2B — Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsTuesday

A letter and a lesson

A

RLINGTON, Tex. —
Dear Coach Harbaugh,

The letter began.

My name is Anthony Riddle;

I’m a 13-year combat veteran of
the U.S. Marine Corps. I now
live just thirty minutes west of
Ann Arbor in
Jackson, MI.

Michigan’s

football coach
kept reading.

The reason

for this letter
is for the last
three months
I have heard
how young
this year’s
team is, how
inexperienced the team is, how
many players we have to replace,
or lost to the NFL.

Then came the real point.
Let me be clear that sort of

criticism is bullshit.

The night before the

11th-ranked Wolverines’ 33-17
victory over No. 17 Florida,
Harbaugh shared Riddle’s
message with his team —
joking that it was “better than
anything I could have told
(them).”

With the way Michigan

played, maybe it was.

Ever since the Wolverines

lost to Florida State in the
Orange Bowl on Dec. 30,
the question has been how
Michigan would fare after
losing all but one starter on the
defensive side of the ball.

Saturday, the Wolverines

trotted out a defensive lineup
with seven first-time starters
and gave a definitive answer.

Florida managed just 181

yards in the air, and — even
more uninspiring — rushed for
just 11 yards. The Gators totaled
just 11 first downs, not including
penalty yardage.

Michigan forced four fumbles

and recovered three, the final
of which was a touchdown that

proved to be a dagger in the
game’s final two minutes.

Sophomore linebacker Devin

Bush Jr. led the unit with seven
tackles, two sacks and three
tackles for loss. Junior safety
Tyree Kinnel wasn’t far behind,
racking up six tackles and 1.5 for
loss — each good for second on
the team. That’s not bad for two
guys making the first starts of
their careers.

It’s even more impressive

considering the hand they
were dealt. Michigan’s defense
allowed just three points the
entire game. And yet, the
Gators held a 17-13 advantage at
halftime, due to redshirt junior
quarterback Wilton Speight’s
two pick-sixes in the second

quarter.

In moments like that, when

a team is losing a game it has
no business losing, youth
conventionally
crumbles. The
Wolverines’
response was
anything but.

“After those

two picks,
you know, we
didn’t go in the
gutter,” Bush
said. “We didn’t
start pointing
fingers. Our
job is to get us out of this hole.
… As a team, you got to pick the
offense up when they need help.
So that’s what we all did.”

And when pushed further,

asked if he was at all worried
after the interceptions, Bush
spoke without hesitation —

“Nah.”

Cool.

Confident.
And for an
inexperienced
team,
unconventional.

As for the

offensive side of
the ball, it was the
same story.

The Wolverines

racked up 215

yards on the ground, and
another 218 through the air.
They did so with seven players
making their first career starts

at their respective positions.

Freshman wide receiver

Tarik Black and redshirt
freshman tight end Nick
Eubanks handled their new
receiving responsibilities
with the poise of veterans —
combining for 144 yards on four
receptions.

And though he played plenty

last year, sophomore running
back Chris Evans took his
first start in stride, leading
Michigan’s backs with 22
carries while notching 88 yards.

When it was all said and

done, the Wolverines left the
field with a victory to show for
it. Undoubtedly, mistakes were
made. Two of them came from
a veteran in Speight, while the

other — a punt block — was a
special teams gaffe. Michigan
still walked away with a
16-point advantage, and youth
was far from the problem.

After the game, Speight and

Harbaugh shared the story
of the letter. Then Harbaugh
handed it out for all to see. The
Wolverines’ coach didn’t equate
football to war, but he thought
Riddle’s message resonated
nonetheless.

Riddle went on to write

about his experience serving
in Iraq, about being handed
the responsibility — at 20 years
old — of leading 52 Marines into
battle, all of whom were the
same age or younger.

He told Harbaugh how every

member of that unit completed
their mission and returned
safely. He told Harbaugh that
if his unit could do that, at 20,
in war, then this Michigan
group could win a Big Ten
championship, if not a national
championship.

