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.”