Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, October 6, 2015 — 7
‘No more freshmen’ on Wolverines
By ZACH SHAW
Daily Sports Editor
Five games into its season,
the Michigan football team has
exceeded the expectations of
many.
After outscoring their last
four opponents by a combined
122-14, the Wolverines have
climbed to No. 18 in the AP poll,
have the ninth-highest odds to
win the national championship,
according to Bovada, and boast
the nation’s No. 2 overall defense.
Despite
the
apparent
improvement since last season,
the success can almost entirely
be attributed to players who
played last year.
Of Michigan’s 14 true freshmen
on scholarship, just defensive
back Tyree Kinnel and wide
receivers Brian Cole and Grant
Perry have seen game action, and
even they have only seen the field
sparingly.
But with upcoming matchups
against No. 13 Northwestern and
No. 3 Michigan State, Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh has reached
the point in the season where he’s
no longer afraid to deploy all of
the troops.
“Now’s the time,” he said. “We
truly believe there are no more
freshmen. When they go through
a month of training camp and
four games, when you’ve played
four games, a third of a season,
nobody is a freshman anymore.
… If they’re gonna show that they
can contribute as a freshman,
now’s the time to do it.”
At his weekly press conference
Monday, Harbaugh said that
running back Karan Higdon,
cornerback Keith Washington
and defensive ends Reuben Jones
and Shelton Johnson are also
close to seeing game action.
Not
coincidentally,
junior
cornerback Channing Stribling
and junior running back De’Veon
Smith missed Saturday’s game
with
injuries,
while
senior
defensive end Mario Ojemudia
tore his Achilles and is out for the
entire season.
The injury bug is one path for
freshmen to see the field, but with
a suddenly legitimate chance at
contending for a conference title,
the quickest way to see game
action is simply being the best
player on the field — the same
standard for everyone else.
“Personally, I’ve never been
one to come in and not play
football for a year, and I don’t
think any of them feel that way
either,” said senior linebacker
and team captain Joe Bolden. “If
you want to come in, you want to
play, do something about it. Get
yourself on the field.
“Freshmen aren’t freshmen
anymore. You’ve been here long
enough, you know the way to
carry yourselves and how to
practice and how to help the
team get better, and that’s what
we expect of them every day.”
Though he only played on
special teams against Maryland,
Kinnel served as an example of
Bolden’s message — the freshman
earned playing time simply by
competing in practice. Whether
it was informal team races or
just effort in drills, Kinnel made
the coaching staff an offer they
couldn’t refuse, and they didn’t
want to.
“He just seemed like a guy who
was screaming to ‘Get me on the
field, Coach,’ ” Harbaugh said.
“Not in the vocal way or coming
into the office like, ‘Hey, I need
more playing time,’ but in the
best way: with what he did on the
field and how he was competing
in practice and in competitions.
So I listened.”
The
drawback
to
that
approach, of course, is that
playing true freshmen requires
them to burn their redshirts and
extra year of eligibility.
Former Michigan coach Brady
Hoke drew criticism for playing
too many true freshmen when
they weren’t ready and losing the
extra eligibility. Harbaugh isn’t
Hoke, but his time coaching at
both the college and professional
levels taught him that worrying
about burning a redshirt can
burn a team.
“It’s always been my feeling
that those who can play as true
freshmen ultimately become the
best players,” Harbaugh said.
“You get better at football by
playing football, and the ones that
are mentally and physically ready
to do that as true (freshmen) have
a chance to do that.”
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Tyree Kinnel earned playing time against Maryland because of how he has performed in practice and in drills.
St. Louis Blues give Yost
rave reviews during visit
By KEVIN SANTO
Daily Sports Writer
Yost Field House has been a
home for Michigan athletics since
1923, but officially became the
stomping ground of the Michigan
hockey team in 1973 when it was
converted into Yost Ice Arena.
Since then, the facility has
undergone five renovations, each
improving the quality of the
establishment for players, fans
and students.
Yost underwent its most recent
renovations in 2006, 2011 and
2012. The locker rooms were
enhanced and a high-definition
jumbotron was installed in 2006
and 2011, respectively, while
the 2012 renovation added more
seating options, including a new
press box.
