ANN ARBOR -- The Michigan football team may have added incentive to beat Florida in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 29.
Under first-year team dietitian Abigail O'Connor, the Wolverines have celebrated wins with a special "Victory Meal" that includes either rib-eye or New York strip steak, plus lobster tails, clam chowder, and dessert.
"They're adamant about having ice cream," O'Connor says.
The players enjoyed the feast 10 times this season. They still ate after a loss, of course, but the fare was decidedly less fancy: a few protein and carbohydrate options, two cooked vegetables, and a fruit and salad bar.
A recent dinner menu included sliced flank steak, roasted honey sriracha chicken quarters, teriyaki chicken thighs, salmon, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cauliflower, fruit, and salad.
"The goal for our post-practice dinners it to provide the guys with a variety of options of proteins and carbohydrates for them to recover from a practice," O'Connor said. "Our chef does a great job of providing a mix of leaner and heavier options so that the needs of each guy can be met in our menus."
Before O'Connor's arrival, the ice cream sundae bar was provided to the Wolverines on Friday nights before games. She incorporated it into the Monday night "Victory Meal."
Many of the Michigan players will go from the Peach Bowl in Atlanta to their respective hometowns. Upon returning to Ann Arbor in early January for the winter semester. It would be at that time that the Wolverines, should they defeat Florida, would celebrate the win with a special feast.
"They're really pumped about it," O'Connor said. "They get out of practice, they shower, sprint upstairs, and hunker down."