6A — Thursday, January 7, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

It’s (not) about Jake Rudock

Fifth-year senior 
ends college career 
with strong season 

at Michigan

By MAX BULTMAN

Managing Sports Editor

Wearing 
a 
Citrus 
Bowl 

Champions T-shirt and a wide 
smile, Jake Rudock stepped onto 
the stage and, for once, there was 
nowhere to deflect the attention.

With an MVP performance 

in the Citrus Bowl, Rudock 
had just secured one of the 
greatest 
statistical 
seasons 

by a quarterback in Michigan 
history, 
finishing 
with 
the 

second-most yards, completions 
and completion percentage in a 
single season.

The only Wolverine on the 

stage at that time, Rudock 
walked along the front of it, 
high-fiving teammates who took 
delight in the moment.

Then, 
Rudock 
noticed 

someone standing on the field 
near stage left. Redshirt junior 
wide receiver Jehu Chesson, who 
had left the Wolverines 41-7 win 
over Florida with an apparent 
leg injury, was 
back 
on 
the 

field.

Rudock, 

who will likely 
someday 
be 

either a doctor 
or 
an 
NFL 

quarterback, 
paused to ask 
Chesson if he 
was OK.

Two days before the game, 

Rudock’s father, Bob, could have 
explained the moment before 
it happened. Rudock’s personal 
mantra, his father said, is “It’s 
not about me.”

This was a game, mind you, that 

Rudock had owned. He threw for 
278 yards and three touchdowns, 
wrapping up a season that put 
him in contention to make an 
NFL roster in the summer.

Rudock routinely makes sure 

it’s not about himself, but this 
moment, on the stage at the Citrus 
Bowl, was entirely his own.

So how did it feel for him to be 

there alone on the stage?

“Oh, it was fun,” Rudock said.
And 
then 
he 
gave 
his 

teammates the glory anyway.

“The guys were loving it, they 

know how I am. I’d rather have 
the five big linemen up there — 
they’re the reason we were able 
to do everything we were able to 
do. But yeah, it was awesome. I’m 
just really happy for our guys.”

* * *

Before the Citrus Bowl or the 

records, and before Jake Rudock 
even thought about the University 
of Michigan, he had a chance to 
play professional baseball.

The son of a baseball coach, 

Rudock had been around the 
game from a young age — one 
or two years old, by his father’s 
estimation. The idea was that the 
more Jake was around the game, 
the more he would learn to love 
baseball and sports in general.

He played throughout his 

childhood, and when he arrived 
at St. Thomas Aquinas High 
School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 
— where his dad was coaching 
— he joined a roster filled with 
talented athletes.

In Jake’s junior year, he hit 

cleanup in a batting order that 
featured 
James 
White, 
now 

a running back for the New 
England Patriots, and Giovanni 
Bernard, now of the Cincinnati 
Bengals, who hit first and second, 
respectively, in some games.

Bernard and White are now 

veterans of the NFL, a level 
Rudock may someday attain if 
he can impress scouts in the 
coming months.

But it won’t be the first time the 

quarterback has faced the scouting 
process for professional sports.

By the end of his senior year 

of high school, even though Jake 
had committed to play football 
at Iowa, Bob Rudock was getting 
phone calls about his son’s 
baseball future.

“When the draft was coming 

up, I had a number of calls from 
some (Major League Baseball) 
teams seeing if he was really 
going to go to Iowa,” Bob Rudock 
said. “Because they were going 
to draft him — not early, but they 
were going to draft him late (or 
sign him as a free agent).”

If Rudock thought he would 

have been a high-round pick, he 
might have taken a shot at the 
MLB Draft. But as things stood, 
he had another love developing 

with football.

He went to 

Iowa and had 
a 
successful 

career by most 
standards. 
Rudock started 
for two seasons 
as a Hawkeye, 
compiling 
an 

impressive 

touchdown-interception 
ratio, 

but he earned a reputation as a 
game manager.

For a quarterback, the term 

“game manager” can sometimes 
have 
an 
underwhelming 

connotation. Broadly speaking, 
it means he wouldn’t hurt the 
team, but he wouldn’t be the 
difference in many games, either. 
After two years of Rudock under 
center, the Hawkeyes handed 
the reigns of their offense to 
C.J. Beathard. Rudock’s days at 
Iowa were numbered, and he had 
to do what was best for him, so 
he sought a fresh start in Ann 
Arbor. The “game manager” 
label followed him.

Rudock, though, never seemed 

bothered by it. He wanted to 
help the team win games, and 
whatever that meant for his role 
was fine by him.

By the end of summer camp, 

he was the Wolverines’ starting 
quarterback. He won the job, and 
then he started winning games. 
Late in the season, he found 
a rhythm on deep passes, and 
that’s when he started breaking 
records. Ironically, his season 
seemed to pivot after he was 
knocked out of a game against 
Minnesota. In the aftermath 
of Michigan’s goal-line stand 
victory over the Golden Gophers, 
Rudock’s arm and resilience 
began to come into focus.

