4:10 P.M. 
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 
RACKHAM AMPHITHEATRE

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2B — September 25, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday

Five Things We Learned: ‘M’ proves it can close out games

There’s no debate. Over the 

past few seasons, Michigan 
has struggled to finish off 
opponents. Devastating losses 
to Michigan State, Iowa, Ohio 
State and Florida State have all 
come because the Wolverines 
weren’t able to hold onto a late 
lead.

Purdue may not be on the 

level of any of those teams. But 
Jim Harbaugh still believes he 
may have learned a valuable 
lesson about this team: it can 
close out games.

“They can win in the late 

rounds,” Harbaugh said after 
Saturday’s 28-10 win over the 

Boilermakers. “That’s a great 
thing to learn about your ball 
club. You never know quite 
what the character is of the 
team, and things get tough. A 
lot of people start (looking) for 
alternatives. Our guys dug deep 
and finished them off.”

Here are five (other) things 

we learned from the win: 

1. Offensive line struggles

Michigan’s 
issues 
in 

pass protection were made 
painstakingly clear Saturday. 
Purdue entered the game with 
one sack on the season and left 
it having sacked Wilton Speight 
and John O’Korn four times.

There may not have been 

a more sobering image than 
Speight lying motionless on 
the turf after one particularly 
nasty hit in the first quarter. 
Quite simply, Michigan needs 
to do a better job of protecting 
its quarterbacks.

The Wolverines didn’t find 

success running the ball until 
late in the game either, and 
even then, they finished with 
just 139 yards on 44 carries. All 
in all, it was a fairly pedestrian 
day for the offensive line.

2. Michigan’s corners have 
been better than expected

Cornerbacks 
coach 
Mike 

Zordich’s candid — and blunt 
— remarks earlier this summer 
about his position group seem to 
have worked. The Boilermakers 
scuffled to 159 passing yards on 
30 attempts — completing just 
43 percent of their passes — and 
a large chunk of those yards 
came on gimmick plays such 
as a wide receiver pass, tunnel 
screens and throwbacks.

Purdue was unable to find 

any success when it tested 
Michigan 
downfield, 
as 

sophomore cornerbacks David 
Long and Lavert Hill had 
fantastic 
days 
in 
coverage. 

Long, in particular, stood out; 
he 
had 
several 
impressive 

plays where he was in perfect 
position.

This was a position group 

that many pointed to as a 
possible weakness before the 
season 
started. 
Saturday’s 

performance was yet another 
sign that the corners are in 
lockstep with the rest of the 
defense, which now ranks No. 1 
in the nation with an average of 
203.3 yards allowed per game.

3. Replacing Tarik Black 

may require more than one 

player

Led 
by 
John 
O’Korn, 

Michigan aired the ball out 
against 
Purdue’s 
secondary, 

throwing for 284 yards — on 9.2 
yards per attempt — with one 
touchdown, a 12-yard catch-
and-run to redshirt sophomore 
tight end Zach Gentry in the 

first quarter. Gentry had three 
catches for 48 yards on the day; 
his battery mate, sophomore 
tight end Sean McKeon, led the 
team with five catches for 82 
yards.

Neither 
possesses 
the 

same type of ability as Black, 
Michigan’s 
second-leading 

receiver on the season who may 
miss the rest of the year with 
a broken foot. Yet both — in 
addition to junior receiver Grant 
Perry and redshirt freshman 
receiver Nate Schoenle, who 
tallied a combined 5 catches for 
68 yards — made up just fine for 
Black’s absence Saturday.

Michigan may not have a 

single player on the roster 
who can currently replicate 
Black’s skillset. Until it finds an 
individual who can, it’ll take a 
group effort to do so.

4. Chris Evans isn’t going 

away

It would’ve been easy to 

count 
out 
the 
sophomore 

running back after the first 
three games of the year. After 
all, he had lost his starting job 

after only one game, and his 
replacement, fifth-year senior 
Ty Isaac, had rushed for an 
impressive 336 yards entering 
Saturday.