It’s way too early to say that

Saturday was any justification
of a championship-caliber
team. But it was certainly a
justification of Riddle’s first
point: Against the Gators, the
concerns about youth were, in
fact, “bullshit.”

Speight highlighted a simple

fact in the bowels of AT&T
Stadium. Last year, Michigan’s
roster was made up of a
collection of 22- and 23-year-
olds. This year, the Wolverines
have a bunch of 18- and 19-year
olds.

What everyone saw Saturday

was that it really didn’t matter.
There wasn’t a single Wolverine
for whom the stage was too
bright.

As Bush bluntly put it: “Young

don’t mean nothin’.”

Santo can be reached at

kmsanto@umich.edu or on

Twitter @Kevin_M_Santo.

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Sophomore linebacker Devin Bush Jr. and sophomore defensive end Rashan Gary showed that concerns of Michigan’s youth were unfounded after all.

KEVIN
SANTO

“Let me be

clear that sort
of criticism is

bullshit.”

On big stage, Bush showcases star potential

ARLINGTON, Tex. — The final

scene of a football game, as the fans
stream out of the stadium and the
teams congregate in the middle of the
field, can tell you everything you need
to know.

On Saturday, all one needed to

do was watch Devin Bush Jr. as he
waded through masses of Michigan
and Florida players following his
team’s dominating — yet oddly close

— 33-17 victory.

Bush, a sophomore linebacker

making the first start of his career,
was treated like a star. He took several
interviews with reporters from ESPN
and other outlets.

He met and took pictures with

Florida players, with his teammates,
all with a giant smile on his face.
And then, quite fittingly, he ran off
the field in lockstep with defensive
coordinator Don Brown, who raised
his hand in the air and brought it
down to meet Bush’s, as if he was

about to signal, ‘This is the champ.’

Yes, Devin Bush Jr. was the champ

Saturday. His name may not have
been known to the larger world of
college football before Saturday
afternoon — but just like a movie
star becomes famous after their first
leading role, Bush will be known to
many now.

Yet it was a performance that was

nearly derailed before it even began.
Bush, who has already been ejected
once in his career before, was flagged
for a late hit on the first snap of the

game. The officials went to review,
the players to their huddles, and Bush
awaited his fate. It would have been
a big blow to the defense, especially
considering how definitively Bush
won the starting competition at
middle linebacker.

But Bush didn’t seem to worry

about the outcome too much,
considering his comments after the
game.

“I don’t remember,” Bush said.

“But if I wanted to say, like, it’s just me.
That’s just what I do. If they want to

eject me, eject me.”
That mindset — of unbridled

aggressiveness and ferocity on every
snap, regardless of whether it’s
on defense or special teams — fits
well with Michigan’s defense and
with Brown’s scheme. Bush and his
coordinator, it seems, were meant for
each other.

That’s not to say the player Bush

replaced in the middle — Ben Gedeon
— was shabby. Gedeon played well
last year and was drafted in the
fourth round of the NFL Draft, in
fact. But Bush is the type of prospect
Michigan fans have been longing for,
a player who has the requisite speed
and agility to play sideline to sideline
and disrupt plays in a manner that his
predecessors couldn’t quite do.

Bush, to put it simply, looked like a

heat-seeking missile, if a heat-seeking
missile could play middle linebacker.
Time after time, he shot into the
backfield on well-timed blitzes, or
snuffed out the rare Florida ball
carrier that got past his defensive line.
He led the team in tackles with seven.
He led the team with tackles-for-loss
with three. He led the team in sacks
with two.

It was the type of performance

that might indicate that Michigan’s
defense may not have lost much of a
step, despite last year’s departures.

And that’s the larger point that

Michigan wants to make, the message
it’s been trying to tell everyone all
offseason: The Wolverines may have
lost a lot, but the players stepping in
this year can do just as well — if not
better. Just ask Devin Bush Jr.

ORION SANG

Daily Sports Editor