2B — September 28, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
Restoring a tradition
O
ne of the most revered
game-day traditions
at Michigan Stadium
has held
steady since
1962, before
legendary
coach Bo
Schembechler
even started
his tenure.
Moments
before game
time, the
Michigan
football
players and coaches run out
of the tunnel together, jump
and hit the “GO BLUE” banner
at midfield, with the band
surrounding them and playing
“The Victors.”
Moments like those don’t just
happen.
On the Tuesday before
every home football game, the
Michigan Athletic Department
holds a meeting to discuss
logistics for that week’s game.
Those include parking, tickets,
food and all of the other factors
in bringing 100,000 people to
sit in one stadium to watch a
football game — all in a town
with a population not much
higher than the stadium’s
capacity.
Then, on Thursday, the
spirit department (which is
comprised of the marching
band, cheerleaders and dance
team) meets with the event
presentation staff to script the
entire game down to the minute,
largely to divide time between
playing music piped over the
loudspeakers versus music from
the Michigan Marching Band.
Therein lie some of the
biggest decisions of the week
when it comes to creating a
positive experience for the fan
base. Elsewhere in Ann Arbor,
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
prepares his team for the
week’s game. But the process of
reclaiming past glory after years
of turmoil takes place just as
much off the field as it does on it.
Fans grew unhappy with
former athletic director Dave
Brandon’s tenure long before
the on-field product took a
downward spiral. Before then,
there were high ticket prices,
corporate sponsorships and
high volumes of canned music.
Many people longed for the
way things used to be, and after
three straight high-energy,
noon-kickoff, blowout wins
at Michigan Stadium, they’re
starting to get their wish.
Saturday brought the
Wolverines’ toughest home
opponent of the young season.
It was another noon kickoff, yet
the stadium was loud throughout
the game — especially, of course,
when Michigan dominated then-
No. 22 Brigham Young in the first
half en route to a 31-0 victory.
So what comes first, the
winning or the energy? This year,
both have returned, perhaps
sooner than people expected.
After Harbaugh arrived, the
enthusiasm crept back up and
the Wolverines started winning.
One fed the other, until all of a
sudden Michigan garnered a No.
22 national ranking and people
started wondering what could
happen this year instead of years
down the road.
Part of the energy dates back
to August, when during the first
week of the Michigan Marching
Band’s summer rehearsals, the
band received a special visitor.
He spoke to the band for about
15 minutes before a rehearsal,
according to band director
John D. Pasquale. Perhaps it
was powered by “Enthusiasm
Unknown to Mankind,” as the
speaker likes to call it. That
speaker was Harbaugh.
Harbaugh’s main message, in
the words of drum major Matt
Cloutier: You’re in control of how
well you perform. That day, the
coach voiced his support for them
and gave some motivation. He has
gotten pretty good at the latter
part: He has fired up the entire
Michigan fan base over the nine
months he has been on the job.
Harbaugh is more of a
“traditionalist,” as Pasquale
called him, and so is his boss,
Interim Athletic Director Jim
Hackett. Together, they have
rallied everyone together in an
effort to erase months — or years,
depending on how you define it —
of struggles on and off the field.
Pasquale has never met
Hackett in person, but he has
emailed with him and met with
some of his staff to coordinate
game-day decisions. One of
those decisions goes back to
the debate between canned
music and marching band, a
hotly contested issue in recent
years, again between the
traditionalists and the new-age
audience.
The philosophy regarding
piped-in music versus the band
is largely passed down from
the athletic director. Pasquale
had a strong relationship with
Brandon and
harbors no ill
will toward
him, but under
Brandon,
canned music
had become
popular at
Michigan
Stadium.
In April, Hackett told
students at a fireside chat that
he asked Harbaugh about piped-
in music the day he introduced
him as coach. “I don’t care. We
don’t need it,” Hackett recalled
Harbaugh saying.
Hackett agreed, and so the
Athletic Department has shifted
back toward the band.
“Hackett’s vision is a bit
more traditional, historical,
old Michigan-themed
environment,” Pasquale said.
“We are going back to the basics.
We turned down the decibel
levels of the scoreboard, which I
do think is pretty obvious to the
fan base.”
He
acknowledged
that the
canned music
has its merits
at different
points during
the game. On
big defensive
third-down
situations, the loud gong over
the speakers generates more of
an effect than the band could.
It’s about creating the best
atmosphere possible inside the
stadium.
“The entire point is the
stadium psychology or the
crowd psychology, trying to
keep the energy moving in
that place so that it doesn’t get
stagnant,” Pasquale said. “Not
that it will, but there are times
when the energy drops down a
bit, and it’s our job to always try
to keep it going. It’s a constantly
moving and evolutionary
equation.”
