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September 12, 2016 - Image 10

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2B — September 12, 2016
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The perks of being Jim Harbaugh’s quarterback
J

im Harbaugh won his 70th
game out of 100 as a college
head football coach on

Saturday, but he was once 1-3.
And the loss
that put him
at 1-3 came
on Sept. 25,
2004, when
his San Diego
team lost to
Princeton,
24-17.

One of

the crushing
blows in that
game was a
Todd Mortensen interception
with 3:45 to play. Mortensen, a
senior transfer from Brigham
Young, went to the sideline,
and Harbaugh’s reaction — like
everything else about Michigan’s
second-year head coach — was
familiar.

“I could tell he was

disappointed, because he’s
competitive, and he wants to win
as much or more than anyone.
But I didn’t get chewed out in
the moment,” Mortensen said.
“… I don’t even remember what
he said, because his reaction was
so supportive, it didn’t make a
lasting impression on me.”

What Mortensen does

recall is what happened the
next day in San Diego’s film
session. Harbaugh showed
his quarterback the film. He
taught him how to avoid the
mistake in the future. And most
importantly, he stuck with his
guy during the low point in the
season.

Mortensen didn’t make any

glaring mistakes the rest of the
year, the offense averaged 44
points in the last eight games and
the Toreros finished 7-1.

“From that game on, I never

had a game where I felt like I
was the reason we didn’t win the
game,” Mortensen said.

When Mortensen visited Ann

Arbor last year for the Michigan-

BYU game, he introduced
himself to then-Michigan
quarterback Jake Rudock, who
had a similar renaissance in the
second half of last year, breaking
out after a few rough games.

Last weekend, redshirt

sophomore Wilton Speight
entered the exclusive fraternity
of Harbaugh’s starting
quarterbacks. That club
comes with a number of perks,
including the mentorship of a
coach who once starred at the
position himself and has strong
ties to the NFL.

But there’s another advantage

to being Harbaugh’s quarterback,
and it may be the most important
one: complete, undying loyalty.

Of the 128 Football Bowl

Subdivision teams, 17 played
multiple quarterbacks in their
season opener (for reasons other
than injuries and blowouts). They
weren’t insignificant names,
either: Alabama’s Nick Saban,
Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly and
Texas’ Charlie Strong all hadn’t
picked a definitive starter at
the most important position in
sports.

Needless to say, Harbaugh

was not like them. He went with
Speight after an eight-month
competition — though he didn’t
disclose it until kickoff — and
will now almost certainly stick
with Speight for the rest of the
season, barring injury.

In fact, in his years in

college, Harbaugh has almost
never allowed a quarterback
controversy. This is his ninth
year as a college head coach.
Only once has he had two
quarterbacks throw more than
25 passes each in a season. His
backups play only due to injuries
or in garbage time. He picks his
guy and rolls with him.

And however he feels about

his team, however his team fares,
he is completely unwavering
in his support of the starting
quarterback.

Start with last season, when

Harbaugh gave graduate transfer
Jake Rudock the nod over then-
redshirt sophomore Shane
Morris. Through three games,
Michigan was 2-1 and Rudock had
thrown for fewer than 200 yards
per game and three touchdowns
against just five interceptions.
The following Monday, Harbaugh
faced a question about where
Rudock could improve, which he
took as an insinuation of doubt at
the position.

“Just, the question, to me

— just the way you started the
question off after the game,
it’s like questions to divide and
compare,” Harbaugh said. “… I
sense sometimes the questions to
compare and be divisive, so I’m
quick to turn those off.”

Asked a follow-up, Harbaugh

defended Rudock again: “To
be clear, Jake Rudock’s the
best quarterback. Not by a
small margin. He’s our best
quarterback. … I feel it’s divisive
when you just pull out one name
to just keep hammering; there,
there, so hope that’s clear. He’s
our best quarterback.”

As much as Rudock struggled

in the first third of the season,
Harbaugh wasn’t having any
criticism, inquisition or even the
slightest hint of an ambiguity at
quarterback.

And his

faith paid off,
as Rudock
polished off
one of the
best single
seasons for a
quarterback
in Michigan
history,
leading the
Wolverines to a 10-3 season.

That has been Harbaugh’s

track record throughout his
career. In 2004 at San Diego,
his first head coaching job,
Harbaugh chose Mortensen,
who started all season. When

Mortensen left, his old backup,
Josh Johnson, took over for 2005
and 2006.

