2B — November 2, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FOOTBALL
A moment of waiting and
an answered prayer
M
INNEAPOLIS — Taco
Charlton held his
hands in front of his
chest, his
palms clasped
together.
He looked
toward the
sky.
The public-
address
announcer
had just said
the ruling on
the field was
that Mitch
Leidner was down before he
reached the end zone. No time
remained on the game clock,
giving Michigan a 29-26 win.
Next to Charlton, Mo Hurst
pointed to the ground where
Leidner fell. He didn’t know
what happened on the game’s
final play, but he was hoping with
all of his heart that Leidner was
down. Willie Henry pounded his
chest repeatedly.
They waited, and there was
nothing else they could do.
They had half an inch to work
with, half an inch to avoid
a devastating defeat for the
second game in a row. They had
swarmed Leidner, bringing the
quarterback to the ground in a
heap, a group tackle so strong
it was nearly impossible to
pick out who exactly was most
responsible.
Defensive coordinator D.J.
Durkin knew it was coming,
Harbaugh said after the game.
He called his shot, and the
defense was ready.
But after the tackle, there
still was that chance, a very real
chance, that the play could be
overturned. Michigan did not
have to look back further than
its loss to Michigan State to
realize that crazier things have
happened.
The air was still, and the
sanity of an entire team — an
entire fanbase, really — hinged
on one voice, that of the PA
announcer, confirming that
Leidner was down. All Charlton
could do was pray.
Pray that for the second game
in a row, the hopes and dreams
of the Michigan football team
would not crumble on a last-
second play. Pray that Wilton
Speight, the spunky redshirt
freshman quarterback, had not
led a comeback in vain.
Before Saturday, Speight had
been an unknown commodity, a
6-foot-6 quarterback who came
to Michigan by way of Virginia
as a sought-after recruit but
not a surefire prospect. He was
accustomed to adversity. Speight
missed his junior season of high
school with a broken collarbone,
suffered during his team’s first
game of the season. Schools
backed off recruiting him, but
Michigan came on strong after
he returned.
During his time on campus,
he had stayed behind the scenes.
Speight appeared in mop-up
duty four times before Saturday,
attempting four passes but
completing none. Most assumed
the playing time was solely to
preserve Shane Morris’ redshirt.
But Saturday, when the time
came and Jake Rudock lay on the
ground in pain, it was Speight
who entered the game, Speight
whose arm Michigan’s prayers
rested upon.
He looked shaky at first, airing
out passes that never had a shot.
Harbaugh noticed, too. The
coach started “pounding on” his
quarterback on the sidelines,
hitting his shoulder pads to
simulate the sensation of getting
hit.
So when Speight took the
field with 8:36 remaining in the
game and his team trailing by
five, he was ready. He completed
one pass to Jake Butt, and then
another to Khalid Hill after
De’Veon Smith ran for a first
down. He was rolling.
Michigan drove toward
Minnesota’s rambunctious
student section, where they
chanted “Jerry! Jerry!” in honor
of former coach Jerry Kill all
night long. On 3rd-and-10,
he faked a handoff to Drake
Johnson and then pulled the
ball back in. He delivered a
dart to Jehu Chesson in the
back of the end zone, and the
Wolverines once again held the
lead. After Speight stepped up in
the pocket and flicked the ball
to Amara Darboh for the two-
point conversion, Michigan led
by three.
And that’s where the score
remained on the Golden
Gophers’ following drive. The
crowd yelled “Jerry! Jerry!”
once again as music blared and
Minnesota’s offense moved the
ball down the field. The Golden
Gophers got all the way to the
half-yard line, when the nice
man on the intercom relayed
the Wolverines good news for
the first time on the last drive.
Drew Wolitarsky had not scored
a touchdown with 19 seconds
remaining. He had been down at
the half-yard line.
But then, as the clock ticked
down and down and down
some more, just two seconds
remained after Leidner threw an
incomplete pass. Minnesota went
for the score, and Michigan’s
defense swarmed. And then it
waited.
The seconds bled together.
Charlton prayed and prayed. But
then the booming voice graced
the Wolverines with its presence.
Leidner was ruled down.
Harbaugh threw his hands
into the air. Durkin high-fived
everyone in sight. Michigan’s
players, an entire mass of them,
rushed Minnesota’s sideline.
They didn’t know where the
Little Brown Jug was, but they
wanted it in their hands. It had
spent the year in Minneapolis,
the place where they did not
believe it belonged. It didn’t take
too long for them to find it. Jabrill
Peppers emerged from the scrum,
holding the trophy up in his arms
while his teammates touched it.
Jon Falk, the former
equipment manager and keeper
of the jug, smiled as he watched
the celebration unfold. The
players ran around with the
trophy, back and forth. They
remembered last year’s game,
when they lost the trophy for the
first time since 2005.
“We got the f---ing trophy
back,” one player yelled.
