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