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Thursday, July 21, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

See Schefters. Page 11

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Fifth-year senior receiver Jehu Chesson had a breakout season as a junior, tallying 33 catches for 574 yards and nine touchdowns over the final six games of the season.
2016 Schefters: Several teams rebound from down season

By MAX BULTMAN and JAKE 

LOURIM

Managing Sports Editors

A year ago, the Daily’s Schefter 

Awards, honoring the best in Michi-
gan athletics, recognized a few 
bright spots amid a mostly bleak 
year.

Among 
the 
highest-profile 

teams, the football, men’s basketball 
and hockey teams each missed the 
postseason for the first time since 
1972-73. But the struggles didn’t 
stop there: The men’s tennis team 
went 7-17, and the men’s track and 
field team finished 10th at the Big 
Ten Outdoor Championships.

For many teams, this past sea-

son was a revival. The football, 
men’s basketball and hockey teams 
each returned to their respective 
postseasons, and Carol Hutchins’ 
unstoppable 
softball 
juggernaut 

continued.

The women’s gymnastics, wom-

en’s track and field, men’s cross 
country and men’s and women’s 
swimming programs also delivered 
Big Ten titles. Adam Steinberg’s 
men’s tennis team rebuilt, as did 
Jerry Clayton’s men’s track and 
field team. Only the men’s gym-
nastics team suffered a significant 
regression, and that was after losing 
loads of talent from three dominant 

seasons that included two national 
championships.

Before the women’s soccer team 

kicks off the next Michigan athlet-
ics season Aug. 19 against Pitts-
burgh, here are this year’s awards, 
named after one of the Daily’s most 
prominent alumni, ESPN NFL 
insider Adam Schefter:

Best Cinderella Story: Steve 

Racine, ice hockey

Racine’s comeback story almost 

never happened, because there 
was almost nothing from which he 
needed to come back. Racine nearly 
capped his freshman season with a 
Cinderella run to extend Michigan’s 
22-year NCAA Tournament streak. 
It was the closest the Wolverines 
had been to missing the postseason, 
and thus it would have been one of 
the most memorable trips.

In 2013, Michigan entered the 

CCHA 
Tournament 
at 
13-18-3 

after a miserable regular season. 
They could only stay alive by rid-
ing Racine, their stand-in freshman 
goaltender, to an unlikely CCHA 
Tournament title. But the seventh-
seeded Wolverines began by sweep-
ing No. 10 seed Northern Michigan, 
and they made the final weekend by 
upsetting No. 3 seed. They reached 
the finals by stunning No. 1 seed 
Miami (Ohio), 6-2, in the semifinals. 
Only a championship loss to Notre 

Dame halted what would have 
been an incredible start to Racine’s 
career, but it also became the image 
of the 22-year streak ending.

Still, the forecast on the fresh-

man netminder was promising. 
Surely, many thought, carrying the 
momentum of that run, the Wol-
verines would return to the NCAA 
Tournament the following year.

But in the following two years, 

Racine could never recapture the 
magic of that CCHA Tournament 
run. He played fewer games in 
both seasons than he did as a fresh-
man, and his goals-against average 
worsened from 2.65 to 2.91 to 2.94. 
He only had one more try to help 
ensure he wouldn’t go four years 
without an NCAA Tournament trip. 
Even then, he didn’t have the start-
ing job secured.

Before Racine closed the book on 

his career, he ended his legacy on a 
positive note. An early injury kept 
the starting spot in jeopardy, but 
Racine returned last December at 
the Great Lakes Invitational, which 
also turned out to be his coming-
out party. He started and won both 
games, totaling 62 saves with just 
three goals against.

From there, he only cemented 

his impact on the season: 46 saves 
against Penn State in January to 
exorcise the demons of the previous 

two years; 30 against Minnesota in 
the Big Ten Championship to seal 
Michigan’s 
NCAA 
Tournament 

ticket; 28 more to move onto the 
regional final. He was terrific again 
in that game, making 44 stops, 
but the Wolverines lost to a better 
North Dakota team that eventually 
won the national title.

Still, Racine made sure the 2013 

CCHA setback wasn’t the last we 
heard from him.

Breakout athlete of the year: 

Jehu Chesson, football

By a show of hands, who thought 

Chesson would have the season he 
did in 2015?

If your hand is up, you misun-

derstood that the previous question 
was rhetorical, and probably look 
like an idiot right now. Also, you’re 
lying.

Chesson’s season started slow, 

but he finished as strong as nearly 
any receiver in the Big Ten. As he 
developed chemistry with quar-
terback Jake Rudock, the redshirt 
junior receiver turned into one of 
the conference’s most dangerous 
deep ball threats, all while earning 
Jim Harbaugh’s respect as a blocker.

Over the final six games of the 

season, Chesson caught 33 passes 
for 574 yards and nine touchdowns 
— and that’s to say nothing of his 
96-yard kickoff return for a touch-

down against Northwestern in 
Week 6. The highlight, of course, 
was a 10-reception, 207-yard, four-
touchdown thriller against Indiana, 
including one touchdown catch 
through double coverage on a late 
fourth down to tie the game late. If 
Chesson hadn’t already been intro-
duced to the college football world 
before his big game in Blooming-
ton, it became nearly impossible to 
ignore him after it.

His season did end on a a lower 

note, with an apparent leg injury in 
the Citrus Bowl, but only after he 
tallied 118 yards and a touchdown 
against Florida.

Many things were said about 

Chesson last year, but the best quote 
had to be by his roommate, run-
ning back Drake Johnson. “Pardon 
my French, but Jehu’s got his s--- 
together,” Johnson said after the 
Citrus Bowl.

This past season, it was hard to 

argue with him.

Best 
Single-Event 
Perfor-

mance: Michigan defense vs. 
Northwestern, Oct. 10, 2016

Really, any of the Michigan foot-

ball team’s three straight shutouts 
— 31-0 against BYU on Sept. 26, 
28-0 at Maryland on Oct. 3 or 38-0 
against Northwestern on Oct. 10 — 

