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.”

