10
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 —