The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 5, 2017 — 5B
The battle they won
A
RLINGTON, Tex. —
Special teams was the
battle Michigan was
supposed to lose.
Florida
had kicker
Eddy Pineiro
and punter
Johnny
Townsend
— both of
whom were
named to the
preseason
All-SEC
second team.
Pineiro made
21 of 25 field-goal attempts last
year — 11 of 13 from 40 yards
or farther — while Townsend
averaged 47.9 yards per punt with
27 downed inside the 20-yard
line.
The Wolverines, meanwhile,
had lost Kenny Allen, who
doubled as their kicker and
punter. Before Saturday’s kickoff
at AT&T Stadium, they weren’t
sure who would replace him.
While that might not seem out
of the ordinary for a Michigan
team tasked with replacing all
but five starters from last season,
the backups-turned-starters
on offense and defense had the
benefit of playing important
roles as rotational players. The
potential options on the special
teams unit, on the other hand, had
never even seen the field.
It would have been
understandable if redshirt
freshman kicker Quinn Nordin
and sophomore punter Will Hart
couldn’t compete with the Gators
in that phase of the game. The
Wolverines would have banked on
their offense and defense carrying
the load. But Saturday, the special
teams unit picked Michigan up
when it faltered and defeated
its Florida counterpart in the
process, winning the battle and,
ultimately, the game.
It all happened in the blink
of an eye. Around the 12-minute
mark of the second quarter,
the Wolverines had a 10-3 lead
and looked poised to add to it.
Redshirt junior quarterback
Wilton Speight
had just thrown
a 46-yard
touchdown pass
to freshman wide
receiver Tarik
Black, and was
only building
more momentum.
But on the
ensuing drive, one
of Speight’spasses
bounced off
sophomore wide receiver Kekoa
Crawford’s hands and into those
of Gator defensive back Duke
Dawson, who then took it 48
yards to the end zone for a pick-
six to tie the game.
One and a half minutes passed
on the game clock, and Speight
had tossed another. Florida
cornerback CJ Henderson
corralled an
errant throw and
ran it back 41
yards. Suddenly,
the Gators had
their first lead
of the game and
the momentum
swinging
dramatically in
their favor.
Michigan
coach Jim
Harbaugh replaced Speight with
fifth-year senior John O’Korn, but
O’Korn couldn’t change the tide.
On two consecutive drives, the
Wolverines went three and out.
After the initial series, Hart
lined up for his first career punt,
but an energized Florida pulled
off a block. The Gators gained
possession at the Michigan
37-yard line, and
looked primed
to add to their
lead. But while
the Wolverines’
defense managed
to force a three
and out, Pineiro
was set up for
a 47-yard field
goal. Considering
he had already
nailed a
46-yarder, it would have been
expected for him to make it a
10-point game.
It would have been Florida’s
special teams unit that carried
the plaudits, turning the game for
the Gators. Instead, though it took
them a little longer, that’s exactly
what Michigan’s third phase did.
Pineiro missed the field goal,
and on the
Wolverines’
second three-
and-out
possession,
Nordin was set
up for a 55-yard
field goal. He had
already converted
from 25 yards
out, but a 50-plus-
yard attempt is an
entirely different
monster that most kickers in the
nation would miss.
But he didn’t. With all the poise
of a kicker much older than he is,
Nordin stared down his target
and put the force of his body into
the kick. Then he simply watched
as it sailed 55 yards and dipped
straight through the uprights.
“I was just doing whatever
my team needed me to do, and
if they needed me to put points
on the board, then that’s what
I was going to do for my team,”
Nordin said. “That’s when they
put me out there, and I just did
my job.”
It may have just been three
points, but it was worth much
more to Michigan. In nailing
a field goal from 55 yards out,
Nordin did what no other college
kicker had ever done at AT&T
Stadium.
After that, Florida didn’t score
another point. Nordin, on the
other hand, scored six more,
hitting a 30 and a 50-yard field
goal on consecutive drives as part
of the Wolverines’ 13-point third
quarter outburst.
The former came after
freshman defensive back Ambry
Thomas forced and recovered
a fumble at the Florida 16-yard
line. The latter made him the
first Wolverine ever to hit two
field goals from 50-plus yards in a
single game.
For a Michigan team whose
ability has continually been called
into question on the basis of their
inexperience, maybe Nordin’s
fellow young teammates just
needed to see that their age and
their ability are two completely
different concepts.
“We’re a young team, 100
percent, but youth isn’t always a
bad thing,” Nordin said. “Youth
brings energy, and I think moving
on we’re going to continue to
grow as a team.”
On Saturday, the Wolverines’
special teams unit took the first
step in that growth. They weren’t
supposed to win their phase of
the game on paper. Then they did
anyway.
Ashame can be reached at
ashabete@umich.edu or on
Twitter @betelhem_ashame.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt freshman Quinn Nordin hit four of his six field goals Saturday, helping the Wolverines win a phase of the game they were never expected to.
BETELHEM
ASHAME
“Youth isn’t
always a bad
thing. Youth
brings energy.”
“That’s when
they put me out
there, and I just
did my job.”
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