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.”