The 2007 season was the only

one of Harbaugh’s career with
even a little ambiguity. That

was when
Harbaugh
inherited a
struggling
program at
Stanford
and waffled
between T.C.
Ostrander
(who started
the first four

games and the last one) and
Tavita Pritchard (who got the
nod in between).

In 2008, Harbaugh settled

on Pritchard, and in 2009,
he started a young redshirt
freshman named Andrew Luck.

Of Harbaugh’s all-time college
starters, Johnson, Luck and
Rudock — that’s half of them if
you’re counting at home — are
still in the NFL.

Now, Speight is the latest of

Harbaugh’s pupils with that
opportunity. In two starts, the
results have been positive, albeit
against lesser competition:
Speight is 35-for-50 for 457
yards with seven touchdowns
and an interception.

But even during Speight’s

costly mistakes — or mistake,
singular, rather — Harbaugh has
stood by him all the way, as usual.

The blip happened on the

first offensive snap of the season
opener. Speight rolled out to the
right and tossed the ball into
the waiting arms of Hawaii’s
Damien Packer. Then Speight’s
momentum carried him over to

the sideline, where Harbaugh
had an unusual reaction.

“He just grabbed me and

hugged me and was kind of
laughing and was like, ‘Don’t
worry, we’ll get it next drive.
Don’t sweat about that,’ ” Speight
recalled.

Laughing? This is a man

who doesn’t take a play off in
pickup basketball games. And
here’s his hand-picked starting
quarterback giving the ball away
on the first play of the first game,
and Harbaugh laughs?

It sounds crazy, but it works.

Speight will make more mistakes
the rest of the season, but in
Harbaugh, he has a quarterback’s
most loyal ally.

Lourim can be reached

at jlourim@umich.edu and

on Twitter @jakelourim.

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

JAKE
LOURIM

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Wilton Speight (center) can rest assured that Jim Harbaugh (right) will stand by him during tough times.

“From that game

on, I never ... felt like
I was the reason we

didn’t win.”

through the air, the Wolverines’
rushing offense left something
to be desired. Freshman wide
receiver Eddie McDoom, freshman
running back Chris Evans and
senior running back De’Veon
Smith all had their moments, but by
and large, UCF seemed to have the
right game plan against Michigan’s
run game.

“You’ve gotta understand, in

this game, you’re gonna always
have mistakes, no matter what,”
Hill said. “Our defense made some
mistakes, but they also corrected
those mistakes. Our offense made
mistakes, but we also corrected our
mistakes. We didn’t just keep doing
it over and over.”

And with the score as lopsided

as it was, it’s hard to argue.

Fifth-year senior Kenny Allen

made three field goals, tying a
career high, and Michigan altered
two UCF punts and two kicks, one
of which was an outright block.

Michigan put in its backup

quarterback, redshirt junior John
O’Korn, with 6:07 remaining, and
it wore down the clock still up by a
comfortable 37.

The Wolverines did what they

were expected to. They took care
of business.

Harbaugh said. “Real football
player. Doing a great job.”

Expectations have always been

high for Gary, the top-ranked
recruit in the nation last year, from
the February day he committed
during Michigan’s “Signing of the
Stars” ceremony to the April night
he came out to a loud ovation from
fans at the Spring Game.

Tuesday, after his first day

of classes, Gary said he tries to
shy away from that attention
whenever possible.

“I try to stay low, but yeah, a

couple people know me and they’ll
say hi, take pictures,” Gary said.
“But besides that, you see me with
a hoodie on.”

Asked if that works, Gary said,

“Sometimes. But I’m 6-foot-5, so it
don’t always work.”

At this rate, it’s going to get

harder every week.

UCF
From Page 1B

GARY
From Page 1B

Chase Winovich finds a home

C

hase Winovich has
been a member of the
Michigan football team

for three
seasons,
worn three
jersey
numbers
and worked
at three
different
positions,
and up
until last
Saturday, he
had almost
nothing to show for it.

For most of his first two years

as a Wolverine, the three-star
recruit from Jefferson Hills,
Pa., was a player without a role,
moving from position group
to position group without his
coaching staff being able to find
him a suitable fit.

Winovich entered as a

linebacker, redshirted his first
season under then-Michigan
coach Brady Hoke and moved to
tight end under new coach Jim
Harbaugh last year. He spent

most of his time playing on the
scout team, seeing game action
just six times. But at the end
of last season, with his team
preparing for the Citrus Bowl
against Florida, Winovich got in
on some plays at defensive end
during a scrimmage — despite
not even knowing the scheme or
the defense — and permanently
changed the path of his career.

