8A — Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Coon weighing Olympics, NFL in life after a storied Michigan career
Over the past five years, it
has been impossible to discuss
the
Michigan
wrestling
program without mentioning
Adam Coon. Since his first day
in Ann Arbor, the fifth-year
senior has won over the hearts
of the Wolverine faithful with
his dominance on the mat
and his genuine and strong
personality off it.
Now, as he prepares to leave
Michigan, Coon sifts through
a world of opportunities. One
of those opportunities, and
arguably the most prominent,
consists of sticking to what he
knows and further developing
his
already-legendary
wrestling career.
If Coon were to continue to
wrestle, it would no doubt be
in preparation for the 2020
Olympic Games.
That preparation isn’t an
unfamiliar process for the
heavyweight, as he attempted
to represent his country in
2016. Dogged by a shoulder
injury, Coon fell one match
short of making the team. Now,
with another year of collegiate
wrestling under his belt and
his health returned, this could
be the chance for Coon to
realize his Olympic dreams.
However,
this
time
the
road
doesn’t
lead
through
Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder — an
Olympic gold medalist and
two-time
NCAA
Champion.
The
wrestlers
compete
in
different weight classes in the
Olympics, as they sit 60 pounds
apart.
Over the years, the Coon
v.
Snyder
matches
have
been
collegiate
wrestling’s
biggest gladiator showdowns.
Wrestling three times in their
last year of eligibility, the top-
ranked college heavyweights
became familiar with each
other on the mat. In their
series, Snyder bested Coon,
2-1, with Coon stealing a match
from the Olympian in front of
a record-breaking Michigan
crowd.
Despite wrestling with a
60-pound deficit, Snyder then
stepped up when it counted
most and defeated Coon to
win the Big Ten and NCAA
Championships.
Now,
Coon
hopes to take the adversarial
edge off their relationship.
After all, Coon has another
foe to worry about if he wants
to make it on the Olympic team:
two-time
NCAA
Champion
and 2017 World Championship
bronze
medalist
Nick
Gwiazdowski.
“I’d
like
to
think
that
(Snyder and I) can be each
other’s teammates rather than
opponents,” Coon said. “But
he’s most likely gonna make
the team, and I have a really
tough opponent in front of
me to make the team. So, I’m
hoping we can train together
and learn from each other and
we both get better. So, I hope
we can be civil about it and
stuff and not be each other’s
opponent, but see how we can
make each other better.”
Another option for the 285-
pound wrestler is football.
Yes, you read that right. Full
contact, professional football.
Due
to
his
size
and
remarkable athleticism, Coon
has been drawing the attention
of some NFL teams who are
interested in recruiting him to
play offensive line.
While he didn’t play in
college, Coon is no stranger to
the gridiron. In high school,
he was named an all-state
linebacker his senior year and
a two-time all-state honorable
mention offensive lineman.
If he were to select the
football route, Coon wouldn’t
be the only collegiate wrestler
to make the jump to the pros.
Many NFL greats wrestled in
either high school or college.
Hall of Fame linebacker Ray
Lewis was a two-time Florida
state wrestling champion and
all-pro fullback Lorenzo Neal
was an NCAA Champion.
“It’s more just about seeing
if there’s any interest, and then
we’re gonna move forward if
that’s the route I want to take,”
Coon said.
Whatever he ends up doing,
Coon
will
most
definitely
always
have
a
home
at
Michigan. Departing as a two-
time NCAA runner-up and
three-time All-American, it’s
hard to imagine a greater face
for the wrestling program.
He has given wrestling fans
plenty to smile about while
serving as a role model for the
next generation of Wolverines.
As he leaves, he offers sound
advice to the students who will
occupy the Bahna Wrestling
Center after him.
“Wrestling (in college) is a
lot more mental than in high
school,” Coon said. “It’s being
able to put up with the grinds
in the middle of the season
and then just realizing that
your life is not just wrestling.
There’s a lot more to life than
just wrestling and if your whole
life is based on wrestling, then
frankly, you’ve lived a sad life,
in my opinion.”
Also beyond wrestling, Coon
is an aerospace engineering
student
who
is
constantly
trying to keep his mind sharp.
“I’d like to get into some
kind of research or something
just to keep the wheels going
as well as develop stuff,” Coon
said, “so when I do end up going
for a career after this, that I’m
not one of those guys that just
wrestles or plays football, that
I have those skills in place so
that if I need to use them that
I’m ready to go, that type of
thing.”
Whether Coon decides to
spend his next few years on the
mat, on the practice field or in
a cubicle, it is apparent he will
give it everything he’s got. But
for now, he just needs to pick
a path.
“I know that what I want to
do is finish up schooling here,”
Coon said, “and then we’ll see
where God takes me.”
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Fifth-year senior heavyweight Adam Coon can try to make the Olympics, try to make the NFL or go into engineering now that his wrestling career at Michigan is finished.
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
With his Wolverines career behind him, Adam Coon graduates into an uncertain future, with multiple opportunities
After breakout year, tight ends primed for more
Sherrone Moore has never had
this kind of depth in his meeting
rooms.
The Michigan football team’s
first-year tight ends coach went
through a full season at Central
Michigan with just two tight ends.
Now, he’s inheriting a position
group chock full of talent.
“I’m extremely excited at the
fact Coach Harbaugh loves tight
ends that much,” Moore said
On last season’s offense that
failed to impress in multiple areas,
the tight ends were one of the
Wolverines’ lone bright spots.
