2B — January 6, 2016
SportsWednesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SPORTSWEDNESDAY COLUMN

Jim Harbaugh’s ball team

J

im Harbaugh sat in the 
bowels of the Citrus Bowl 
after his 

team’s 41-7 
undressing 
of Florida 
last Friday, 
gushing about 
the NFL 
prospects of 
his seniors.

Starting 

center 
Graham 
Glasgow, 
Harbaugh said, could be a first-
round pick. Jake Rudock, as 
evidenced by his performance 
in the second half of Michigan’s 
season, has NFL talent in 
Harbaugh’s eyes as well. Safety 
Jarrod Wilson does, too.

Harbaugh’s presence, in all 

likelihood, has increased their 
chances greatly. He molded 
numerous low-level recruits into 
NFL draft picks at Stanford, 
and he worked with the highest 
level of NFL talent with the San 
Francisco 49ers, whom he led 
to the Super Bowl a mere three 
years ago.

But this experience, helping 

this group and coming back to 
his alma mater, was Harbaugh’s 
favorite in football. He thinks 
many of his players felt the same 
way about this past season.

“Just being in our locker 

room, I can tell you this: I don’t 
know ... what word to describe 
it other than if you could have 
been there with us in the locker 
room, you would have noticed 
that guys like being on our 
ball team,” Harbaugh said. 
“We’re on a ball team. It’s the 
Michigan Wolverine football 
team. And we like being on that 
ball team. And I know there are 
guys in that locker room that 
really like … (they’re) happy 
they’re on a ball team and glad 
it’s this one and like what we 
got going on.”

It seems clear that most of 

the starters and regular players 
love suiting up for Harbaugh. 
James Ross said most of the 
Wolverines would run through 
a brick wall for their coach after 
Michigan defeated Penn State in 
November. Rudock and De’Veon 
Smith, sitting next to Harbaugh 
during his press conference 
after the Citrus Bowl, agreed 
with him that this was their best 
season in football.

But there are 120 players on 

the Michigan football team’s 
roster. Did Harbaugh’s arrival, 
one year later, help the players 
who hardly played, aren’t on 
scholarship and could never 
dream of reaching the NFL?

Take senior tight end Michael 

Jocz. He has a 3.97 GPA in 
mechanical engineering and 
won the team’s award for best 
student-athlete this season. 
He’s smarter than most non-
football playing nerds on 
campus. He probably doesn’t 
need Harbaugh’s tutelage 
or Michigan football to be 
successful in life (though 
becoming an engineer would be 
another interesting offseason 
venture for Harbaugh).

Jocz is way down the depth 

chart at tight end and has hardly 
seen consistent playing time 
throughout his Michigan career. 
He puts in just as much effort as 
the starters 
by working 
his tail off in 
practice, but 
doesn’t get 
the reward 
of playing 
frequently on 
Saturdays.

He calls 

himself 
a fifth-
generation 
Michigan fan and has rooted 
for the Wolverines for his entire 
life. Jocz has seen tough times 

and a losing season as a player. 
He kept going — even when 
it might’ve been easier to just 
focus on school — to continue 
his dream of playing Michigan 
football.

This year, he feels like the 

program he loves has its dignity 
back. And Jocz feels like he 
and his fellow walk-ons have a 
role in that, too. Harbaugh has 
helped the guys who don’t play 
very much feel like they have a 
role in the group’s success, just 
like the starters do.

“As a team, we do a good job 

of knowing that by helping each 
other out, we help everybody 
out,” Jocz said Wednesday. 
“Not just, ‘If I get better, I get 
my turn.’ It’s all about the team 
effort and being together as one, 
and that’s how we’re going to 
win football games.”

Take Brad Anlauf. He’s a 

senior wide receiver on this 
year’s football team. If you know 
his name, it’s probably from his 
stint as a walk-on on the men’s 
basketball team in the 2013-14 
season, when the Wolverines 
won the Big Ten championship 
and made it all the way to the 
Elite Eight. But Anlauf has been 
on the football team for his 
other three years at Michigan, 
his game days spent largely on 
the sideline.

In a way, Harbaugh’s arrival 

brought 
his football 
career 
new life. 
Harbaugh, 
famously, 
is all about 
competition. 
In the 
spring, he 
insisted the 
quarterback 
position 

would sort itself out, that the 
best player would step up and 
make the plays. That creed of 

open competition extended to 
everyone on the team, not just 
the guys on scholarship.

Sure, no walk-ons carved out 

regular starting roles on the 
team this season. Former walk-
ons Joe Kerridge, Kenny Allen 
and Ryan and Graham Glasgow 
are all on scholarship now, and 
they contributed regularly. But 
under Harbaugh, the rest of the 
walk-ons felt like they had a 
chance to earn playing time, too.

“There’s no sense of 

entitlement around Coach 
Harbaugh,” Anlauf said. “If his 
own son, eventually, if he comes 
and plays here, he’s not going to 
give him an edge over another 
kid playing at that position.”

