The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
November 12, 2018 — 3B

Teammates make Gary proud in homecoming

PISCATAWAY — With a
loosened brace draped over his
right shoulder, Rashan Gary
peered at the stat sheet on the
podium in front of him.
“Pssst,” Gary muttered to no
one in particular. “It’s great to
be a Michigan Wolverine.”
The junior defensive end,
in fact, repeated that phrase
four times throughout his
postgame press conference.
On Saturday, it must have been
“great” indeed.
The Michigan football team
bludgeoned Rutgers for the
fourth time in as many years
under coach Jim Harbaugh,
this time winning, 42-7. It was
a celebratory homecoming for
numerous New Jersey natives
on the Wolverines’ roster,
including Gary — an alumnus
of Paramus Catholic High
School.
But just a month ago, Gary’s
return
to
his
home
state
was in question. He missed
three October games with an
AC joint injury in his right
shoulder, and rumors swirled
that he might end his collegiate
career before the season’s end.
After all, the former No. 1
overall recruit’s talent had
never been in question. Gary
could have been a high pick in
the 2019 NFL Draft without
playing
another
snap
for
Michigan — in the same vein
as Ohio State defensive end
Joey Bosa.
But
tucked
inside
the
underbelly of Highpoint.com
Stadium on Saturday, it became
clear why Gary did not take
that route.
Gary’s reaction to the stat
sheet in front of him was
not
some
self-aggrandizing
remark. Four tackles and one
quarterback hit against the
Scarlet Knights, though a solid
performance, is not going to
make his name jump on NFL
Draft boards.

So why was Gary so elated?
“I
just
like
seeing
my
brothers, man, just seeing what
my brothers are able to do,”
Gary said. “It’s ridiculous. I’m
just happy to
see my brothers
eat. That just
shows us as a
team — looking
at the stat sheet
—
that
we’re
improving
individually
and as a team.”
The
most
noteworthy
of those stats
was Karan Higdon’s 44 yards,
which put the senior running
back
over
the
1000-yard
mark just nine games into his
season.
When that was brought to
Gary’s attention, he pumped
his fist repeatedly. It was a
benchmark Higdon had been
hankering to eclipse, and Gary

certainly knew it.
Minutes
later,
junior
quarterback Shea Patterson
uttered a statement he has not
been coy to share.
“I
don’t
think I’ve ever
been a part of
a
team
that’s
been this close,”
Patterson said.
Yeah,
that
is as cliché as
it gets — the
types of things
Michigan
coaches
would
want Patterson
to say publicly.
But it feels genuine because
Gary is exhibit A.
Insurance
policies
are
an inevitability these days,
but Gary is literally risking
millions
of
dollars
by
continuing to play for the
Wolverines. He has ground
to gain in mock drafts, sure,

but all it takes is one play for
things to go really south.
But Gary said he never
considered leaving.
“I’m out there with my
brothers,”
Gary
said.
“I’m
having
fun
flying
around.
Being around these guys, they
give me energy.
“Tell me how (my shoulder)
looks.”
Gary then moved his arms
around rapidly, from side to
side and up and down, like
he was practicing some faux-
karate moves.
The shoulder looked fine —
both then and during the game
he chose to play in.
“That’s a testament to his
character,”
Patterson
said.
“He could have easily sat the
rest of the season out and kept
his goals and dreams for a few
months, but it’s all about the
team.
“That’s just what makes
Rashan, Rashan.”

