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.”