They brought it into
the tunnel, where some of
Michigan’s key players lingered
for a moment longer, taking
everything in. Captain Joe
Bolden hugged everyone in sight,
including Rudock, the starting
quarterback’s jersey caked
brown with turf stains. Desmond
Morgan, a fifth-year senior,
embraced the younger Speight,
pulling him in tight.
Speight had done what once
seemed hopeless, when his first
few passes fell to the ground. He
played it cool in his postgame
press conference, saying he did
nothing more than be ready like
Harbaugh always tells him to
be. After all, Speight said, you’re
probably a fool if you don’t listen
to Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh hoped Saturday’s
game provided a lesson for his
team, one that will stick with his
players for the rest of their lives,
until they’re 80 or 90 years old.
“You don’t give up,” Harbaugh
said. “You keep fighting, keep
playing.”
And then, when you’ve fought
for every last half-yard, when
you’ve been through heartbreak
and hell and back again, when
you’ve lost your starting
quarterback and have inserted
enough steel in your spine to
build a skyscraper, maybe, just
maybe, all of your prayers will be
answered.
Cohen can be reached at
maxac@umich.edu and on
Twitter @MaxACohen.
MAX
COHEN
JAKE
LOURIM
The good, bad and the
ugly: ‘M’ vs. Minnesota
By ZACH SHAW
Daily Sports Editor
If nothing else, the No. 16
Michigan
football
team
is
entertaining. After losing their
previous game to Michigan State
on a devastating final play, the
Wolverines got to experience the
other side of the coin Saturday,
making a goal-line stand to beat
Minnesota, 29-26.
As with any close game,
there’s plenty to take away from
Michigan’s win. The Daily breaks
down the good, the bad and the
ugly from Saturday night.
The good
The
good
news
is
that
Michigan didn’t lose in the final
seconds of the game.
Jokes aside, the Wolverines’
performance didn’t look “good”
on paper, but the ability to win
close games is a critical skill for
Michigan to develop. In games
decided by 10 points or fewer
since 2012, the Wolverines had
gone just 8-12, including an 0-2
mark this season.
And while a strong argument
could be made that Minnesota
blew
the
game
more
than
Michigan won it, a win is a win
nonetheless.
So
is
bowl
eligibility,
as
Michigan guaranteed itself a
postseason game for the 40th
time in 45 seasons.
Beyond team success, redshirt
freshman safety Jabrill Peppers
was as good as he has been in
his career at Michigan. Seeing
his role on offense expanded
considerably,
Peppers
played
more than 90 snaps Saturday
night,
earning
a
rushing
touchdown, two pass breakups,
100 all-purpose yards and plenty
of near-highlight plays.
The bad
As explosive as Peppers was,
Saturday’s game — and Michigan’s
season — almost blew up in a bad
way for the Wolverines. Prior
to Saturday, Michigan had been
relatively fortunate in the injury
department, keeping the offense
intact and only losing sophomore
defensive tackle Bryan Mone
and senior defensive end Mario
Ojemudia to severe injuries.
But midway through the third
quarter, the wheels began to
fall off when fifth-year senior
quarterback Jake Rudock left
the game with an injury. On
ensuing drives, junior running
back De’Veon Smith and junior
tight end Jake Butt, who led the
team in rushing and receiving,
respectively before the game,
were taken out as well.
Both Butt and Smith returned
later, and redshirt freshman
Wilton
Speight
performed
honorably in Rudock’s absence,
but the drop-off in production
was clear.
The ugly
The game’s finish will be what
fans remember, but the most
surprising note from Saturday’s
game may well have been the
sudden collapse of the Michigan
defense. Entering the game first
in the nation in points and yards
allowed per game, the Wolverines
were expected to shut down, if
not shut out, the Golden Gophers.
Instead, Minnesota, entering
the night as the Big Ten’s lowest-
scoring and worst total offense,
gashed Michigan for a season-
high 461 yards to go with 26
points.
Quarterback Mitch Leidner
threw for a career-high 317
passing yards, and the Golden
Gophers had four plays of 30
yards of more. The Wolverines
had only allowed five such plays
in their first seven games this
season.
“We’ve got to go back and
self-check ourselves and watch
this film intently to clean that
stuff up,” said senior linebacker
Desmond Morgan. “It feels better
watching this film with a win
than a loss.”
Michigan survived the scare
and won, but the ugly truth is
that based on its performance
and costly mistakes, it probably
shouldn’t have.
FOOTBALL
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
Saturday beckons, ready or not
T
hey didn’t prepare for this.
They couldn’t have. Since
the spring, Michigan
and Minnesota have prepared
for the game
they played
Saturday
night in
Minneapolis.
They
organized
personnel, and
they installed
schemes.
But the
game didn’t
warn either
team of what happened in the two
weeks leading up to Saturday. By
now, you know the stories: The
Wolverines had a win in their
grasp against rival Michigan
State before the Spartans picked
up a fumbled snap on a punt and
returned it for a touchdown with
no time left.
The Golden Gophers lost to
Nebraska on the same day, 48-25,
but that paled in comparison
to what they lost Wednesday.