And when the Wolverines
hosted the St. Louis Blues of the
National Hockey League over
the weekend for their preseason
team-building trip, it was a
unique
opportunity
for
two
members of the organization
— coach Ken Hitchcock and
defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk
— to reflect on how the facilities
have progressed.
Shattenkirk played in the U.S.
National
Team
Development
Program from 2005 to 2007, and
during that time he billeted with
the family of current Wolverine
sophomore forward Niko Porikos
in Ann Arbor.
Shattenkirk has had a front-
row seat to view the evolution of
Michigan’s hockey facilities, and
from his perspective, Yost has
come a long way since his time
with Porikos’ family.
“Yost looks great now with the
new renovations,” Shattenkirk
said. “It looks like a completely
different rink. It just seems like
every time I come back, there’s
more buildings on campus and
everything gets bigger and better.”
Hitchcock, on the other hand,
spent two and a half seasons
at the helm of the Dallas Stars’
International
Hockey
League
franchise, the Kalamazoo Wings,
from 1993 to 1996 before being
awarded the head-coaching job
for their NHL counterpart.
During
his
tenure
in
Kalamazoo, Hitchcock had a
seat in Yost’s press box reserved
for him. He attended almost
every Friday night game he
could. When he was promoted
to Dallas’ NHL head coaching
position, he still brought the
Stars for summer trips to Ann
Arbor for five years.
So when the Blues used Ann
Arbor as their temporary home,
squeezing in a few practices
between Shattenkirk’s planned
team trips to the Brown Jug
and Zingerman’s Delicatessen,
Hitchcock was impressed with
how far the arena has come
over the years and cited it as an
incentive for recruits to choose to
wear the maize and blue sweater.
“The second (set of renovations)
brings you up to speed with the
big boys. A big part of (recruiting)
is you’ve got to have facilities,
and I’ve always said that this
is
a
player-friendly
facility,”
Hitchcock said. “It’s not just the
coach that is part of that program,
it’s everybody else too. So you’ve
got to have the facilities to show
off with the players (so they) feel
comfortable.
“This is a facility where you
don’t have to walk very far to
get much. The players have got
everything here. They’ve got
really good people who have been
around a long time — strength
people, medical people, they’ve
got a lot of good things going.”
With the consensus between
Hitchcock
and
Shattenkirk
that Yost is on par with — if not
superior to — the majority of
hockey arenas, one thing has
become clear: If Michigan loses
out on a recruit, don’t point the
finger at the 92-year-old facility.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
The St. Louis Blues enjoyed the facilities at Yost Ice Arena during their team-building trip over the weekend.
Larkin makes Red Wings
By JASON RUBINSTEIN
Daily Sports Editor
The
Michigan
hockey
coaching staff experienced a
flood of emotions Monday upon
hearing that former Wolverines
standout Dylan Larkin had made
the Detroit Red Wings’ opening-
night roster.
Not only were the coaches
ecstatic that Larkin had cracked
the lineup, but they also felt a
sense of relief. For them, it would
have been gut-wrenching to see
Larkin in the American Hockey
League rather than suiting up in
the maize and blue. And just a few
weeks ago, Michigan coach Red
Berenson didn’t seem optimistic
that Larkin could make the NHL
club.
“He’s proven he can play
there,
so
good
for
him,”
Berenson said on Monday. “I
think their intent was to put
him in the American League,
and then when he was ready to
stay in the NHL, he would be up
there. It says something about
college hockey. It says that they
aren’t far away.”
After
all,
before
Monday,
no teenager had made the Red
Wings’
opening-night
roster
since
Jiri
Fischer
in
1999-
2000. Just 12 teenagers have
accomplished the same feat for
Detroit since Steve Yzerman
made the Red Wings as an
18-year-old in 1983. But Larkin,
who boasts exceptional maturity,
speed, hockey IQ and talent,
defied the odds.
The 19-year-old starred for the
Wolverines last season, notching
47 points en route to being
named the Big Ten Freshman of
the Year.
The Red Wings have gained a
reputation for being notoriously
careful with their top prospects.
