The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports

Instant classic, eternal anguish

By MAX BULTMAN

Managing Sports Editor 2016

COLUMBUS — The play was 

called 29 lead.

Curtis Samuel took a handoff 

going left. His blockers created 
a tunnel. He burst through it, 
jumped over the goal line and 
stretched his hands as wide as 
he could to the fans in the north 
end zone.

It may go down in history 

as one of the enduring plays in 
one of college football’s great 
rivalries — not because it was 
exceptionally drawn up (though 
it was), but because it ended an 
iconic game that may outlive 
those who saw it live.

The nation’s No. 2 team beat 

the No. 3 team, and then fans 
stormed the field. That doesn’t 
happen in games where the 
home team is favored. But this 
was Ohio State and Michigan, 
with the highest stakes in a 
decade. No celebration was 
unworthy.

That’s the significance of 

what happened at Ohio Stadium 
on Saturday: Ohio State 30, 
Michigan 27.

There will be time to 

rehash what was or wasn’t. 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
offered plenty of thoughts in 
the moments following the 
game, when he said he was 
“bitterly disappointed” with 
the officiating. He thought one 
hold went uncalled, one pass-
interference was called unjustly 

and one spot — on fourth down 
in double overtime, no less — 
should have given his team a 
victory. None of it matters. None 
of it’s changing.

It took two overtimes for the 

Buckeyes to beat Michigan, but 
they did it. They twisted the 
most jagged of knives through 
the hearts of those who dared 
to hope. They did it in the last 
game of the regular season, and 
they did it in a year where the 
Wolverines looked like one of the 
nation’s four best teams.

Ohio State coach Urban 

Meyer called it an instant 
classic, and 
he’s right. 
Harbaugh 
said the 
implications 
of the 
rivalry 
weren’t on 
his mind. 
Both are 
probably 
true. That’s 
because instant classics don’t 
happen without heartbreak, 
“bitter disappointment” or 
whatever you’d like to call it. 
The ingredients of despair and 
ecstasy are exactly the same.

In his postgame press 

conference, Harbaugh stuck 
up his hands and showed how 
far from the first down he 
thought J.T. Barrett was on a 
double-overtime 4th-and-1. 
With Ohio State down three, 
Barrett rushed forward, took 

low contact from Delano Hill, 
and stretched toward the first-
down marker.

Afterward, Harbaugh asked 

reporters what they saw on 
the TVs upstairs. “Short,” they 
agreed. The referees did not. 
They saw Barrett collide into 
Hill and fall just over the line 
of gain. The replay officials 
did not see enough to overturn 
it. That’s how these things 
go. Harbaugh has a legitimate 
gripe, but legitimate gripes are 
worth exactly zero wins.

Instead, they are worth 

years, even decades, of 

anguish. Harbaugh 
may be able to 
eventually rid 
himself of that 
burden with other 
games, other calls 
that do go his way 
and maybe even a 
championship. But 
he will never be 
able to undo what 
happened on the 

north side of Ohio Stadium on 
Saturday.

His team might have avoided 

it by gaining more than 
just five yards in the fourth 
quarter, or not committing 
one of its three turnovers, 
one of which occurred at the 
Buckeyes’ 1-yard line. But it’s 
too late for all that. Nothing 
will ever change the outcome. 
The game will be preserved, 
exactly the way it unfolded, for 
eternity.

After Harbaugh expressed 

his displeasures, Meyer held 
court in the southeast corner 
of the stadium. It couldn’t 
have been more different. 
There was Meyer, the victor, 
entirely flummoxed. He was 
asked all kinds of questions, 
including what he thought his 
chances were when his team 
was down 17-7 in the third 
quarter.

“I don’t know,” he 

responded. “We won the 
game.”

As the questions continued, 

Meyer found refuge in a 
clever response. Asked about 
an unsuccessful fake punt 
call, he said: “On the last 
play, we ran a stretch to the 
left. It’s 29 lead, is the call, 
and Curtis scored.” Asked 
about his health, he started, 
“Curtis…” before laughter 
finished the sentence for 
him. On if he remembered 
anything from after the game: 
“Yeah, Curtis scored.”

It was that simple for 

Meyer. Harbaugh didn’t even 
mention the play.

