8A — Sunday, April 30, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Seniors go out with a win
O
RLANDO, Fla. —
Minutes after Friday’s
Citrus Bowl ended,
senior fullback Sione Houma
stood near
midfield,
trying to
put on his
championship
T-shirt. It
started off
as a simple
process. He
put his arms
through
the sleeves
with ease, eager to show off
his team’s victory. But then his
pads got in the way, leaving
the shirt rumpled up above his
midsection.
Houma called one of his
teammates over, and with
assistance, he was finally able
to do something he had never
done in his collegiate career:
be officially recognized as a
champion.
Sure, it wasn’t the national
championship, a Rose Bowl
championship or a Big Ten
championship, but for one day, it
seemed like none of that mattered.
Friday wasn’t the day to minimize
Michigan’s feats.
The senior class Jim Harbaugh
inherited for one season is
one that arrived just after of
Michigan’s Sugar Bowl victory
to cap the 2011 season, right
before the program suffered the
downturn that led to the firing of
Brady Hoke. Among the fifth-year
seniors, only linebacker Desmond
Morgan played in that Sugar Bowl.
The rest of them had never
appeared in a game that ended
with them wearing shirts that
had the words “Michigan” and
“champions” on the front.
A loss Friday would have
put Michigan’s seniors in
unfortunate territory: The last
four-year period in which the
Wolverines won neither a Big Ten
championship nor a bowl game
culminated in 1968.
The previous three seasons for
the senior class ended like this: a
heartbreaking loss in the Outback
Bowl to South Carolina in 2012, a
blowout loss to Kansas State in the
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in 2013
and them sitting on their couches
last season while 10 other Big Ten
teams played in bowls. Somehow,
it did not crush their resolve.
“The trust and intensity these
boys had, given everything that
happened, we all stuck together,”
Houma said. “And the bond we
created, I’ll never forget that.”
They had never experienced
anything like Friday’s postgame:
Jake Rudock, Joe Bolden, Joe
Kerridge and Jehu Chesson
standing on a podium with a
trophy they had won, maize and
blue confetti enveloping them;
half of a stadium in Florida, the
state where its opponent resided,
screaming “It’s great to be a
Michigan Wolverine”; players
who not only didn’t want to leave
the field after the game, but who
stayed so long to run around and
give fans high-fives that they
needed to hustle so they wouldn’t
delay the team’s TSA airport
security check on the way out of
the stadium.
The fans were relentless,
screaming for Jim Harbaugh,
chanting his name. But he stood
to the side of the stage, out of the
spotlight and among a crowd,
holding his son Jack in his arms.
Harbaugh took pictures with a
never-ending line of fans and
donors, stopping only to tell
passing game coordinator Jedd
Fisch that Friday’s offensive
performance was as good as he
has ever seen.
Harbaugh’s handprint on the
win, on his team, was evident
through it all. Michigan was
relentless Friday, pounding
Florida’s top-10 defense from
start to finish. Things weren’t
much different on the other side
of the ball — Bolden said he was
surprised Florida managed to
score seven points. But if every
day of 2015 was about Harbaugh,
the first day of 2016 wasn’t really
about him at all: It was about
Michigan’s senior class.
Bolden, as much as anyone else,
is emblematic of the struggles of
his classmates. His teams have
suffered through four losses
to Ohio State, nothing easy to
cope with for an Ohio native;
he was ejected from Michigan’s
game against Michigan State
for a questionable targeting call
that changed the complexion
of the game; and last year, in
the middle of a 5-7 season, he
was called upon as one of a few
team representatives charged
with frequently explaining the
inexplicable to the media.
But Friday eased much of that
pain. There will, Bolden noted
after the game, be a banner
commemorating this bowl victory
hanging in Schembechler Hall
for decades. The final game of
his career was a victory, and the
dominating fashion in which
they won made it all the more
satisfying.
“It’s also memorable that you
beat the runner up in the SEC that
bad,” Bolden said. “If I remember
correctly, I think it was worse
than ’Bama beat them. It goes to
show that when we’re clicking on
all cylinders, in my opinion, we
can beat anyone in the NCAA.”
The Wolverines will try to
prove that in 2016, when this
year’s senior class has moved on
to other endeavors. Harbaugh
will have to try to top this
year, his favorite season in
football. He had a team full of
“jackhammers,” players who not
only bought into his message, but
lived it every day. They helped
bring Michigan back into national
prominence, and did it while
mentoring the players who will
follow them.
And in their final act as
Wolverines, the senior class
helped give the younger players
their first chance to put on
championship T-shirts. And
for next time, they’ll have had
practice. They won’t have to worry
about the shirts getting stuck.
MAX
COHEN
By KEVIN SANTO
Daily Sports Writer
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three
hundred sixty one days ago,
the
Michigan
hockey
team
found itself in a situation eerily
similar to that of Saturday
night — taking the ice for the
Big Ten Championship against
Minnesota.
At the time, as the Wolverines
entered the championship game
at Joe Louis Arena, they were
on the wrong side of the NCAA
Tournament bubble, in dire
need of an upset against the
Golden Gophers to keep their
season alive. But when the final
horn sounded, Michigan was
left with a scoreboard reading
4-2 in Minnesota’s favor to
cement its campaign.
In the 361 days that followed,
though,
that
dynamic
had
changed drastically.
This time, the Wolverines
had the cards in their hands
entering
the
championship
game — having already solidified
a NCAA Tournament berth with
only retribution to truly play
for. And now, Minnesota was
the team in need of a season-
preserving victory.
And Michigan was able to
change
the
most
important
part of the former narrative,
capturing
the
Big
Ten
Championship with a 5-3 victory
against thwe Golden Gophers at
Xcel Energy Center.
“Up until tonight there’s
been five banners hung and
we have four of them,” said
Minnesota coach Don Lucia.
“We were trying to get a fifth,
and Michigan didn’t have one
— and that’s a proud program.
… That can sometimes be the
driving force.”
After
three
unanswered
Minnesota goals left Michigan
in a 3-2 hole entering the third
period,
freshman
forward
Kyle Connor and sophomore
defenseman
Zach
Werenski
rose to the occasion during
crunch time.
A few short minutes into
the final frame, the freshman
brought the Wolverines back to
life with an equalizer.
Connor received a cross-ice
pass from junior forward JT
Compher, and was alone against
Schierhorn. He hesitated and
baited Schierhorn to come out
of the net before faking one shot
and deking right to leave both the
Gophers’ goaltender on his back
and the puck in the net.
Twelve minutes later, with
Michigan on the power play,
Werenski gave his team the
Big Ten Championship. The
Wolverines rotated the puck
around
the
offensive
zone,
tallying a number of shots,
before it ended up at the point on
Werenski’s stick.
The blueliner let one loose, and
the goal horn lit up. Michigan 4,
Minnesota 3.
“In between the second and
third, (last year is) something we
talked about, is ‘We owe them,’ ”
Werenski said. “They ended our
season last year, so we came out
with some fire.”
Behind Werenski’s goal and
an empty-netter that followed,
Michigan changed the most
important part of the former
narrative. It has a banner to hang
at Yost Ice Arena.
And more than anything, it
exorcised its demons that have
been following it all season.
FOOTBALL
JAMES COLLER/DAILY
The Michigan hockey team won the Big Ten Tournament against Minnesota in St. Paul, Minn., on March 19, 2016.
Wolverines take home B1G
Tournament Championship