2B — February 2, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Jay Harbaugh’s eight-part recruiting pitch

L

ast week, Jay Harbaugh, 
the Michigan football 
team’s tight ends coach, 

made 
national 
news when 
a top recruit 
posted a 
handwritten 
letter from 
Harbaugh. 
The letter 
outlined 
eight reasons 
— bolded 
below — that 
four-star tight end Chris Clark 
should commit to Michigan 
on National Signing Day on 
Wednesday.

Here at the Daily, we’re all 

about factual accuracy. With 
National Signing Day right 
around the corner, we wanted 
to make sure recruits really 
know what Michigan is all 
about. Below, the Daily breaks 
down some of Harbaugh’s 
listed reasons to come to 
Michigan.

1) We have used, know how 

to use and will use tight ends 
… a lot!

For starters, it’s good Jay 

knows how to use tight ends 
— after all, that’s the position 
he coaches. Frankly, it would 
behoove the Wolverines if 
they knew how to use all the 
positions on the football team. 
Last year, it seemed as if they 
struggled to properly utilize a 
number of players, including 
an athletic quarterback and 
an NFL-caliber wide receiver. 
Ideally, Michigan would know 
how to use all its best players, 
a lot.

2) You can wear No. 8 here! 

And 104,909-74,340 = 30,569 
more people will see it every 
week if you come to the Big 
House.

First, a note to Russell 

Bellomy, who wore No. 8 for 
the Wolverines in 2014: You 
were thrust into some of 
the most difficult situations 
imaginable. Replacing Denard 
Robinson partway through a 
night game against Nebraska 
at Memorial Stadium in 
2012? Tearing your ACL the 
following year? Making only 
one appearance as a junior 
for two quick series against 
Penn State? You never had a 
consistent chance to succeed 
here, and the letter from Jay 
unceremoniously indicated you 
were transferring. You deserve 
a stroke of good luck, wherever 
you go.

As for the attendance: 

Don’t sell yourself short, Jay. 
Michigan averaged 104,909 
people in 2014 because 
there was no marquee home 
game and because there was 
dwindling fan support for 
the last administration. The 
Big House will be full next 
year — there are home games 
against Michigan State, Notre 
Dame and Ohio State, and 
there is genuine excitement 
surrounding the future of the 
program. Plus, student tickets 
cost a more reasonable amount 
next year.

3) We are close to 

Chicago/Indianapolis/
Cleveland/Detroit/Madison/

Milwaukee/Green Bay/
Buffalo

Seriously, Cleveland?
Ann Arbor is decidedly not 

close to Piscataway or College 
Park, which is unfortunate, 
because those are locations of 
conference opponents.

4) We will have a QB… a 

good one!

See item No. 1. Michigan had 

a good quarterback in Devin 
Gardner, but there are only 
so many hits and protection 
breakdowns and coaching 
changes you can take before all 
that talent becomes what we 
saw last year out of him.

Will it be Shane Morris, 

Wilton Speight, Zach Gentry 
or Alex Malzone? My guess is 
Morris. And my other guess is 
he’ll be much improved from 
what we saw last year.

5) This is the best public 

school in America.

Cal would like a word. So 

would UCLA (the other school 
Clark is rumored to be strongly 
considering) and Virginia.

Look, Michigan is a great 

school, and there are tools here 
to succeed academically as well 
as athletically. One hundred 
percent of Brady Hoke’s seniors 
graduated, and that’s a standard 
that should continue.

As hockey coach Red 

Berenson recently told the 
Daily, “If you’re not interested 
in school, don’t come to 
Michigan.”

If you are prepared to play 

school, you’re in the right place.

6) We have the most wins 

… ever.

It helps that Michigan has 

been playing football since 
1879. It also helps that the 
Wolverines went 165-29-1 under 
Fielding Yost in the early 1900s. 
His teams were so good that 
he won the inaugural Rose 
Bowl, 49-0. That game was so 
lopsided that Stanford asked 
the Wolverines to call it quits 
with eight minutes left.

Wins don’t come that easily 

anymore, not for anybody.

But 915 victories is a lot. It’s 

why Michigan fans can sing 
“The Victors” — about their 
team — before the game has 
even been played. Notre Dame 
leads in winning percentage, 
though, so there’s catching up 
to do there.

7) We have the biggest 

Adidas contract in the nation.

And you’ll get all that gear 

washed for free in the best 
laundry facilities in the world: 
A brand-new, $6-million 
laundry center near the field-
hockey facilities!

8) This is a very special 

time at a very special place. 
That’s how legacies are 
cemented. We are both going 
to be a part of that! I promise 
you we will win and grow 
together.

No argument there.

Zúñiga can be reached 

at azs@umich.edu and on 

Twitter @ByAZuniga.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff is making some aggressive final recruiting pitches ahead of Wednesday’s National Signing Day.

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

ALEJANDRO 
ZÚÑIGA

momentum.”