That’s the difference 

between being on the 
winning and losing ends 
of a game like Saturday’s. 
Harbaugh is left looking 
back on what went wrong, 
remembering the calls that 
could have been different. 
Meyer doesn’t have to 
remember anything. History 
will do it for him.

Charmingly fun until the photo finish

By ZACH HELFAND

Daily Sports Writer 2014

INDIANAPOLIS — Moments 

after the game, the sun is low in 
the sky and Lucas Oil Stadium 
casts a long shadow across 
Indianapolis as, inside, Michigan 
walks off the court for the last 
time together. Jordan Morgan 
is first, well before anyone else. 
Glenn Robinson III gives a quick 
wave to the crowd and puts 
his head down. Nik Stauskas is 
emotionless. Mitch McGary, who 
was never getting into the game, 
walks off wearing the uniform 
his teammates have insisted he 
wear.

Later, Morgan, held up by 

his press conference, is one of 
the last to enter the Michigan 
locker room. Most of the room is 
composed except for Zak Irvin, 
who is emotional in one corner 
of the room, and for Morgan. He 
wipes his face with his sleeve and 
cries in front of the television 
cameras.

His 
teammates 
have 
said 

the loss is all the more difficult 
because it means they’ll never 
play another game with Morgan. 
The senior doesn’t know how to 
respond.

He pauses to wipe his eyes.
“I didn’t expect it to be my last 

game,” Morgan says.

“It’s over. I don’t know what 

else to say.”

***
It’s over — much later than 

anyone 
anticipated. 
Without 

Trey 
Burke, 
without 
Tim 

Hardaway Jr., without McGary, 
this team didn’t just win the Big 
Ten. It dominated. It improved, 
steadily, each game. The pieces, 
especially offensively, meshed 
seamlessly.

A photo comes to mind now 

from the summer of 2012. The 
Michigan 
basketball 
team’s 

incoming class is posing together 
at the basketball facilities, maybe 
for the first time all together.

Caris 
LeVert 
is 
wearing 

cargo shorts. Spike Albrecht 
looks small, even next to the 
wiry LeVert. All have their 
arms around each other, except 
Robinson, who has his hands 
in his pockets and smiles big. 

McGary looks like a kid at 
summer camp. Stauskas stands at 
the edge and looks moody.

College basketball today is 

brutal in this regard. Jordan 
Morgans are rare. Play as well as 
Michigan has and you risk losing 
your best players. A two-year-
old photo feels like a sepia-toned 
memory. Almost certainly, some 
of those players will be gone next 
year.

***
It’s unclear what Michigan 

could 
have 
done 
differently 

against Kentucky. It’s unclear 
what Michigan could have done 
better. A few more box outs, 
maybe. Less foul trouble.

But Michigan played at just 

about its peak and stood with 
Kentucky’s size and talent and 
said beat this. And Kentucky did.

It was hard to ask much more 

from this team in this game, 
this season. Michigan’s big men, 
simply, weren’t big. Kentucky 
was too much to handle above 
the rim. The final six minutes 
on Sunday were the best 
basketball of this thoroughly 
entertaining tournament.

Michigan takes a timeout, 

down seven, the game slipping 
away. A pretty drive and kick 
back by LeVert finds Robinson 
open 
in 
the 
corner. 
His 

shooting has been inconsistent 
for most of the season. It’s 
good. Four-point game now.

Two 
possessions 
later, 

Morgan gets a put-back and 
the foul. Free throw good. One 
point game —and now we’re 
off.

Aaron 
Harrison 
three. 

Morgan dunk. Kentucky layup. 
Robinson 
layup. 
Kentucky 

layup. 
The 
under-four-

minutes 
television 
timeout 

feels 
akin 
to 
interrupting 

Mozart mid-symphony to sell 
a few extra bratwursts. Damn 
your television timeouts.

Back now. Stauskas makes 

both on a shooting foul. 
Harrison 
three. 
Robinson 

three. Nine possessions now 
without so much as a missed 
shot. How much fun is this?

Michigan needs two to tie 

now, so John Beilein takes a 
timeout. And then LeVert goes 

off. Stauskas misses a layup, but 
LeVert grabs it and dishes. Stauskas, 
again, from three rims out and 
LeVert slashes into the paint, dives 
after the ball and, falling backward, 
dishes back to Stauskas. Another 
miss, but a hand — likely that 
of Julius Randle of Kentucky — 
redirects the ball back in. Tie game.

