2B — September 14, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

A long time coming

A

round 10:05 Saturday 
morning, two hours 
before kickoff, the first 

person inside the Michigan 
Stadium 
student 
section 
settled 
into his 
seat in the 
ninth row 
behind the 
north end 
zone. Nick 
Goldblatt 
had been to 
the stadium 
twice before — as a member of 
the Michigan State marching 
band.

Goldblatt studied history as 

an undergraduate at Michigan 
State, then graduated, took a 
year off and came to Michigan 
for a graduate degree in sport 
management. He sat almost 
entirely alone two hours before 
kickoff, appreciating the sight 
before him.

“It’s a huge milestone,” he 

said. “I’m excited to be a part of 
it. It’s going to be weird being 
here, but I’m excited.”

Goldblatt still carries his 

Michigan State ties — he left 
immediately after Michigan’s 
noon game against Oregon 
State to head to East Lansing 
for the Spartans’ 8 p.m. kickoff 
against Oregon. He’s been a 
Michigan State fan since 2002, 
when he moved to East Lansing. 
He remembers the first game 
he saw. “Oh, yeah,” he says. 
“(Michigan State) lost by a lot.”

Even he couldn’t help 

but make the trip for Jim 
Harbaugh’s home debut.

So he awoke at 6:30 a.m. 

Saturday in Lansing — no alarm 
necessary — and drove to Ann 
Arbor with his bicycle in tow, 
so he could bike back to his car 
and drive to Spartan Stadium 
in time.

“I’m so used to getting here 

so early,” said Goldblatt, 24. “I 
had to hype myself down so I 
could get to sleep for the past 
few days.”

Michigan fans have been 

hyping themselves up and down 
for eight and a half months. 
Harbaughmania ensued 
immediately after the coach 
was introduced on Dec. 30, 
though the Wolverine faithful 
have tried to temper their 
expectations after two coaching 
tenures gone wrong.

Saturday was no time for 

tempering. That can come later. 
This time, they came to see if 
their faith might just pay off in 
the end.

* * *

I

f Goldblatt is a Michigan 
Stadium rookie, Andrew 
Kanei is a veteran. Kanei 

began his fifth year in the 
student section Saturday. After 
four years in the undergrad 
aerospace engineering program, 
he is now in the graduate 
program, which means another 
full slate of games.

He, too, sat down in the third 

row on the 
20-yard line 
just after 10 
a.m. for the 
home opener.

“I kind of 

like getting 
into the 
stadium when 
it’s empty and 
watching it 
fill up,” Kanei 
said.

And fill up 

it did, for the first time in a 
while. Saturday’s attendance 
of 109,651 was higher than 
every game last season except 
the night game against Penn 
State, even with the capacity of 
Michigan Stadium decreased 
by more than 2,000 in the 
offseason.

Kanei has been to enough 

games to remember more 
highlights: the first night game 
against Notre Dame in 2011 that 
broke the attendance record, 
the second one in 2013 that 
broke it again and the field rush 
after the win over Ohio State 
in 2011.

He put Saturday’s home 

opener in the same category for 
one reason.

“This whole summer, I’ve 

been going crazy ever since 
Harbaugh got here,” Kanei said.

He was in good company 

Saturday in that respect. He 
sensed extra excitement on 
campus Saturday morning, with 
students gathering up their 
khaki pants and old-school 
block ‘M’ hats.

That excitement flooded 

into the stadium as Harbaugh 
received a huge ovation when 
he was introduced. It tapered 
when the Wolverines fell into 
an early 7-0 deficit and turned 
the ball over, giving Oregon 
State a chance to make it 14-0. 
But it returned when Michigan 
scored 35 unanswered points to 
end the game.

And here’s 

guessing it 
will be back 
Saturday 
when the 
Wolverines 
play UNLV.

“I think it’s 

going to be a 
new style,” 
Kanei said. 
“(Harbaugh) is 
bringing new 
cultures to 

Michigan football. He’s starting 
new things that are a part of his 
own.”

After the struggles of recent 

years, change was welcome to 
the fans at Michigan Stadium 
on Saturday.

* * *

I

t didn’t take long for Ann 
Arbor to become lively 
Saturday morning, but let 

the record reflect that there 
was a point when it was quiet. 
Just after 7 a.m., as ESPN’s 
“SportsCenter” aired live from 
outside Michigan Stadium, the 
streets were almost empty.

The students were still 

asleep or getting ready, and 
most everyone else was still 
en route to campus. The 
marching band’s last-minute 
preparations at Elbel Field 
filled the air as the sun crept 
over the horizon. Only a few 
runners, dog walkers and 
tailgaters were spread around 
campus.

Inside the stadium, former 

Michigan offensive lineman Jon 
Jansen did an early interview 
on SportsCenter in which he 
expressed his excitement for 
Harbaugh’s arrival. Though he, 

too, said he would be patient, 
he reiterated his belief that the 
Wolverines would finish 9-3 
this season.

A captain on the 1997 

national championship team, 
Jansen recalled the success 
of that team and called for 
a return to it. These days, it 
seems Michigan fans find 
themselves remembering the 
glory days, as if doing so will 
reincarnate them today.

At 7:40, Jansen walked 

down Hoover Street grinning 
from ear to ear. A man outside 
a parking lot across the road 
called out to him: “How ya 
doin’, Johnny?”

Jansen beamed. “Can’t wait 

for kickoff!” he said.

“Me too,” the man said. “I 

couldn’t wait for kickoff last 
Monday.”

The fans have been waiting 

since last December for 

Harbaugh’s return. They 
could only peek in the glass 
window as he conducted his 
introductory press conference. 
They could only wait as he took 
his team into the now-famous 
“submarine” for fall camp. 
They could only follow him on 
Twitter as he traveled from 
Michigan around the country, 
to Peru and then to Paris.

