6A — Thursday, September 27, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Aidan Hutchinson hype train gaining steam
Get anyone in the Michigan
football
program
going
on
freshman defensive end Aidan
Hutchinson,
and
it
soon
becomes clear how high they
are on him.
Ask
fifth-year
senior
defensive lineman Lawrence
Marshall.
“Oh my god, Aidan, from the
first day until now, making a
huge jump. That kid will be an
All-American here.”
Ask junior defensive end
Rashan Gary, a potential future
top-10 NFL draft pick:
“I tell him all the time, my
freshman year, he’s ahead of
where I was.”
Ask his position coach, Greg
Mattison:
“All I know is when Aidan
was recruited, and watching
Aidan play in high school and
watching him in camp and
watching him in games, his
future is very, very bright.”
Four games into Hutchinson’s
Michigan career, the hype is
deafening. Hutchinson — barely
18 years old — has publicly
tempered expectations, saying,
“that’s cool, but I have a lot to
work on” when asked about
Marshall’s
All-American
prediction.
But his performance thus far
speaks for itself.
Despite playing behind Gary
and fifth-year senior Chase
Winovich,
Hutchinson
has
seen action in all four games
this season. Against Western
Michigan,
the
freshman
notched six tackles. Late in the
second quarter of Saturday’s
game
against
Nebraska,
Hutchinson
diagnosed
a
screen pass from Cornhuskers
quarterback Adrian Martinez
and batted the attempt back in
the air. Martinez caught his own
attempt in the Nebraska end
zone, but Hutchinson knocked
him down, forcing Martinez
into an intentional grounding
penalty out of desperation,
resulting in a safety.
It was a glimpse of the
athleticism, intelligence and
relentlessness
that,
by
all
accounts, Hutchinson has been
showing in practice all year.
“He’s strong, he goes hard,
he’s smart. Like he really
understands football,” Marshall
said Tuesday. “Like a lot of
freshmen, when they come in,
they really don’t understand the
adjustments from high school to
college. He really understands
football.”
That
would
make
sense,
given
his
family
pedigree.
Hutchinson’s
father,
Chris,
played at Michigan from 1988-
1992,
earning
All-Big
Ten
honors his final two seasons
and an All-American selection
his senior season.
Chris totaled 11 sacks in 1992
and finished his career with 20,
then the second-highest total in
school history.
Mattison
coached
the
Wolverines’
defensive
line
in 1992, and says “(Chris)
may be the best I’ve had the
opportunity to coach.”
“Obviously him being an
All-American here, obviously
I know there’s a high standard
for me,” Aidan said Tuesday.
“I think, but I set my own
expectation for myself, and I set
the bar for myself.”
For the time being, his snap
count will be limited by the
presence of Gary and Winovich
— two potential All-Big Ten
ends who rarely take a play
off, barring injury. Hutchinson
has gained valuable in-game
experience in the last three
weeks, games Michigan has
won by a total of 127 points.
Far
from
a
hindrance,
Mattison sees Gary’s presence
in particular as valuable to
Hutchinson’s growth. Mattison
often
sees
Gary
offering
Hutchinson
assistance
in
meetings and film sessions,
which reminds the veteran
coach of another player-to-
player relationship.
“I can still remember (former
defensive end) Chris Wormley
sitting right next to Rashan,
helping him every day with all
of the things we were trying to
do, and (Gary) listening, and
him learning it, and doing better
each day that way,” Mattison
said. “Rashan is doing the exact
same thing with Aidan.”
Hutchinson
will
almost
certainly step into a more
prominent role next season,
with Winovich graduating and
Gary likely headed to the NFL.
He will occupy the same spot,
in the same uniform, under the
same coach that his father did
during his All-America season.
If
the
first
portion
of
his freshman season is any
indication — and if Marshall’s
words turn into reality —
Hutchinson could quickly shed
the title of “Chris’ son.”
Mattison
certainly
thinks
he’s on his way, even flashing
some of the same skills that
made Chris successful.
“Aidan has a lot of that in
him,” Mattison said. “The good
thing is Aidan has six more
inches.”
Aidan
Hutchinson
has
generated plenty of hype in his
first few months on campus.
But if what Mattison said is
the case, not a word of it is
hyperbole.