This right here was Michigan’s 

season. A flawless, smart offense 
(the most efficient, ever, it turns 
out, at least since we’ve started 
keeping track of such stats); a 
socialist-like insistence on sharing 
the basketball; and more effort than 
defense. LeVert was not going to let 
Kentucky get the ball back before 
Michigan made a basket.

Then Aaron Harrison — that’s 

Aaron 
Bleeping 
Harrison, 
to 

translate for Ann Arbor readers 
— hit the shot of his young career. 
Stauskas’ prayer went short. And 
Kentucky won.

Michigan will be back here 

again. This feels more certain than 

it has in forever.

For Michigan, this hurt not 

because it gave Kentucky anything. 
It didn’t. It hurt not because it 
squandered a rare opportunity. It 
will come again.

It hurts because it won’t be 

with this team, this thoroughly 
surprising and likeable team. It 
hurts, because in college basketball 
today, teams like this are like 
comets — brilliant, breathtaking, 
brief. It hurts because that photo 
feels nostalgic. And it’s from 2012. 
It hurts because of Morgan.

Morgan is talking about this 

team in the press conference after 
the game. He’s the last one to speak 
before it’s over.

“Yeah, I mean, just this year has 

been the most fun time I’ve had, 
probably, playing basketball, ever,” 
he says.

It’s over now, and it hurts for 

Michigan, but I don’t know what 
else to say except: how much fun 
was that?

FOOTBALL
FOOTBALL

BASKETBALL

Bis etum il ius eliquam usaerum eium velicti 
comnit dunt, tota que consequo is essunture 
dolor molesti beriore, il ea ne plab ipsae 

excero te volorep tation re videndunt 

omnihil ipienda veliqui nobites et laboriame 
lantiossunt hil ius arumqui dentibus, qui 
aliat pa qui simolessit, nes escilit harum 

que volorit eicia con plis everum fugitatur 
si quiae esto blaturem labo. Itatas mos venis 
arumnihilla ntentotatem aut etum hil il mod 
quam es est as endaesc ipiendis escium 
lation cupta doluptam ab ipsapicit aut optiis 

Bis etum il ius eliquam usaerum eium 
velicti comnit dunt, tota que consequo is 
essunture dolor molesti beriore, il ea ne 

plab ipsae excero te volorep tation re 
videndunt omnihil ipienda veliqui nobites 
et laboriame lantiossunt hil ius arumqui 
dentibus, qui aliat pa qui simolessit, nes 

escilit harum que volorit eicia con plis 
everum fugitatur si quiae esto blaturem labo. 
Itatas mos venis arumnihilla ntentotatem 
aut etum hil il mod quam es est as endaesc 
ipiendis escium lation cupta doluptam ab 

MARCH 4: With a win over Illinois, the men’s 
basketball team clinched its first outright Big Ten title 
since 1986.

SEPTEMBER 27: Michigan quarterback Shane 

Morris returns to play in a 30-14 loss to Minnesota 
despite showing concussion symptoms. The fallout 

from this incident contributed to the resignation of 

athletic director Dave Brandon and the firing of head 

coach Brady Hoke. 

DECEMBER 30: Former Michigan quarterback Jim 
Harbaugh is introduced as the head football coach. 

MARCH 12: The men’s basketball team 
defeats Wisconsin to win the Big Ten 
Tournament, winning four games in four 

days as the tournament’s eighth seed. The 

Wolverines would later defeat Oklahoma 
State and Louisville in the NCAA 
Tournament before falling to Oregon in the 

Sweet Sixteen. 

APRIL 10: Red Berenson retires as coach of 
the Michigan hockey team.

2014
2015
2016
2017

MAY 24: The Michigan baseball team defeats Maryland 
4-3 to win the Big Ten Tournament and advance to the 
NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.

JUNE 3: The softball team loses to Florida in the 
championship game of the Women’s College World 
Series to finish as national runners-up.

OCTOBER 17: The Michigan football team loses to 

Michigan State 27-23. With a two-point lead and 10 
seconds left, punter Blake O’Neill fumbles a snap, and 
the Spartans return the fumble for a game-winning 
touchdown.

MARCH 19: The Michigan hockey team wins the 
Big Ten Tournament and qualifies for the NCAA 
Tournament for the first time since 2012 with a 5-3 

win against Minnesota.

