2B — November 5, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The season of grudges
A 

few weeks ago, Jim 
Harbaugh stood in front 
of his 
team after 
a course-
defining 
21-7 win at 
Michigan 
State and 
said a few 
words.
He started 
by saying it 
may have 
been his 
biggest win ever, that he had 
never had a bigger win than 
that.
Then he thanked his players.
“On a personal note,” 
Harbaugh said, “I can’t tell 
you how many guys came up 
to me and said, ‘Coach, we’ve 
got your back.’ Who are they to 
talk about you?”
He paused, seemingly tied up 
by his emotions.
Freshman quarterback 
Joe Milton, who had been 
live-streaming the post-game 
celebration from his phone, 
chimed in.
“It’s okay, coach, to cry,” he 
said, grinning.
The team broke out in 
laughter. Then they surrounded 
Harbaugh, in a visitor’s locker 
room deep in enemy territory, 
and went back to celebrating.
I thought 
about that 
moment 
throughout 
Saturday, as 
Michigan 
finished a 
three-game 
gauntlet against 
Wisconsin, 
Michigan State 
and Penn State 
by thrashing the 
Nittany Lions, 
42-7.
The Wolverines dominated 
early. They dominated late. 
They played as if they were 
pissed off.
In the second quarter, 

sophomore receiver Donovan 
Peoples-Jones pulled in 
a touchdown from junior 
quarterback Shea Patterson. 
Then he ran across the back 
of the endzone, windmilling 
his arms in 
celebration 
alongside his 
teammates.
It may have 
looked familiar. 
That’s because it 
was former Penn 
State running 
back Saquon 
Barkley’s 
touchdown 
celebration 
after his game-
opening touchdown in a 42-13 
win over Michigan last year.
After the game, Peoples-
Jones posted a photo of his 
celebration on Instagram after 
the game and tagged Barkley.

Barkley’s response: ‘Young 
savage.’
Later in the game, Chase 
Winovich was caught on 
camera mimicking Trace 
McSorley’s home-run-swing 
celebration. 
Patterson did 
it, too, among 
others.
After the 
game, Winovich 
said he meant 
no disrespect 
to McSorley, a 
player who he 
admires.
Then, by 
explaining 
why he and his 
teammates copied Penn State’s 
touchdown celebrations, he 
summed up what has driven 
this team all year.
“I’m just having fun. You get 
in that mood and that game 

mode,” Winovich said. “In my 
mind, it was almost like all bets 
are off. It’s fine if you want 
to laugh at running the score 
up and have a jolly old time. 
In my mind, it’s fair game, it’s 
football, it is 
what it is. But 
at the same 
time, you can’t 
get mad when 
stuff like that 
happens back at 
you.”
It goes back to 
Michigan State, 
when Michigan’s 
players backed 
up their head 
coach. It goes 
back to the ‘Revenge Tour’ 
phrase coined by Winovich and 
adopted by his teammates. It 
goes back to every single slight 
the Wolverines felt they had 
endured last fall, when they 

went 8-5. When the jokes about 
perpetually finishing third 
in the Big Ten East were at 
the height of their popularity. 
When criticism of Harbaugh 
ran rampant.
Michigan 
remembers all of 
that, and more. 
The Monday 
after the 
win against 
Michigan State, 
Harbaugh read a 
2014 quote from 
Mark Dantonio 
off a piece of 
paper pulled 
from his pocket 
as he criticized 
Michigan State’s role in a 
pregame incident between the 
two teams.
A week or so later — nearly 
a year after that 42-13 loss — 
Michigan’s players kept saying 

they remembered Nittany 
Lions head coach James 
Franklin and then-offensive 
coordinator Joe Moorhead 
laughing on the sidelines 
as they tried to score a late 
touchdown.
“I wasn’t a part of the team 
last year, but I understood 
Penn State ran up the score last 
year,” Patterson said.
“It was personal from the 
start, from the jump,” added 
senior running back Karan 
Higdon.
Pity Rutgers and Indiana, 
because the revenge tour 
didn’t end at Penn State. No, 
Michigan has displayed a deep-
seated determination to bully 
every team in the Big Ten, to 
prove what happened last year 
is simply that: the past.
The Wolverines have played 
confident football, they have 
carried themselves with 
swagger in doing so, and they 
are surely having a hell of a 
lot more fun than they were 
last fall. And now I think it is 
beyond safe to say this group 
has the look of a special team.
This is the grudge match to 
end all grudge matches, and 
so far, with the exception of a 
season-opening loss at Notre 
Dame, Harbaugh and Michigan 
have made every critic eat 
their words. They have paid 
back what they 
received last 
year. 
I’ll let Mr. 
Winovich take it 
away.
“We wanted 
our lunch 
money back, we 
wanted them to 
pay interest,” 
Winovich said. 
“The bank’s 
closed on 
Sundays, but it looks like we’ve 
got some deposits to make.”