Take Shaun Austin. You’ve 

probably never heard his name. 
He’s a senior walk-on safety, 
and he didn’t get into a game 
this year. He lives with other 
football players, including Chris 
Wormley and Tom Strobel, guys 
who see the field regularly.

Under Harbaugh, he feels like 

he’s just as important as those 
guys, playing time be damned.

“It’s cool to not take a 

backseat to someone else, at 
least get a chance,” Austin said.

Austin gets hit every day 

in practice, and he went 
into every game knowing he 
probably wouldn’t be needed. 
He’s a political science major 
and hopes to go to law school 

someday. Playing for Harbaugh 
won’t help him get to the NFL 
or achieve some wild football 
fantasy. He admits he’s a little 
crazy for putting himself 
through the grind. So why does 
he do it?

“It’s easy to play for the 

guys, I think that’s the biggest 
thing,” Austin said. “Even if 
you’re not doing it for yourself, 
there’s other guys you’ve 
grown close with over the 
years that make it easy to come 
out and play for them.”

Sounds like a ball team, indeed.

Cohen can be reached at 

maxac@umich.edu and on 

Twitter @MaxACohen.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Senior tight end Michael Jocz savored Michigan’s revival this season, even though he rarely saw the field.

MAX
COHEN

“It’s all about the 
team effort and 
being together 

as one.”

‘M’ dismantles Florida, 41-7

By JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

ORLANDO, 
Fla. 
— 
The 

Michigan football team came out 
and scored on its first drive of 
the second half. And that’s when 
redshirt junior defensive lineman 
Chris Wormley said it happened.

The Wolverines led Florida, 

24-7, at that point. On the first 
play of the Gators’ next series, 
Wormley sacked quarterback 
Treon Harris. That led to a 
three-and-out, giving the ball 
back to Michigan’s offense.

“And you could tell in their 

eyes — you could see they 
didn’t want to play anymore,” 
Wormley 
said. 
“They 
were 

down probably three scores by 
then, and it’s just a good feeling, 
especially for a defense — to 
stomp on their throats.”

And still 21 more minutes of 

dominance remained.

When 
that 
time 
elapsed, 

Michigan celebrated on the field 
with the bowl trophy. Its players 
had talked since the end of the 
regular season about reaching 
the milestone of 10 wins. They 
demolished Florida, 41-7, and 
their days of being demolished 
seemed to be in the distant past.

The 
Wolverines 
(6-2 
Big 

Ten, 10-3 overall) had routed 
opponents in a similar fashion 
before, but this came against a 
marquee SEC opponent in the 
Citrus Bowl. Michigan last beat 
an SEC team eight years ago to 
the day, when the Wolverines 
beat Florida in the same bowl in 
Lloyd Carr’s last game as coach.

“I’d say this was the best game 

we played all year,” Harbaugh 
said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen 
our offense play better. And our 
defense was magnificent.”

Added Florida coach Jim 

McElwain: “It was a case of 
getting your rump kicked in. 
That’s what it was.”

Michigan came into the bowl 

game with the same intensity 
as any other game, and the 
same refusal to let up. When 
the offense regained possession 
four plays after Wormley’s sack, 
redshirt junior wide receiver 
Jehu Chesson outran Florida 
cornerback Vernon Hargreaves 

III for the second time in the 
game. He hauled in a 45-yard 
pass 
from 
fifth-year 
senior 

quarterback Jake Rudock, and 
senior fullback Sione Houma 
punched it in three plays later.

The Gators (7-1 SEC, 10-4 

overall) kept the ball for just 62 
seconds on their next series, and 
Michigan went back to work on 
a 12-play, 84-yard touchdown 
drive to extend the lead to 38-7 
early 
in 
the 

fourth quarter.

The 

outcome 
had 

long 
been 

decided, 
and 
though 

Wormley 
smelled blood 
in the water 
almost 
a 

quarter earlier, more than 12 
minutes remained.

“That’s the whole objective 

of our defense,” Wormley said. 
“You don’t let them score. You 
take their will away, and that’s 
what we did today. It’s a great 
feeling.”

Florida’s 
brief 
window 
of 

opportunity came in the first 
quarter. On the Gators’ first 
possession, they moved the ball 

55 yards in 12 plays over 4:37 but 
stalled at the Wolverines’ 20-yard 
line. On 4th-and-7, they lined up 
in field-goal formation, but the 
holder flipped the ball toward the 
line of scrimmage and Michigan 
junior 
cornerback 
Channing 

Stribling intercepted it.

Another 
turnover 
in 
the 

second quarter continued to 
separate the teams. The Gators 
reached the Michigan red zone 

again, 
but 

Harris 
threw 

an interception 
off 
his 
back 

foot to senior 
safety 
Jarrod 

Wilson. 
That 

was as close as 
Florida got for 
the rest of the 
game.

Meanwhile, the Wolverines’ 

offense rolled over the Gators’ 
highly ranked defense. Michigan 
scored points on six of its first 
seven possessions and moved the 
ball on the ground for 225 yards 
and through the air for 278.