Higdon finally gets his coveted 1,000 yards

PISCATAWAY
—
Karan
Higdon knew how close he was
to the 1,000-yard mark for the
season.
After all, just this summer
he sat at Big Ten Media Days
and said he would have entered
the NFL Draft had he crossed
the 1,000-yard threshold in
2017-18. So the senior running
back had to have known that
his two-yard carry late in
the second quarter against
Rutgers on Saturday got him
over the milestone.
Yet, for the most part,
Higdon kept it to himself.
When
asked
about
the
milestone after the Michigan
football team dominated the
Scarlet Knights, 42-7, junior
defensive end Rashan Gary
said he hadn’t heard Higdon
mention it this season.
“I feel like Karan, he had a
goal in his head,” Gary said.
“He said it last year. There’s
no reason to keep talking
about it. You know, the season
went on, he kept getting better
and
better
—
progressing,
progressing. You know, he
attacked his goal, and we knew
it was coming by the way he
worked and by the way he
leads the team. So, you know,
I’m happy for him.”
Gary’s statement is a team-
wide response. Well, almost all
of it.
The
team-
wide
part:
Anybody
can
see
the
improvements
Higdon
has
made
this
season.
Until
Saturday, he had
seven-straight
100-yard games.
His
teammates
clearly respect him, or they
wouldn’t have named him one
of four captains before the
season.
The
other
part
—
that
Higdon kept his yearning for
the milestone a secret — isn’t
entirely true. At the very least,

he mentioned his quest for
1,000 yards to redshirt junior
tight end Zach Gentry, one of
his close friends on the team
and one of the players who
would be blocking for Higdon
on Saturday.
“He
was
talking
about
it
before
today’s game,”
Gentry
said.
“He was like,
‘We’ve
gotta
get
me
over
that
1,000-
yards
mark.’
And that was
a big, kind of,
incentive for the offensive line
to go out there and make sure
we’re getting all of our blocks,
because we do care about
Karan and he has earned that.
So we wanted to get him over
that hump.
“Oh yeah, he said that today,

and I said, ‘We’ve got you. I’ll
be blocking for you.’ ”
For as inspiring as Higdon is
to his teammates, the run that
broke his season total into four
figures was far from the most
inspired Higdon
has
produced
this year.
He
took
a
simple
handoff
on
3rd-and-5
and didn’t come
close to the first
down. In fact, the
run was a part
of an uninspired
performance
for
Higdon,
in
comparison to what he has
done the rest of the season.
Higdon finished with just 42
yards on 15 carries, though he
did punch in two touchdowns.
Still,
what
Higdon
did
against Rutgers was enough to
push him past 1,000 yards.

“It’s
unbelievable,”
said
junior
quarterback
Shea
Patterson. “It’s really cool,
especially, you know, going —
we went with him in the spring
and summer and saw all the
hard work he
put in. And,
you know, he’s
such a pivotal
leader on this
team. So just
to
see
him
accomplish
that
goal,
it’s
amazing,
because
we
all know how
hard
he’s
worked to get it.”
Perhaps that work in the
offseason was a product of
what
Higdon
mentioned
in July. If Gentry is to be
believed, Higdon has been
thinking about his 1,000 yards
since then.

On the other side,

familiar misery
P

ISCATAWAY — Amid
the bitter chill and doz-
ens of
devoted (or
delusional)
fans, the
clock slowly
winds
Saturday’s
game to a
close. The
scoreboard
reads:
“Michigan,
42. Rutgers, 7”.
As the Scarlet Knights
scamper for a first down, the
PA announcer chimes in with
a hearty “That’s a Rutgers…
FIRST DOWN!” Two plays
later, Wolverines sophomore
cornerback Ambry Thomas
intercepts a pass from Scarlet
Knights quarterback Artur Sit-
kowski.
“We can still win!” yells a
member of the Rutgers band.
The last two remaining brave
souls in the front row don-
ning scarlet hold up three fin-
gers. They boast ironic smiles
as a Michigan third down
approaches with under a min-
ute left in the game.
Devotion, delusion, what’s
really the difference? Fandom
requires plenty of both.
The game comes to a merci-
ful close, Rutgers notching its
33rd conference loss since join-
ing the Big Ten in 2014. Play-
ers share pleasantries. Some
search for their families.
Then the two programs walk
down the tunnel at the same
time, diverting into polar oppo-
site paths.
On one side of the locker
room is a
program blos-
soming into a
national jug-
gernaut. With
the win, the
Wolverines
marched one
week closer to
a potential Big
Ten title and
College Foot-
ball Playoff
appearance.
“It’s great to be a Michigan
Wolverine right now,” said
junior defensive end Rashan
Gary “That’s all I got to say.”
On the other, a team slowly
crawling toward season’s end.
The Rutgers team meeting
room is littered with motiva-
tional quotes and checklists,
as if offering a plea rather than
encouragement.
One — posted in between the
meeting rooms, covering a full
wall — lists special teams goals
that have been met or failed to
have been met in each game.
Another includes a four-step
“plan to win.”
Rutgers coach Chris Ash
starts his press conference by
thanking reporters for coming,
and you truly believe him.
“Coming into the game
(Michigan was) playing as good
as anybody in the country,”
Ash said. “Playing a team like
that, you’ve got to play almost
perfect football. We made some
mistakes in all three phases of
the game to let that score get
the way it did.”
He laments many of those
mistakes. His team threw for