Sang can be reached at 

otsang@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @orion_sang

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh got emotional after his team beat in-state rival Michigan State,mentioning that some players told him, ‘Coach, we’ve got your back.’

“I understood 
Penn State ran 
up the score 
last year.”

ORION 
SANG

“It was 
personal from 
the start, from 
the jump.”

“It looks like 
we’ve got some 
deposits to 
make.”

‘M’ can’t get shutout, 
still dominates Lions

After the Michigan football 
team 
beat 
Nebraska 
earlier 
this season, members of the 
Wolverines’ defense said they 
could feel that the Cornhuskers 
didn’t want to be there.
Throughout 
the 
season, 
similar sentiments have been 
spoken by No. 5 Michigan’s 
defenders. Some offenses were 
called predictable. Others simply 
weren’t good enough to compete 
against the Wolverines.
On 
Saturday, 
following 
Michigan’s dominating, 42-7 win 
over No. 14 Penn State (6-3 overall, 
3-3 Big Ten), junior defensive end 
Josh Uche continued the trend.
“Yeah, I mean, they came 
out trying to do what they were 
doing,” Uche said. “(We) ran a 
couple stunts and their O-line 
was just so scared of us off the 
edge that they were oversetting. 
And we just gouged them inside.”
The Wolverines did gouge the 
Nittany Lions inside, and it began 
on the first drive of the game.
Penn State quarterback Trace 
McSorley found his tight end, Pat 
Freiermuth for a 25-yard gain 
on the first play. That was all the 
yardage the Nittany Lions would 
gain on the drive.
Two plays later, on 2nd-and-10, 
fifth-year senior defensive end 
Chase Winovich cut inside from 
his outside position, split through 
the Penn State offensive line and 
swallowed McSorley up for a six-
yard loss.
The next down, Uche did the 
same from the opposite side of the 
line, this time getting McSorley 
for an eight-yard loss.
“Most of their sacks this 
season came off of stunts, because 
McSorley, he’s a pretty elusive 
quarterback and he’s looking for 
those lanes,” Uche said. “He’s 
looking to run it through the 
B-gap all the time, and our pass 
rush is probably the most elite in 
the country, so I know they were 
thinking about us beating them 
off the edge. So they were more 

quick to jump out, and we just 
went inside on them.”
When all was said and done, 
Michigan dominated Penn State 
defensively.
At halftime, the Nittany Lions 
had gained just 77 total yards and 
-6 on the ground.
If you omit Penn State’s 
garbage-time touchdown drive 
late in the fourth quarter, which 
spanned 75 yards in 11 plays, the 
Nittany Lions totaled just 111 
yards.
That last drive wasn’t just 
a fluff for lackluster offensive 
stats, though. It also prevented 
the Wolverines from pitching 
a 
shutout, 
something 
they 
dearly wanted after Penn State 
killed 
Michigan 
42-13 
last 
year, attempting to a score late, 
meaningless touchdowns in the 
process.
“This 
one 
was 
definitely 
personal, knowing that they tried 
to score at the end of the game 
last year,” said fifth-year senior 
running back Karan Higdon. 
“Our defense had a stud game 
all game today, and when (Penn 
State) got that touchdown, they 
were all, you know, they were 
pissed. And that just shows you 
how personal this game really 
was.”
Added Uche: “We wanted it 
really badly. I mean, that’s the 
goal every game, but this game, 
it meant more, just because 
Coach Franklin and his offensive 
coordinator were laughing last 
year while they were tryna run 
up the score, so we really wanted 
to put an emphasis at the end of 
the game, but, you know, it is 
what it is.”
Still, even without the shutout, 
the Wolverines’ defense imposed 
their will on yet another team.
“I don’t know if other teams 
are necessarily scared of us,” 
Uche said. “I’m not gonna sit here 
and say that, but we’re not gonna 
stop, and if you don’t want to stop, 
OK, that’s fine. We can do that. 
But if you wanna stop, we can do 
that too. So we’re gonna ever let 
up.”