But after Larkin scored three
goals and tallied an assist while
playing top-line minutes in the
preseason, new head coach Jeff
Blashill had no choice but to keep
Larkin at the highest level.
“We just felt, I specifically
really felt, he makes us better,”
Blashill told reporters Monday.
“And to an exponential amount
that we felt it was important he
started on the team. We just felt
he has earned the spot.
“As I have said before, if a young
guy makes our team better and
is going to play enough minutes
to make our team better, then
he was going to be on the team.
Whether
it
was him or
someone
else.”
Blashill
went on to say
that
Larkin
would
begin
his Red Wings
tenure playing
with
former
Michigan
State
star
Justin
Abdelkader
and
likely
Hall-of-Famer
Henrik
Zetterberg.
“We feel like he has earned a
chance to play in the top nine,
which is going to be the type of
role which is going to give him
the minutes to be successful,”
Blashill said. “As a result of that,
we made the
decision
to
put him on the
team.”
So
while
the Red Wings
coaching staff
is eager to see
how
Larkin
performs
in
his
first
game, his old
coaching staff
back in Ann Arbor was nothing
but joyous.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Dylan Larkin was named to the Detroit Red Wings’ roster Monday.
“He’s proven he
can play there,
so good for
him.”
Glasgow learns
from past errors
By JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
In March, Graham Glasgow
was in the middle of his final
spring camp as a Michigan
offensive
lineman.
He
had
started the Wolverines’ last
11 games in 2014, after being
suspended for the first following
an arrest for driving while
intoxicated that summer.
But
Glasgow
served
his
suspension and hadn’t violated
his probation, which was set for
one year.
Then things changed again.
Jim Harbaugh replaced former
coach Brady Hoke, who had
given Glasgow a second chance
last fall. And Glasgow violated
his
probation
by
failing
a
breathalyzer test, earning him his
second suspension.
Glasgow was a fifth-year senior
with a brother (Ryan, a redshirt
junior defensive tackle) already
on the team and another (Jordan,
a freshman safety) on the way. He
was in position for a starting spot
this season. And all of it appeared
to be in jeopardy.
It was Harbaugh’s decision.
According to Glasgow, the two
sat down three or four times the
week after Glasgow violated his
probation.
“We kind of came together,”
Glasgow said. “He didn’t really
tell me that I had to really do
anything. It was more along the
lines of, ‘How do you think we
should do this together?’ ”
Harbaugh chose to reinstate
Glasgow, and now, almost seven
months
later,
Glasgow
has
become the team’s most consistent
offensive lineman at center.
And that hasn’t been his only
improvement.
“Over the past four years of
playing football, over the past
few years of off-the-field stuff,
I would say I’ve just grown a lot
as a person,” Glasgow said. “I’ve
grown a lot as a man, and I’ve
really just matured. I just try to
do everything the right way.
“I can’t afford to do anything
the wrong way. I just need to make
sure I’m doing the right things at
all times. It’s just not having an
option. It’s either I do what I need
to do, or I’d be out of here.”
With his back up against the
wall, Glasgow has worked things
out and made his way back into his
spot on the offensive line, proving
himself to a new coaching staff.
Harbaugh
doesn’t
accept
any excuses — and in this case,
the off-the-field issues were no
exception.
He
kept
Glasgow
accountable for his actions.
“He’s tough on me, but he
understands,”
Glasgow
said.
“He’s dealt with me in a way that
I feel like a dad would deal with
this issue. It’s really helped me
out a lot.”
Now, Glasgow has bigger goals
in mind. He plays on a much-
improved offensive line that has
been a key to Michigan’s success
this year. And after all, he’s the
eldest of three Glasgows on the
team — and by extension, he’s
expected to be a leader.
“When I first came here, I
didn’t think Ryan would come
here to begin with,” Glasgow
said. “It was really just my goal
to earn a scholarship and play.
When I was 19, I didn’t think that
they would be like this. You just
put in the work every day, and it
sort of just happens. You gotta
have the goals to make it happen,
but it’s just a stepping stone. You
want to earn a scholarship and be
a starter, and then what’s the next
goal? And the next goal?”
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