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