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October 08, 2015 - Image 6

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The Michigan Daily

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6A — Thursday, October 8, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan already searching for next Blake O’Neill

By MAX BULTMAN

Daily Sports Editor

Michigan
football
special

teams coordinator John Baxter
said Wednesday that he is well
into his search for fifth-year
senior
punter

Blake O’Neill’s
replacement.

O’Neill, who grew up playing

Australian rules football, has
been stellar for the Wolverines
this season. Through five games,
he is averaging 40.7 yards per
punt and has stuck 11 punts
inside opponents’ 20-yard lines.
Naturally, replacing him won’t
be easy.

“Punter is the hardest position

on your whole football team to
find,” Baxter said. “There is no
skill set anywhere, in any sport

that youth play in this country,
that has you drop a rhomboid
spheroid flat and try to hit it with
your foot.”

Baxter noted that kids in

Australia
grow
up
playing

catch by punting, rather than
throwing, and though he is still
scouting punters in the United
States, the Australian skill set
makes it a fertile ground for
recruiting.

“What do you do when the

current farm isn’t yielding the
crops you need?” Baxter asked.
“You
expand
your
farming

area.”

Baxter also commented on

O’Neill’s
athleticism,
which

helps
explain
why
O’Neill

took a chance to run the ball —
unsuccessfully — on 4th-and-16
in Michigan’s game against

BYU. Baxter said his punter has
the freedom to take off on any
play.

The running threat adds an

additional
dimension
to
the

Wolverines’ special-teams game,
an aspect of the missed run
Baxter seemed pleased about.

“If people know he’s going to

run, I think that’s good for us,”
Baxter said. “Because he’s gonna
run. He has that option every
time.”

OJEMUDIA’S

REPLACEMENT:
Michigan’s

defense
took
a
serious
hit

when senior linebacker Mario
Ojemudia was ruled out for the
season after injuring his achilles
tendon against Maryland on
Saturday.

Ojemudia is second on the

team with six tackles for loss,

trailing only redshirt junior
defensive end Chris Wormley,
who has seven.

And while Ojemudia’s talents

won’t be easily replaced, there
are
many

candidates
to

fill
his
spot

at the BUCK
position.

“(Senior

linebacker
Royce
Jenkins-Stone)
has played well
with the snaps
he’s
had,”

said defensive
coordinator D.J. Durkin. “We’ll
mix it around. We have some
depth up front, so we have some
guys that can do that, and we’ll
play several guys there like we

always do.”

Ojemudia and Jenkins-Stone

have taken the bulk of the snaps
at the BUCK position this season,
with Jenkins-Stone making 12

tackles, one for
a loss.

Durkin was

asked whether
redshirt
freshman
defensive end
Lawrence
Marshall
was
in
the

fold for time
at the BUCK
position,
but

Durkin
was
noncommittal,

merely noting that Marshall was
a good player.

TULEY-TILLMAN

CHARGES: Wednesday, former

Michigan
offensive
lineman

Logan
Tuley-Tillman
was

charged with three felonies.

Tuley-Tillman
is
facing

two counts of capturing and
distributing an image of an
unclothed person and one count
of using a computer to commit
a crime, the Ann Arbor News
first reported. He was dismissed
from the team on Sept. 10, but
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
did not specify a reason at the
time, simply citing “conduct
unacceptable for a Michigan
student athlete.”

Tuley-Tillman
joins
Chris

Fox (medical hardship), Kyle
Bosch
(transferred
to
West

Virginia) and Dan Samuelson
(transferring) as linemen in the
2013 recruiting class who have
left the program.

FOOTBALL

NOTEBOOK
“If people know
he’s going to run,

I think that’s
good for us.”

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