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Y E A R B O O K

8 — Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BY THE NUMBERS

2

Career games Tarik Black has

played for Michigan

1

Touchdowns scored

6

Passes caught

94

Yards gained

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Freshman receiver Tarik Black has earned a starting spot early in his career.

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will give Amazon a closer look at his program.

Black off to impressive
start to his career at ‘M’

Tarik Black’s first two games

for Michigan have been nothing
short of exceptional.

A freshman receiver from

Connecticut — not Texas, Florida
or any other football hotbed
— is starting for the seventh-
ranked team in the country. He’s
starting over his classmate, the
former No. 1 wide receiver in
the nation, and producing well
beyond his years.

In two career games, Black

has caught six passes for 94
receiving yards, and he even
scored a touchdown on his first
career reception.

“Coming
in,
(making

an
impact)
was
definitely

something I wanted to do,” Black
said to media Tuesday. “I knew I
had to work my tail off and learn
that playbook, but I knew things
would happen for me.”

Enrolling early last winter, he

had time to learn the playbook.
Black’s
impact

on
the
field

is
already

apparent,
but

he admits that
he
struggled

adjusting to the
college game.

At
first,

Black
found

that
getting

accustomed
to

a new playbook
and new routes was not so easy.

“I struggled a little bit with

the playbook,” Black said. “That
was the hardest part. Once I got
that down I was able to do what I
came here to do.”

The
nuances
of
actually

getting open hadn’t been part
of Black’s game in high school.
Both in speed and in his overall
skillset, he was a step ahead of
all of his opponents, so beating
out a safety or cornerback for
a catch was never a problem.
Though, with defensive backs
around college football — as
he’ll soon learn in the Big Ten
season — it’s not as easy to break
free.

In high school, Black did not

have to worry about whether
to sit in a zone or take the open

space, and reading defenses had
never been a concern. He was a
four-star recruit and the No. 1
overall player in Connecticut —
getting open back then was not
an issue.

At Michigan, though, there

has been a lot more to learn.

“We just run a lot of routes

here,” Black said. “The more you
do it, you’re going to continue to
get better at it. The amount of
routes you run is the reason why
you get better at route running.”

Having gone through spring

practice, fall camp and now two
games, Black is fairly confident
that he has already proven
himself. However, he says that
he still has a lot to work on,
especially in being more physical
in order to beat out cornerbacks
off the line of scrimmage.

“At this level, you actually

have to work to release,” Black
said. “You’re not just going
to run off the ball and run by
everybody like I used to do in
high school. That’s something I

had to add to my
game in order to
get open.”

Physical play

will come with
time
as
Black

continues
to

grow
stronger.

But his mental
game is where he
feels he has been
able to make the
most strides.

Black watches game film with

redshirt
junior
quarterback

Wilton Speight. He has already
built a strong relationship with
his new quarterback, and going
over film together has helped
him solidify that bond.

“(Speight) definitely teaches

me a lot,” Black said. “I’ve
learned a lot from him about
college football. It’s definitely
different than what I’m used to.”

When Black was “used to”

high school football, he was
lighting
up
backfields
and

earning his chance to play in the
U.S. Army All-American game.

With
almost
a
hundred

receiving yards and a touchdown
already, if he’s not “used to” the
college game yet, Michigan fans
have plenty to look forward to.

Michigan, Amazon team
up to create docu-series

Starting in January, Wolverine

fans will get an inside look at the
2017 season, as the Michigan
football
program
announced

a partnership with Amazon
Prime on Tuesday — geared
toward creating an eight-episode
documentary series about how
Team 138 operates during the
season.

The
documentary
will
be

released
on
Amazon
Prime

following the end of the season, and
is part of a partnership between
Michigan, Amazon, The Montag
Group and Big Ten Network.

The show will document the

lives of the Michigan players,
coaches and staff during the
season — both at home and on the
road — and also follow the student-
athletes into the classroom.

“We are proud to partner

with Amazon Prime Video in
documenting our University of
Michigan student-athletes’ daily
experiences
and
the
lifelong

lessons learned both on the
football field and in the classroom,”
said Michigan football coach Jim
Harbaugh in the press release. “We
welcome judgement! We embrace
this opportunity to showcase
our 2017 University of Michigan
football team to a vast audience
around the world.”

The series will likely bear

resemblance to documentaries
like Last Chance U and Hard
Knocks that give a behind-
the-scenes peek at college and
professional
football
teams.

Last Chance U, a docu-series on
Netflix, follows the lives of various
college athletes that have had off-
the-field issues. Those athletes
wound up at East Mississippi
Community College, where they
were given another shot at playing
football.

The Netflix show is popular

among the Michigan football
team.

Sophomore
safety
Josh

Metellus watches Last Chance U
with some of his teammates, and
at one point he thought to himself
that making a documentary would
be a good thing for someone to
do about their own football team
here in Michigan.

His wish came true, and now

he’s got a show of his own. The
cameras have been following him

and the other Wolverines around
campus — to practice, team
meetings, classes and anywhere
else. Constantly having a camera
crew on his tail could seem
distracting, but Metellus noted
that it’s nothing he isn’t used to.

“We got people following us

around every day whether or not
there’s cameras,” Metellus said.

The camera crew also only

comes three days a week, and
Metellus described it as “nothing
too serious.”

With a year under his belt,

Metellus has gotten used to the
media attention. The freshmen
on the team, though, are the ones
relishing the newfound fame.

“You can just tell by all the

videos we have that (freshmen)
post from the Michigan twitter
page,” Metellus said. “They love
the camera — mostly the offensive
players. They just love being the
flashy type of guys. You know,
on defense, we don’t really get all
that recognition, because we play
defense. The offense likes to take
it.”

So far, the cameras have been

following around “the guys who
get the ball,” according to fifth-
year senior Henry Poggi.

That includes most of the

players you would usually hear
about — guys like redshirt junior
quarterback Wilton Speight and
freshman wide receiver Tarik
Black.

For Poggi, not so much.
“I’d be surprised if they

featured me,” Poggi joked.

Poggi, a self-proclaimed fan

of MTV’s Real World, admitted
that
the
Michigan
football

documentary
would
not
be

including any major confessions
like the hit reality show used to.

“Much to the viewers’ dismay,”

he laughed.

Nonetheless, he and others felt

that the series could be helpful
to the program by giving fans an
inside look at the inner-workings
of the Michigan football team.

It will certainly pay dividends

on the recruiting front, but
sophomore offensive lineman Ben
Bredeson had his own personal
reasons for liking the show.

“It’s going to help answer a lot

of questions from Mom and Dad
who always want to know what’s
going on every day,” Bredeson said
with a grin. “I’ll just tell them to
watch, and we’ll be good.”

TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer
TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

“At this level,
you actually

have to work to

release.”