But Isaac, who left last 

week’s game injured, looked 
ineffective 
against 
Purdue, 

taking 10 carries for just 20 
yards 
while 
struggling 
in 

pass protection. Junior Karan 
Higdon didn’t do much better, 
rushing for 31 yards on 10 
carries and fumbling on a 
screen pass.

So Evans took advantage. 

He received the most carries 
and was the most productive 
back, running 14 times for 97 
yards with two touchdowns. 
His late 49-yard touchdown 
scamper was an exclamation 
point on what was an excellent 
day, his best of the season, and 
showed that Evans definitely 
has more to say when it comes 
to the ongoing competition for 
carries.

5. BOLD PREDICTION: 

John O’Korn has reopened 

the quarterback competition

Harbaugh 
said 
after 
the 

game 
that 
he 
thinks 
the 

injury 
Speight 
suffered 
is 

a “soft tissue” problem and 
not anything structural; his 
status going forward, though, 
remains unclear. But even if 
Speight returns quickly, O’Korn 
may have done well enough 
Saturday to earn more snaps. 
When Harbaugh was asked 
whether O’Korn’s performance 
warranted another look at the 
quarterback competition, he 
appeared to laugh it off. Yet his 
answer — though a deflection — 
was still telling.

“He played great,” Harbaugh 

said. “He really did. John 
played a heck of a ball game, 
and we’re happy for him. Like 
I said before, thought he came 
into the game seeing things 
really well right off the bat.”

In the season opener against 

Florida, Harbaugh elected to 
insert O’Korn into the game 
to give Speight a chance to 
calm 
down 
after 
throwing 

two 
consecutive 
pick-sixes. 

After Saturday, it may not take 
that much going forward for 
Harbaugh to play O’Korn.

ORION SANG

Daily Sports Editor

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Sophomore running back Chris Evans led Michigan’s backfield with 14 carries, 97 yards and two touchdowns.

Take a knee

M

y job is to write about 
Michigan sports, but my 
identity is as an African-

American woman.

After a week in which my own 

University saw racist messages 
written on residence hall doors and 
yelled at a 
rally outside 
the Union, 
the President 
of the United 
States spent 
the weekend 
criticizing 
NFL players 
for exercising 
their First 
Amendment 
right to kneel 
during the National Anthem. He 
called out NBA players in a separate 
yet similar fashion, but I’m going to 
focus on the NFL for now because, 
at this pace, these bi-weekly 
columns could become an ongoing 
series on the social issues raised by 
sports. 

Today, the country’s focus 

turned to race and the hidden 
politics of identity.

It’s a concept that has been 

ignored at every turn. While sports 
are held up as a gold standard — a 
setting where people from every 
spectrum of society can come 
together for a few hours and share 
in the experience of a melting pot 
of emotions — there is a darker 
undercurrent inherent to their 
reverence in this country.

Between the white lines, players 

are seen as a collective, showered 
by a single spotlight. As long as the 
players are wearing uniforms that 
match those of the fans cheering 
for them from the stands or their 
couches, they are all part of the 
same team.

All of their successes are 

celebrated, and all of their failures 
are mourned. Together.

That tradition of unity is 

strongest before the whistle is even 
blown. When the National Anthem 
is played or performed, a chorus of 
people stand as one to honor the 

country they love and the citizens 
who risk their lives to protect it.

That’s why when Colin 

Kaepernick decided to take a knee 
last year — to take a stand against 
social injustice — the chorus of 
voices began to split. Some praised 
his name while others defaced 
it. Some understood his message 
while others distorted it. Some 
followed his lead while others 
rebuked it. 

Kaepernick, now unemployed 

by the NFL, put his job on the line 
because he put his identity first. 
In the realm of sports, that’s a 
controversial stance. It shouldn’t be.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 

has become a vocal advocate of 
his former quarterback, and he 
maintained that role Saturday at 
Purdue. Asked if he agreed with the 
President’s stance, Harbaugh made 
his position explicitly clear.

“No, I don’t agree with the 

President,” Harbaugh said. 

