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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 5, 2017
Meet Mr. Riddle
By now, you’ve probably
heard of the letter that
inspired the Wolverines. Get
to know the Marine who
wrote it.
» Page 6B
Feelin’ special
Quinn Nordin and the special
teams unit helped Michigan
win a phase of the game
Saturday that they were
never supposed to.
» Page 5B
The 11th-ranked Wolverines defeated No. 17 Florida at AT&T Stadium in the AdvoCare
Classic, quieting any concerns there may have been that Michigan is too inexperienced.
ARLINGTON, Tex. — The
first pick came, then the sec-
ond.
Suddenly,
the
Michigan
football team was trailing by
a touchdown with its start-
ing quarterback taking a seat
on the sideline. Then came a
blocked punt, and the game
was at risk of spiraling out of
control.
And yet, the 11th-ranked
Wolverines (1-0) — a team
ample
with
youth
after
returning, at best, five start-
ers
—
threw
their
inex-
perience out the window,
recovering to score 20 sec-
ond-half points and defeat
No. 17 Florida, 33-17, in the
AdvoCare Classic at AT&T
Stadium.
“I mean, we didn’t hang our
heads,” said freshman wide
receiver Tarik Black. “You
know, when we face adversity,
we just got to get back to it,
get back up.
“Really, Coach just empha-
sized coming out and pretty
much clearing our heads and
just coming out and doing
what we do, and that’s play
Michigan
football.
And
I
think
that’s
what we did.”
The
second-
half resurgence
started
with
redshirt
junior
quarterback
Wilton Speight,
as he went 5-for-
7 with 52 yards
to set up junior
running
back
Karan
Higdon
for a three-yard
touchdown rush
on the opening
drive.
Redshirt freshman kicker
Quinn Nordin slowly built
Michigan’s lead for the rest of
the third quarter, nailing a 30
and 50-yard field goal after
two fumble recoveries to put
the Wolverines ahead, 26-17,
entering the final frame.
Then the defense took over,
as it had the entire game.
Florida (0-1) failed to score
a single point in the second
half,
eventu-
ally
replacing
Feleipe
Franks
with
Malik
Zaire at quar-
terback.
The
Wolver-
ines’
defense
tallied stop after
stop — holding
the
Gators
to
just 192 yards,
conceding
just
three points and
capping the day
off with a sack
of
Zaire
that
turned into a fumble recovery
in Florida’s end zone.
“I seen a bunch of guys play
like men today,” Bush said. “…
We just had a bunch of guys
rise to the occasion. I can’t
express how happy I am and
proud of those guys I am.”
And if not for the defensive
unit, the first half could have
easily gotten out of hand.
Though
he
eventually
returned,
line-
backer
and
defensive
cap-
tain
Mike
McCray started
the
game
on
the sideline for
unknown
rea-
sons, and sopho-
more linebacker
Devin Bush was
nearly
ejected
for targeting on
the first play of
the game.
Roughly
12
minutes
later,
after finding freshman wide
receiver Tarik Black for a
46-yard touchdown to give
Michigan a 10-3 lead with just
over three minutes left in the
first quarter — going 75 yards
on three plays in just 43 sec-
onds — Speight’s day took a
turn for the worse.
The Gators turned his two
pick-sixes into a 17-13 lead,
despite failing to score a
single offensive
touchdown and
tallying just 91
total yards in
the first half.
And with the
pick-sixes came
the quarterback
controversy.
Michigan coach
Jim
Harbaugh
went with Spei-
ght to start the
game, but two
consecutive
interceptions
landed him on
the bench with just under 11
minutes left in the first half.
Fifth-year
senior
John
O’Korn took over, only to
watch sophomore Will Hart
have his punt blocked after
O’Korn’s first offensive drive
ended with a three and out.
O’Korn was given only one
more offensive drive after
the punt block, as Speight
reclaimed his duties under
center for the remainder
of the game and finished
11-for-25 with 181 yards, one
touchdown and two inter-
ceptions.
“There’s a lot to learn from
it,” Harbaugh said. “There’s
really good things to learn
from it. We already have talk-
ed about some of them, and
there will be more to learn
from it. But he’s experiencing
it. That’s big.
“And then, you know, it’s
always astonished me, you
know, with quarterbacks. It’s
a sign. It really is a sign when
a quarterback can have some-
thing really bad go, some-
thing really bad happen, and
come back from it.”
YOUNG DON’T
MEAN NOTHIN’
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
“I seen a bunch
of guys play like
men today. ... We
just had a bunch
of guys rise to the
occasion.”
“We didn’t hang
our heads. You
know, when we face
adversity, we just
got to get back to it,
get back up.”
TUESDAY
- Devin Bush Jr.
Michigan 33
Florida 17