APRIL 2: With 1,459 wins, Michigan softball 
coach Carol Hutchins becomes the all-time 

winningest coach in NCAA history.

DECEMBER 30: The Michigan football team 
loses to Florida State, 33-32, in the Orange Bowl. 
The loss ended a season which the Wolverines 
began 9-0, their best start since 2006. 

instant classics 
don’t happen 

without 

heartbreak

Jim Harbaugh 
welcomed as next 
‘M’ football coach

By MAX BULTMAN 

and 

GREG GARNO 

Daily Sports Editor and 

Daily Sports Writer 2014 

Jim Harbaugh’s first press 

conference 
as 
Michigan 

football 
coach 
was 
filled 

with laughter and clapping 
from the players, coaches and 
family looking on.

But the room of hundreds 

went quiet when Harbaugh 
was asked if he was inheriting 
a turnaround program.

“This 
is 
Michigan,” 

Harbaugh said. “There are 
no turnarounds at Michigan. 
This is greatness.”

He added in his statement: 

“Throughout my life I have 
dreamed of coaching at the 
University of Michigan. Now I 
have the honor to live it.”

The 
Michigan 
Athletic 

Department announced the 
hiring of the former San 
Francisco 
49ers 
coach 
on 

Tuesday afternoon, the 20th 
coach in program history. 
Harbaugh agreed to a seven-
year contract paying a base 
salary of $5 million per year.

Hoarse-voiced 
from 
a 

gatorade bath in his NFL-
finale Sunday, he handled his 
first press conference nearly 
an 
hour 
after 
addressing 

his team for the first time. 
Harbaugh 
didn’t 
give 
a 

timeline for when he planned 
to name a coaching staff.

A former quarterback under 

Bo Schembechler, Harbaugh 
was 
an 
All-American 
and 

Heisman 
Trophy 
finalist, 

but he’s been part of the 
Wolverines’ program since he 
was nine years old. Harbaugh’s 
father, Jack, was the defensive 
backs coach at Michigan while 
Jim was growing up.

It 
was 
then, 
Harbaugh 

said, that he first dreamed of 
coaching at Michigan.

“When I was nine to 10 

years old, there was a time 
when I was sitting in coach 
Schembechler’s office. I was 
sitting in his chair; I had my 
feet up on his desk,” Harbaugh 
recalled. “He walked in and 
said, ‘How ya doin’, Jim?’ And 
I said, ‘I’m doing great Bo, how 

you doin’? He said, ‘Whattaya 
doin?’ and I said, ‘I’m sitting 
in 
your 
chair, 
coach!’ 
... 

There’s just been times in my 
life where I’ve thought about 
it, dreamed about it, and now 
it’s time to live it.”

In addition to his $5 million 

base 
salary, 
Harbaugh’s 

contract includes incentives 
for playing in ($125,000) or 
winning ($250,000) the Big 
Ten 
Championship 
Game, 

a $50,000 bonus if he is Big 
Ten Coach of the Year and a 
$150,000 bonus for each year 
the team’s Academic Progress 
Rate is 960 or higher. He can 
also earn $300,000 for playing 
the College Football Playoff 
or $500,000 for winning the 
national championship.

His contract includes a $2 

million signing bonus.

Michigan marks Harbaugh’s 

fourth head coaching job in the 
last 10 years, most recently in 
San Francisco, where his base 
salary is roughly the same as 
it will be with the Wolverines.

“I kind of think of myself as 

a construction guy,” Harbaugh 
said. “You build this home, and 
hopefully it’s a great cathedral, 
and then afterwards they tell 
you, ‘Go build another one.’ 
And I feel like that again. … 
But I’d really like to live in one 
permanently. And that’s what 
I’m really hopeful for here.”

Harbaugh 
insisted 
his 

decision to take the Michigan 
job had little to do with 
his 
salary 
or 
financial 

considerations.

“I really made a decision 

from 
the 
heart, 
which 
I 

thought was best for myself 
and my family,” Harbaugh 
said. “I’m very excited by it 
and very challenged by it.”

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Coach Jim Harbaugh at a spring press conference in 2014.

Throughout 
my life I have 
dreamed of 
coaching at 

the University 
of Michigan. 

Now I have the 
honor to live it. 

There are no 
turnarounds at 
Michigan. This 

is greatness. 

SPORTS
over the
YEARS

Saturday, April 29, 2017 — 7

