2B — Monday, September 24, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The ties that bind Scott Frost and Jim Harbaugh

Scott 
Frost 
sat 
down at the 
podium, 
adjusted the 
microphones 
in front of 
him 
and 
looked at the 
reporters 
waiting 
for 
an 
explanation 
of how his Nebraska football 
team had just lost by 46 points 
at Michigan Stadium.
Frost played with the collar 
of his red sweatshirt as he 
listened to the first question. 
Then he began to speak — 
bluntly and truthfully.
“I told them, I honestly 
believe this is going to be the 
bottom, right here,” Frost said. 
“I don’t know how many times 
I’ve been a part of a game like 
that, but we got beat in every 
phase.”
He paused for a couple 
seconds, and then continued.
“We’re really going to find 
out who loves football and who 
loves each other and who’s 
going to band together.”
As sobering of a message as 
any.
Put yourself in Frost’s shoes 
for a second. When the 43-year-
old coach — widely touted as 
one of the brightest young 
minds in all of college football 
— decided to come home to the 
school he quarterbacked to 
a national championship, he 
surely could not have expected 
his return to have played out 
like this.
His athletic director, Bill 
Moos, couldn’t have either. 
In April, Moos said better 
days 
were 
ahead 
for 
the 
Cornhuskers. Then he said, 
“You’ve got Urban Meyer and 
Jim Harbaugh thinking, ‘We 
better put a little more into 
that Nebraska game coming 
up.’ And that’s the way we 
want it. They’re running a 
little bit scared right now. And 

they won’t admit it. We’ll leave 
that at that.”
But if Saturday afternoon’s 
beatdown was the low point, 
then 
Nebraska 
has been on a 
collision course 
with 
rock 
bottom for quite 
some time now.
On Jan. 30, 
almost 
two 
months 
after 
his hiring, Frost 
stood in front 
of 
reporters 
and 
took 
responsibility 
for 
the 
hospitalization of two of his 
new players, who had suffered 
from rhabdomyolysis.
When the season started, 
the 
team’s 
opener 
against 
Akron was cancelled due to a 
weather-related delay, erasing 

a seemingly easy opportunity 
to start a new era on the right 
foot.
Then 
the 
Cornhuskers 
played Colorado, 
and lost when 
freshman 
phenom Adrian 
Martinez, 
the 
only scholarship 
quarterback on 
the roster, left 
the game with 
a knee injury. 
The next week, 
Nebraska 
lost 
to Troy of the 
Sun 
Belt 
conference. 
That 
brings us to Saturday, when 
the Cornhuskers played one 
of the programs they hope to 
eventually emulate. Of course, 
Brady Hoke left Jim Harbaugh 
a roster littered with highly-
rated recruits. Mike Riley left 

Scott Frost a roster.
Still, Michigan, Ohio State 
and even Wisconsin, are all 
farther in the distance than 
ever. 
Frost 
would have to 
squint to find 
them 
on 
the 
horizon.
Which 
brings 
us 
to 
the concept of 
the 
hometown 
hero, and why 
this is going to 
be so difficult 
for Frost going 
forward.
Everyone loves a hometown 
hero. They grew up alongside 
you, part of the history of 
your village, town or city. The 
place that you call home — 
they did, too, and this is where 
they found their first success, 

success that you shared, took 
part in and still remember, 
even if it was decades ago.
At some point, they might’ve 
left, to chase a 
Super Bowl or to 
win a national 
championship at 
Central Florida. 
You 
watched 
them, adoringly, 
rooting 
for 
them to do well, 
secretly hoping 
that they still 
think of home, 
still 
want 
to 
come home.
And when things do go 
wrong at home, the residents 
don’t pine for the Oregon 
State coach with a west-coast 
offense, or the West Virginia 
coach with his fancy spread 
offense.

Everyone in Lincoln had been 
waiting for the return of the 
prodigal son, the quarterback 
who 
cut 
his 
chops 
under 
the greatest coach in school 
history, just like everyone in 
Ann Arbor had been waiting 
for the return of their prodigal 
son, the quarterback who cut 
his chops under the greatest 
coach in school history.
The 
return 
seems 
like 
the most difficult step — 
convincing the hometown hero 
that his old school is worth 
rescuing, in comparison to 
some moribund NFL franchise, 
or some other Power 5 school 
in need of a boost.
Scott 
Frost 
and 
Jim 
Harbaugh both did return. 
And when they did, because 
of their past, because of what 
they did when they left home, 
because of everything they 
meant to their schools, no 
one expected failure. No one 
expected a loss to Troy. No 
one expected losing to Ohio 
State, year after year.
This 
past 
Tuesday, 
Harbaugh 
was 
asked 
if 
coaching at his alma mater was 
different than his previous 
jobs.
He thought about it, and 
then 
answered 
the 
way 
everyone knew he would.
“Yeah. 
Yes,” 
Harbaugh 
said. “I would say it is. It’s 
heightened.”
These are the ties that bind 
Frost 
and 
Harbaugh, 
two 
men who have unenviable 
tasks ahead of them. Both 
coaches are home now. To 
many, getting here might have 
seemed like the most difficult 
step. But as Scott Frost, and 
maybe Jim Harbaugh, would 
tell you, the most difficult 
part is what happens after you 
come home.