Junior Sean McKeon led the
team with 31 catches and three
receiving touchdowns and finished
third on the team in receiving
yards, with 301.
His position-mate, senior Zach
Gentry, finished with 303 receiving
yards and two touchdowns, both
good enough for second on the
team.
Needless
to
say,
the
pair
combined to provide a spark to
a passing game that otherwise
struggled.
That duo returns for Michigan,
and with questions and health
issues surrounding other parts of
the offense, Gentry and McKeon’s
proven productivity will act as a
safety blanket.
“Outstanding threats in the
passing
game,”
Moore
said.
“Obviously, with Zach being (6-foot-
7), he’s a mismatch nightmare with
his size, with his strength. And he’s
265 right now, so he’s just getting
bigger and bigger and stronger and
stronger. And then Sean, he’s just
so cerebral and strong … He’s so
athletic.
“Both can play multiple positions
in the group.”
Gentry and McKeon aren’t
alone, either.
Junior Nick Eubanks looked
promising in the Wolverines’ first
game last season, catching two balls
for 61 yards against Florida. But an
arm injury sidelined Eubanks after
just four games. Now, he’s back too,
sporting a new accessory and all.
“Nick looks good,” Gentry said
on Mar. 27. “Nick’s flying around
and doing a lot of good stuff. Nick’s
ready to go. He’s got the Gronk
elbow brace on now.”
Senior Tyrone Wheatley Jr.
is a bigger, more run-blocking-
oriented player, the foil to the rest
of the unit’s finesse. Though he
suffered a foot injury that has kept
him out of spring ball, Wheatley is
scheduled to return by the summer
and provide a much-needed run-
blocking presence for an offense
that struggled to pound the rock
against good defenses last season.
That facet of the game is
something all the tight ends have
worked to improve. Gentry and
McKeon, especially, have already
proven themselves to be assets in
the passing game. Now, especially
for Gentry, the former quarterback,
run blocking is emphasized even
more.
“Really it starts with the run
game,” McKeon said on April
5. “When he switched over my
freshman year, he couldn’t block
anyone. I mean, honestly. But now,
he’s bulked up. He’s 260 now. He’s
moving people off the ball. So that’s
been the biggest improvement with
him. And he still has his speed too,
his route running. He looks great
out there.”
All the factors combine to give
hope for improvement on a unit that
didn’t leave much room to improve.
Moore joked Tuesday that he
just learned the names of all the
players in his meeting room.
It’s hard to blame him. It’s
something he’s never seen before.
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Junior tight end Sean McKeon led all the Wolverines last season with 31 receptions and three receiving touchdowns and finished third with 301 receiving yards.
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
Turnovers, Rutgers ‘O’
kills Michigan’s hopes
Despite an inability to find
the back of the net, the No. 18
Michigan men’s lacrosse team
looked like it could hold its own
against a Big Ten powerhouse
in No. 9 Rutgers. With three
minutes to go in the first half,
the Wolverines were down just
3-0.
However, the game quickly
unraveled. The Scarlet Knights
scored five goals in the final
three minutes, heading to the
locker room with an 8-0 lead,
which proved to be detrimental
to Michigan as it fell, 16-8. Just
as it did against
No. 3 Maryland
last
weekend,
Michigan
dug
itself a massive
hole
due
to
a lack of ball
security
and
poor transition
defense.
The
Wolverines
turned the ball
over 14 times,
with seven of the giveaways
coming before halftime.
One
particularly
woeful
sequence played out with 2:50
remaining in the second quarter.
Scarlet Knight Kieran Mullins,
who scored eight goals in the
contest, scored on a transition
chance to put his team up, 4-0.
Just eight seconds later, Mullins
struck again, racing up the field
after a faceoff win and rifling a
shot to deflate a Michigan team
that had looked full of life just
moments earlier.
“Rutgers, they go in spurts,
and when you give a team,
and such a talented team,
opportunities like that, it can
fuel their fire,” said Michigan
coach Kevin Conry on Rutgers’
finish to the half. “They’re
a very emotional team, and
so they kinda felt their mojo
going.”
The Wolverines didn’t fare
much better after coming out of
the locker room, with Rutgers
scoring two more goals in the
first 37 seconds of the third
quarter to extend the lead to
10-0.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t
come out of the locker room and
hold off that blitz anymore,”
Conry said.
While the game’s outcome
was
virtually
decided
at
halftime, Michigan managed
to find some bright spots in
the game’s final frame, with
freshman Kevin Mack and Alex
Buckanavage
spurring
the
offense late to
lessen the deficit
to eight.
“That’s
who
we are,” Conry
said.
“Those
last 10 minutes,
that’s the team
that
we
know
and love, and has
potential to be a
pretty special group.”
While
the
Wolverines
showed promise with their late
run, the team’s struggles with
ball control and ball movement
still
remain
a
lingering
issue, and Conry knows that
Michigan must cut down on
errors in one of the nation’s
best conferences.
“If you make mistakes, the
teams are gonna make you pay,”
Conry said.
If Conry’s squad plays the
way it did in the fourth quarter,
the team could be the first in
school history to clinch a berth
in the NCAA Tournament.
If the Wolverines play the
way they did in the second
quarter, though, this could be
yet another season where fans
wonder what could have been.
TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
“We couldn’t
come out ... and
hold off that
blitz.”
MEN’S LACROSSE