The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SportsMonday December 4, 2017 — 3B FOOTBALL Michigan picked to face Cocks in Outback Bowl Remember that time Jadeveon Clowney knocked a helmet off Michigan running back Vincent Smith? Play it back a few times in your head, because the Michigan football team has a rematch in the same bowl game this year against the same opponent. Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines are Florida bound — again — this time to face off with South Carolina. They aren’t playing in the College Football Playoff or even in a New Year’s Six bowl game, but it’s a postseason game nonetheless. On Jan. 1, the Wolverines and Gamecocks will meet in the Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. “We are honored to represent our university and the Big Ten Conference in the tradition- laden Outback Bowl in Tampa,” Harbaugh said in a press release. “Our players and staff are excited to face an excellent SEC opponent in South Carolina and look forward to the competition on New Year’s Day.” The game, which will kickoff at noon eastern time, pits Michigan against an SEC opponent in a bowl game for the second time in Harbaugh’s three seasons. This matchup will also be the Wolverines’ third-straight bowl game in Florida. Michigan lost in the Orange Bowl last year to Florida State, 33-32, and the Wolverines beat Florida the prior year in the Citrus Bowl, 41-7. Michigan’s roster is laden with Florida natives. They all said they were excited to play the Gators to open up the season, and once again, those same Florida guys are excited to play close to home. “I’m sure we’ll have some family come down for Christmas,” said senior tackle Mason Cole, who is from the Tampa area. “I have so many friends that just haven’t been able to make it up to games, but now they’ll be able to make it to a game easily. I think everyone’s just excited.” The Wolverines (5-4 Big Ten, 8-4 overall) finished fourth in the Big Ten East, while the Gamecocks (5-3 SEC, 8-4 overall) finished second in the SEC East behind No. 3 Georgia. The last time the two teams met was in the 2013 Outback Bowl, when the Gamecocks won on a late touchdown, 33-28. Michigan’s bowl selection came after a shakeup among college football’s top programs. Despite winning the Big Ten Championship on Saturday night, Ohio State couldn’t sneak into the Playoff. Instead, the committee chose a one-loss Alabama team — that didn’t play for its conference championship — to fit in at the No. 4 spot. Leaving Ohio State out of the top four pushed all the bowl-eligible Big Ten teams down in the selection process. Nonetheless, the Wolverines will get to play in the Outback Bowl ahead of both Michigan State and Northwestern, both of which finished with better records at 9-3, and the latter of which beat the Wolverines at home. The rival Spartans ended up with the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Speaking to media Sunday afternoon, Michigan junior safety Tyree Kinnel talked about his immediate reactions to the news. “You can’t win or lose out with California or down in Tampa, but we know the Outback’s the bigger bowl, so we’re definitely excited for this one,” Kinnel said. “We definitely want to get this win for our seniors.” Patterson would make difference for ‘M’ S hea Patterson played eight games this year before suffering a season-ending injury. In those eight games, he threw for 2,259 yards and 17 touchdowns. Michi- gan’s rotat- ing trio of quarter- backs? Well, they threw for a com- bined 2,023 yards and nine touch- downs — in 12 games. There shouldn’t be any debate. If it’s on the table, Patterson and the Wol- verines should get hitched. And it certainly seems like there’s a chance that could hap- pen — maybe even more than just a chance at this point. Yesterday, the Ole Miss Spirit of 247Sports reported that the Rebels granted their star sopho- more quarterback permission to contact other teams about trans- ferring, with both parties signing a “permission to contact” form. That means that Patterson can reach out to teams like Michigan — and in turn, teams like Michi- gan can reach out to him. The Spirit also reported that the Wolverines are “probably the favorite” for Patterson, if he does indeed decide to transfer. Of course, Patterson’s deci- sion to transfer is likely contin- gent on whether he’ll be eligible immediately. In fact, one of his teammates has already retained a lawyer to petition the NCAA for immediate eligibility. So for the sake of this exercise, let’s assume Patterson won’t have to sit out a year — giving him status as a coveted free-agent for any quarterback-starved teams. Hello, Michigan. As we all saw throughout the year — whether it was against Michigan State or Ohio State — the Wolverines have been in need of better quarterback play. One might argue Brandon Peters has done enough to prove he should be the team’s quarterback of the future, or that the praise for Dylan McCaffrey shows he could start next year. Maybe bring- ing in a hired gun like Patterson would ruffle a few feathers. But Patterson would supply what the Wolverines have need- ed. He’s got a pedigree unlike that of any other quarterback on the roster. People have been talking about him for years, long