The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 7A Quick to talk, quicker m i space on the field By ZACH HELFAND trip. That left an impression. Daily Sports Editor "I didn't play much, but, just being there, Michigan fans The running back took the are nasty, man," he said to the handoff out of the shotgun snap Omaha World-Herald. "They're and raced to the left. A charging ruthless. safety sealed the edge, so he cut "Honestly, I'm not a big fan of right, the move subtle and explo- Michigan," he continued. "Noth- sive. His body moved weight- ing would make me happier than lessly, but he had separated yards to go up there and shut them up." from the defender. The second Michigan mostly let the com- safety lunged and dove, but the ment alone, at least publically. ball carrier hopped back left, legs Mostly, the team praised his abil- pumping like pistons. ity. Escaping the attempt, Ameer Michigan coach Brady Hoke Abdullah was in the open field said Abdullah was a special ath- now, racing toward the pylon. lete. Junior defensive end Frank Abdullah, Nebraska's budding Clark said he is the best back star at running back, has spent a Michigan will see this year "by lot of time there this season. far," but said the talk is just talk. In eight "He can games, Abdul- talk all he lah already wants," Clark has 1,108 yards "Nothing said. "A lot of on the ground people do a and averages would make me lot of talking seven yards but can't back per carry. Both happier than to... it up at the figures rank end of the day. first in the Big shut them Up." And we're just Ten and sixth gonna. go out in the nation. there and play He's also the our game." Cornhuskers' most potent offen- With the ball in his hands, sive weapon, and this week espe- Clark said Abdullah is small, cially, the key for the Michigan but he can burst through holes defense. and lower his shoulder through "All I know is he's really, really contact when needed. In real- good," said Michigan defensive ity, Abdullah is 5-foot-9 and 190 coordinatorGregMattison. "He's pounds - undersized but still fast. He breaks tackles. He's a only one inch and 10 pounds really good athlete. He steps over less than Michigan's running people. He could be one of the back, fifth-year senior Fitzger- best running backs we've gone ald Toussaint. But Abdullah runs up against. In my opinion, he can with such a feathery quickness do it all." that he often looks smaller. He This week, that includes talk- flits through holes with a twitch. ing. Abdullah, a junior, picked In the open field, he has the up 101 yards and a touchdown vision and agility to extend last year against Michigan. As runs and the strength to break a freshman, he didn't see much through arm tackles. action when Nebraska came to Abdullah emerged as a sopho- Ann Arbor, but he did make the more with 1,137 yards, but his Nebraska running back Ameer Abdul- lah is the Big Ten's leading rusher. junior campaign has made him the best back in the confer- ence through two-plus months. Abdullah has rushed for more than 100yards in every game this year except for a loss to UCLA. He had 98 in that game. Against Illinois, he went off for 225 yards on 20 carries. Nebraska will rely on that pro- ductionon Saturday.Inlastyear's game against the Cornhuskers, Denard Robinson was knocked out with an injury, and Michigan lost 23-9. This time, Nebraska's quarterback, Taylor Martinez, will be out with a litany of inju- ries. That puts the pressure on redshirt freshman quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr., who is expected to start (though Ron Kellogg III replaced Armstrong against Northwestern last week). Borges said Armstrong runs the same offense as Martinez. Michigan ranks toward the top of the Big Ten in rush defense, but it hasn't faced a talent like Abdullah thus far. Allow him one twitch, and he'll find open field. And that will talk louder than anything he's said this week. Irvin hunts playing time as spot-up shooter By NEAL ROTHSCHILD Daily Sports Editor Without even looking down, Zak Irvin back-stepped from inside the arc in the corner, hands extended over his head. Mean- while, sophomore guard Caris LeVert pounded a hesitation drib- ble on the left side to get into the lane, and the Wayne State zone defense descended on him, leav- ing Irvin open. After a hop step, LeVert fired a chest pass to the corner. With his left foot planted, Irvin drew the right foot in and lifted, dropping in a 3-pointer in the first half of Tuesday's exhibi- tion win against Wayne State. A minute earlier, the same sequence revealed itself. This time, it was sophomore guard Nik Stauskas drawing attention from the left, and Irvin was on the opposite wing rather than the corner. No matter - same pass, same step, same release and same result. Two possessions after the cor- ner 3-pointer, LeVert found him- self driving once again on the left side. The Warrior double-team swarmed him, and he snapped an overhead pass to Irvin, now on the left key. With more time to collect himself, Irvin took an extra step, left then right, to get in rhythm and made the shot. That would be his third straight 3-pointer, underscoring a 13-point night on 5-for-8 shoot- ing for the 6-foot-6 freshman for- ward in the 79-60 victory. But more important than helping to rout an overmatched Division II opponent, Irvin's per- formance showed how he can fill a role in Michigan's dynamic offense: spot-up shooter. "Whether he's spotting up in the corner or whether he's on the wing or out front, if he stands there, people will find him," said Michigan coach John Beilein. Watch his highlight tape and you'll see Irvin in high school and AAU creating for himself, fin- ishing around the rim, and also TERRAMOLENGRAFF/Daily Freshman guard ZaklIrvinis carving a niche as a shooter amid a logjam at the wing. knocking down the jump shot in rhythm. There's a good chance that the last skill will bringthe most value to the Wolverines this season. "That's definitely something I've been working on, where I'm able to get the ball quickly and (be able to put it) in the bucket," Irvin said. With a logjam of talent on the wing, Irvin may not have a lot of creative freedom with the ball in his hands, so he can rely on the catch-and-release jump shot to convince Beilein to put him on the floor. When and where Irvin will play will hinge on the lineup Beilein opts for on a given night or in a given game situation. In the preseason, Beilein has started two big men in the frontcourt in fifth-year senior Jordan Morgan and redshirt junior Jon Hor- ford. He'll concoct a new lineup when sophomore forward Mitch McGary is healthy enough to return to the floor. If that new lineup retains either Horford or Morgan, it will be more difficult for Irvin to see the floor, with four wings and perhaps even a second point guard vying for two positions on the floor. Sophomores LeVert, Staus- kas and Glenn Robinson III will dominate the minutes at the "2" and "3" positions, penetrating the lane and needing consistent shooting on the perimeter to keep defenses honest. When Beilein opts for a small- er five, Irvin has played the "4," a similar role to Evan Smotrycz two years ago, wielding a quick release from range and the ability to slash to the rim, but with more strength and athleticism. Rather than look to a player two inches taller than Irvin in the 6-foot-8 Smotrycz, Beilein compared Irvin to another recent "4," one two inches shorter than Irvin. "Just having that one extra shooter - a little bit like when we would play small and have (Zack) Novak out there, it's that one extra shooter out there who can really impact an offense," Beilein said. Split the difference in height, and you get a guy with the same first name as Novak with the laid- back demeanor and quiet confi- dence of Smotrycz, a neo-Beilein dynamic offensive threat.