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.”