Sang can be reached at 

otsang@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @orion_sang.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Nebraska coach Scott Frost and the Cornhuskers suffered a 46-point loss to the Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Saturday, recording their third loss of the season. 

ORION
SANG

Michigan felt Nebraska “didn’t want it as bad”

Midway 
through 
the 
second quarter, the result of 
the Michigan football team’s 
game against Nebraska was no 
longer in question.
It was 30-0 already, and 
the Cornhuskers (0-1 Big Ten, 
0-3 overall) were backed up 
on their own 20-yard line. 
Nebraska quarterback Adrian 
Martinez 
dropped back to 
throw and faced 
pressure like he 
saw all day. This 
time, fifth-year 
senior defensive 
end 
Chase 
Winovich 
chased 
him 
down 
for 
the 
third 
of 
four 
sacks 
the 
Wolverines (1-0, 3-1) had in 
their 56-10 victory.
Then Winovich stood up and 
motioned as if he was pulling 
something out of his chest to 
take a bite out of it.
“After the sack, I figured if 
I was gonna take their heart 
from their offense, I figured it 
was about time that I took my 
own heart and ate that too,” 
Winovich said. “That’s kind of 
where I was at with that one. 
Some people thought I was 
eating a grenade. That was not 
the case. That was me taking 
my own heart and eating it.”
The 
rest 
of 
Michigan’s 
defense felt similarly, though 
maybe without the ripping-
out-your-own-heart part. The 
Wolverines 
were 
swarming 
all over the field, and they 
held Nebraska to just 132 
total yards, the lowest of any 
Michigan 
opponent 
since 
Rutgers on Oct. 8, 2016.
After 
the 
game, 
the 
Wolverines said they could 
feel the Cornhuskers’ offense 
begin to break, and according 
to them, it happened early.
“After the first series,” said 
junior safety Josh Metellus, 
who 
intercepted 
a 
tipped 
pass to end that first series 
of the game. “… You can just 

see it in their eyes. It’s like 
something you feel. It’s not 
really anything I could put 
into words. You can just tell by 
the way a receiver’s running 
his route or the way you’re 
getting blocked or the type of 
passion they’re playing with. 
We just sensed that they didn’t 
have it, so we just used that to 
our advantage.”
Added Winovich: “You just 
feel it. I don’t 
know, 
there’s 
something 
about 
this 
game. 
There’s 
an energy to it, 
where you look 
at the person 
across from you 
and 
whether 
it’s their play 
calling and how 
they 
operate. 
How they move about. I don’t 
know. I just didn’t feel like 
they wanted it as bad as we 
did.”
That’s 
a 
feeling 
that 
Michigan’s defense has felt at 
times throughout the last four 
seasons. But this season, fair 
or not, the defense has come 

under some fire for giving 
up big plays and untimely 
penalties.
So, save against Western 
Michigan, it would be hard 
to say that the Wolverines 
struck that kind of fear into 
opposing offenses like they did 
Nebraska.
“I feel like every week, 
we’re getting better and better 
with, you know, not getting 
penalties 
or 
not 
blowing 
coverages and 
stuff like that,” 
Metellus 
said. 
“You know, it’s 
a long season. 
You know, it’s 
football. 
You 
mess up, like, 
that’s what the 
game is. But, 
you know, we 
just try to find a way to limit 
each mistake every week. So, 
you know, I feel like going in 
to these next couple of weeks, 
we just still gonna harp on not 
messing up, not getting dumb 
penalties and stuff like that.”
Another 
good 
sign 
for 
Michigan was that it finally 

stopped a mobile quarterback, 
like it struggled to do against 
SMU and, especially, Notre 
Dame. 
Martinez 
finished 
with -12 rushing yards and 
just 22 through the air. The 
Cornhuskers 
averaged 
1.3 
yards per carry and 2.4 yards 
per play. 
So 
the 
improvements 
that 
the 
Wolverines 
have 
talked about are becoming 
noticeable, even 
for 
a 
defense 
that 
didn’t 
have 
all 
that 
much room for 
improvement.
“It’s 
just 
success, 
man, 
it’s 
just 
a 
cyclical nature,” 
Winovich 
said. 
“And 
we’ve 
learned from a 
lot of our mistakes, and, you 
know, we’re not stopping here. 
I think the sky’s the limit. 
You’ve seen how well our 
defense performed today, and 
we’re hungrier than ever.”
In 
Winovich’s 
case, 
apparently, that’s a hunger for 
hearts.