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

FOOTBALL
Wolverines assert themselves as a contender

A month ago, the Michigan 
football 
team 
approached 
the game against Wisconsin 
with everything to prove. It 
had five wins over meager 
foes. 
The 
resume-staining 
loss in South Bend on Sept. 
1 remained etched into the 
fabric of the team.
But the Wolverines told 
everyone who would listen 
that they were ready for a 
three-game stretch that they 
knew 
would 
define 
their 
season. Three games with 
the Badgers, Michigan State 
and Penn State. Three ranked 
opponents. Put up or shut up.
Three 
games 
later, 
following a 42-7 romp over 
the Nittany Lions, no one is 
doubting anymore.
“From start to finish, all 
sides of the ball, that was a 
really impressive Michigan 
football 
team 
tonight,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
Jim 
Harbaugh. “I’m really proud 
of them. Put an exclamation 
point on how proud I am.”
In 
those 
three 
matchups, 
Michigan 
outscored 
Wisconsin, 
Michigan 
State 
and 
Penn 
State 
by a margin 
of 
101-27. 
It 
outgained 
those 
three 
opponents 1,242-462. It came 
away not only with three wins, 
but three distinct statements.
And 
now, 
it 
stands 
confidently 
as 
a 
top-five 
team in the nation, raising its 
ceiling by the week.
“As you go forward, your 
baseline 
changes 
— 
your 
expectations for yourself and 
your team,” said fifth-year 
senior Chase Winovich. “Had 
we played this game week 
one, it would’ve been the most 
joyous victory. But honestly, 
in the locker room we were 
happy about the way things 

went, but we’re honestly mad 
we gave up a touchdown. 
“Your 
expectations 
change.”
Expectations. This program 
is no stranger to those. But 
Winovich wasn’t referring to 
external expectations, rather 
a 
team 
with 
growing 
self-
confidence 
by 
the week.
Going 
into 
that 
stretch 
a 
month 
ago, 
two wins likely 
would have been 
a success. And 
it’s not just that 
they came away 
with all three, 
but how. From the scuffle in 
East Lansing to the mocking 
celebrations 
Saturday, 
the 
Wolverines are talking their 
share of talk, and then backing 
up every word of it.
“A couple weeks ago, when 
we first beat Wisconsin, I 
think the Revenge Tour, we 
kind of had a bandwagon 
there,” 
Winovich 
said. 
“I 
think we’re rolling through 
these last couple games and 
eventually into Columbus like 
a battleship. I think everyone’s 
trying to hop in or hop on.”
Of course, that growing 

belief stems from on-the-field 
success. Each week, Michigan 
has shown a new layer of 
improvement. Perhaps most 
notably, the offensive line has 
grown by leaps and bounds 
under offensive line coach Ed 
Warriner.
Against 
the 
Badgers, 
the 
Wolverines 
rushed for 320 
yards. Against 
the 
Spartans’ 
top-ranked 
run 
defense, 
Michigan 
racked up 183 
yards. Saturday 
against 
the 
Nittany 
Lions 
was more of the same, rushing 
for 259. This coming just 
months after the Wolverines 
could muster just 58 yards 
against Notre Dame.
Michigan has made this leap 
without much mystery either; 
the Wolverines have run the 
ball 133 times and thrown it 
64 times over that span in a 
sign of a clear commitment to 
power football.
The pass protection has 
shown a similar ascent.
Saturday, Michigan didn’t 
give up a sack and allowed just 
two tackles-for-loss to Penn 

State — which came into the 
game leading the conference 
in both categories.
“We thought that was a 
really good defensive front 
— probably as good as Notre 
Dame’s,” Harbaugh said after 
the game. “And a team that 
really 
does 
a 
tremendous 
job 
at 
tackles 
for 
loss, 
I 
know 
they’re 
leading in that 
category. 
And 
we were able to 
stay away from 
negative 
plays, 
we were able to 
stay away from 
tackles for loss, 
we were able to stay away 
from the sacks.”
Now, barring a major upset 
at Rutgers or at home to 
Indiana, Michigan will have 
three weeks to prepare for 
its biggest game since the 
2016 loss in Columbus. In all 
likelihood, it will decide the 
Big Ten East.
Winovich, for his part, likes 
the Wolverines’ chances.
“We’re the team to beat in 
the Big Ten,” he said. “That’s 
not a controversial statement, 
it’s just, I think that’s a fact at 
this point.”

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich says Michigan’s expectations have changed with its success this year.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor

“Put an 

exclamation 

point on how 

proud I am.”

“We thought 

that was a really 

good defensive 

front.”