before he even joined the college ranks. He was ranked as the No. 4 overall pros- pect and the No. 1 pro-style quar- terback in his recruiting class. He won a pair of national champion- ships playing for Calvary Baptist Academy in Louisiana. Then he transferred to IMG Academy for his senior year, a football factory that plays top teams from across the country every year. All Pat- terson did was lead them to a perfect 9-0 record. He didn’t face much of a learn- ing curve once he got to Ole Miss, either. After Chad Kelly went down with a season-ending injury, Hugh Freeze chose to lift Patterson’s redshirt and start him on the road against then-No. 8 Texas A&M. That stage wasn’t too bright for the highly-touted freshman. Patterson led the Rebels to a 29-28 upset win, throwing for 338 yards and two touchdowns and adding 64 yards on the ground. In College Station, he looked every bit the dynamic player he had been hyped up to be. Patterson was well on his way to taking the proverbial next step this year, too, before a PCL injury against LSU ended his season prematurely. Make no mistake about it: Pat- terson would be a perfect fit for Michigan. Watch the highlights, and you’ll see. Patterson can hit all the throws required in Jim Har- baugh’s offense. The Wolverines couldn’t complete a deep ball this year. Patterson averaged 8.7 yards per attempt this year and averaged 33.1 yards per touch- down pass, a mark that ranked third-best in the nation according to Pro Football Focus. He also brings more to the table than your typical pocket- passer. At times, Patterson looks like the second coming of Johnny Manziel, displaying an innate ability to feel pressure, dodge pass rushers and deliver catch- able balls on the run. Consider him already well-equipped to deal with Michigan’s issues in pass protection. It’s possible that Peters or McCaffrey could still lead the Wolverines to the promised land. But projecting that requires some squinting. You have to imagine one quarterback with 64 career attempts making a huge leap, or a quarterback who has never even attempted a throw in college doing the same. The man under center would still be a question mark, less of a sure thing. And therein lies the difference between Patterson and Michi- gan’s current options. Shea Pat- terson doesn’t project to be good. He is good. Add him to the roster, and you’ve got a winning equation. There’s no squinting required to predict a season that ends with Michigan’s first appearance in the College Football Playoff. Sang can be reached at otsang@umich.edu or on Twitter at @orion_sang. FOOTBALL Harbaugh talks Playoff format, Speight, Peters If you haven’t heard already, no Big Ten team made the College Football Playoff. Instead, the Playoff committee opted for a one-loss Alabama team. It didn’t take long for Jim Harbaugh to be asked about his reaction to the lack of conference representation in the Playoff when he was featured on the Outback Bowl teleconference Sunday night. And his answer didn’t disappoint, as he stressed that a 16-team playoff would be ideal in his mind. “My reaction is that there should be more than four teams in the Playoff,” he said. “Again, just reiterate — eight teams, 12 teams, 16 teams. … That would make it more like every other sport. … I think it’s the ideal way to do it.” PETERS THE NO. 1: According to Harbaugh, the Wolverines are set to resume full team practices Monday. And when that time comes, redshirt freshman Brandon Peters will be Michigan’s starting quarterback. “We’ll start practice with Brandon as the No. 1 quarterback,” Harbaugh said. Peters took over the starting reigns midway through the Wolverines’ matchup against Rutgers, but was injured against Wisconsin and subsequently went through concussion protocol. Though he wasn’t cleared in time to face the Buckeyes, he did resume practicing last Tuesday. Of course, the current certainty to start Peters comes in the wake of redshirt junior Wilton Speight’s announcement that he will be transferring to play out his final year of eligibility elsewhere. Harbaugh, though, has no hard feelings about Speight’s decision. “I just support him, like all the guys on the team. I support what they think is best for them. … I’ve always had a good relationship with Wilton, and I was … just happy that he came in to talk to me. “We had an honest discussion — always strive for that with all of our players — and just know what’s on his mind. Nothing secretive, nothing’s coming from the dark shadows. It doesn’t have to be that way — just good, upfront, honest dialogue. And I appreciate those kind of relationships the most.” “NOT GOOD ENOUGH”: As is customary, the preparation leading up to the Wolverines’ bowl game provides players — especially those who didn’t receive significant reps during the regular season — with nearly a full month to improve. And Harbaugh was quick to acknowledge that the practice time will help Michigan reach a level it has failed to attain thus far this season. “We look at it right now (as) we’re not good enough. Not good enough to win all of our games and we need to be better. We need to be good enough. And that starts now. That really started last week, as we go forward, building and attacking.” MISCELLANEOUS: Tyree Kinnel