2B - September 16, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN For 315 Saturdays, Michigan outruns its past hree hundred and fifteen Saturdays had passed since Michigan Sta- dium felt just like this, and time seemed to melt and then fuse into one thread. This time it was a third-and-1 from Michigan's 2-yard line, but it felt like it did when Michigan had a 37-yard field-goal attempt to savea season from destruction before it even began. No play- ers remain from the teamW that lost to Appalachian ZACH State in 2007. HELFAND Michigan's current fresh- men were in sixth grade then. Most probably didn't watch. But look closely and the past is everywhere in this stadium. The whole place was built in Fielding Yost's vision: the corner where Braylon seemed to fly, the goal posts torn down in 1969, a loss that still defies belief. That's the allure of Michigan, of college sports. Four years pass, and everything is new but it's the same. No. 98 is gone and then washes up again. Howard's No. 21 finds its way back too. Michi- gan coach Brady Hoke likes to say his players represent every Michigan player who has worn the jersey. 3:39 p.m. on a Saturday in 2007 becomes 3:16 p.m. in 2013. Appalachian State lines up in a field-goal block, and Akron lines up on the goal line and it's as if a stadium had been holding its breath that entire time. The past crashes into the present like a wave, and sometimes it's easy to get crushed. I but Michigan was still not out of that hole: still no Big Ten titles, still no Rose Bowls. And then an Akron team even worse than Appalachian State threatened to start the nightmare over again. On the bus to the game, the Akron coaching staff showed the game tape of Michigan's game against Notre Dame. They weren't analyzing plays or looking for tendencies. They wanted to show their players how emotionally drainingthat game was for Michigan. They wanted to show them Michigan couldn't possibly come out with that same intensity two weeks in a row. Akron understood. Part of the deal of 20-year-olds playing football is that sometimes they don't show up. All that's left is to survive and move on. There's not much to learn from a game like this. Does Michigan seem like a worse team than last week? In the locker room after the game, Hoke gathered his team and spoke, his voice growing more hoarse as he went on. "No.1 goal is to do what?" he said. "Win," the team said. "Did we win?" "Yessir." "That's the good part," Hoke said. "That's the good part." Michigan managed to out- run its past, even if just by four yards. For players after the game, it hardly seemed like a win. But the Wolverines have now survived 315 Saturdays since the worst loss in program history. That's the only good part, but that's the only part that matters. -Helfand can be reached at zhelfand@umich.edu or on Twitter @zhelfand U 4 Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore celebrated after the 2007 upset. Losing isn't much different After the game, a coach from winning. With two plays blamed himself. left, Akron thought Michigan "We were not awell-prepared would pinch, but Michigan was football team," he said. "That is waiting wide for the outside my job, and I take full responsi- pitch; Greg Mattison called the bility." right blitz, and Michigan won. Six years apart, a different Someone missed an assignment, coach tells his team the same: and Appalachian State blocked "Guys, it's our fault. Starts with the field goal and Michigan lost. me. Our fault. Our fault, We TODD NEEDLE/Daily A Michigan fan grimaces after Michigan's narrow victory over Akron. didn't do a good enough job pre- the spiral; it was more of a paring you. We will prepare you symptom. Remember, though, better, I promise you." the Wolverines were national The first was Lloyd Carr. The championship contenders at 3:39 next, Brady Hoke. Take out the p.m. of that day. At 3:40, they context, and it's impossible to weren't. They went to the Rose tell one from the other. Bowl the year before and haven't Michigan still hasn't dug been back since. itself out from the Appalachian The memory of the loss-had State hole. The loss didn't start long receded before Saturday, 4 Five things we learned: Akron By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Editor 1. Devin Gardner giveth, and Devin Gardner taketh away The redshirt junior quar- terback had 83 percent of Michigan's total yards on Sat- urday, continuing his role as the backbone of the offense. He's immensely talented and athletic - the Wolverines' offense would look a lot different (read: worse) without him. But so far this season, there's been at least one play a game that a Pop Warner quarterback shouldn't be making, much less a collegiate quarterback who was expected to be in contention for the Heisman Trophy before the season. Against Notre Dame, it was an interception in the end zone that let the Fighting Irish