The biggest difference comes
heading into and out of TV
timeouts, when the band gets
most of its exposure.
“This is how the spirit of
Michigan is,” Pasquale said.
“This is what Michigan football
is about. It’s about the team,
it’s about the band, it’s about
the pageantry, it’s about the
tradition and the history. That’s
what we’re aiming to get back
toward.”
The band feeds and in turn
responds to the crowd energy,
which again comes back to
Harbaugh, Pasquale believes.
The first-year coach has had
tremendous success so far,
especially at home. This season
has brought more touchdowns,
and thus more of “The Victors,”
and thus more touchdowns and
so on.
As different as the Michigan
Stadium experience has been for
fans this season, on the field and
off, it has been just 11 months
since Hackett replaced Brandon
and nine since Harbaugh
replaced Hoke. So what is still
left to improve?
“That’s a good question, and
that’s one I don’t know that I
can answer,” Pasquale said.
“I think we continue to build
upon what’s already happening,
because it’s successful. Like, ‘If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”
Brandon used the opposite
motto: “If it’s not broken, break
it.” One year after the disastrous
fall of 2014, some things still
need fixing. But when Michigan
led 31-0 on Saturday and the
band played on, everything
seemed just fine.
Lourim can be reached
at jlourim@umich.edu or on
Twitter @jakelourim.
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
The good, the bad and the
ugly: Michigan vs. BYU
By ZACH SHAW
Daily Sports Editor
To Michigan football coach
Jim Harbaugh, there’s almost
nothing as beautiful as a 31-0
shutout. That the blowout win
over No. 22 Brigham Young
vaulted the Wolverines into the
top 25 for the first time since Nov.
2, 2013, is simply icing on the
cake.
Harbaugh said after the game
that Michigan seems to be coming
together as a unit, and in many
ways looks better than expected.
The Daily breaks down the
good, bad and ugly from the
Wolverines’ dominant win over
the Cougars.
The Good
The short answer is that
pretty much everything was
good. But as nice as it is to
simply perform well, the most
notable of Michigan’s successes
Saturday was its ability to shore
up problematic areas from past
games.
The run game continued to
lead the way with 253 yards and
three touchdowns, but fifth-year
senior quarterback Jake Rudock
looked
drastically
improved
from the previous week. Instead
of missing open receivers or
throwing interceptions, Rudock
found the open man, and he
made plays with his feet when he
couldn’t.
Another drastic improvement
came from senior receiver Amara
Darboh. Reeling in four catches
for 54 yards, a touchdown and a
highlight-reel catch that made
the No. 3 spot on SportsCenter’s
Top 10 Plays, Darboh earned the
game ball just two days after
becoming a U.S. citizen.
The Bad
If we’re defining bad in the
modern “cool” way, not as a
negative, the Wolverines’ defense
was as bad as it gets. Recording
their first shutout since blanking
Illinois
in
2012,
Michigan
allowed just 105 total yards and
never let the Cougars into field-
goal range.
The defense was expected
to wreak havoc all season, but
was in rare disruptive form
Saturday. Playing an aggressive
man coverage in the secondary
and swarming the backfield on
nearly every snap, the Wolverines
completed all of their goals as a
unit, including the coveted blank
slate.
“It’s great to be a part of a
shutout,” said Michigan coach Jim
Harbaugh. “Everybody did a great
job — players, coaches, everybody.
When you only give up 105 yards,
that’s really special.”
After
surrendering
just
14 points in its three-game
homestand, Michigan now has
the nation’s fourth-best scoring
defense at 9.5 points allowed per
game to go with its second-best
total defense (205.3 yards per
game).
The Ugly
As great as Michigan’s defense
was
Saturday,
BYU
looked
nothing like the ranked power
it was expected to be before the
game.
Freshman
quarterback
Tanner Mangum — a hero with
two Hail Mary in the three weeks
that led to Saturday’s game —
was a mess from start to finish,
completing just 12 of 28 passes
for 55 yards.
The Cougars didn’t stop there.
Bad snaps, fumbles and late-hit
penalties ensured BYU never
had a chance at winning, even if
Michigan hadn’t played so well.
“They
executed
and
dominated the game,” said BYU
coach Bronco Mendenhall. “It
always hurts more than anything
else to not have our team execute
or be super sharp or disciplined
or perform the way that I believe
to be capable.”
FOOTBALL
Five things we learned
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
That was a surprise.
The Michigan football team
dismantled then-No. 22 Brigham
Young on Saturday, 31-0, defying
expectations by shutting out a
ranked opponent for the first
time since 2003.
