Thursday, August 10, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS & SPORTS 
10

Ward 1
Total Votes

Voter turnout: 9.94%

Percent
Anne Bannister
944
829
3

53.15%
46.68%
0.17%
Jason Frenzel
Write-In

Ward 3
Total Votes

Voter turnout: 12.17%

Percent
Zachary Ackerman
1283
1098
7

53.73%
45.98%
0.29%
Jamie Magiera
Write-In

Ward 4
Total Votes

Voter turnout: 11.94%

Percent
John E. Eaton
1256
963
4

56.50%
43.32%
0.18%
Jamie Magiera
Write-In

Ward 5
Total Votes

Voter turnout: 17.00%

Percent
David A. Silkworth
1749
1948
12

47.16%
52.52%
0.32%
Chip Smith
Write-In

 
 
 
 
 
 
 DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS

Michigan announces hiring 
of Fetter as new pitching 

Democratic primary yields 
new balance on City Council

Before last season, Mike 

McCray had recorded just two 
tackles in his college career 
and had never started a game 
for the Michigan football 
team.

McCray, a former four-star 

recruit out of high school, 
had always shown promise 
— a blocked punt in a victory 
over Appalachian State in 
2014 had displayed as much. 
But McCray couldn’t stay on 
the field — health problems, 
including a shoulder injury 
that sidelined him for the 
entire 2015 season, derailed 
his first three years in a 
Wolverine uniform.

With the graduation of 

three 
senior 
linebackers 

— Joe Bolden, Desmond 
Morgan and James Ross — 
a healthy McCray finally 
got his chance last year 
and ran with it. He made 
an immediate impact in his 
first start, a season-opening 
victory over Hawaii where he 
made nine tackles, 3.5 for loss 
and two sacks, to kick-start 
an All-Big Ten Honorable 
Mention campaign in which 
he totalled 76 stops, including 
12.5 for a loss as well as 4.5 
sacks and two interceptions.

One year later, the fifth-

year senior linebacker is 
the only returning starter 
from the previous season’s 
dominant defense. But that’s 
not the only thing different 
about 
McCray, 
according 

to linebackers coach Chris 
Partridge.

“There’s an aura about him 

that’s different than it was 
last year and that’s important 
because guys will look up to 
him,” Partridge said. “He’s a 
hard worker and he’s tough, 
he’s a Big Ten linebacker. Now 
with that aura about him and 
that sense of leadership he’s 
stepped his game up.”

To Partridge, McCray has 

carried himself in a different 
manner so far in fall camp 
— a manner that is essential. 
The 
omnipresent 
theme 

for Michigan — young and 
talented, but inexperienced 

— applies to its linebacking 
corps as much as anywhere, 
and McCray has asserted 
himself 
as 
a 
necessary 

veteran voice for that group.

“Last year he was kind of 

feeling it out early, started 
gaining 
confidence 
and 

became a tremendous football 
player for us,” Partridge said. 
“This year he’s coming in 
having that background and 
he’s able to impose himself 
on the other guys and on the 
young guys.”

The impact of McCray’s 

new role as an elder statesmen 
was visible even in the spring. 
Sophomore Devin Bush Jr. 
was immediately slotted in 
as McCray’s backup at the 
WILL linebacker position 
last season, and made a big 
impact in the Wolverines’ 
spring game, tallying two 
sacks.

So far during camp, Bush 

has mostly played at the 
MIKE position vacated by 
Ben Gedeon from last season, 
and after a year learning the 
ropes from veterans such as 
McCray, he appears primed 
for a breakout in the middle 
of Michigan’s defense with 
his increased maturity and 
physical development.

“Athletically, he’s a guy 

who works just as hard 
off the field as on the field, 
really enjoys the game and 
all aspects of it,” Partridge 
said. “His ceiling’s high and 
he keeps getting better and 
better. 
Obviously 
a 
very 

savvy football player from his 
background from his father 
playing and everything like 
that, so we’re excited about 
what he’s going to be able to 
do.” 

Perhaps the biggest hole 

in the Wolverines’ linebacker 
unit, however, comes at 
the VIPER position once 
home to the do-everything 
Jabrill Peppers. While the 
competition 
to 
win 
the 

starting job is far from over, 
sophomore Khaleke Hudson 
appeared to have the upper 
hand after an impressive 
spring.

“(He’s a) guy that just 

loves 
contact,” 
Partridge 

said. “People feed off of that 

too. He’s becoming very 
well-rounded as a player, so 
he’s going to be enjoyable to 
watch.”

Hudson might be the 

most natural replacement 
for Peppers on Michigan’s 
roster — in fact, both were 
recruited as defensive backs 
before 
switching 
to 
the 

hybrid 
linebacker-safety 

position. Described as a 
“hammerhead” by Partridge, 
Hudson’s 
athleticism 

and explosiveness should 
provide a key dimension for 
the Wolverines and emulate 
to some extent what Peppers 
was able to bring last season, 
as he works to become a 
more skilled player instead of 
relying solely on aggression.

