done.”

That 
wouldn’t 
be 
the 

last time Winovich willed 
something into being.

***

When 
Matt 
Thompson 

first met Chase Winovich, 
Nick Volk had a prediction 
for him.

“The day I met Chase,” 

Thompson recalls, “(Volk) 
said that Chase was gonna be 
an All-American one day.”

Winovich came to Ann 

Arbor to play SAM in Brady 
Hoke’s defensive scheme, was 
asked to play tight end upon 
Jim Harbaugh’s arrival, hurt 
his PCL in 
the 
ensuing 

Spring 
Game 
and 

pulled 
his 

hamstring 
during 
the 

first 
week 

of 
camp. 

He 
found 

himself 
as 

the 
sixth 

or 
seventh-

string tight end.

Ask Winovich if he was 

any good at the position, and 
he’ll preface his answer by 
saying that he may be more 
confident in his abilities than 
others. Then he’ll tell you he 
could have been decent.

Ask former scout team 

quarterback Matt Thompson, 
and he’ll say that — despite 
all the time Winovich spent 
studying the concepts and 
catching 
balls 
outside 
of 

practice — they both knew 
tight end wasn’t the right 
position for him.

Thompson was also Chase’s 

former 
roommate, 
so 
he 

knows that Winovich never 
said so out loud. Instead, he 
reverted to the part of him 
that made losing a checkers 
match so unbearable.

“The way Chase’s brain 

is hardwired is that he will 
literally run through a wall 
for anybody,” Thompson said. 
“And I guess I would just try 
to make sure to emphasize to 
him that the position move 
was for the best of the team 

and that it’s a 
phenomenal 
opportunity for 
you to shock 
the 
world, 

because nobody 
had 
high 

expectations 
for him at the 
position. 
That 

type of thing 
excites him.”

Winovich 

didn’t get to shock the world, 
at least not at tight end.

He was reserved to special 

teams and — for the second 
straight year — scout team 
responsibilities.

It was in those practices 

that 
Winovich 
came 

across a safety who didn’t 
take as much pride in the 
scout team as he did. To 
Winovich, winning on the 
scout team meant making 
the offense better “at all 

costs,” especially when the 
offense was sputtering in 
2014. Eventually, the issue 
came to a head. Winovich 
told him that he was never 
going to make it here, 
because he didn’t want 
it bad enough. He wasn’t 
wrong. The safety didn’t 
make it.

There 
were 
other 

instances like that too. A 
punter criticized Winovich 
for missing a tackle in a 
scrimmage. Winovich told 

him to worry about punting.

In 
short, 
people 

took 
exception 
to 
the 

competitiveness he calls a 
gift and a curse.

“They got pissed at me 

everyday,” 
Winovich 
said. 

“I was just going so hard. 
Sometimes I was just being 
a schmuck, like I’d celebrate 
after I got a sack.”

Fifth-year senior center 

Patrick Kugler remembers 
those 
celebrations 
well. 

Winovich 
would 
do 
the 

worm, the Nae Nae or any 
celebration he could conceive 
after 
a 
big 
play 
during 

practice his freshman year.

Michigan went 5-7 that 

year. Brady Hoke eventually 
asked him to stop. The antics 
were dialed back.

As you can gather by now, 

though, there was no turning 
off Winovich’s motor.

That 
motor 
brought 

Winovich to blast music on 
the way to practice with 
Thompson, 
when 
his 

friend wasn’t 
feeling 
up 

to the grind. 
He’d 
tell 

Thompson 
that it was 
his big day, 
that he was 
the 
next 

Tom 
Brady 

— ready to 
climb out of the cellar of the 
depth chart.

And 
eventually, 
that 

motor landed him back in 
the defensive line room after 
Harbaugh’s first season.

“Yeah, I was ecstatic,” 

Winovich said. “It was my 
coming home party. Like 
LeBron James had going 
from Miami to Cleveland, I 
had mine going from tight 
end to defense.”

Added 
Thompson: 
“He 

was just really excited and 
said, ‘I think I was made for 
this position. My name is 
Chase. My name is not Block 
or Catch. I think I was made 

to play on defense.’ ”

And if 2017 has been any 

indication, 
Winovich 
was 

right.

***

Drive four miles east on 

Washtenaw 
Avenue 
from 

Schembechler 
Hall, 
and 

you will arrive at Randazzo 
Dance Studio.

If Winovich truly doesn’t 

care what people think of 
him, taking ballet classes in 
the offseason was a pretty 

good 
way 
to 

show it.

He 
went 

to the studio 
last 
spring, 

while 
still 

taking classes, 
and 
talked 

with 
Sarah 

Randazzo, 
the 
studio’s 

director. 
He 

asked 
for 

recommendations, and went 
through an evaluation.

Soon after, he was paired 

with Audrey Launius for one-
on-one instruction. Once a 
week for about three months, 
Winovich was in the studio. 
He started with basic ballet-
bar work, before moving on 
to pliés, tendus and degages.

Like most things Winovich 

does, he was good at it, and 
good simply wasn’t good 
enough.

“He picked it up very 

quickly, but he also asked the 
right kinds of questions,” 

5C
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Chase Winovich, now a starter, has paved his way to a legitimate chance of making it in the NFL, as he is second in the Big Ten in tackles for loss.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Chase Winovich boasts a competitiveness that he calls a blessing and a curse, and his first memory of such is a checkers tournament that he hosted.

I was ecstatic. 

It was my 

coming home 

party.

They got pissed 
at me everyday. 
I was just going 

so hard.

See WINOVICH, Page 6C

