2B — October 31, 2016
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A heartbreaker moves into the past

E

AST LANSING — It was 
heartbreaking, Kenny 
Allen said, though even 

that doesn’t seem to do it justice.

A year and a couple of weeks 

ago, Allen 
stood in the 
Crisler Center 
media room 
after one 
of the most 
stunning 
losses in 
the history 
of college 
football. The 
kicker had 
the unenviable task of speaking 
to reporters after that crushing 
defeat — though there wasn’t 
much to say.

He spoke in a soft voice, his 

face still wearing the same 
expressionless shock as everyone 
else in the stadium that day. He 
said he was as close as he could 
have been to punter Blake O’Neill 
bobbling a snap with 10 seconds 
left before Michigan State 
returned it for a game-winning 
touchdown as time expired. At 
some point, after the Spartans 
changed the college football 
world and before he stepped foot 
into the media room, Allen told 
O’Neill that the team would stand 
behind him.

“We support Blake through 

everything,” Allen said that day. 
“That’s the kind of team we’re 
going to be.”

And that’s the kind of team 

the Wolverines have been since 
their in-state rival devastated 
them last Oct. 17. They have lost 
only once since. They capped a 
successful 2015 season with a 
rout of Florida in the Citrus Bowl. 
They have steamrolled eight 
opponents this season, most of 
them with ease.

And they have patiently waited 

for the day they could finally 
put their feelings about last year 
further into the rearview mirror.

Saturday in East Lansing, that 

chance came, though it came 
with plenty of memories. Three 
hours before the noon kickoff, a 
tailgate near the stadium played 
the audio from ESPN broadcaster 
Sean McDonough’s call of the 

play. Just outside the stadium, 
one man began reciting the 
same call to his friend. Inside, 
Michigan State’s students had 
bigger plans in mind.

At 10:50, as Allen began 

practicing field goals on the 
south goalposts in front of the 
student section, the 1,000 or so 
in the crowd began chanting 
the call: “Whoa, he has trouble 
with the snap! And the ball is 
free! It’s picked up by Michigan 
State’s Jalen Watts-Jackson, and 
he scores! On the last play of the 
game! Unbelievable!”

There was no escaping it, 

though Allen said he didn’t hear 
much of it. “You just have to have 
a sense of humor,” he said. Once 
the Wolverines started winning, 
the talk died down.

“Someone made fun of my 

mustache, which I’ve been 
working pretty hard to grow, so 
that one cut deep,” Allen quipped.

A year ago, humor was an 

impossible perspective. It could 
have been difficult even a few 
weeks ago. After Allen started 
his season 3-for-3 on field goals, 
he missed two kicks against 
Colorado on Sept. 17 and two 
more against Wisconsin on Oct. 
1. After the latter game, Michigan 
coach Jim Harbaugh declared 
that there would be an open 
competition for the kicking job 
starting the following week. 
Allen never relinquished it.

Last week against Illinois, he 

hit two chip shots for his first 
conversions in five weeks. At 
Michigan State, he finished 3-for-3, 
making two more short kicks but 
also a season-long 45 yarder that 
helped put the game out of reach.

The Wolverines won, 32-23, 

beating the Spartans for the 
first time since 2012 and taking 
perhaps the biggest step toward 
putting last year’s mishap behind 
them. Allen was back among the 
top contributors from a simple 
math standpoint: Michigan won 
by nine, and he kicked three field 
goals worth three points each. If 
he hadn’t, the game could have 
turned out much differently. 
Perhaps he would have even been 
the goat, as O’Neill was last year.

“I’m so happy for him — he’s 

an amazing person, amazing 
player,” said senior cornerback 
Jourdan Lewis. “He did his job 
today. He did an amazing job 
today, kept us in the game, made 
sure we had the lead the whole 
game. I’m just proud of him. He 
did his job. He wasn’t worried 
about the past.”

Allen’s kicks Saturday silenced 

his critics and helped add more 
distance between now and 
last year. In the years to come, 
O’Neill’s miscue will fade deeper 
into the past. In Michigan’s next 
visit to East Lansing in 2018, the 
broadcast echoes will be less 
frequent, and the tongue-in-cheek 
T-shirt with O’Neill’s name and 
number should be gone from the 
front row of the student section.

The two rivals will play 

many more exciting games 
with exciting finishes, and the 
punt from last year will be but 
a memory alongside Colorado’s 
Hail Mary in 1994, John 
Wangler’s pass to Anthony Carter 
in 1979 and so many others.