For the few plays he was on

the field, Winovich immediately
caught the eye of the coaching
staff — later, he said, he found
out that the entire defensive
staff gathered in a post-
scrimmage film session to
watch one play that he made.
Right then, it was decided:
Winovich would be moving to
defensive end.

“I think they believed in me

from the beginning,” Winovich
said, “and I believed in myself.”

* * *

Saturday, Winovich stood in

the Crisler Center media room,
surrounded by reporters after

making the first start of his
college career.

After a strong spring for

Winovich and an injury to
senior defensive end Taco
Charlton last week, Winovich
learned earlier this week that
he had been chosen to take
Charlton’s place in the lineup
against Central Florida. He
was so excited that he could
barely sleep
last night,
and he posted
the news
on Twitter,
vowing to
“represent the
best university
in the world”
with his first
start.

And

impress Winovich did, picking
up five tackles and his first
career sack, knocking the ball
out of UCF quarterback Justin
Holman’s hands in the process.

After the game, with most of

his family standing just a few
feet away in the media room,

Winovich’s voice nearly cracked
as he attempted to express the
emotion he was feeling.

“I’m not gonna lie and say

that I was perfect out there,
because nobody was,” he said.
“But I felt like I left it all out
there. And this one … this one
today was for my family. They
always believe in me. … Just
to have the opportunity to

go out there
— people
can’t take
that away
from me.
There’s not a
lot of things
that really
tug at my
heartstrings,
but that’s one
of them.”

Winovich isn’t the only player

who has thrived thanks to
Harbaugh’s willingness to move
players around the field. Redshirt
junior fullback Khalid Hill played
tight end last year but now has
three touchdowns in two games.
Junior center Mason Cole has
transitioned seamlessly from
being a starting left tackle.

But Hill and Cole were both

experienced players who likely
would have found playing
time anyway — Winovich’s
metamorphosis is harder to
understand.

How exactly did he do it?

How could a player who had
little to no success for two years
suddenly save his career at a
third position?

If you ask him, he’ll cite

an unexpected source of
inspiration.

“(My brother) sent me this

quote by Bruce Lee,” Winovich
said. “He talks about water.
‘Water can flow, water can
crash. If you put water in a
bottle, it becomes the bottle.
If you put water in a cup, it
becomes the cup.’

“Be shapeless — that was the

moral of the story. Whatever
mold they tried to put on me,
I tried to learn. I’m not gonna
lie, it’s tough. Sometimes, (if)
you’ve been playing football
your whole life, you get set in
your own ways and how you do

stuff and how you think stuff
works, and you go in there and
you get absolutely torn apart
by Coach Mattison for doing it
that way. You reevaluate your
life and everything you’ve gotta
do — which needs to happen —
and you go out there the next
day and say, ‘Well, I’m gonna
go out there today and do it
the right way.’ … I felt like I
improved my game a lot of ways
and was shapeless.”

After the immediate emotion

wore off following the game,
Winovich transformed into an
ecstatic ball of energy, quoting
everyone from UFC fighters
Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz
(on his fighting mentality) to
his father, Peter (comparing
settling in at his new position
to his dad coming home from
work and shouting, “Honey, I’m
home! Put the steaks on!”)

The last quote may have

been the most appropriate —
Winovich sure seems at home
now. Instead of putting in
long hours on the scout team
or trying his best to provide
depth on offense, he can
relax and do what he’s most
comfortable doing.

“It just lets me get out there

and play,” Winovich said.
“Sometimes you don’t choose
your passion — your passion
chooses you.”

After the “shapeless”

journeyman was finally done
answering questions, reporters
parted and left behind one of
the only people in the room who
looked happier than Winovich
— his father. Without skipping
a beat, Winovich walked up to
him and wrapped him in a giant
bear hug.

The Winovich family left

the room together and ducked
through a side door that opened
up into the bowels of Crisler
Center, Peter Winovich still
basking in the culmination of
his son’s journey.

“I always wanted to see what

the furnace room looked like,”
he said.

Gase can be reached at

jgase@umich.edu and on

Twitter @JacobGase.

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Redshirt sophomore Chase Winovich has settled in at defensive end, his third position in three years at Michigan.

“I think they
believed in
me from the
beginning.”

JACOB
GASE

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