The
win
earned
the
Wolverines a No. 22 ranking
in this week’s AP Top 25 poll
and increased their credibility
around the country.
After the game, Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh said that
he feels that his coaching staff
is starting to know the team.
As the weeks have passed,
the
Wolverines’
capabilities
are becoming more and more
evident to everyone, not just the
coaching staff.
Here are five things we
learned
from
Saturday’s
Michigan victory.
1. Michigan is actually good.
It was one thing when the
Wolverines posted consecutive
blowouts against Oregon State
and UNLV, two unheralded
opponents
who
stood
little
chance against Michigan. But
BYU, on the other hand, entered
Saturday’s game with a national
ranking and an offense that had
consistently
produced,
even
with a backup quarterback.
Few of those strengths were
evident Saturday. The Cougars
left Michigan Stadium with
no points and their second
straight loss. The Wolverines
manhandled BYU in all facets of
the game. Michigan ran for more
than 200 yards for the third
consecutive game and held the
Cougars to just 105 yards of total
offense.
But the good news didn’t end
for the Wolverines when the
clock hit zero. Later Saturday
night,
Michigan’s
season-
opening
opponent,
Utah,
destroyed Oregon, 62-20, in the
Ducks’ home stadium.
The Wolverines lost to Utah,
24-17, three weeks ago. At the
time, it appeared as though
Michigan struggled immensely
in the defeat. In hindsight,
however, it is possible instead
that the Utes are an elite college
football team. Their success
makes the Wolverines’ lone
defeat look more favorable.
2. Jake Rudock can adjust on
the fly.
Michigan’s fifth-year senior
quarterback entered Saturday’s
game
having
faced
three
weeks of mostly criticism from
Wolverine fans. He had matched
his interception total from last
season (five) in the season’s first
three games, and many fans had
begun to question his decision-
making ability.
Saturday,
Rudock
looked
like a different quarterback. He
completed his first turnover-free
game and frequently scrambled
when
faced
with
pressure
instead of throwing the ball
into tight coverage and risking
turnovers. Rudock finished the
game 14-for-25 passing with
195 yards and one touchdown.
He complemented that with 33
rushing yards and two rushing
touchdowns.
3.
De’Veon
Smith
is
the
featured running back.
One week ago, some wondered
whether junior running back Ty
Isaac could take over for Smith
in the lead-back role after he
rushed for 114 yards against
UNLV. Smith’s play Saturday
indicated that will not be the
case.
He scampered for 125 yards on
16 carries — averaging 7.81 yards
per carry. Though that number
was bolstered by Smith’s 60-yard
touchdown run that appeared
in SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays
on Saturday, the run itself was
a sight to behold. Smith refused
to go down, despite multiple
attempts by would-be tacklers.
Though Smith did leave the
game with a right ankle injury,
he said he will play next Saturday
with little hesitation. If he does,
there is little doubt that he will
receive the bulk of Michigan’s
carries.
4. Americans play football
better than anyone else.
Amara Darboh’s first football
game as an American citizen
was one to remember. In the first
quarter, he made a catch that
also appeared in SportsCenter’s
Top 10 Plays. He followed it up
with a touchdown grab early in
the second quarter, and finished
the game with four receptions
for 57 yards.
The win capped a special
week
for
Darboh
after
he
became an American citizen in
Detroit on Thursday. Though he
had spent the vast majority of
his life in America after leaving
war-torn Sierra Leone as a child,
the
naturalization
ceremony
made his journey official.
Darboh
created
more
memories Saturday, with a catch
that will long be preserved on
highlight reels and a touchdown
that helped his team earn the
victory.
Darboh
received
a
game ball after the game and
his teammates chanted “USA”
when he broke the huddle. It will
be tough to top his first football
game as an American.
5.
Michigan’s
defensive
players aren’t joking when
they discuss expectations for
their unit.
Last Monday, Michigan senior
linebacker James Ross said that
he believed the team’s defense
could be the best in the country,
that it would be “criminal” if
he didn’t, considering all of
the work the team has put in.
Saturday, Michigan’s defense
backed up his assertion.
The Wolverines allowed just
105 total yards, and BYU made
few traverses into Michigan
territory.
The
Cougars
did
not finish any drive past the
Wolverines’ 43-yard line.
Michigan’s defense is ranked
No. 2 in the country in yardage
allowed and No. 4 in the country
in
scoring
defense.
Ross’
comments do not appear to be
hyperbole.
FOOTBALL
JAMES COLLER/Daily
The Michigan Marching Band has become a more prominent part of the Michigan Stadium game-day experience in 2015.
JAKE
LOURIM
“We are going
back to the
basics.”