2B — December 5, 2016
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

This seemed like the year for Michigan football

I

t’s not often the Orange
Bowl seems like a
consolation prize.

It’s one

of the most
storied bowls
in college
football,
guarantees a
trip to Miami
and has a
prestige few
others can
match. But
it feels like a
consolation,
doesn’t it? After everything the
Michigan football team looked
like it could be a month ago,
this isn’t the big game in Florida
the Wolverines looked like they
might be headed for.

But that’s the reality now. Four

points between two games kept
Michigan from Indianapolis,
which left the Wolverines with
no recourse when the teams
above them won on the final
weekend of the season.

Michigan fans tuned into the

Pac-12 Championship on Friday
night to cheer on Colorado, a
team the Wolverines beat in
Spetember. They needed the
Buffaloes to win to have a shot.
When Colorado made a big play,
the hope started to creep in.
But the big payoff never came.
Washington controlled its own
fate, and it didn’t squander its
chance. That’s what makes the
Huskies a playoff team.

They may not actually be

better than the Wolverines — nor
might Clemson, which won six
of its games by seven points or
fewer — but both did what they
had to, when they had to. And
that’s the difference.

Michigan had a special team

this year. One of its best ever.
The Wolverines started the
season on a nearly point-a-
minute pace, and their defense
was the rare unit that was

actually as good as advertised.
To know that, you could look
at Jabrill Peppers’ scoop and
score against Michigan State
or Jourdan Lewis’ interception
against Wisconsin. But perhaps
the best way to understand how
unrelenting this defense was
would be to look at one time it
actually gave up a first down.

As J.T. Barrett fell forward

toward the 15-yard line in double
overtime, something stopped
him. It was Chris Wormley’s
arm. Barrett still ended up
getting the first-down call, but
without Wormley, there would
have been no doubt. Even being
blocked to the ground by a
Buckeye, Wormley reached out
and shoved Barrett back. The
strength it takes to generate
enough force in that motion
must be astounding, but nothing
compared to the will it demands.

When the season was on the

line, Wormley found a way to do
more than seemed possible. He
didn’t get the call. But damned
if it didn’t tell you everything
you needed to know about the
Wolverines.

That’s the way the unit played

all year, with just a couple of
quarters excepted. The first
against Colorado and the fourth
against Michigan State both
could have gone better. But the
Wolverines still won.

For the offense, the tough

quarters proved more costly.
Five yards against Ohio State
simply wasn’t enough to hold off
the Buckeyes. A road game at
Kinnick Stadium was the wrong
time for the offense to catch the
yips. And yes, penalties factored
heavily into both games. But
as the Wolverines themselves
would tell you, when you control
your destiny, you have to actually
control it. Leaving your fate up to
referees and other teams is not a
fun way to live.

“We take care of business,

we’re in,” Jabrill Peppers
tweeted Sunday. “We don’t, we’re
not.. & we didn’t. Can’t knock the
teams that did.”

It’s a sage attitude from a

player who may not have another
chance at this in college.

But the part that must cause

the most heartbreak is that,
deserved or not, this was a team
that could have won it all. It’s
not so much that the Wolverines
looked like one of the nation’s
four best teams, but that they

were a team that looked good
enough to win it all in most years.

Yes, Alabama exists. It was

no guarantee. But Michigan
had the look, the feel, the talent
and the moxie of a team that
wins it all. That’s why Sunday’s
announcement feels so odd. The
fact that the Wolverines didn’t
get in is not a surprise given their
resume. It’s that, for as dominant
as they were, they still couldn’t
do enough. It makes you wonder
what it really takes to win a

national title.

But that’s what college football

is. It’s a sport that allows teams
like Colorado and Washington
to surge forward at any given
time and plant a flag in a season.
It lets the Clemsons of the world
rise to dominance in just a couple
of years. You control your own
destiny until the minute you
relinquish it.

Michigan relinquished it.
That’s why, standing in an

unusually subdued press room

Sunday afternoon, senior tight
end Jake Butt was left trying
to explain his acceptance of an
obviously disappointing fate.

“Do I feel like we’re one of the

best four teams in the country?”
Butt asked, “Absolutely I do. But
that’s on us. We had chances to
prove that. And we didn’t.”

Max Bultman can be reached

by email at bultmanm@

umich.edu or on Twitter

@m_bultman. Please @ him.

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

GRANT HARDY/Daily

The 2016 Michigan football team had all the makings of a special team, but with a pair of losses in November, the Wolverines missed out on a chance to prove it.

MAX
BULTMAN

Hungry Wolverines ready to turn the page

Chris Wormley was asleep

when the Michigan football
team learned its postseason fate
Sunday afternoon.

The fifth-year senior defensive

end was awake to watch the
College Football Playoff selection
show a few hours earlier, clinging
to a shred of hope that the two-
loss Wolverines would sneak into
the playoff.

Then Michigan flashed up

as No. 6, and the dream of a
national
championship
was

gone. So Wormley went back
to sleep, and he missed the
initial announcement that the
Wolverines
would
travel
to

Miami to face No. 11 Florida State
in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30.

But by the time Michigan

players spoke to the media
Sunday night, Wormley was
refreshed and refocused. There
was no point in moping around,
he said — it was time to make a
statement.

“I think we’re gonna be

hungry, we’re gonna be angry
and we’re gonna want to take it
out on a team,” Wormley said.
“Florida State’s just that next
team up, so we’re excited for the
challenge. … This game’s gonna
prove a lot. I hope that it shows
that we should be in that top
four.”

