By JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor
Most Michigan fans already knew that
redshirt sophomore linebacker Jabrill
Peppers was the football equivalent of
a Swiss Army knife, but Saturday’s win
over Colorado might have been the finest
example of just how much he can do.
Playing all three phases for the first
time this season, Peppers picked up
a career-high 204 all-purpose yards,
nine tackles (a career-high 3.5 for loss),
a sack and a fourth-quarter 54-yard
punt return touchdown that almost
felt like an inevitability after all he had
accomplished to that point in the game.
“Above it all, Jabrill Peppers proved
he was the best player today, in today’s
game,”
said
Michigan
coach
Jim
Harbaugh. “We don’t win that game
without Jabrill Peppers.”
After the Buffaloes jumped out to a 21-7
lead in the first quarter, it was Peppers
who almost single-handedly kept the
Wolverines in the game. Returning both
kickoffs and punts, Peppers racked up
170 return yards and gave Michigan great
field position on nearly all of its drives.
He was even more of a force on
defense as one of the highlighted players
in defensive coordinator Don Brown’s
blitz-heavy scheme. Harbaugh has often
said that Peppers is capable of getting to
a quarterback in less than a second, and
he did just that when he ran unblocked
through the line of scrimmage and
dropped Colorado backup quarterback
Steven Montez to the turf for an 11-yard
sack late in the third quarter.
“He really showed you his toughness,
his athleticism,” Harbaugh said. “Some
hits that were momentum-changing hits
in this game.”
Redshirt
sophomore
quarterback
Wilton Speight has seen plenty of
Peppers on defense in practice, and he
said Saturday that he was just thankful
that quarterbacks aren’t “live” during
fall camp so Peppers couldn’t actually hit
him.
Speight later added that he has never
played with or against anyone that can be
as much of a force on all sides of the ball
as Peppers can.
“I think every single thought he has
is just about destroying the opponent,”
Speight said. “He’s got that mindset that
few people do. I think every single play he
wants to chop someone in half and make
sure that they can’t walk for a couple
minutes.”
While Peppers didn’t do much playing
offense for the first time this season
(two carries, 24 yards), Speight thinks
Peppers’ vision and cutting ability make
it reasonable to compare him to Stanford
running back Christian McCaffrey.
The play Peppers looked most like
McCaffrey, however, was on his first-
ever special-teams touchdown in the
fourth quarter. With a wide open hole in
the middle of the field, Peppers broke one
tackle and made another defender miss
before scampering into the left side of the
end zone, bringing Michigan’s lead up to
the final score of 45-28. It was the final
big blow to the Buffaloes, and it lifted a
monkey off Peppers’ back after he came
up just short of the end zone on many
returns both this season and last.
“It was definitely a sense of relief,”
Peppers said. “I felt like a couple of those
punts I could have had — I could’ve
taken one back. But (Colorado is) a great
tackling team, they were shooting the
hip, wrapping up. But when you get a
line drive and great blocking, if you don’t
score then, they gotta put somebody
else back there. That’s just how I felt.
The hole was wide open. … I started
cramping about the five (yard line), but I
was like, ‘There’s no way I’m not getting
in this time.’ ”
SECONDARY ISSUE
BSportsMonday
STILL STANDING
n Down 21-7 in the first quarter,
Michigan refused to fold.
SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 19, 2016
n Struggles for Michigan’s
secondary and offensive line,
plus more takeaways. Page 4B
Michigan 45, Colorado 28
Peppers returns first punt return for touchdown as Wolverines rally from 14 down to beat Buffaloes
All the wayBACK
“Jabrill Peppers
proved he was the
best player today, in
today’s game.”
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily