JOIN US FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT, 
which will feature seven rising star panelists to spark a conversation 
and raise awareness about climate change.

PANELISTS INCLUDE:

• 
Ben Bunker: CEO, Global BrightLight Foundation
• 
Tara Houska: Attorney and Director, Honor the Earth
• 
Angel Hsu: Director, 
Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group
• 
Ahmina Maxey: North American Coordinator, Global Alliance for 
Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
• 
Kait Parker: Meteorologist, Weather.com and ABC News
• 
Varun Sivaram: Douglas Dillon Fellow and Acting Director, 
Council of Foreign Relations
• 
Sean A. Watkins: Community Manager, 
The Solutions Project

For more information visit seas.umich.edu

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017
11-12:30 P.M. RACKHAM AUDITORIUM

CONGRATULATIONS
200
200

To our 31E scholars on the 
35th anniversary 

of our class of 1931 Engineering Scholarship Program

The class of ‘31E and its Scholarship Selection Committee Congratulates and welcomes their SIX 
new scholarship winners for the 2017-2018 academic year:

JOSEPH COSTELLO
ERIN DEUTSCHMAN
TAYLOR FEDDERSEN

AMBRIA HOPFE
MICHAEL KLETTNER
JOSEPH TAYLOR

They will be joining the ‘31E HONOR SOCIETY and our THIRTEEN current scholars:

George E. Anderson | Director of Media Relations | Class of 1931 Engineering 

All of these scholarship winners will be honored at the 86th Annual Reunion Dinner of the Class 
of ‘31E, which will be held at the Four Points Sheraton Inn, Ann Arbor, Mich. on Friday evening,
October 27th, 2017 at 5:30 PM.

Since the establishment of the ‘31E Scholarship Program in 1982, more than 200 aspiring
engineering students have been helped to experience a University of Michigan education and have 
gone on to rewarding careers.

ADONIS JOHNSON
JOCELYN MARCHYOK
HALEY PROUT
GRAYSON RICE
ARIEL SANDBERG
CODY SYMONS
GARRETT ZUCK

DOMINIK KONIK
DANIEL PIPPEN
ROHAN PUNNOOSE
MARIO RUSSO
RAYMOND SMITH-BYRD
PHILLIP YANG

8 — Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Peters improving, but O’Korn 
the starter for the Wolverines

The plan was for Brandon 

Peters to get the ball in garbage 
time.

With just over three minutes 

remaining 
in 
the 
blowout 

Saturday 
night, 
Penn 
State 

took over possession. Backup 
quarterback 
Tommy 
Stevens 

kept the ball for an 11-yard rush 
on the first play of the series. The 
ball came free, and Michigan 
seemingly recovered the fumble. 
Upon further review, though, 
Stevens was ruled down, and the 
Nittany Lions killed the clock 
from there.

On Monday afternoon, Jim 

Harbaugh said that if the call had 
not been overturned, Michigan’s 
redshirt freshman quarterback 
would have led the Wolverines’ 
final offensive series.

That doesn’t mean much, 

if anything at all. Harbaugh 
said 
nothing 
Monday 
that 

would suggest fifth-year senior 
John O’Korn is no longer the 
Wolverines’ starter.

“I won’t go into everything, but 

he managed the game very well, 
got everything communicated, 
ran the offense 
very 
well,” 

Harbaugh 
said 

of 
O’Korn’s 

performance 
at Penn State. 
“There was some 
duress and some 
plays 
that 
we 

could have made, 
et cetera. (We’ll) 
go back and look 
at it. That’s what 
we’re 
in 
the 

process of doing. (There was) 
some good, kind of a theme for 
our offense. There were some 
(missed opportunities) out there 
as well.”

The outside clamor for Peters 

has escalated throughout the 
year, and the 42-13 loss to the 
Nittany Lions — a game in which 

O’Korn averaged six yards per 
attempt with a fumble — has 
pushed that din to excess.

Harbaugh did say Peters has 

been improving since he began 
taking backup snaps in the wake 
of redshirt junior quarterback 
Wilton Speight’s injury.

But based on Harbaugh’s 

comments, the clamor is just 
that. While the 
progress is there, 
the starting job 
— as the situation 
currently stands 
— is not.

For Peters to 

see time on the 
field this year, 
it appears that 
Michigan 
will 

need to establish 
comfortable 
leads 
or 
find 
itself 
in 

insurmountable 
deficits. 
And 

with an offense that ranks 
98th in pass offense, that first 
hypothetical does not fall in the 
redshirt freshman’s favor.

As 
for 
the 
players’ 
own 

outlook, there is no discrepancy.

“Kind of a little tidbit from 

Coach Harbaugh, I don’t like 
to 
compare 
people 
because 

someone 
gets 

demoted in the 
comparison,” 
said 
junior 

wide 
receiver 

Grant 
Perry. 

“But 
they’re 

both great guys; 
they’re 
both 

great 
leaders. 

But Brandon is 
learning 
from 

John and John 
is learning from 

Brandon, and that’s just kind of 
the scheme of things — people 
learning from each other.”

Added 
fifth-year 
senior 

fullback Henry Poggi: “Brandon’s 
been developing really well. I 
remember when he came in for 
spring ball his freshman year. 
He’s just really grown from 

there. He’s going to be a really 
good player for us.”

The quarterback controversy, 

of course, is not new. Speight 
faced his fair share of criticism 
prior to sustaining a hit against 
Purdue on Sept. 23 that left him 
with three cracked vertebrae.

Harbaugh never confirmed 

that the injury would rule Speight 

out 
for 
the 

season, but did 
address Speight’s 
status 
Monday 

afternoon, 
drawing from his 
own experience 
in 
1984 
when 

he 
missed 
an 

entire 
season 

after 
breaking 

his arm against 
Michigan State.

“First 
and 
foremost, 
get 

healthy,” Harbaugh said. “That’s 
where you concentrate most 
of your efforts. That’s where 
most of his efforts are being 
concentrated. 
Every 
single 

minute of the day he’s getting 
treatment they tell me, the 
doctors and trainers. He’s at 
practice; I know he’s chomping 
at the bit. The bones healing back 
together, that takes time.”

Added 
fifth-year 
senior 

running back Ty Isaac: “I talk 
to (Wilton) all the time. (He’s) 
just dealing with an injury like 
anybody else would. You’ve gotta 
rehab and work to get back, and 
I know how bad he wants to 
keep playing right now, so I don’t 
think his spirits are diminished 
at all. He’s got a task at hand right 
now, even though it’s not playing 
for us, it’s getting healthy so he 
can get back on the field.”

Whether Speight does get 

back on the field this season 
remains to be seen.

And until then, the outside 

noise will continue to surround 
the 
man 
under 
center 
for 

the 
Wolverines. 
But 
taking 

Harbaugh’s 
comments 
into 

consideration, it’s just noise.

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

Fifth-year senior quarterback John O’Korn’s job is not in question after the blowout according to coach Jim Harbaugh. 

Bushell-Beatty finding his place 

Two Saturdays ago, redshirt 

junior offensive lineman Juwann 
Bushell-Beatty came off the bench 
against Michigan State. 

The Wolverines were trailing 

14-3, and nothing was going right 
for Michigan’s offensive line.

Redshirt 
sophomore 
Nolan 

Ulizio started at right tackle, and 
he continued to get beat. The 
Spartans’ larger, more physical 
defensive front kept pounding 
at Ulizio, and Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh saw that it was 
necessary to bring on a substitute.

Enter Bushell-Beatty.
Sure enough, Michigan State got 

another sack just a few drives later. 
Michigan’s offensive line couldn’t 
hold off the Spartans’ pressure, 
and over the course of that game, 
fifth-year senior quarterback John 
O’Korn was sacked four times.

Saturday night at No. 2 Penn 

State, 
the 
problem 
persisted: 

O’Korn was sacked seven times.

The offensive line has been 

penetrable 
against 
ranked 

opponents this season, but there is 
one area in which it has grown.

It finally found its fifth man. The 

right tackle position had gone back 
and forth all season. Sometimes 
Ulizio played, sometimes Bushell-
Beatty came in, and other times 
redshirt 
junior 
Jon 
Runyan 

entered the fray.

But since coming off the bench 

against Michigan State, Bushell-
Beatty has started in every game. 
Still, the switch hasn’t kept O’Korn 
upright. 

“He’s in there playing, being 

available, 
being 
durable,” 

Harbaugh said. “(Bushell-Beatty’s) 
play has improved, and striving to 
be even better.”

Harbaugh said that he wouldn’t 

use the word “well” to describe 
the offensive line’s performance 
against Penn State — after all, 
the team lost. But there were 
components of the line’s play he 
thought were good nonetheless.

“After watching the tape, the line 

played very physical,” Harbaugh 
said. “Their performance had 

some really good things and some 
things we’d like to have done 
better. Juwann, being part of that 
line, I really thought he matched 
up physically and really fought 
hard.”

Bushell-Beatty’s 
consistency 

is one of those “good things” that 
Harbaugh talked about.

One advantage Bushell-Beatty 

has over many of his teammates is 
experience. It’s his fourth season 
with the team. He redshirted the 
year that Michigan went 5-7 in 
2014. Though he wasn’t playing 
that year, he learned how valuable 
it is to face and overcome adversity.

Now 
that 
Michigan 
has 

suffered its second loss of the 
season, Bushell-Beatty hopes his 
teammates can embrace the same 
mindset that he did a few years ago.

“Although we may not want to 

learn through (a loss), it can teach 
us a lot,” Bushell-Beatty said. “It 
helps you shape yourself as a player. 
Winning every game doesn’t really 
teach you anything.

“It may be nice, but when you 

learn from losing games and 
trying to come back from upsets 

and disappointing events in your 
season, it teaches you to refocus 
and re-compartmentalize what 
you have in mind.”

Bushell-Beatty found that all 

out early in his career, and now 
he’s seeing it all again. A Big 
Ten championship and a spot in 
the College Football Playoff — 
Michigan’s goals at the start of the 
year — won’t come without outside 
help.

“Things aren’t necessarily in 

our hands anymore,” Bushell-
Beatty said.

But the Wolverines need to 

play as if their fate still is in their 
hands. Bushell-Beatty took on that 
mentality individually four years 
ago, and the dividends are just 
starting to show.

He’s getting more playing time 

than ever and improving each 
week.

He relishes the fact that the 

outcome may not always turn out 
the way he wants.

“I want it to be a challenge,” 

Bushell-Beatty said. “I don’t want 
everything to be handed to me that 
easily.”

TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

Redshirt junior right tackle Juwann Bushell-Beatty has earned a starting spot.

KEVIN SANTO

Managing Sports Editor

They’re both 
great guys; 
they’re both 
great leaders

I won’t go into 
everything, but 
he managed the 
game very well