He absorbed hits at the end 

of runs and still never seemed 
scared to take off the next time. 
For being a “safe” option, Rudock 
was showing a curious amount of 
toughness. And Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh wasn’t shy about 
weighing in.

“In terms of respect and 

appreciation, he left a deep, 
indelible warmth in our heart for 
him,” Harbaugh said of Rudock 
on Nov. 23, before the Ohio State 

game. “He is so tough. This 
past game (against Penn State), 
I mean, the toughness was on 
display. I know I’ve said it, and 
maybe saying tough as a two-
dollar steak doesn’t even give it 
real justice. This guy is tough as 
nails, hard as hen’s teeth. He’s 
been a godsend for our team.”

But where did it come from? 

How did Jake Rudock become hard 
as hen’s teeth or tough as nails?

That gave Harbaugh pause.
“Hmm. 
That’s 
a 
great 

question,” he said. “I don’t think 
it’s — it’s a talent. I’ve always 
looked at toughness as a talent, 
that it’s trained. It’s not just 
granted upon somebody.

“He’s been trained well.”

* * *

Asked 
how 
Jake 
Rudock 

became 
Jake 
Rudock, 
Ken 

Mastrole has little hesitation.

Mastrole, a former quarterback 

at Maryland who had stints 
in the AFL and NFL Europe, 
started as Rudock’s quarterback 
coach his sophomore year of 
high school. And in their time 
together, Mastrole has noticed 
that his pupil has benefitted from 
a strong support system.

“Bob’s always had him around 

just good people,” Mastrole said 
on the phone last Thursday, 
the day before the Citrus Bowl. 
“Everything that Harbaugh said 
about him, the two-dollar steak 
comments and stuff, are totally 
dead-on accurate of his kind of 
personality and demeanor.”

Jake 
Rudock 
learned 
his 

first three-step drop from Dave 
Shula, the former head coach 
of the Cincinnati Bengals and 
the son of legendary coach Don 
Shula. Shula and the Rudocks are 
friends, which meant Rudock got 
to learn the most basic skill of 
quarterbacking from Shula in one 
of the two families’ living rooms.

That was the beginning of 

football for Rudock.

“He made (the local) All-

Star team (in middle school) 
and won the MVP as the safety, 
and the next year he switched 
to quarterback and he won the 
MVP as the quarterback in 
the local All-Star (event),” Bob 
Rudock said.

But by the time he got to high 

school — when then-St. Thomas 

Aquinas coach George Smith 
saw him — quarterback was the 
position that stuck.

That could have led to an 

inflated ego for a kid who had 
only been playing football for 
a short time. But those close to 
Rudock say it’s just not in his 
nature to let the cart get ahead of 
the horse.

Spend a few minutes on the 

phone with Bob Rudock, and it’s 
not hard to see why the refrains 
on Jake Rudock are about his 
selflessness and leadership. Just 
like his son, Bob is thoughtful. 
He thinks through questions 
before jumping right to an 
answer, and it seems to have 
rubbed off on his son.

“(Jake is) a guy that actually 

listens to his dad,” Mastrole said.

“His dad uses a great line all 

the time, it’s about two lines in 
life. … Basically, the one line has 
your parents, your girlfriend, 
your friends ... because they 
tell you what you want to hear. 
Jake’s got a couple guys in the 
other line that are the guys that 
are really going to hold him to a 
higher standard.

“A lot of kids don’t want to — 

they want to listen to the long 
line of people who tell you, ‘Hey, 
you’re great, you’re fantastic,’ 
and I get that. But I think people 
that are looking out for your best 
interest … you making the right 
decisions, using your time wisely, 
learning to control your emotions 
and 
being 
a 

good 
student 

and 
being 
a 

good 
leader, 

Jake’s 
really 

focused on that 
line.”

That 
line 

of 
people 

cultivated 
a 
leader 
in 

Rudock, which 
turned out to 
be crucial when playing at talent-
rich St. Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas is the definition of a 

football powerhouse. The school 
has won six state titles since 
2007, and its alumni — including 
White, Bernard, Indianapolis 
Colts’ 
wide 
receiver 
Phillip 

Dorsett and others — litter NFL 
rosters.

According to Smith, Rudock 

has started more games than any 

quarterback in school history. 
And while he was there, Rudock 
and a teammate, Austin Barron, 
who now plays at Florida State, 
started a saying the school still 
uses: “You go, we go.”

“They would point around 

the room and point fingers at 
everybody and go, ‘You go,’ and 
then ‘You go,’ ‘You go,’ ‘You go,’ ” 
Smith said. “And when everybody 
is going, then, ‘We go.’ ”

As a football player, it’s hard to 

find a better place to play than St. 
Thomas Aquinas, where Smith’s 
program churned out top-flight 
college talent regularly. But in “You 
go, we go,” Rudock left something 
lasting at the program even among 
so many other star players.

After the school fell short of 

the state title his junior year, all 
Rudock did in his senior season 
was lead it to a 15-0 record 
as well as regional, state and 
national titles.

His final game, fittingly, was 

a state championship victory at 
the Citrus Bowl.

* * *

There’s a side to Jake Rudock 

that’s rarely seen by the media. 
In public, he’s loose, but he rarely 
lets on much about himself, 
preferring to deflect praise onto 
his teammates and coaches.

