T
hough Jourdan Lewis
will make Saturday’s top-
10 highlight reels for his
late-game heroics, not one player
better led the
Wolverines to
a 14-7 victory
over No. 8 Wis-
consin than
senior corner-
back Channing
Stribling.
To be fair,
Lewis’ pick was
nothing short
of miraculous.
When Badgers quarterback Alex
Hornibrook dropped back and
launched the ball on 4th-and-10
with just over two minutes left in
the game, everyone at Michigan
Stadium froze. But Lewis was
there — almost too early, curiously
floating for what seemed like an
eternity before he grabbed the ball
with one hand and tucked it in to
cut short Wisconsin’s last breath.
If it weren’t for Lewis,
Wisconsin could easily have
been set up at midfield with two
minutes of time to reach the end
zone. Maybe the game would have
gone to overtime.
But if it weren’t for Stribling,
Michigan may have never been in
that position in the first place.
Throughout all four quarters,
the defense had to hold up
the offense. In the first top-10
matchup at the Big House since
2003, Stribling showed up for all
four quarters.
In the first quarter, he broke up
his first pass of the game. In the
second, he undercut a Wisconsin
receiver and picked off the ball,
giving the Wolverines possession
at Wisconsin’s 44-yard line. In
the fourth, he broke up a pass and
picked up his second interception
of the game.
Stribling shifted the momentum
when his teammates seemed
sluggish.
“I can think of two right now
that were outstanding, they were
testing him deep,” said Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh. “I think
he got his hands on four or five
balls during the game, which is
outstanding, and two interceptions.
That’s outstanding for a corner.
And he tackled. I thought he had a
heck of a ballgame as well.”
It’s fair to say that Stribling
wouldn’t have had his shining
moment today if it weren’t for
Lewis, though.
Stribling himself put it best
after the game: “(Lewis) is an
All-American, you’ve gotta go the
other way!”
But this time, when the Badgers
tested the corner without All-
American accolades, they got
burned.
“(Wisconsin) tried to test us
early, just figuring out who was
the weak link, I guess,” Stribling
said. “We didn’t have any, so after
that, we worked.”
Neither Lewis nor Stribling
showboat, but Lewis shows his
confidence more outwardly than
Stribling does. They’re different
people and different players, so
that makes sense.
But Stribling thinks that that’s
why others have doubted his level
of composure when he knows he’s
always been self-assured, even from
the first day he stepped on campus.
“Kinda back to my freshman
year coming in, I had the same
kind of confidence,” Stribling
said. “When the coaches have
confidence in you, the sky’s the
limit. Just bringing it back to
myself, especially this year, this last
year, just making sure I had it.”
Stribling later added: “I’m not
like a ‘rah-rah’ guy. I mean, I get
a little rowdy, but you see JD,
you know he gets rowdy. He’s out
there. When I get confident, I’m
calm, just like, ‘OK, I’m good.’ ”
The last time he had two or more
picks in a game was his senior year
of high school, when he had three.
This season, Stribling had a pick-six
against Hawaii, but so did Delano
Hill, and the Wolverines dropped
63 points on the Rainbow Warriors.
The points came from just about
everywhere.
But this time, the interceptions
and pass breakups came against
a talented top-10 team with two
wide receivers who had already
logged more than 200 receiving
yards this season.
Stribling was asked after the
game if this was the biggest
performance of his career.
“I think so, (but) we still got
plenty of games left,” Stribling said.
“I think this was a stepping stone
for me, proving to myself, proving
to I guess a lot of people that I can
make plays and do a lot of things, so
I just gotta keep going with it.”
B
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SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
TAKE
UR PICK
Three missed field goals, all
within makeable range, all in a
close game.
That’s what the Michigan
football team surrendered to
Wisconsin on Saturday, taking
nine points off the board against
the nation’s No. 8 team. You don’t
usually come back from that.
And yet, the fourth-ranked
Wolverines were still standing
Saturday night, when the clouds
opened up and gave way to the
rain that, if you looked only at the
stat sheet, you might have thought
was present all game long.
How
else
to
explain
Michigan’s 0-for-3 showing on
field goals in a game in which
they needed them? Fifth-year
senior kicker Kenny Allen made
81.8 percent of his field goals
last season. But in the second
quarter, he missed two inside 44
yards, sending his team into the
half up 7-0 instead of 13-0.
It might sound like a small
difference, but in a game that
boasted two of the nation’s best
defenses, the Wolverines could
ill afford those misses. Add in
sophomore Ryan Tice’s missed
field goal from 40 yards out in
a tie game late in the third, and
it’s a minor surprise Michigan
emerged victorious from its first
true battle of the season.
After the game, redshirt
sophomore quarterback Wilton
Speight tried to take the blame.
“Any time you leave points
off the board, it’s not the
goal, it’s not what you want,”
Speight said. “But that’s not on
the kicker, that’s on me as the
quarterback, and on the offense
to get the ball in the end zone.”
Speight said it was “unfair”
to put pressure on a kicker on
a windy day like Saturday, but
when a top-five team leaves that
many points off the board, it’s
almost inevitable.
The
Wolverines’
defense
bailed
out
the
special
teams Saturday, buoyed by
three
interceptions
from
its
cornerbacks
and
timely
pressure
on
the
Badgers’
redshirt freshman quarterback,
Alex
Hornibrook.
Redshirt
sophomore
defensive
tackle
Bryan Mone was back, giving
Michigan its full rotation for the
first time this season, and the
benefit was evident.
“It was a game ball for
Don Brown kind of a game,”
Harbaugh said.
It may not have had to be,
though. Up 7-0 with just under 10
minutes left in the first half, Allen
missed his first field goal from 31
yards. He missed again from 43
yards on the very next drive, his
third straight miss dating back to
the Colorado game.
That led Harbaugh to give
Tice a shot when Michigan
got into field-goal range on
its second drive of the third
quarter, this time in a tie game.
The Wolverines had gotten as
far as the Badgers’ 12-yard line
on that drive, but after senior
running back De’Veon Smith
was stuffed for a loss of one,
Speight took a nine-yard sack
back to the 22-yard line.
Harbaugh singled out that
sack — which put the ball at the
right hash mark for Tice — as
Speight’s only big mistake of
the day, even despite throwing
an
interception.
And
the
Wolverines paid for it when Tice
missed wide right.
Now, even though his team
survived the mishaps, Harbaugh
has a decision on his hands.
With Allen having lost his
form, and Tice an inexperienced
walk-on, the Wolverines’ coach
said there would be a kicking
competition in the coming week.
He said that he never thought
MAX BULTMAN
Managing Sports Editor
See DEFENSE, Page 2B
Y
Michigan’s defense bails
out kickers to salvage win
‘M’ leaves nine points on the board, but gives up just seven
Michigan 14, Wisconsin 7
See HALL, Page 2B
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
SINDUJA KILARU/Daily
Lewis may have stolen the show, but Stribling won the day
KELLY
HALL