0 8A - Thursday, November 17, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Van Bergen's smarts lead steady defensive line 0 By TIM ROHAN the inside trio of offensive line- Daily Sports Editor men watched helplessly as Mar- tin and Van Bergen crushed the Mike Martin had no time to quarterback. second-guess what Ryan Van "I've always done this when Bergen was calling on the field. you have guys that have earned Any hesitation would've foiled the respect and earned the the new plan. Van Bergen had trust," Mattison said. "Trust to gone rogue, calling an audible a know that they're not going to second or two before the ball was put themselves ahead of the team snapped. and that they're very, very intel- The fifth-year defensive end ligent." knew what Illinois was going to Michigan coach Brady Hoke do, so he wanted to run a stunt said Van Bergen is one of the bet- pass-rush move with Martin, ter players he has coached when confident in his preparation. it comes to preparation and Before the game, they had watching film. agreed that if the senior defen- But Michigan defensive line sive tackle Martin had a one- coach Jerry Montgomery wasn't on-one, he'd win it - and if Van surprised by the success of the Bergen had a one-on-one, he'd stunts. He knows Van Bergen win it too. watches two hours of film with Martin didn't hesitate. the coaches duringthe week, and "It's something where there another 45 minutes or so after has to be absolutely no doubt," practice with Martin and fifth- Martin said. "You can't (go), 'Oh, year senior defensive tackle Will (should I?)' No, you've got to go - Heininger - he knows Van Ber- and it worked." gen has all the tools to make that When they gotto the sidelines, decision routinely. Michigan defensive coordina- The secrets sat in a 100-page tor Greg Mattison wasn't angry, scouting report on Montgom- he just listened. It kept working, ery's desk. Each week, the defen- so he said, "You know what, just sive coaches work from 6 a.m. call them when you feel like call- until 11 p.m. on Sundays and all ing them." day Monday putting together the Facing an obvious passing report for each team. Everything down on 3rd-and-10, with Michi- you could ever want or need to gan up 17 points and less than know is in there: tendencies, film six minutes left in the fourth study, what plays teams run in quarter, Van Bergen dialed up certain down-and-distances and another stunt. On the outside, what pass protections they use. defensive ends Craig Roh and This week, Montgomery Frank Clark sprinted upfield. drew every single running play Lined up inside with Van Bergen, Nebraska has run this season. He Martin crashed toward the cen- knows how Nebraska will block ter. Van Bergen whipped around his defensive line, depending on him, shooting through the hole Michigan's formation. Martin created. Montgomery's guys are ready The Fighting Illini tackles to punch and counter-punch. were quickly on the ground, and Every Tuesday, the coaches 0 6, Fifth-year senior defensive end Ryan Van Bergen has exploded with 13 tackles, five tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in Michigan's past three games. hand out the scouting reports. Van Bergen usually finds the ten- dencies and play consistencies watching film on his own. Some- times he's right, and sometimes Montgomery has to straighten him out. The answers are always in the binder. In practice, the scout team gives the defense simulations of what they'll see in the game. "It goes from there to the game," Montgomery said. "'Hey Coach, this holds up. Every time they do this, it's accurate.' Then they start to believe." One of Montgomery's first disciples was Van Bergen. He bought in early on, took the time to study and took it upon himself to know where everyone else was on the field and what his role was in the grand scheme. Montgom- ery calls it knowing where he "fits" in the defense. Van Bergen knew Iowa was going to sneak its quarterback when it hurried up to the line on a fourth-and-1 two weeks ago - he and Martin snuffed it out. The past three weeks in par- ticular, Montgomery said, Van Bergen has been well versed in the opponent's "meat and pota- toes" (Hoke's term for tenden- cies and key plays). No wonder they've been his best three weeks of the season - 13 tackles, five tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Van Bergen didn't know if the free-wheeling audibles would continue, but it wouldn't be sur- prising, considering how com- fortable everyone is with the defense now. As Martin put it, "It's something that, it'll come with time. And the time has come." It took time to get here. The technique drilled during fall camp is used to beat opponent's specific strategies. Film study was emphasized, and Van Ber- gen's now yelling out opposing team's plays. The engine is hum- ming. "Sometimes, you've got teams and they've got to be thinking, 'Man, how do they know what we're going to do before we even do it,' " Martin said. "And I can't imagine as an offense how that would even feel. If the defense knows what you're doing and they're able to execute it, that's got to be disheartening. "We can do that because we put in the time." Second line provides offensive spark behind pair of Clydesdales By ZACH HELFAND Daily Sports Editor The Michigan hockey team's top-scoring line pairs freshman forward Phil Di Giuseppe with two Clydesdales. Bear with Michigan coach Red Berenson as he gets a little meta- phoric. "They had these Clydesdale horses, and they said they could each pull 10,000 pounds," Beren- son said. "But together they could pull 30,000 pounds. Now how could that be? But it's true, it's a fact. It's a little bit like hock- ey players. If you get two players really playing well together, they could be much better than they were as individuals." The identity of the unnamed "they" - the ones conduct- ing these horse experiments - remains unclear. But the two Clydesdales on the hockey team? That's easy: junior forwards Chris Brown and A.J. Treais. So what's Di Giuseppe? Well, he's a little harder to peg. "Phil's in his own world," Treais teased. Added Brown: "Phil's Phil. He's kind of doing whatever he needs to do to get by right now." Whatever he's doing is work- ing. Berenson said that his sec- ond line - consisting of Treais, Brown and Di Giuseppe - has become the "offensive spark" for the team. They rank second, third and fourth, respectively, on the man back there," Di Giuseppe said. Like the Clydesdales, the line has pulled more than its own weight because of chemistry. Treais and Di Giuseppe say that they know where the other will be on the ice at all times. They've become familiar with each oth- er's routes, to the point where if they just call the other's name, they can expect a puck on the tape. The level of chemistry is a bit surprising - for one, the three don't exactly come from typi- cal hockey backgrounds. Treais is Filipino, Brown is a Texan and the pair will tell you that Di Giuseppe is Italian, though he's actually from Canada. And Di Giuseppe doesn't seem like he'd jell with the pair of jovial roommates he plays along- side. Brown and Treais speak well and are prone to joking when they're together. Di Giuseppe isn't comfortable in interviews. He says all the right things - about trying to improve and becoming a two-way hockey player - but his mind often seems to be elsewhere. Once, Di Giuseppe started chuckling in the middle of a ques- tion, for reasons unknown even to him. "It's easy," Di Giuseppe began one answer. "What was I going to say? I don't know what I was going to say." Not so easy, eh? "Speak, man!" Brown inter- jected. "I forgot what I was going to say," Di Giuseppe said. Berenson hesitates to crown the line as the go-to unit when the team needs to score - he said that once he does that, the line will probably hita dry spell. Though the trio does score frequently, the goals often come from deflections, rebounds and just putting the puck onnet - not what you'd expect out of a talent- ed scoring line. "The goals they've scored are kind of lucky goals," Berenson said. "It's not like they're flashy goals or real skilled goals, even though that line is pretty skilled." But maybe that's not a bad thing. Di Giuseppe said the line tries to do the simple things, and that often leads to positive results. At Miami (Ohio) on Saturday, a Treais check created a turnover and allowed Di Giuseppe to get off a shot. He didn't score, but Brown converted onthe rebound. "(It) wasn't the prettiest goal," Di Giuseppe said. "Most of our goals aren't highlight-reel goals. All of our goals, I think, have been hard work down in the cor- ners, working it out." True, it wasn't the prettiest goal, and the three don't make 0 the typical trio. But together, they've become Michigan's main source of offense, greater than the sum of its parts - just like those Clydes- dales. ALODEN REISS/Daily Freshman forward Phil Di Giuseppe is the Wolverines' third-leading scsrer, with 11 psints in his firs season. team's points list. goals the moment he stepped Berenson describes the ideal on campus, and he's scored con- line as one with a creator, a scorer sistently ever since. That makes and a physical two-way player. things easier on his linemates. And with this line, he has his "Give the puck to Phil," Brown prototype. Treais handles the said. "Just give him the puck, and puck often and can create oppor- let him shoot. Because every time tunities through fancy skating or he shoots, he shoots to score." puck handling. And if they don't score? No Di Giuseppe started tallying problem. Berenson often speaks of Brown as a physical force on the ice. If Treais gets too fancy and loses the puck, or if Di Giuseppe misses the cage, Brown can handle any transition oppor- tunities that may result for the opposition. Brown calls it being "the caboose." 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