“That’s ridiculous. Check the 
Constitution.”

The First Amendment explicitly 

gives all U.S. citizens the right to 
freedom of speech and the right to 
peaceful assembly. The backlash 
facing Kaepernick shows that both 
of those rights have come under 
heavy fire.

In choosing to focus public 

discourse on a problem that has 
plagued the country since long 
before the current president took 
office, Kaepernick has pushed 
himself and his fellow NFL players 
into uncharted waters.

They have had a tough decision 

to make every Sunday since he 
first touched his knee to the turf. 
Kaepernick made his a year ago, 
and he no longer has a job because 
of it. Now, his colleagues have to 
decide whether or not they should 
stand with him by kneeling as well.

According to the President, NFL 

players who want the “privilege” of 

making millions of dollars should 
stand for the National Anthem. 
Otherwise, the owners should 
employ his signature line to take 
away said privilege.

The NFL is a majority African-

American league. For the President 
to call NFL players who are 
protesting injustices toward their 
social group “sons of b------,” while 
deeming the participants of the alt-
right rally in Charlottesville “very 
fine people,” speaks volumes about 
race and society in this day and age.

Athletes are seen as entertainers, 

and fans give them a stage to put on 
a show. In exchange for the ability 
to play a sport for a living, athletes 
are seen as beholden to the desires 
of the consumers who spend their 
hard-earned money to support 
them. They are told to be grateful 
for what they have, and are seen 
as spoiled when they voice their 
discontent.

The owners — whose 

multibillion-dollar empires are 
also sustained by these consumers 
— are in the same boat, but they 
notably don’t face the same wave 
of criticism. It’s just as notable that 
not one owner is Black.

The argument that athletes 

should stick to sports is not only 
detrimental for its demeaning 
nature. Its underlying notion 
devalues athletes as individuals, 
deeming them undeserving of the 
ability to speak their minds about 
issues pertinent to their lives. Their 
identity off the field is determined 
to be irrelevant.

So on Sunday, in response to the 

President’s comments, many NFL 
players brought their identity with 
them on the field.

Dozens of athletes from teams 

across the country knelt in silent 
protest, while three entire teams 
decided to stay in their locker 
rooms during the anthem. Many 
owners defended their players in 

official press releases, and some 
even took the field to participate in 
protests alongside their teams.

While that could be a sign of 

progress, photos spread on social 
media told an alternate tale. Of the 
players choosing to take a knee, not 
many were White. And Kaepernick 
is still nowhere to be seen on a 
football sideline.

In the press box at Purdue’s Ross-

Ade Stadium, my fellow football 
beat writers and I happened to still 
be sitting as the National Anthem 
was set to begin. Another media 
member looked at us and asked if 
we were pulling a Kaepernick. 

We weren’t, and as we hurried 

to stand up, I hesitated for a split 
second. I could have kept sitting, or 
even kneeled myself. All I would be 
risking is disconcerting looks from 
media members who I likely won’t 
ever see again after graduation.

My job at a student-run college 

newspaper is safe, but I stood up 
anyway. Every time I have since 
Kaepernick lost his job, I’d be lying 
if I said I didn’t feel conflicted about 
it.

The National Anthem is a 

fundamental tradition of our 
country, and I would prefer if 
everyone stood and saluted the 
American flag. But taking a knee 
now means that inequality in our 
society is a serious issue that needs 
to be addressed, and that is a cause 
I wholeheartedly support.

The First Amendment is a 

fundamental element of our 
country as well, and Kaepernick 
should not have been punished for 
exercising his.

Kaepernick started a 

conversation about the intrinsic 
link between race and sports. After 
the President’s pointed remarks, 
that conversation has reached a 
tipping point, and two clear sides 
have emerged.

Take a stand with the President 

or take a knee with Kaepernick.

Ashame can be reached at 

ashabete@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @betelhem_ashame.

BETELHEM
ASHAME

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

The President of the United States called out NFL players for kneeling during the National Anthem, but their larger point about society is too important to ignore.

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