“You’re never going to tell 

Coach Brown that you don’t 
want someone to run full 
speed into things,” Partridge 
said. “That’s a small part of 
it, but he’s gonna round out 
his game just like anyone 
always would. Coach Brown 
will never say take away 
that physicality, but you 
learn how to play with that 
physicality.”

With the leadership of 

upperclassmen 
such 
as 

McCray and senior Michael 
Wroblewski, as well as the 
talent of younger players like 
Bush, Hudson and freshmen 
Drew Singleton and Jordan 
Anthony, 
Michigan’s 

linebacking corps has been 
touted by some as its best 
defensive unit. But Partridge 
stated that the pressure on 
the group to live up to those 
expectations will be key for 
them to fulfill that promise.

“There’s 
pressure 
at 

all 
moments 
and 
that’s 

something you have to learn 
how to deal with. You gotta 
just put your head down and 
keep working,” Partridge 
said. “I tell these guys all the 
time, ‘You want to be tough, 
do tough things.’ Pressure 
is a part of being tough and 
camp is a part of being tough 
and fighting through things 
and working together. We’ll 
take on all comers, anything 
that will make us tougher 
and make us a better unit is 
something we embrace.”

Ann Arbor residents voted 

Tuesday in the Democratic 
primary election for City 
Council.

In Ward 1, challenger 

Anne 
Bannister 
defeated 

incumbent 
Jason 
Frenzel 

with 944 votes to Frenzel’s 
829. Bannister was the only 
challenger to win on Tuesday 
— in Ward 3, Councilmember 
Zachary 
Ackerman 
won 

with 1,283 votes to opponent 
Stephen Kunselman’s 1,098. 
In Ward 4, Councilmember 
Jack Eaton won with 1,256 
votes to opponent Jaime 
Magiera’s 963, and in Ward 
5, 
Councilmember 
Chip 

Smith won with 1,948 votes to 
opponent David Silkworth’s 
1,749.

Though 
the 
city 
is 

divided into five electoral 
wards — each of which has 
two representatives on the 
council who alternate election 
years — there were only four 
contests in this primary, as 
Jared Hoffert (D–Ward 2) 
ran unopposed, but will face 
incumbent 
Councilmember 

Jane Lumm (I–Ward 2) in the 
general election in November.

This will be the last City 

Council election held in an 
odd year. Residents voted last 
November to extend council 
member’s terms from two 
to four years, but the council 
members elected in this cycle 
will serve three year terms, 
making their next election 
year even.

The 
election 
was 
in 

many ways a referendum 

on the city’s position on 
development. Many residents 
were upset in April when the 
council voted 8-3 to sell the 
publicly-owned Library Lot 
to Chicago-based developer 
Core Spaces, unhappy with 
what a new skyscraper would 
mean for Ann Arbor.

The three council members 

that voted against the sale 
of the Library Lot — Lumm, 
Eaton and Kailasapathy — 
have also opposed the other 
eight members of the council, 
including 
Mayor 
Chris 

Taylor, on a number of issues 
regarding development and 
taxes. Those three will gain 
a fourth in Bannister, who 
ran her campaign against 
Frenzel’s Library Lot vote.

“I think that with my 

personal finance and my 
financial 
planning 
background 

and fiscal responsibility and 
conservation of resources, 
I think that resonates with 
people because we pay a lot 
of property taxes here in 
town,” Bannister said. “It was 
also important that now we 
have the 7-4 ratio. Knocking 
on doors, that was really 
important to voters, even if 
they were ambivalent about 
development issues, the idea 
of more debate on council was 
important to them.”

The shift from the de facto 

8-3 to 7-4 balance is significant 
— though passage of any law 
or resolution requires a six-
vote majority and mayoral 
approval, eight is the number 
of votes required to override a 
mayoral veto, create a new city 
office, take private property 
for a public use or transfer any 

unencumbered budget funds 
from one operating fund to 
another.

Though she said she had 

not 
heard 
from 
Frenzel 

or the mayor’s office as of 
Wednesday night, Bannister 
said she hoped to do away 
with any ill will the campaign 
had dredged up and focus 
on working together and 
governing effectively with her 
colleagues.

Ackerman, who spoke with 

his opponent Kunselman once 
the election results were out, 
said they exchanged their 
mutual respect and shared 
Bannister’s opinion on moving 
forward.

“Two years ago I ran on an 

approach for representation 
that first takes guidance and 
solicits guidance from the 
community, but also strives to 
work together with colleagues 
and staff to find solutions 
to that community input,” 
Ackerman said. “I think, over 
the course of the last two 
years, we’ve worked very 
hard and very well together 
to get a lot of things done, and 
a lot of things done that have 
been approved unanimously. 
I think if we continue that 
and if we continue to work 
in an environment of mutual 
respect and dignity, I think 
we’re gonna be in good shape.”

He 
stood 
by 
his 

endorsement of Bannister’s 
opponent, however, saying the 
community lost an incredible 
resource in Jason Frenzel’s 
electoral loss.

JACOB SHAMES

Summer Managing Sports 

Editor

ANDREW HIYAMA

Summer Daily News Editor

Read more online at 

michigandaily.