Of course, after road losses

to Iowa and No. 3 Ohio State,
Michigan has itself to blame for
coming up short of the playoff.

The Wolverines were ranked

fifth heading into this weekend,
with
an
outside
chance
of

jumping into the top four if
Clemson or Washington lost their
conference championship games.
But the Tigers and Huskies came
out victorious, slamming that
door shut.

“We can’t blame that on

anyone
but
ourselves,”
said

senior tight end Jake Butt. “We
left our fate in the hands of
other teams, and we understand
that. With that being said, we’re
excited about this game. It’s a big

game, a great opportunity for us
to compete against a really good
team.”

Michigan is a better and

more accomplished team than
it was a season ago, but it finds
itself in a similar place as it did
the end of the season. In 2015,
the Wolverines finished 9-3 —
ending their regular season with
a disappointing loss to Ohio State
— and felt they had something
to prove in their Citrus Bowl
matchup with Florida.

That feeling manifested itself

in a 41-7 victory for Michigan,
one that ended the season on
a high note and kept the team
trending upward.

The stage is a little bit bigger

this year — the Wolverines will
be playing in their first top-tier
bowl game since the 2011 season
— but the mindset remains the
same.

“When we played (Florida)

last year, we proved to a lot of
people that we’re a very good
team,” Wormley said. “That’s
what we’re gonna do this game,

too. … That’s our mindset for the
next three and a half weeks.”

Last year, Michigan got into

that mindset by running what
many of the players called a
“Christmas camp” — essentially
a shortened version of spring or
fall camp intended to push the
players and get them in the best
possible shape to play one more
game.

The
prospect
of
putting

yourself through the wringer
one last time might not sound
appealing to a fifth-year senior,
but Wormley is looking forward
to taking on the challenge. Not
only will it give the younger
members of the roster a chance
to further their development,
but it also gives the seniors a
chance to put an exclamation
point on their season and
career.

“This game in Miami is gonna

be a statement game,” said fifth-
year senior defensive tackle Ryan
Glasgow. “I want to leave this
program on top, with a step in
the right direction.”

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Chris Wormley and the Michigan football team are out to make a statement against Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

JACOB GASE

Daily Sports Writer

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Wolverines head back
on road to play Xavier

The
Michigan
women’s

basketball team (7-1) is on a quest
to earn a spot in the top-25 poll,
and if the Wolverines can repeat
last year’s victory over Xavier
(5-0) in their Monday night
matchup, they may have a shot.

Michigan
figures
to
test

Xavier’s defense, as well as
its
undefeated
record.
The

Wolverines possess one weapon
the Musketeers do not — junior
guard Katelynn Flaherty. As
Michigan’s leading scorer, she
has racked up 159 points in eight
games.

Already, Flaherty has been

named to the Big Ten Player of the
Week Honor Roll and the watch
list for three awards: the Wade
Trophy, the Naismith Trophy and
the Nancy Lieberman Award.

With her consistency, it’s no

surprise that she’s garnered this
much attention. Flaherty has
scored double digits in every game,
despite efforts to double-team her.
It will take an impressive effort
from Xavier to shut her down,
and without accomplishing that,
Michigan is likely to continue
tallying up points.

Scoring shouldn’t be a problem

for Michigan. On paper, the
Wolverines score more and shoot
better
than
the
Musketeers.

Xavier comes out ahead in a
few categories, though, as the
Musketeers average 45.8 rebounds
a game, whereas Michigan has
42.1. Xavier also averages 4.6
blocks to the Wolverines’ 3.9.

Though
Michigan
has

poorer defensive numbers, the
Wolverines have compensated
offensively.
Their
only
real

competition this season was
Florida State — the top-10 team
they lost to on Nov. 26 — and
their offense has been the
deciding factor in the other
seven games, averaging a plus-
34.9 margin of victory.

But Xavier could present a

problem for the Wolverines, if
Michigan’s defense isn’t up to par.

“Our defense is getting better,

and that’s really great to see,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico.
“We really have emphasized that
in the offseason and the preseason
and have really wanted to become
a better defensive team, and I
think we are. We are still a work
in progress, and we practice every
day on our defensive stuff.

“We talk about our starting

group a lot. But (sophomore
guards Nicole Munger and Boogie
Brozoski), I mean, they come
in, and they just lift our defense
and really give us a spark on the
defensive end.”

Munger and Brozoski have

also been known for their scoring
prowess. The Wolverines will
need both to come in strong off
the bench to beat the Musketeers.

In a tight 78-66 game against

then-No. 25 Gonzaga, Munger
scored eight points and Brozoski
added nine of her own, together
ensuring a Michigan win. They
have been a factor in almost every
game, even if it does not appear in
the box score.

The Wolverines have also been

struggling with lowering their
turnover percentage throughout
the season, and have only recently
started to limit their giveaways.
Against Western Michigan two
weeks ago, Michigan had 24.

“They forced us into a lot of

turnovers,” Barnes Arico said.
“And we lost possessions off of
our turnovers, and that hurt our
opportunity to score.”

In its last game of the Paradise

Jam and its sole loss of the season,
Michigan gave up 17 turnovers,
but in the next contest, against
Georgia Tech, it shrunk that
number down to just nine.

“We kicked their butt,” Barnes

Arico said. “I didn’t think that
we were going to come in here
and do that on somebody else’s
home court, especially against a
team that is 6-0 and has some real
quality wins.”

If Michigan continues their

trend of reducing turnovers,
it should continue its winning
streak into this week.

MAGGIE KOLCON

Daily Sports Writer