said Sunday afternoon that he is “100 percent” healthy, after suffering his first ever concussion against Ohio State. He went through concussion protocol for a week before being cleared. Harbaugh said he was “leaning toward” preserving Tarik Black’s medical redshirt by not playing him in the Outback Bowl. Black played in four games this year before suffering a broken foot, and according to NCAA rules four games is the maximum a player can play to qualify for a medical redshirt. According to Harbaugh, Black will most likely resume practicing. Michigan’s starters did not practice last week, but did have weight room sessions. Backups practiced last Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Harbaugh said that full team practices will resume tomorrow. KEVIN SANTO Managing Sports Editor TED JANES Daily Sports Writer Wolverines surrender momentum at USNTDP It would have been understandable if fans had walked out of USA Hockey Arena on Saturday night just 25 minutes into the game. The Michigan hockey team led the U-18 U.S. National Development Program, 4-0, after senior forward Dexter Dancs tapped in a power play goal just over five minutes into the second period. But leaving, of course, would have been a mistake. Masked behind the Wolverines’ statistical rout of the USNTDP was the fact that a shift in momentum would soon make the game a lot closer than could have been anticipated from Michigan’s flying start. Two minutes after Dancs’ goal, the USNTDP began to chip away at the Wolverine lead. On a power play, forward Oliver Wahlstrom was the first to knock the puck past sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne. And in the blink of an eye, the USNTDP had cut its deficit to two. Under two minutes after the first goal, forward Patrick Giles found the back of Michigan’s net, too. With just over three minutes remaining in the period, Giles fired again, successfully evading Lavigne’s gloves for the second time of the night. In the course of 13 minutes, within a sole period, the Wolverines went from unevenly dominating a game to almost surrendering their edge. “I think this is one of the biggest games on (USNTDP’s) schedule,” said senior forward Tony Calderone. “They wanted to bring it to us, so we had to match that.” A common theme in Michigan’s games this season have been big, late-game comebacks, leaving fans on the edge of their seats throughout the second and third periods. But Saturday night’s exhibition match saw almost the reverse for the Wolverines. Michigan began with a sizable lead but almost lost it, and was outshot by the USNTDP over the final two periods of the game. And the Wolverines attributed their second period energy shift to easing up on offensive intensity. “I think we get too comfortable,” Calderone said. “We get a couple goals up, and everyone kind of sits back. It’s something we need to work on going forward.” Michigan coach Mel Pearson echoed these sentiments, highlighting the danger of getting comfortable with your position in a game no matter the score. “We got comfortable with a big lead tonight,” Pearson said. “And it’s easy to think you have the game where you want it, and just relax a little bit. And the other team, I’m sure the coach is getting after them a bit, and that’s the difference. We even scored the first goal in the second to make it 4-0. “It’s like if you’re going up a hill and you have to keep your foot on the gas pedal. But if you take it off you’re not going to keep climbing up that hill, you’re going to start going backwards. And I think that’s part of what the problem was tonight, anyway.” The “second period slump” is a concept that the Wolverines have been familiar with recently, unable to keep up with the pace set by the opposition during the period. In four of its last six games, Michigan has been outscored in the second period. And this exhibition was a continuation of that trend — something the Wolverines would like to see altered before returning to their conference schedule. Pearson attributes Michigan’s difficulty to keep its large lead in the second period to the pace of line changes. Due to the nature of the exhibition, the rotation of line changes was slower, as every Wolverine had the opportunity to see ice time in the match. “We just wanted to try some different things tonight,” Pearson said. “We dressed everybody, and that’s one of the things that made it difficult, as players were not getting on the ice as much as you would like.” Despite Michigan’s sluggish display in the second period, the Wolverines were able to compose themselves in the final stanza, tacking on three insurance goals while sacrificing none. But the second period should act as a cautionary tale for Michigan as it moves forward with Big Ten matchups. The exhibition highlighted how quickly momentum can shift when one team’s offense starts getting hot and the other stays idle. ANNA MARCUS Daily Sports Writer EVAN AARON/Daily Senior forward Dexter Dancs scored just five minutes into the second period to give Michigan a four-goal lead, but the Wolverines still surrendered momentum. EVAN AARON/Daily Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh may have an opportunity to pursue Shea Patterson, if he so chooses, this offseason. ORION SANG