Even when it is about him, it 

isn’t about him.

And that’s where the curiosity 

with Rudock comes to a head. 
Rudock is unanimously referred 
to as a leader, mature and 
business-like, but few people 
seem able to articulate who 
Rudock is at heart — the reason 
he is the way he is in the huddle.

Asked this question over the 

phone Wednesday, two days 
before the Citrus Bowl, Bob 
Rudock put it better than just 
about anyone else could.

“Jake is very … how do I say 

this? He’s very unassuming,” 
Rudock said. “He does not 

like the limelight. … He’s very 
friendly. He’s funny — he will 
give you movie lines left and 
right if you let him get into it — 
but he does have the mentality 
where it’s his job to make sure 
everything gels.

“It’s 
about 
him 
getting 

everybody else better.”

That makes sense given his 

aspiration to go to medical 
school and someday, you know, 
make people better.

And in a football context, 

that’s exactly what he has done at 
Michigan. Twenty-one different 
Michigan players caught a pass 
this season, assuming you don’t 

count 
the 

pass 
Rudock 

completed 
to 

himself 
off 

a 
deflection 

against 
Michigan 
State.

He 
started 

slow, 
but 
as 

his chemistry 
with Chesson, 
Jake 
Butt 

and Amara Darboh developed, 
he ultimately turned in one of 
the best statistical seasons by a 
quarterback in school history. 
He threw for 3,017 yards and 
20 
touchdowns 
while 
also 

solidifying 
the 
second-best 

completion percentage in school 
history at 64 percent.

Still, no matter how much 

success he has, Rudock’s public 
image only recently began to 

shake the “boring” or “safe” label.

But redshirt junior running 

back Drake Johnson says that’s 
a product of the quarterback’s 
humor and personality being 
more subtle.

“He’s got a very sarcastic 

sense of humor,” Johnson said 
last Wednesday. “If you’re not 
keen to it, you’ll be (obliviously) 
like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah.’ … He’s 
so smart that he can play with 
simple things.”

A 
couple 
nights 
earlier, 

Johnson, 
Rudock, 
Chesson 

and junior quarterback John 
O’Korn were at Buffalo Wild 
Wings having dinner. They 
were having a fairly normal 
conversation 
when 
Johnson 

picked up on one of Rudock’s 
jokes below the surface.

Johnson didn’t recall the joke, 

but he did remember his reaction.

“It hits you a minute late,” 

Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Wait, 
Jake…’ and he just gave me the 
wink. Once I see the wink, I’m 
just like, ‘Damn, he got me.’ ”

By most accounts, Rudock has 

a good sense of humor, even if it 
takes a bit of time to understand it.

If left entirely to his own 

devices, 
with 
no 
schedule, 

Rudock’s dad said he would 
think Jake would prefer to just 
watch a movie with friends or 
family. But it’s hard for him to 
say for sure.

“Gosh, as long as I can 

remember 
there’s 
been 
a 

schedule,” Bob Rudock said. 
“And you’ve gotta keep the 
schedule. You get your classwork 
done, you get your football done, 
you get your baseball done, you 
get your lifting in. There has not 
been a whole lot of free time.”

* * *

The coming months will put 

all of Rudock’s gifts — on the field 
and off it — to the ultimate test. 
In the next year, he will either 
be trying out for NFL rosters 

or applying to medical school, 
a slightly ironic dichotomy he 
seems destined to fulfill both 
sides of eventually.

He’s 
considering 
attending 

scouting camps, plus Michigan’s 
pro day and, if all goes well, 
possibly the NFL combine.

For Rudock, being drafted 

to the NFL is not out of reach. 
Otherwise, there’s a damned 
good chance he becomes a doctor 
— not a bad fallback plan.

In any case, Rudock will be 

doing what he’s always done 
best: making other people better.

“You 
hear 
the 
Bo 

Schembechler, ‘The team, the 
team, the team,’ ” Bob Rudock 
said. “Well, Jake was living that 
as long as I remember.”

In the waning moments of his 

Michigan career, after Rudock 
had answered his last postgame 
interview question, a Michigan 
spokesman approached him with 
a visitor. Jack Harbaugh, Jim’s 
toddler son, wanted a picture 
with Jake.

“Mighty 
Jack 
the 

Quarterback,” 
as 
Harbaugh 

called his son at his introductory 
press conference last December, 
had stolen Rudock’s hat, as they 
posed for a picture.

Rudock, after the last game 

of his college career, told him to 
keep it.

“It 
looks 
better 
on 
you 

anyway,” he said.

Daily 
staff 
photographer 

Allison 
Farrand 
contributed 

reporting.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Jake Rudock went out as a winner with Michigan’s 41-7 victory in the Citrus Bowl.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Rudock was second in single-season passing yards in program history with the second-highest completion percentage.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Rudock proved to be more than capable as the leader of a Michigan offense that improved dramatically during the season.

“He’s very 

unassuming. He 
does not like the 

limelight.”

“I’d rather have 

the five big 

linemen up there.”