FOOTBALL 
SPARTANS: 

During the second media timeout 
of 
the 
game, 
the 
Spartans 

trotted out football coach Mark 
Dantonio, as well as several star 
football players, to showcase 
their Cotton Bowl trophy. Eager 
to exploit the rivalry, MSU’s 
students 
immediately 
began 

chanting 
“five 
and 
seven,” 

reminding Michigan fans of 
their school’s 5-7 football record 
in 2014.

INJURY UPDATE: Walton 

was sidelined for the second 
consecutive game with a left 
foot injury. His status has 
seemingly 
worsened 
since 

Beilein first referred to the 
injury as a sprained right toe — 
he wore a boot and used a set of 
crutches as he watched warm-
ups from the sidelines at Breslin 
Center.

Following the game, Beilein 

said that Walton’s return “won’t 
be in the foreseeable future.”

and kicked to freshman guard 
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman 
for a 3-pointer. He pointed three 
fingers toward the stands, and the 
Michigan State fans went silent.

This time the crowd implored 

the Spartans to buckle down. 
They were going toe-to-toe with 
players like Abdur-Rahkman 
and Sean Lonergan and Andrew 
Dakich. Abdur-Rahkman drove 
past Dawson to the hoop. Dakich 
pump-faked past Valentine. 
Lonergan came in for energy on 
defense.

Michigan was clearly 

outmatched physically against a 
team known for playing tough. But 
the Wolverines out-toughed them, 
beating them at their own game 
for the better part of 40 minutes.

As the second half wore on, 

Michigan State could have pulled 
away at any minute.

With 5:06 left, Dawkins 

grabbed an offensive rebound, 
scored the basket and drew a foul. 
That got another roar from Irvin. 
The Spartans, meanwhile, huddled 
up and regrouped in front of 
14,000 people who thought it’d be 
the other way around.

Valentine threw his second 

alley-oop to Dawson with three 
minutes to play, and seconds 
later Beilein winced and called a 
timeout. Maybe Michigan State 
thought this was finally the 
moment it would pull away.

Dawson grabbed the rebound 

on the next possession and 
handed it to Trice to walk it up 

the court.

“Let’s go, baby,” Dawson said, 

perhaps smelling blood. Why 
shouldn’t he? The Wolverines had 
already hung around longer than 
they were supposed to. Eventually, 
they had to fade, right?

Trice hit a jumper in the lane, 

then grabbed a steal and drew a 
foul. The students chanted “Stand 
up!” to the rest of the building, 
and the rest of the building 
obliged. Now everyone was into it.

When play resumed, Michigan 

State’s Bryn Forbes drained a 
dagger 3 to make it a five-point 
game with 1:20 to play.

Ballgame, right?
That’s what the Spartans 

thought too.

Instead, Albrecht fought back 

with a 3-pointer of his own with 
40.9 seconds to go. Valentine 
missed the front end of a 1-and-1, 
and Bielfeldt got to the rim on 
the next possession for a tip-in 
with 19.8 seconds left. In just over 
a minute, the Wolverines had 
erased the deficit.

Trice had one more chance 

to rip Michigan’s heart out, but 
his last-gasp 3-pointer rimmed 
out. The game was headed to 
overtime.

Beilein smiled.

* * *

B

ack to Albrecht. The 
junior — thrust into not 
just a bigger leadership 

role with co-captain LeVert out, 
but also a star role as the team’s 
second-leading active scorer — 
had led his team into battle and 
done everything he needed to. He 

had banged bodies with bigger 
players, hit tough jumpers into 
the defense and distributed the 
ball around to the offense.

“I saw the old Spike Albrecht 

out there today,” Beilein said.

Now he was all alone on the 

perimeter, getting the ball at the 
end of a beautifully developed play.

His miss was his first clear 

mistake, and the Spartans went 
on an 8-0 run to close overtime 
as the smile drifted away from 
Beilein’s face. Albrecht winced 
when asked about it later.

“That was a crucial play,” 

Albrecht said. “I don’t know what 
it was, but (in) overtime, we didn’t 
seem to have the same juice we 
had the whole second half.”

With 15 seconds left — 44 

minutes and 45 seconds after his 
team took the floor and made 
it a dogfight, against all odds — 
Beilein finally called off the dogs. 
Michigan State dribbled out the 
clock, and the Breslin Center let 
out a collective sigh of relief.

The deck was stacked against 

the Wolverines on Sunday, and 
yet they still managed to do 
everything short of winning. The 
deck has been stacked against 
them for weeks as the injuries 
have piled up, yet they have still 
managed to do everything they 
can — everything but finish.

After Sunday, it’s clear they’ll 

continue to do everything they 
can.

Next time, they’ll just have to 

finish.

Jake Lourim can be reached 

at jlourim@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @jakelourim.

MICHIGAN
From Page 1B

STATE
From Page 1B

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman scored a career-high 18 points Sunday.