Junior running back De’Veon 

Smith carried 25 times for 109 
yards, the first Michigan player 
to reach the mark since he did so 
Sept. 26 against Brigham Young. 

Chesson caught five passes for 118 
yards and a touchdown, including 
two big plays in his matchup 
with Hargreaves. And Rudock, 
the game MVP, was 20-for-31 for 
278 yards and three touchdowns. 
With that performance, he moved 
into second place on Michigan’s 
all-time 
single-season 
passing 

yards list.

“Jake Rudock was fabulous, on 

the money today,” Harbaugh said. 
“I mean, darn near flawless.”

Rudock and most of the 

starters stayed in until the end. 
In his final collegiate game, 
Michigan’s quarterback didn’t 
take a knee until the final play. 
Long 
after 
the 
Wolverines 

stomped on Florida’s throats, 
their work was done. There was 
no time left.

Harbaugh called 2015 his 

favorite year in football, and 
Rudock and Smith agreed after 
the game, but only then did 
their celebration start. Some 
players will move onto the NFL 
or elsewhere, and some will turn 
their focus toward 2016.

“Guys like De’Veon and me,” 

Harbaugh said after the game, 
turning to his running back, 
“onward, 2016. This was the 
beginning of that year.”

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Jake Rudock and Jehu Chesson connected on two long passes to spark Michigan’s offense in the Citrus Bowl win.

FOOTBALL
‘The Kingdom’ 
powers victory

By MAX BULTMAN

Managing Sports Editor

ORLANDO, 
Fla. 
— 
Drake 

Johnson’s 
favorite 
moment 

of the Citrus Bowl wasn’t his 
rushing touchdown in the first 
quarter, nor was it his receiving 
touchdown in the fourth or the 
trophy presentation after the 
game.

No, the moment that Johnson 

identified as the day’s best was a 
two-yard touchdown by senior 
fullback Sione Houma with 3:48 
left in the third quarter. The 
Wolverines 
already 
led 
24-7 

at that point, so it wasn’t like 
Houma’s score changed the game.

What it did do, though, is fulfill 

a season-long goal Johnson has 
had with his roommates, Houma 
and redshirt junior receiver Jehu 
Chesson.

All 
year 
long, 
the 
three 

roommates have wanted to each 
score a touchdown in the same 
game. So late in the third quarter, 
when Houma plunged in from 
two yards out, Johnson was 
elated.

“We 
call 
ourselves 
‘The 

Kingdom,’ we live in an apartment 
called ‘The Kingdom,’ ” Johnson 
said. “We stepped on the field 
today, and Jehu walked up to me 
and he goes, ‘Today.’ And I was 
like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘We’re 
going to get all three today.’ ”

On the stage at the trophy 

presentation, Chesson wondered 
aloud into the microphone if the 
trio of roommates scoring might 
be some kind of record.

And while STATS LLC doesn’t 

keep those kind of records, the 
moment was special for the trio, 
which had fallen just short so 
many times this season. Houma 
and Chesson both scored against 
UNLV, but no Johnson. Chesson 
and Johnson both scored against 
Maryland, 
Northwestern 
and 

Rutgers, but no Houma.

But in Friday’s 41-7 win over 

Florida, there were plenty of 
scores to go around, and all three 
collected.

Johnson got the scoring rolling 

with a four-yard touchdown in 
the first quarter, and Chesson 
burned Vernon Hargreaves III, 
regarded as one of the nation’s 
best cornerbacks, with a double 
move for a 31-yard touchdown in 
the second.

Late in the third, fifth-year 

senior quarterback Jake Rudock 
hit Chesson for a 45-yard bomb 
to the Gators’ 10-yard line, and 
Houma punched it in three plays 
later.

All three had strong seasons, 

with Johnson recovering from 
his second torn ACL and Houma 
and Chesson breaking out largely 
for the first time. Chesson had 12 
total touchdowns on the season, 
Johnson finished with six and 
Houma with five.

So was it something in the 

water at “The Kingdom?”

“Maybe,” Johnson said. “We 

have a nice apartment, we have a 
nice place. We sleep comfortably. 
Maybe that’s what did it.”

As for Chesson’s prediction 

come true, Johnson said that’s 
nothing out of the ordinary. He is 
the responsible one of the group, 
and Johnson referred to him as 
“The Great Affirmer,” someone 
who could expedite the ongoings 
of the apartment.

“Pardon my French, but Jehu’s 

got his shit together,” Johnson 
said. “Like if there’s someone on 
our team who really has their 
stuff together, Jehu has his shit 
together.

“Him being in our house has 

been such a blessing because 
there’s times where I’m just like 
… You know, I’m a goofy person. 
And like, I’m the one person in 
the house who’s just so carefree 
like, that’s like, ‘it’ll be ok.’ And 
Jehu’s the person in the house 
who’s like, ‘Hey. We need to get 
this done.’ ”

On Friday, in their last chance 

to 
all 
score 
before 
Houma 

graduates and moves on, Chesson 
affirmed it.

The Kingdom came, and its 

will was done.

“I’d say this was 
the best game we 
played all year.”