back into the game. Saturday, it was an awful pass into the flat that was again returned for a pick- six. It was his fourth turnover of the day and immediately brought Akron back into the game. With- out that play from Gardner, a goal-line stand likely wouldn't have been needed. If Michigan is going to win a Big Ten champi- onship, he will have to be better than that. Earlier in the season, Michi- gan coach Brady Hoke said that Gardner's talent is both a bless- ing and a curse. It allows for his quarterback to make insane, remarkable plays, but it also lets Gardner believe he can do any- thing and that mistakes are for other people. Michigan's season depends on whether he can find the line between talented and mistake- prone. "I wasn't myself today," Gard- ner said after the game Saturday. "I made a lot of mistakes today. It was probably my worst game ever, but it won't happen again." 2. The offensive line isn't quite there Fifth-year senior offensive tackle Taylor Lewan was furi- ous after the game, to the point where he told reporters, "You all don't even know. You all just write shit down." He was angry because he felt leadership from upperclassmen was lacking on Saturday, but also because he felt like the offensive line wasn't doing anything to help the running game. "Being the one offensive tack- le on this team, I put that offen- sive performance on myself," he said. "Devin didn't have enough time to throw. Our running backs didn't have holes. That's my fault." It wasn't entirely his fault, obviously, but the offensive line didn't look like a finished group Saturday. For the second straight game, fifth-year senior running back Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for 71 yards. He had a few long runs but was bottled up for the most part. That was acceptable against Notre Dame, a team with one of the best defensive lines in the country. It was not against Akron. Lewan and fellow fifth-year senior Michael Schofield form one of the best offensive tackle duos in the Big Ten, but the inte- rior line is incredibly inexperi- enced and raw. We'll see in the next couple weeks whether it's a matter of cohesion and inexperience or if it's smatter of talent. If theo inte- a it' a matter of talent. If the inte- rior line doesn't play well against USE E Connecticut next week, offen- m iim i sive coordinator Al Borges might look to shake up the group. 3. Paging Frank Clark 6 2 3 1 Junior defensive end Frank Clark said before the season that 9 3 7 his goal was 10 sacks. He was supposed to be a wrecking ball on a unit that looked devilish and 2 4 deep in the firstgame of the year against Central Michigan. 9 7 6 Yet for all the talk before the season, Clark still doesn't have a sack. He's the biggest disap- 4 7 3 5 pointment on a struggling unit that hurried Akron quarterback 3 8 1 Tyler Pohl but, for the second straight week, didn't record a 8 1 sack. Pohl - just like Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees the 3 7 9 week before - had all the time in the world to throw in the pocket. 6 5 1 7 The defensive line played best when it had to, in the red zone, ' Ibut it'sthe first 80 yards that raised warning flags Saturday. TODDNEEDLE/Daily Redshirt junior quarterback Devin Gardner had four turnovers on Saturday, including a crucial pick-six in the fourth quarter. 4. The secondary doesn't have Greg Mattison's trust yet Part of the blame for the sec- ondary's struggles can be placed on the defensive line. The more pressure they apply, the easier the secondary's job is. That doesn't let the unit off the hook. Akron passed for more than 300 yards, becoming the second team ina row to do that to Michigan. Starting junior safety Raymon Taylor was beaten sev- eral times on deep routes, and Mattison had to rely on fresh- man Jourdan Lewis and junior Delonte Hollowell, both of whom played more of a reserve role the first two games of the year. If Mattison trusted this group more, he could dial up more blitz- es to help apply pressure that the defensive line so far cannot. But because he understandably can't, the two units struggled together Saturday. If one of these units improves, the other one will, too. 5. Bold Prediction: Gardner will throw at least one intercep- tion in every game this year Again, Michigan's offense would be a lot less exciting and impactful without Gardner. His primary backup is a true fresh- man - Michigan needs him. But if Gardner is throw- ing three interceptions against Akron, what happens in Big Ten games or games on the road? Unless Gardner has a sudden awareness epiphany, his false sense of security will always be there. Maybe the revelation willhap- pen soon, but it's far more likely that the trend of Gardner making one big mistake per game contin- ues. He will have stunning per- formances, but ultimately, every Saturday will end with at least one pick from Michigan's most dynamic playmaker.