At a Michigan football practice when the sirens play, the “initiation process to hitting people super hard” begins. Speakers blast the warning tune from 2013′s “The Purge” and a nine-on-seven, live tackling drill consumes practice.

For two years, the Wolverines and head coach Jim Harbaugh have dubbed it “Beat (whoever U-M was playing).” It was first built to find a way to end Ohio State’s run of dominance over Michigan, then pivoted to Georgia ahead of this season after the Bulldogs won two straight national titles. They do it once a week and this December, it’s been branded “Beat Alabama” ahead of the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl.

“Those periods, it’s damn near not even football. It’s smashmouth like my guy in front of me isn’t tackling the ball carrier. It’s really cool,” offensive lineman Trevor Keegan said. “I feel like it’s a huge thing for our success. I remember our first beat Ohio drill in spring ball 2021. It was like I couldn’t even describe to you. It was like Battle 300 or something, like Sparta. I’m telling you it was insane.”

Wolverines offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore smiled and agreed with Keegan’s description, adding it features a lot of loud music, the pop of plastic thudding together with “a lot of violence” and “physicality at its finest.” No. 4 Alabama will face it on New Year’s Day for a spot in the College Football Playoff championship.

Players described the drill: the team’s “heavy, 12 and 13-personnel” have 20 yards to gain on the ground. Center Drake Nugent said once he heard the sirens, he knew his facemask was about to be buried into a teammate’s chest plate. Transferring over from Stanford in 2020, Nugent said the program taught him the standard at Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor.

“Sometimes there’s people on the ground, sometimes there’s not,” Moore said. “But it’s physicality at its finest, and the players love it, the coaches love it, and I think it’s kind of molded us and built us to what we’ve been the past couple years and what we need to be going forward.”

No. 1 Michigan entered Bowl season with the top-scoring defense in the country, yielding less than 10 points a game. Its passing defense, turnover margin and number of penalties also all rank among the top five. Its ground game is led by 5-foot-8 running back Blake Corum.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].