The presence of last year’s 

game is not as faint as those yet, 
but the Wolverines have moved 
forward. Just before Allen got 
off the bus Saturday morning, 
O’Neill texted him and long 
snapper Scott Sypniewski. “I’m 
excited to see you guys go out 
there and do your thing,” Allen 
recalled the message saying.

The memory of last year still 

stings for now, but Saturday, 
Michigan went out and did its 
thing. With nine minutes to go 
in the game and the Wolverines 
up by 20, Allen dropped back to 
punt. Before he got it off without 
a hitch, the chant “Block the 
punt!” echoed from the Michigan 
State student section, calling up 
those demons from last year.

Perhaps the students had that 

chant planned for all afternoon. 
We’ll never know. That was 
Michigan’s first punt. For 
Saturday, that was a statement 
in itself.

Lourim can be reached 

at jlourim@umich.edu and 

on Twitter @jakelourim.

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Kenny Allen’s success on special teams helped Michigan move past last year.

ICE HOCKEY
Wolverines falter at 
Dartmouth, Vermont

In 
a 
matter 
of 
seconds, 

Dartmouth forward Troy Crema 
determined the outcome of a 
game that has now been recorded 
as the No. 11 Michigan hockey 
team’s third loss this year.

With only 49 seconds left 

in the third period and the 
game knotted up, 2-2, Crema 
slipped the puck past freshman 
goaltender Jack LaFontaine off 
an assist from Corey Kalk and 
Carl Hesler. The deficit proved 
to be insurmountable for the 
Wolverines, who finalized the 
weekend by tacking on two losses 
for a 3-3-1 overall season record.

Their 
first 

loss came at the 
hands of Vermont 
on Friday in a 
shutout, 
3-0. 

The Catamounts 
started the game 
early with a goal 
22 seconds into 
the first period, 
and another at 
the 10:36 mark. 
And even though 
freshman 
goaltender 
Hayden 

Lavigne recorded 39 saves, he 
couldn’t stop the final power-play 
goal of the night by Vermont’s 
Rob Hamilton that pushed the 
Catamounts to a 3-0 lead.

Michigan 
recorded 
eight 

penalties for the night and was 
doubled up in shots, managing 
just 21 against Vermont’s 42. 
While the Wolverines managed 
to close the gap to 35-24 in their 
match Saturday against the Big 
Green, it still wasn’t enough to 
put them ahead.

“You could tell they were 

excited 
— 
this 
was 
their 

hometown and they were really 
physical right off the bat,” said 
senior forward Alex Kile. “You 
could tell that they wanted to 

win. It was evident really quickly. 
I think the main thing was they 
tried to use their physicality and 
create turnovers.”

Initially kicking the game 

off on the right foot, freshman 
forward Adam Winborg scored 
the first goal of the game — and in 
his career — 17 minutes into the 
first period. The power-play goal 
came off of assists from Kile and 
junior defenseman Sam Piazza to 
put Michigan ahead, 1-0.

However, Dartmouth took over 

the second period with goals from 
Kevin Neiley and Cam Strong. The 
Wolverines also recorded three of 
their five penalties in this period, 
two of which occurred at the same 
time. Kile and senior forward 

Max Shuart both 
landed 
in 
the 

penalty box at 
the 12:43 mark 
for 
charging 

and 
boarding, 

respectively. 
This resulted in 
two minutes of 
play with the Big 
Green possessing 
a 
two-man 

advantage, 5-3.

However, Michigan managed 

to kill off both penalties without 
a goal, and at the 10:33 mark in 
the third period, Kile tied up the 
game after corralling a loose puck 
and shooting it past Dartmouth 
goaltender Devin Buffalo.

But Kile’s goal did only that — 

tie the game. And with no answer 
for Crema’s goal in the final 
minute, the Wolverines faced 
their second loss of the weekend. 

“We need to learn how to close 

out the game,” Kile said. “We’ve 
kinda (blown) games in the third 
period all season long, and that’s 
got to stop. I thought we actually 
played pretty well tonight, we 
were pretty physical and we 
played the game, but we just didn’t 
close it out how we wanted to.”

Michigan shut out on Friday, give up 
last-second, go-ahead goal Saturday

LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Writer

“We just 

didn’t close it 
out how we 
wanted to.”

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

It’s safe to start dreaming

Y

ou’ve thought it quietly 
to yourself. Now it’s OK 
to start thinking it out 

loud.

