8 — Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Sports The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com With real tests still on the horizon, offensive line showing improvement Junior defensive end Rashan Gary has noticed a trend with the opposing offensive line in practice. If Gary and his crew of All- America-level defensive line talent win a rep, the offensive group wants another. “ ‘Let me get that rep back,’ ” Gary recalls hearing. “ ‘We’ll do it again.’ ” Added Gary: “Iron sharpens iron.” It’s part of a broader attitude Gary and much of the team have started realizing: the offensive line is confident and only gaining confidence each week. “We’ve been saying it all year,” said junior guard Ben Bredeson, “that we’ve all gotten a lot better.” Bredeson isn’t wrong; they have been saying it all year. Some — those in the media included — just haven’t been willing to listen. Last week, senior tackle Juwann Bushell- Beatty pushed back against fans who judge offensive line play without understanding its nuance. “The public doesn’t really understand the inner- workings of how things go on in here. I think there were mistakes, and when there’s mistakes — and there’s always — everyone wants to point fingers and there are things that happened,” he said. “It’s football. I understand, regardless of what happens, O-Line is going to take blame for whatever.” In week one, that criticism was defeaning, after the offensive line took the brunt of the heat for a 24-17 loss against Notre Dame. The Wolverines averaged just 1.8 yards-per-rush in that game, and managed to score 10 offensive points. In the three games since, Michigan has averaged over 278 yards rushing and 50 points per game. And after being sacked three times (and pressured countless more) in the opener against the Fighting Irish, junior quarterback Shea Patterson has been sacked just three times in the three games since. You might say it’s unfair to judge the offensive line against three inferior opponents. Bushell-Beatty and other offensive linemen might say it was just as unfair to judge them after one game, the season-opener. It works both ways, which is why the group up front doesn’t get too bogged down in outside perception. “We don’t have any stats to go with the work that we do, but just seeing it on film,” Bredeson said. “If you’re an O-Lineman, you understand, you can see what you’re doing well, what you’re not doing well.” While increased repitition among the starting unit — Bushell-Beatty, Bredeson, sophomore Cesar Ruiz, junior Michael Onwenu and fifth-year senior Jon Runyan — has players and coaches encouraged, much of the optimism regarding the offensive line has to do with those working behind the starters. In Saturday’s 56-10 annhiliation of Nebraska, 10 reserve offensive linemen saw game action, including promising freshmen tackles James Hudson and Jalen Mayfield. The duo — often grouped together for convenience — has been coming along well, even sniffing potential starting roles. It seems both will be starters at Michigan, whether that’s one week or one year from now. Last week, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said each was taking roughly 25 percent of the reps with the first-team offense. Bredeson has seen significant potential with both, in practice and limited game action. “James (Hudson) is an outstandingly athletic kid. Once he cleans up some technique things and gets his consistency down, it’s scary how far that kid could go,” Bredeson said. “Measurables, you can’t really measure it, but you can see it every single day when he’s making progress. And he’s made a ton of progress. If you watched film from this spring all the way to now, it’s night and day. “Jalen (Mayfield) made huge strides, coming in, especially as a freshman. It was a big learning curve, but I think we’re past that now with him. Really happy with him.” As any offensive lineman will tell you, though, there’s tremendous intangible value in the development of cohesion. When asked where the unit as a whole has improved most, Bredeson pointed to communication. “I felt like we didn’t talk enough early weeks, especially in the Notre Dame game,” Bredeson said. “Now, we’re not only communicating, we’re over-communicating. Things are going really well for us on the line. Once we’re able to talk through the looks and see what we have, that gives Cesar the full picture of what’s going on; he can make all the adjustments.” And as all the other pieces seem to fall into place, as an All-Big Ten caliber quarterback starts to come into his own, as a young receiving corps continues to blossom, as the group of tight ends round out what’s nearing a complete offense, the offensive line seems to be the final piece to the puzzle. It’s certainly no guarantee the maligned group ever gets to an above-average level against other top-end Big Ten teams — it seems nobody will know until the mid-season matchups against Wisconsin, Penn State and Michigan State. But Bredeson, the de facto leader of the offensive line, is confident his unit will excel, even if those on the outside are still scarred from week one. “I think we’ve matured a lot, more than you should in three games,” Bredeson said. “The way normal teams mature through the season, I think we’re past where we should be on paper. I think that’s going to pay dividends later on.” KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Junior guard Ben Bredeson believes that the offensive line is still improving with teams like Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State on the horizon. MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor “... O-line is going to take blame for whatever.” “James (Hudson) is an outstandingly athletic kid.” “Jalen (Mayfield) made huge strides.” Michigan dominates, settles for tie against PSU Two minutes is rarely enough time to determine the better team in a soccer match. Sometimes, though, it’s enough to impact the result. Unfortunately for the Michigan men’s soccer team (1-0-1 Big Ten, 5-1-1 overall), Friday night was one of those times, as it drew Penn State 1-1. Just 130 seconds into the game, it fell a goal behind when the Nittany Lions’ Christian Sload collected a pass near the penalty spot, turned and fired past the Wolverines’ sophomore goalkeeper Henry Mashburn. “It did catch us off