That morning, head coach Jerry
Kill announced his retirement
amid health concerns. In three
days, Minnesota would have
to play without Kill. Defensive
coordinator Tracy Claeys took
over and tried to get his team
ready.
“It’s our obligation to be ready
to go on Saturday,” Claeys said.
“That’s one thing this game
teaches you — it’s for tough
people. I believe that. Tough
people get through tough times.”
And the game didn’t warn
either team of the final play,
either. Fifty-nine minutes and
58 seconds of football had boiled
down to this: Wolverines 29,
Golden Gophers 26, Minnesota
ball at the Michigan half-yard
line.
Best push wins.
The crowd of 50,709 at TCF
Bank Stadium watched in agony.
Maybe the teams were ready.
Maybe they had recovered from
the adversity of the past two
weeks. Maybe they hadn’t.
It didn’t matter. The play was
coming anyway, ready or not.
Minnesota called its last
timeout to draw up the play. The
play clock wound down, and
time seemed to crawl by. There
was no escaping. The collision
would transpire at the line of
scrimmage. One team would win,
grab the Little Brown Jug and
start celebrating. The other would
lose, go home and try to recover
from more heartbreak.
The former was Michigan. The
Wolverines stood firm, jumped
the snap and stopped Minnesota
quarterback Mitch Leidner shy
of the goal line. They played a
second straight game decided
on the final play but redeemed
themselves this time. They were
heading home at 6-2 with the
Little Brown Jug.
The latter was Minnesota.
The Golden Gophers went for it
all, trying to punch in the game-
winning touchdown rather than
kick a field goal and play for
overtime. They said all week they
would try to win for Kill, and they
put it all on the line, only to come
up short.
The chants came from the
crowd all night: “JER-RY! JER-
RY! JER-RY!” The first came
when Claeys was introduced
before the game. Another began
after a video tribute to Kill played
on the big screen during the first
stoppage of play. The last chant
occurred when Minnesota faced
1st-and-goal from the half-yard
line, trying to secure the win.
The Golden Gophers had
played without Kill before — he
missed seven games in 2013 due to
his health — but he always came
back. Until this week, he had no
reported incidents since that leave
of absence, and Claeys said last
week he had stopped worrying
about it until Kill stepped down
Wednesday. That left Claeys, his
longtime assistant, to pick up the
pieces.
“Is it a challenge? Sure,
it’s a challenge,” Claeys said
Wednesday. “But hey, life’s a
challenge. Every day is, and you
get up in the morning, it’s a new
day and we’ll go attack it.”
Kill informed the team of
his decision early Wednesday
morning, and the Golden Gophers
had to move on and adjust. The
players made it to class that
day, returned to practice that
afternoon and turned in a gutsy
effort Saturday.
They put up 26 points against
what was the nation’s top scoring
defense. Leidner was their leader,
with 354 total yards and two
touchdowns. He opened his night
by running around frantically
in front of the student section,
carrying a maroon flag that read
“JERRYSOTA” to fire up the
crowd.
“Coach Kill is so important to
the state of Minnesota,” Leidner
told reporters after the game.
“The entire student section
loves him. He’s done so much
for this team, this program. I
was honored to be able to do that
tonight.
“They asked me earlier in the
week if I wanted to do it, and I
said, ‘Hell yeah, I want to do that.
I want to do that so badly.’ To get
the opportunity to do that tonight
for Coach Kill is something I’ll
never forget.”
He almost ended his night on
a similar high. His pass to Drew
Wolitarsky with 19 seconds left
was initially ruled a 22-yard,
go-ahead touchdown pass. The
crowd erupted into frenzy, until
the video review overturned the
touchdown, Michigan stopped
Minnesota just short and the
stadium went silent.
That was the position the
Wolverines were in just two weeks
ago. They, too, had to regroup.
Coach Jim Harbaugh vowed the
Wolverines would put steel in
their spines to recover. The players
insisted they moved on and were
preparing for another game. Fifth-
year senior punter Blake O’Neill
and senior linebacker Joe Bolden,
who took the biggest blows from
the loss, rose back up, dusted
themselves off and readied for
another Saturday.
But there was no way of
preparing for that kind of
situation, no way of knowing what
would happen next. Saturdays are
like that sometimes.
They twist and turn
throughout the day, spinning
emotions and shifting momentum
back and forth until finally, four
hours later, it all comes down to
one play.
There’s no preparing for that
either. You do everything you can,
work as hard as you can and show
up. There’s no play call for when
a coach has two seizures on the
Tuesday of game week and has to
step down. There’s no defensive
scheme for letting a huge win slip
away on a fumbled punt return as
time expires.
There was none of that. They
lined up, and Michigan emerged
victorious.
That was it. The game chose a
winner and a loser. Now they both
go forward from that. Five days
from now, another Saturday will
beckon, ready or not.
Lourim can be reached
at jlourim@umich.edu or on
Twitter @jakelourim.
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Michigan responded to a devastating loss to Michigan State and won a battle on the final play to beat Minnesota, whose coach resigned three days before the game.