Michigan might have played 

its worst 
quarter of 
the season 
to close out 
its 32-23 
win over 
Michigan 
State on 
Saturday, but 
the end result 
clinched 
it. At 8-0, 
ranked No. 2 
in the country and (finally) with 
a win against one of its chief 
rivals, it’s time to start thinking 
about this as a special season in 
Ann Arbor.

Of course, it’s no lock. The 

Wolverines still have to win 
two more home games and then 
beat Iowa in a road night game. 
They still have to face an Ohio 
State team that has the talent 
and coaching to upend those 
dreams in the season’s final 
week. They’ll likely have to beat 
either No. 8 Wisconsin again or 
No. 9 Nebraska in the Big Ten 
Championship game.

But after this weekend, that’s 

the bar. This has special-season 
potential, and the next month is 
all about whether Michigan can 
realize it.

Thanks to the College 

Football Playoff, seasons 
are no longer bound to 
a championship-or-bust 
dichotomy, except in 
Tuscaloosa, Ala. If the 
Wolverines go 13-0, winning 
their first Big Ten Championship 
since 2004, it’s special. If they 
make the playoff, even if it 
means losing to Alabama, it will 
be remembered forever.

Even though this season 

doesn’t have to end with confetti 
like 1997, it’s hard to argue there 

would be no disappointment 
if it turned out like 2006. If 
Michigan walks into Columbus 
undefeated and loses, the 
deflation would be palpable. A 
Rose Bowl win would probably 
be significant enough to declare 
it a banner year, but with the 
way the Wolverines are going, 
a loss in Pasadena might make 
the year feel like something of a 
missed opportunity.

That’s how far Jim Harbaugh 

has taken Michigan in the last 
22 months.

Interestingly enough, the 

Wolverines have stats on their 

side — the normal ones and the 
weird ones.

The 

analytics-
driven S&P 
rankings have 
Michigan at 
No. 1 in the 
nation behind 
a suffocating 
defense that 
also ranks 
first in scoring 
and yards 
allowed. The 
Wolverines are scoring the 
third-most points per game in 

the country, and ESPN ranks 
their special teams unit as the 

nation’s 16th 
most efficient, 
second-best 
among teams 
currently 
ranked in the 
Associated 
Press top 10.

And then 

there are the 
oddities that 
past national 
champions 

have tended to share. Seven of 
the last nine quarterbacks to 

win a national championship 
have been first-year starters 
on their team, which redshirt 
sophomore Wilton Speight 
is. Of all the coaches to win 
national titles since 2000, only 
one (Mack Brown) did not win 
one in his first four seasons, and 
Harbaugh is in his second year 
with Michigan.

There all kinds of ways to 

explain those two stats (young 
quarterbacks have the benefit 
of chasing the top, not staying 
there; dominant coaches tend 
to win early and often), and it’s 
possible they don’t mean all 

that much. But when a team like 
Michigan possesses both and is 
in conversation for the playoff, 
they come up. That’s one of the 
identifiers of a special season.

So are Heisman Trophy 

candidates, and Jabrill Peppers 
is most certainly that. He 
probably was before he scored 
two rushing touchdowns against 
Rutgers, and he certainly is 
now, after another rushing 
touchdown, two more tackles 
for loss, a sack and a defensive 
2-point conversion return 
against the Spartans.

He’s the kind of player fans 

pine for long after they’ve 
left, and he’s not the only one 
Michigan has on its roster. 
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis and 
tight end Jake Butt spurned 
the NFL to play their senior 
seasons. Receivers Amara 
Darboh and Jehu Chesson 
and defensive linemen Ryan 
Glasgow and Chris Wormley 
came back for their fifth years. 
Most of the offensive line 
has been together for three 
seasons. It’s the kind of roster 
fans fantasize about in their 
championship dreams.

Which brings us back to 

Saturday, a day fans have looked 
forward to for a year. They 
anticipated a remedy to the 
painful memories of seasons 
past, and they got one.

After Speight took the final 

kneel down, Peppers did a back 
flip. Speight gave a triumphant 
fist pump as he moved toward 
the tunnel. Both tried to get the 
crowd even louder.

It was a special moment. And 

for the first time in a long time, 
it feels like more are coming.

Max Bultman can be reached 

by email at bultmanm@umich.

edu or on Twitter @m_bultman. 

If you believe the 2016 season is 

going to be special, please send 

him an email explaining why.

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

The Michigan football team is building momentum, and the Wolverines are heading on a collision course toward a potentially special ending.

MAX
BULTMAN

It’s time to start 

thinking about this 
as a special season 

in Ann Arbor.

JAKE
LOURIM