Players getting “2016 
vibe” with dominance

After three blowout wins, the 
Michigan football team is riding 
high. The Wolverines have won 
their last three games — against 
Western Michigan, SMU and 
Nebraska — by a combined 127 
points. It’s the first time Michigan 
has outscored its opponents by 
120-plus points in a three week 
span since the first three games of 
2016.
The Wolverines have scored 150 
points, their highest three-game 
point total since the middle of 
2016 — a stretch against Rutgers, 
Illinois and Michigan State.
Junior 
quarterback 
Shea 
Patterson has thrown for seven 
touchdown passes the last three 
weeks, the highest three-game 
total from a Michigan quarterback 
since Wilton Speight in the first 
three weeks of 2016.
Noticing a trend?
“This is the most 2016 vibe I’d 
say we have,” said fifth-year senior 
defensive end Chase Winovich. 
“Just going to work and maturity-
wise, everybody’s accountable for 
their position, you have ballers 
on every level. And it’s a great 
feeling.”
Most remember that 2016 
season for the heartbreak at the 
end, not the utter dominance 
that led up to it. The Wolverines 
ascended to No. 2 in the polls, 
trampling 
opponents 
with 
a suffocating defense and a 
commanding running game. It 
was Jim Harbaugh’s second year, 
and it appeared all of his promises 
were on the verge of fruition.
You know how it ended — a 
troubling night in Iowa City raised 
doubt about a magical run, then a 
loss at Ohio State that will live in 
infamy. 
That was the closest Michigan 
has come to a Big Ten title and 
beyond since the mid-2000s; a 
talented team top-to-bottom. One 
that was generally mistake-free 
and efficient, took care of inferior 
foes, competed with top-notch 
opponents.
Last year, Michigan’s largest 

margin of victory was 25 points. 
The Wolverines didn’t score more 
than 36 points in a single game, 
nor did they allow fewer than 10. 
Above that, though less tangible, 
few games felt comfortable.
Though against clearly inferior 
foes, Michigan is back to that 2016 
feeling.
Harbaugh, 
for 
what 
it’s 
worth, 
has 
been 
especially 
complimentary on the way his 
team practices and prepares.
“What really stands out is, 
our team is working hard and it’s 
paying off for them,” Harbaugh 
said after Saturday’s 56-10 win 
over Nebraska. “It’s showing they 
like to practice, and then they’re 
improving. It’s an improving, 
ascending team. And it’s paying 
off.
“They don’t — they actually 
get it, ramp it up every day. They 
don’t need — they don’t need 
motivational swings or talks or 
any, some of the things that some 
teams need. They just go to work, 
and looks like they enjoy it, that 
part of it.”
The parallels are far from 
perfect, though. For one — an 
especially notable one — Michigan 
has already lost a game, against the 
only nationally competitive team 
it has played. That game revealed 
potentially damming flaws. 
With this recent string of 
dominant 
performances 
over 
inferior foes, sanity and confidence 
have been restored to a fanbase 
that desperately needed both. 
Whether it continues through the 
heart of Big Ten play, of course, 
remains to be seen.
But 
it’s 
notable 
players 
would 
independently 
affirm 
those parallels. It’s a cultural 
comparison as much as any 
statistical, on-the-field similarity. 
If players feel it, maybe that’s all 
that matters. 
“There’s a big maturity jump 
happening, people are starting to 
feel it. We want to be the type of 
intimidating team we were in ‘16. 
When we rolled down the tunnel, 
people feared us,” said junior 
tackle Ben Bredeson. “We think 
we’re getting back to that.”

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich had one of Michigan’s four sacks in Saturday’s win over Nebraska.

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

“That was 
me taking my 
own heart and 
eating it.”

“I just feel like 
they didn’t 
want it as bad 
as we did.”

FOOTBALL

MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor

“They’re 
running a little 
bit scared right 
now.”

“...I honestly 
believe this is 
going to be the 
bottom...”

After the Wolverines’ 56-10 rout of the Cornhuskers, players felt Nebraska didn’t work hard enough