Moore earns praise in first year as tight ends coach
Jim
Harbaugh,
like
any
coach, loves to compliment his
players.
So
when
the
Michigan
football
coach
was
asked
Monday,
at
his
weekly
press conference, about the
development of redshirt junior
tight end Zach Gentry, it was
no surprise that Harbaugh
had a lot to say about all of
his tight ends — Gentry, along
with juniors Sean McKeon and
Nick Eubanks. He even gave a
shoutout to former Wolverine
Jake Butt, now a tight end with
the NFL’s Denver Broncos.
And then at the end of his
response, Harbaugh quickly
added a compliment to first-
year tight ends coach Sherrone
Moore.
“It’s just really good, good —
tight ends, Sherrone Moore’s
doing a heck of a job coaching
this (group),” Harbaugh said.
“… So proud of that.”
It’s a small gesture, but
it still meant something to
Moore, who joined the staff
this
offseason
by
way
of
Central Michigan. Does he get
that praise often?
“From my wife,” Moore said
Wednesday.
“My mom, she’ll
give
me
that
sometimes. My
wife
actually
told me about
(Harbaugh’s
comments),
which
was
pretty cool. So,
you know, I’m
just blessed to
be here and do
whatever I can to make this
team better and make this
program better.”
Moore was dealt a strong
hand when he arrived in Ann
Arbor.
Not
only
does
he
have
Gentry, McKeon and Eubanks,
but
Michigan
also
landed
the No. 6 tight-end recruit
in the 2018 recruiting class,
Mustapha Muhammad.
And
with
Harbaugh’s
fondness for two and three-
tight
end
sets,
Moore
is
experiencing a wealth of riches
he hasn’t enjoyed before.
“Last
year
at
Central,
we were more of a spread
operation,
so
really only in
one-tight
end
sets a majority
of
the
game.
Sometimes
two,”
Moore
said. “But, you
know, here, as
you guys see,
we’re in three-
tight end sets,
we’re early in
the game three-tight end sets.
Then I’ve got all three of them
yelling at us, ‘Don’t take us
off the field, ‘cause you saw
us score.’ And I’m like, ‘Guys,
chill out.’
“But, you know, it’s really
cool to be a part of a program
that does that and to be a part
of that. And when you have
weapons like that, it’s good to
use them like that.”
Last
season,
Gentry
(303)
and
McKeon
(301)
had the second and third-
most receiving yards on the
team, and they had the most
receiving touchdowns as well
— two and three, respectively.
Those
aren’t
staggering
numbers,
but
on a team that
struggled to pass
the ball, the tight
ends were often
the safety valve.
That dimension
was already in
their repertoire.
This
season,
they’re
contributing
in
the
run
game, too. That aspect was
a major knock against the
tight ends last season, but the
improvement
is
something
Moore has noticed firsthand.
“Their strength from the
spring to now the gains that
they get, you know, I hold the
bag sometimes for them and
feel a little bit of a different
thump when they hit it,”
Moore said. “So that was a
pretty cool feeling, to feel the
difference of their strength
there. But to watch those
guys really improve from a
fundamental standpoint with
their hands and their feet has
been
really
cool and really
has come to
fruition
on
gameday.”
Moore
is
quick
to
deflect praise.
He
credits
strength
and
conditioning
coach
Ben
Herbert
for
the tight ends’ improvement
in
blocking.
He
lauds
wide
receivers
coach
Jim
McElwain
for
passing
on
some knowledge to him. And
he credits the talents of his
players for the rest.
But there is no doubt that
Moore is doing something
right. If he weren’t, his praise
would still just be coming
from his wife and his mom.
Teske preparing for
bigger role with ‘M’
Last March, Jon Teske sat
with a towel draped over his
neck and a long sleeve warm-
up masking his mostly dry
jersey.
Twenty feet away, Moritz
Wagner
terrorized
the
Loyola-Chicago defense as he
hit a turnaround three, found
Charles Matthews with a
backdoor bounce pass and
charged into the paint for a
3-point play, before capping
the stretch with a three from
the top of the key.
In four minutes, he took
Michigan from a three-point
deficit to the precipice of the
national championship game.
“Not too many people in
the country have the same
skillset as Moe,” Matthews
said Tuesday afternoon.
