BSportsMonday

BIG-PLAY THREAT

n Michigan’s deep passing 
game had a breakout day, plus 
more takeaways. Page 3B

HARBAUGH’S PICK

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 12, 2016

n Wilton Speight has earned the 
loyalty of his head coach.
SportsMonday Column, Page 2B

Michigan 51, UCF 14
Two Down...

...Too Easy

Nation’s top 2016 
recruit steps in at 

defensive end, earns 

first career sack

By JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

Chris Wormley had not yet 

started his answer about Rashan 
Gary when Gary appeared in 
the doorway to Wormley’s left. 
The two defensive ends had just 
helped the Michigan football 
team rout Central Florida, 51-14, 
and Wormley, a fifth-year senior 
captain, was asked about one of 
his top mentees.

Almost on cue, Gary had 

just walked in on Wormley and 
redshirt sophomore quarterback 

Wilton Speight’s postgame press 
conference to join them.

“I mean, look at him over there,” 

Wormley said. “He’s a freshman. 
He’s, what, 18 years old? Six-(foot)-
five, (287 lbs.). Unbelievable pass 
rusher. Quick off the ball. Learns 
the defense really well. He’s a fast 
learner. You put all those together 
as a freshman, it’s something 
special. He’s a good kid. He plays 
hard, he plays fast and he just 
wants to win.”

Then, Gary walked up to the 

podium to sit beside Speight and 
Wormley, forcing two of the most 
important players on the team to 
scoot over.

“Oh, boy,” Speight said. “Lot of 

meat.”

There was plenty of room for 

Gary in the camera shot Saturday, 
and the true freshman proved 
there will be plenty of room for 

him on Michigan’s defensive line 
this year. If Gary inched onto the 
stage last week against Hawaii, 
making three tackles in a low-key 
blowout win, then Saturday may 
have been his breakout game.

Playing 

increased 
snaps, Gary tied 
for second on 
the team with 
six tackles, led 
the Wolverines 
with 
2.5 

tackles 
for 

loss and added 
an assist on a 
sack, 
ending 

a 
bothersome 

drought of … one week.

“I was itching for a sack this 

week, because I didn’t get one 
last week and I felt like I owed 
the D-line,” Gary said. “Because I 

missed one (against) Hawaii, and 
I’m like, ‘I’m not going to miss any 
opportunity I get from now on.’ ”

The sack came early in the 

second 
quarter, 
when 
Gary 

and redshirt junior linebacker 

Ben 
Gedeon 

teamed up to 
smother 
UCF 

quarterback 
Justin Holman 
at 
his 
own 

two-yard line. 
The 
Knights 

punted 
three 

plays later, and 
Michigan made 
it 31-0 three 
plays after that.

Gary’s 
chance 
came 
as 
a 

consequence 
of 
early-season 

injuries. Senior defensive end Taco 
Charlton and redshirt sophomore 
tackle Bryan Mone both missed 

Saturday’s game with injuries. 
Gary didn’t start — redshirt 
sophomore Chase Winovich did 
instead — but he played most of 
the snaps, as Michigan needed 
him to.

No other defensive end saw 

significant action, and Central 
Florida, in its first year running a 
new up-tempo offense, ran one play 
every 22.6 seconds of game time.

Gary 
said 
he 
felt 
more 

comfortable than last weekend 
— in part thanks to the help of 
Wormley and Charlton, one of 
whom anchored the line, the other 
of whom Gary helped replace. 
The Wolverines swap defensive 
linemen constantly during games, 
and Gary is leaving enough of an 
impression with the coaches to 
keep his name in that rotation.

For head coach Jim Harbaugh, 

a man who shows an almost 

religious devotion to the tenacity 
required of football players, few 
compliments mean more than 
calling a player tough. Saturday, 
when asked about Gary, that was 
one of the first words out of the 
coach’s mouth.

At one point during the first 

week 
of 
practice, 
Harbaugh 

recalled, 
Gary 
dislocated 
his 

finger and went in for an X-ray. 
“The trainer was like, ‘Man, what 
is that?’ or something to that 
effect,” Harbaugh said.

“That’s football,” he recalled 

Gary saying, and Gary returned to 
the field.

Another time, Gary cramped 

up during practice, so Harbaugh 
took him out, only to find the 
youngster back on the field a half-
dozen plays later.

“He’s really good like that,” 

Rashan Gary playing up to hype in young career

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Michigan takes 
care of business, 
beats UCF 51-14 to 
win second straight

By MAX BULTMAN

Managing Sports Editor

It was a resounding win, a 

37-point drubbing that covered 
the spread and left no doubt as to 
who was the better team.

It just wasn’t as flawless as the 

week before.

Coming off a 63-3 blowout of 

Hawaii in its season opener, the 
No. 5 Michigan football team 
(2-0) was never in any danger 
against Central Florida (1-1) on 
Saturday. The Wolverines won 
51-14, and after Michigan jumped 
out to a 31-0 lead, the Knights 
never came within 24.

But it was hardly perfect. UCF 

racked up 275 rushing yards, 
capitalizing on a handful of long 
runs to show the Michigan run 
defense it was not impenetrable. 
Knights running back Adrian 

Killins had only one rush in the 
game, but he took it 87 yards to 
the end zone. Quarterback Justin 
Holman broke off a pair of long 
runs before leaving the game 
with an apparent injury before 
halftime, and his backup, Nick 
Patti, held his own too.

Perhaps Michigan coach Jim 

Harbaugh said it best, talking 
about his team’s offensive and 
defensive lines.

“I wouldn’t call it dominating,” 

he said. “Took care of business.”

The offensive line gave up eight 

tackles for loss, and the running 
game struggled to find a rhythm, 
finishing with 119 yards. But, as 
Harbaugh pointed out, that was 
largely due to UCF’s apparent 
emphasis on stopping the run. And 
that opened up the passing game.

Redshirt 
sophomore 

quarterback Wilton Speight was 
strong again, completing 25 of 
37 passes for 312 yards and four 
touchdowns, two of which went 
to senior tight end Jake Butt. 
Butt’s second score gave him 
three for the season, matching his 
total from all of last season, to go 
with his 86 yards on the day.

Fifth-year senior wide receiver 

Amara Darboh was on the 
receiving end of Speight’s other 
two touchdowns. Redshirt junior 
fullback Khalid Hill tacked on 
a pair of scores on the ground, 
giving the converted tight end a 
team-high three for the season.

Asked what he would have 

thought about that fact a couple 
years ago, Hill said he wouldn’t 
believe it.

“This is a great feeling,” he said. 

“It’s a great accomplishment, but 
I just want to keep getting better 
and scoring more touchdowns.”

Hill also caught a pass, one of 

10 different Wolverines to do so 
Saturday. Butt led the team with 
seven catches, and Darboh broke 
the 100-yard mark with 111.

Darboh made his first catch 

on a 45-yard ball from Speight, 
part of a more prominent deep-
passing game Saturday, to go up 
21-0 in the first quarter. His other 
touchdown came on a fourth-
quarter crossing route, which he 
took 30 yards to the end zone to 
cap the scoring.

But for as solid as Speight looked 

See UCF, Page 2B

See GARY, Page 2B

“He plays hard, 

he plays fast 
and he just 

wants to win.”