guard but that shouldn’t be happening,” Mashburn said. Added Michigan coach Chaka Daley: “Those mistakes and that focus in the first couple of minutes might have been the difference in getting three points or one point.” The Wolverines, though, quickly settled into the game, dominating the rest of regulation. Just two minutes after the goal, sophomore forward Jack Hallahan put Michigan on the front foot by taking the ball in midfield and beating a few defenders on his way into the Penn State box, although his eventual cross inched too close to goalkeeper Josh Levine. Though it didn’t lead to anything, that burst of energy was foreshadowing of things to come for the Wolverines. Over the next 65 minutes, Hallahan was the their best player, penetrating the Nittany Lions’ defense from the right wing all night. “I’m smart enough to know that when someone’s playing well, let’s make sure to get it to him,” Daley said. “One day it’s Umar (Farouk Osman), the next day it’s (Hallahan), one day it’s (Mohammed) Zakyi.” On Friday, it was Hallahan. And finally, after spending the evening whipping in crosses that couldn’t find a man or shots that just missed the target, he was the one who broke through for Michigan in the 70th minute. He cut onto his left foot and put a dangerous cross into the penalty box, where it deflected off a Penn State defender and into the net. “We put them under a ton of pressure and I think at some point, something’s gotta give,” Daley said. “And I thought we just continued to press and press and put stuff in on tip of the goalkeeper and something had to give and we found one. We’ll take it any way we get it.” Four minutes earlier, though, came the biggest of a string of missed chances for the Wolverines that could have turned into goals. Hallahan was at the center of Michigan’s attack again, as he broke down the right wing before cutting a pass back to senior forward Noah Kleedtke, whose shot was kick- saved by Levine from close range. When asked if any missed chances stood out to him, Hallahan pinpointed that play. “Noah Kleedtke’s where I’ve gone down the line and cut it back and their keeper’s got a foot on it,” Hallahan said. “It’s just margins at that point.” Ultimately, that inability to convert chances doomed the Wolverines. With 12 minutes left in regulation, senior defender Marcello Borges found senior midfielder Ivo Cerda six yards out but Cerda couldn’t put it on target. That ended up being Michigan’s last major chance as Penn State rebounded in a balanced overtime period, and for all their dominance, Daley and the Wolverines had to settle for a draw. “We’re disappointed because that (opening goal) was maybe the difference for us,” Daley said. “… But fortunately, we got one point. And at the end of the day, that’s important.” CARTER FOX/Daily Michigan coach Chaka Daley believes his team’s lack of focus in the opening minutes may have cost the Wolverines in their tie against Penn State on Friday. THEO MACKIE Daily Sports Writer VOLLEYBALL Wolverines lose against Nebraska, defeat Iowa Michigan coach Mark Rosen called this weekend’s experience a new dynamic for the team. He was referring to the beginning of Big Ten play, of course, but in many more ways than one, the seventeenth-ranked Wolverines volleyball team had to face a new dynamic — losing — as it dropped its first match of the season against No. 3 Nebraska before bouncing back to beat Iowa. “I thought we played okay at times, but we didn’t play at the level that we needed to to be successful,” Rosen said. “That was the first loss for us, how’s the team going to respond? How are they going to be able to come back from that? “We don’t know because we haven’t done it all year.” Despite the set count saying otherwise, as Michigan fell in four sets to the Cornhuskers, the game was close-knit, with both teams encountering ways to exploit one another’s weaknesses. Though for the Wolverines, their weaknesses were an open book — and Nebraska read it. While tough serving will throw any team off, Michigan’s passing dove in quality due to taking the brunt of bad first touches, and in turn, the offense as a whole struggled. The Cornhuskers were, as Rosen emphasized, “huge,” and against a mismatch physically, mediocre passes won’t get the job done. In many cases where one team is more dominant sizewise, it is counterable with pinpoint passing. There are ways to work around a stable block if the spiker has flexible spiking options once in the air — which falls upon the setter to make happen. And there was no question that Nebraska was bigger and more physical. But by taking away junior setter Mackenzi Welsh’s typically accurate-passes through aggressive serving, the Cornhuskers disrupted the Wolverines’ balanced offense so that it could only muster a .135 attack average to a .314 of their own — a game-defining differential. They essentially made it so Michigan had no choice but to hit where and when they wanted to and made the offense predictable. When you face someone more physical, someone who forces you out of your game plan and has all the adjustments to counter what you are good at, there’s little you can do. But the Wolverines found a way to keep the match against the third- best team in the nation competitive, and it is every bit a testament to their tenacity. But that alone just wasn’t enough. Nebraska had the edge in every statistical category and came out on top accordingly. The real worry for this Michigan team was how it would respond to the loss, something it had avoided all year. There are many routes a team can go after the first loss, but the Wolverines took one that Rosen thought of as a nice job in bouncing back. In a nearly-equivalent statistical game, Michigan found a way to tip the balance through standout performances from its outside hitters. Junior Sydney Wetterstrom hit a career-high 21 kills, while senior Carly Skjodt and freshman Paige Jones added 18 and 14 kills, respectively. Those players proved to be a difference maker in an up-and- down match. “It was a good, balanced match,” Rosen said. “They were good. We were good. And it was really back-and-forth, and the first set was really tight, and I thought we competed really well in those last few points to finish it out...” TIEN LE Daily Sports Writer Read the full story at www.michigandaily.com