It’s
a
stretch
that
exemplifies
what
Wagner
meant to the
Wolverines.
On an offense
whose
identity
was
being able to
shoot from all
five positions,
the
6-foot-11
center
paced
the team with
a 39.4 3-point
shooting
percentage and 14.6 points
per game.
With Wagner now gone to
the NBA, Teske, who played
just three minutes in that
game in San Antonio, moves
to center stage.
But he’s not Moe Wagner,
and there’s no hiding that.
Wagner pierced the net 110
times from beyond the arc
over the past three years. At
7-foot-1, Teske is an elite rim
protector who adds another
dimension
to
Michigan’s
dominant defense but has
never made a collegiate three.
His
most
recent
attempt
came in the dying minutes of
a 45-point game against UC
Riverside last November.
“He’s
one
of
a
kind,”
Matthews said of Wagner. “So
yeah, we’re definitely gonna
have to play
differently.”
Had Wagner
returned
for
his senior year,
this would be
a
Michigan
team
with
few
question
marks.
It
would
carry
its
offensive
identity from last season,
with
sophomore
guard
Jordan Poole slotting in for
the graduated Muhammad-
Ali
Abdur-Rahkman.
The
biggest
change
would
be
freshman
forward
Ignas
Brazdeikis
providing
a
different type of spark off the
bench
than
sharpshooting
forward Duncan Robinson.
In
the
turbulent
landscape
of
college
basketball, that would make
the Wolverines one of the
nation’s steadiest presences
from a season ago.
But, as expected, Wagner
declared for the draft and
will be playing alongside
LeBron James in Los Angeles
next month. In his stead,
Teske’s development will be
key to whether Michigan’s
offense can match a defense
that ranked third in Ken
Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency
metric last season.
“Big Sleep has been doing
very
well
in
practice,”
Matthews said, using Teske’s
nickname. “And I think he’ll
continue to grow.”
The
most
surprising
development
for
Teske
may come from beyond the
3-point line. Though he’s only
attempted
two
3-pointers
in his college career, he
regularly shot two or three a
game in high school.
“Jon Teske has shot the
ball really well (in practice),”
Michigan coach John Beilein
said. “Having a big man that
can shoot, you all see what
can happen, it
made everybody
else better last
year.
Having
Jon be able to do
that, … (that’s)
big to get those
big men that can
shoot.”
Added Teske:
“That
(3-point
shooting)
is
one thing that
(Beilein) has seen me grow
with. I’ve been showing him
that I’m capable of shooting a
three.”
It’s a different type of
3-point
shooting
than
Wagner, who could shoot in
nearly any situation. Teske
anticipates that his looks
from deep will come as a
trailer in transition or off of
pick-and-pops.
But after losing their top
three long ball shooters, the
Wolverines will take all the
help Teske can give them.
Knowing
that
Wagner
was
likely
leaving,
Teske
spent the last year studying
him and learning his craft.
They roomed together on
road trips, allowing Teske
to learn from him at every
opportunity. Even now, with
Wagner on the
other
side
of
the
country,
the two keep
in
regular
communication
by texting.
“I was just
picking
his
brain
here
and
there
and
he’s
just
a
great
guy,”
Teske said. “… He’s always
somebody that I look to, kind
of like a big brother to me.”
Added
Beilein:
“Let’s
face it, we lost our three top
shooters. That’s a lot of threes
in those three and high-
percentage guys. So we have
to replace that somehow.”
Believe it or not, Teske
might be crucial to Michigan’s
chances of doing that.
“Now that Moe’s gone, it’s
my turn to step up,” Teske
said. “And I think with my
capability shooting the three,
I can really stretch the floor
and help us win games.”
EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior center Jon Teske is looking to replace Moe Wagner at the 3-point line.
“(Teske) has
been doing
very well in
practice.”
“Now that
Moe’s gone, it’s
my turn to step
up.”
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Freshman defensive end Aidan Hutchinson has seen game action in all four of Michigan’s matchups so far this season.
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry had the second-most receiving yards of any Michigan player last season with 303.
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
“... Moore’s
doing a heck of
a job coaching
this (group).”
“... Here, as you
guys see, we’re
in three-tight
end sets...”
After four years at Central Michigan, Sherrone Moore joined Michigan’s staff.