just 59 yards — 19 of which
came via a running back. His
defense stopped just four of
Michigan’s 12 third down
attempts. In the end, what was
a 7-7 game after the first quar-
ter spiraled into the 42-7 blow-
out everyone expected.
He also lists achievements.
He was proud to have been able
to run for 193 yards against
a stout Wolverines front. He
thinks his team held up well in
the trenches.
There was a moment late in
the first quarter, when Scarlet
Knights running back Isaih
Pacheco scampered 80 yards to
tie the game at seven, and cast
just a shadow of doubt on this
forgone conclusion.
The crowd was giddy. The
players jumped around. Positiv-
ity — a foreign feeling to many
— spread around the stadium.
“I felt like we’ve been there
before,” Pacheco said, on the
feeling around the team after
the score. “This is a play we
could do to any team. We’ve
just gotta all play together.”
Sitkowski felt a heightened
belief, too. Maybe, just maybe,
this one-win football team
could pull off the unthinkable.
“We believed as soon as we
stepped foot on that field, man.
We believed. We all believed.
We’ve believed since we saw
Michigan on our schedule,”
Sitkowski said. “No matter
what was going to happen we
all believed in each other. It
never crossed our mind. When
Isaih hit that run, I tell ya, we
were all excited. It shows that
we can do it, man. We can do
anything we put our minds to
in life.”
The Wolver-
ines rattled off
35 unanswered
the rest of the
game — and Rut-
gers returned to
its interminable
stasis of misery.
Michigan junior
quarterback
Shea Patterson
largely did as he
pleased, completing 18-of-27
passes for 260 yards and three
touchdowns in three tidy quar-
ters of work. Sitkowski finished
a beleaguered 8-of-19 for 40
yards and an interception. This
is nothing new for Rutgers.
This was just Saturday.
After being asked a generic
question about his team’s per-
formance, Sitkowski responds
with a 15-second answer that
includes the phrase “we played
hard” five times.
In fairness, what is there left
to say? His team hasn’t won a
conference game in over a full
calendar year. Since joining the
conference in 2014, Rutgers has
routinely served as the doormat
of the Big Ten. Saturday eve-
ning was just the next in line of
beatdowns and humiliations.
Sophomore center Cesar
Ruiz emerges from the scrum
of players after the game and
walks up to Rutgers offensive
lineman Micah Clark.
Clark lets out a sigh and a
smile. He needs not say more.

Marcovitch can be reached

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on

Twitter at @Max_Marcovitch.

MAX

MARCOVITCH

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Rutgers coach Chris Ash said his team made mistakes in Rutgers’ loss.

“Playing a team

like that, you’ve

got to play

almost perfect...”

MARK CALCAGNO
Daily Sports Editor

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior defensive end Rashan Gary returned to New Jersey on Saturday to face the Scarlet Knights with Michigan.

“I don’t think

I’ve ever been a

part of a team

that’s this close.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior running back Karan Higdon crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season in Saturday’s win over Rutgers.

“I feel like
Karan, he had
a goal in his
head.”

“And, you
know, he’s such
a pivotal leader
on this team.”