They counted down, from 

eight months to days to mere 
hours. Saturday morning, the 
gates to Michigan Stadium 
opened and the public-address 
announcer joined in. “Enjoy 
your day at Michigan Stadium,” 
he said. “Kickoff is in two 
hours.”

Then kickoff came, and it was 

worth the wait.

Lourim can be reached 

at jlourim@umich.edu or 

on Twitter @jakelourim.

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Michigan fans had long anticipated coach Jim Harbaugh’s home debut, and it came with a win on Saturday afternoon.

JAKE 
LOURIM

“I had to hype 

myself down so I 
could get to sleep 
the past few days.”

Jalapeño and vanilla
O

n the day Jim Harbaugh 
returned to Michigan 
Stadium, the former 

quarterback and current coach 
of the 
Michigan 
football 
team gave 
109,651 fans 
something 
they had 
been missing 
for at least 
the last four 
years and 
maybe much, 
much longer: a boring win and 
an unfettered temper tantrum.

Sure, Wolverine fans have 

had tantrums themselves. 
They’ve lost their minds over 
confusing play calls and bizarre 
clock management and the 
occasional lapse that leaves just 
10 men on the field. But this 
was their coach, and this was a 
different type of meltdown. A 
good meltdown.

With a few minutes left 

in the second quarter and 
Michigan leading Oregon State 
10-7, redshirt junior cornerback 
Jeremy Clark leveled Beavers 
punter Nick Porebski near the 
sideline. The referee threw a 
flag. And Harbaugh went into a 
conniption.

You want fire? Jim 

Harbaugh’s got fire. He’s a 
mouthful of jalapeños washed 
down with a bottle of Sriracha. 
Gesturing wildly with his arms 
to indicate that Porebski was 
out of the pocket — and thus 
not afforded the traditional 
protection afforded a punter — 
Harbaugh lit into the officials. 
When his cries for explanation 
went unanswered, or simply 
didn’t satisfy him, he followed 
one up the sideline. He threw 
his folder behind him in 
frustration. And then he called 
a timeout so he could keep 
going.

“The way I understand the 

rule is, when he establishes 
himself a runner, he’s afforded 
the same protection the 
quarterback is when the 
quarterback’s running and 

outside the pocket,” Harbaugh 
said. “If a guy takes two steps, 
launches into him after the 
quarterback throws the ball, 
then that would be a penalty. 
That was: punt, hit. I just need 
an explanation as to why that 
was a penalty. Maybe I stand to 
be corrected.”

Porebski was out of the 

tackle box and had bobbled the 
ball, but forget for a minute 
the fact that Harbaugh was 
probably right about the call. 
That’s not what’s important. 
Instead, think about Jeremy 
Clark.

Michigan was up by just 

three points, and Clark’s 
penalty extended the Beavers’ 
possession and put them inside 
Wolverine territory. Think 
about what it means to be 21, to 
make a mistake that could have 
been disastrous and then to 
turn around to see your coach 
going berserk defending you.

“I know my coach is gonna 

fight for us, win, lose or draw,” 
said senior safety Jarrod 
Wilson. “Even if we were wrong 
about the call, he’s still gonna 
back us up.”

After that play, and two 

more punting debacles that 
caused the entire makeup of 
the game to change in the 
course of one minute, the 
Wolverines held the Beavers 
to eight yards the rest of the 
way. In the second half, Oregon 
State totaled just four.

“Players feed off coaches’ 

energy,” Wilson said.

But on Saturday, they 

weren’t distracted by it. On the 
field, Michigan was cool and 
collected. While their coach 
was explosive, the Wolverines 
were far from it. They just put 
their heads down and let their 
coach make the noise. They ran 
the ball 48 times for 225 yards 
and won the possession battle, 
38:01 to 21:29. They just went 
out and won.

With 12 minutes left in the 

game, and Michigan up 21, 
junior running back Derrick 
Green burst for a reasonable 
gain up the middle. But the 

play was called back for illegal 
substitution.

Over on the sideline, 

Harbaugh was in the referee’s 
ear right away, jumping up and 
down, pointing at the field. 
Michigan had the game well 
in hand, but its coach was still 
fighting. “Enthusiasm unknown 
to mankind” has been his 
personal mantra since he was 
just a kid, and he damn sure 
still lives it.

Asked after the game 

whether the players notice 
Harbaugh’s encounters with the 
officials, junior safety Delano 
Hill broke into a smile.

“It’s funny to see coach 

Harbaugh’s faces against the 
refs,” he said.

Harbaugh’s players know 

exactly what it’s like to get 
Harbaugh’s full tilt. Hill said 
Harbaugh is the same way in 
practice, getting “hot” when 
players make a mistake, which 
keeps the players on their toes.

But when that heat is coming 

to defend you, not berate you, 
you bet it’s funny to watch. It’s 
also motivating.

Whether it’s pumping up the 

crowd or throwing a folder or 
jumping up and down, he will 
argue for his players with a 
brand of ferocity that’s hard not 
to rally behind.

As for that other kind of 

meltdown — the brand induced 
by sloppy coaching — there 
were none of those on Saturday. 
A couple of turnovers, yes, but 
for the most part, Michigan 
was an efficient machine. If 
Harbaugh was a jalapeño on the 
sideline, the on-field product 
was vanilla.

Michigan pounded the ball, 

and it owned the possession. 
It was a well-executed version 
of the boring, power football 
team Michigan fans have been 
longing for since Lloyd Carr 
retired.

Boring, that is, except for its 

coach.

Bultman can be reached at 

bultmanm@umich.edu or on 

Twitter at @m_bultman.

FOOTBALL

MAX
BULTMAN

