everyone was going nuts right alongside him.
“You want the energy from the crowd, you want the energy from your other players. A boring sideline breeds a boring game — that’s what I would say,” Marshall told The Michigan Insider. “You need the loud environment. You need to congratulate the fans when they draw them offsides four times in the game. You know what I mean? That’s what you’ve got to do.”
It worked. Certainly both games gave spectators plenty to yell about, and Marshall isn’t the reason why Michigan fans outnumbered the Tide and Huskies in Pasadena and Houston. But the tight end deserves some credit for making them cheer longer and louder.
“I’m gonna go stand on the bench. I’m going to be swinging my arms. I’m going to be super excited, because that’s just me,” he said.
That outsized persona was admittedly a bit of an anomaly in the tight end room. Marshall says Max Bredeson has a similarly big personality, but Colston Loveland and AJ Barner? “They don’t talk a whole lot, but they get their business done,” he explained.
As Loveland and Barner made plays that brought a national championship home to Ann Arbor, Marshall got to experience the games like so many others: As a fan. He earned snaps against Minnesota and Indiana, but most of his Saturdays during the 2023 season were spent much like yours: Watching, cheering and encouraging others to do the same.
He just happened to have the added luxury of watching from the sideline and the confidence that someday he’ll make the move from standing on the benches to catching touchdown passes.
“Growing up as a kid, you always wanted to go to the Rose Bowl. And then my first time ever being in the Rose Bowl in person was on the sidelines. It doesn’t feel real,” he said.
“I went on the field before the game, caught a bunch of balls, just to get that feeling of: Maybe two years down the line, when I’m playing another CFP semifinal game, I’m gonna catch the ball. I want to have already lived that feeling so it feels natural.”
And if it happens, Marshall expects you to go absolutely nuts
