The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, November 15, 2018 — 7
Brown calls Rutgers play “wake-up” call
It’s hard to find lapses in
the Michigan football team’s
defense.
Over the last few weeks, the
fourth-ranked Wolverines have
dominated on every side of the
ball, but especially when the
opponent has the ball. They have
given up just 34 points in the last
four games and have the No. 1
total defense in the country.
So when Michigan traveled to
Piscataway to take on Rutgers,
the Big Ten’s perennial bottom-
feeder, it was expected to
be a blowout the whole way,
with the Wolverines’ defense
smothering the worst offense in
the conference.
For the most part, that was
what happened. If it weren’t for
an 80-yard touchdown run from
running back Isiah Pacheco,
the Scarlet Knights would have
been held scoreless with fewer
than 200 yards.
“Well
thought-out
play,”
said defensive coordinator Don
Brown on the play. “They lined
up three backs in the backfield,
they motioned one of them out,
we made the adjustment nicely.
They brought that guy back and
faked the reverse with him and
we lost one of our edges and the
safety who had him man-to-
man was adjusting to him. But
we lost the edge to the defense —
the back edge — and it got out.”
Of course, in the grand
scheme of things, the play
doesn’t really matter. But it
can serve some purpose for a
defense that has done nearly all
that is asked of it.
For one, Michigan is still
chasing its first shutout of the
season. In fact, it hasn’t shut a
team out in two seasons — the
last coming in 2016 against
Rutgers.
That was a focus when the
Wolverines faced Penn State
two weeks ago, as they now-
famously wanted revenge for
the Nittany Lions’ beatdown
over them in 2017. But Michigan
couldn’t
get
it
done
then
thanks to a late, garbage-time
touchdown.
And on Saturday against the
Scarlet Knights, the Wolverines
once again fell just short of the
shutout, thanks to Pacheco’s
run.
The second way the play
serves a purpose is as a bit of a
wake-up call.
Before
Michigan
played
Rutgers, the Wolverines played,
and beat, three-straight ranked
teams. The Scarlet Knights,
along with Indiana this week,
make this part of the schedule
inarguably easier than what
Michigan just endured.
Perhaps
because
of
that,
Brown said his team needed a
wake-up call last Wednesday,
so he yelled at them a little bit.
Pacheco’s run had a similar
effect.
“That was a wake-up call for
me,” Brown said.
With a defense this good,
that’s about the only call they
need.
Warriner says ‘M’ exceeds expectations
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Defensive coordinator Don Brown says Rutgers’ touchdown tun was a “wake-up” call for him.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Offensive line coach Ed Warriner has taken over and helped Michigan’s offensive line steadily improve.
When the Michigan football
team hired Ed Warriner as
an
offensive
analyst
last
offseason, it was unclear what
his immediate role would be.
Warriner had always been
an offensive line coach at
Division I programs across the
country, but the Wolverines
already
had
an
offensive
line
coach
and
run-game
coordinator in Tim Drevno.
But Drevno left the program
for Southern California, and
Warriner was promoted to
take his place.
“I wanted to be a part of this
program, and I knew that I
would contribute in whatever
role I had,” Warriner said.
“And then it came to be,
probably a few weeks after I
got here, and so there was no
promises or anything like that
going into it. So I just came
here to be a guy to help in any
way, shape or form.
“Then
when
the
opportunity presented itself
and (coach Jim Harbaugh)
said, ‘You’ve got the line,’ of
course I was ecstatic about
that.”
In hindsight, that move may
have made all the difference
for Michigan’s offense.
The offensive line, which
was under fire all of last
season, has improved as this
season has gone on. It’s to
the point now where that unit
may be one of the Wolverines’
strengths.
That was unthinkable in
years past.
“I’m really pleased at where
they’re at,” Warriner said
Wednesday. “So we’re headed
in the right direction. We
keep getting better and better.
I think we’ve grown a lot. I
still think there’s some room
to squeeze a little more juice
out of it, and we’re gonna try
to do that.”
The growth of his position
group may have shaped how
Warriner
feels
about
his
experience in general.
He said he expected big
things when he came from
Ann Arbor — stemming from
the beginning of his career
when he was at West Point
coaching Army and much of
the staff there had previously
been at Michigan.
Even with that, Warriner
says being a part of the
Wolverines’
program
has
exceeded expectations.
“Michigan is what I thought
it would be — the University,
the
athletic
department,
what (athletic director Warde
Manuel has) got going here,
what (coach Jim Harbaugh
has) got going here,” Warriner
said.
“But for me, it’s been better,
but it was all gonna be about
how much could I impact
the group I had, and could
they get them where they
could help this team play at a
championship level? So that’s
been very fulfilling. But my
expectation was this is a place
that’s as good as it gets, and it
is as good as it gets.”
Garrett Van Wyhe, fourth line looking to add secondary scoring threat
From his first game in a
Michigan
hockey
sweater,
Garrett Van Wyhe made an
impact.
In the Wolverines’ season
opener
against
Vermont,
Van
Wyhe
witnessed
the
Catamounts
hit
sophomore
defenseman
Quinn
Hughes
from behind multiple times.
The freshman forward had
enough of his teammate taking
unnecessary hits and got in
the face of the Vermont player,
seemingly telling him to back
off Hughes.
For the rest of the game,
Hughes
was
relatively
unscathed.
“I
don’t
like
taking
penalties, but sticking up for
our teammates is one of the
things that morally, I think
is all right,” Van Wyhe said
Wednesday. “I’m not gonna
just let our team get bullied,
and I’m gonna make sure that
everyone knows that I’m gonna
stick up for my guys. … They’re
my brothers, so I’ve got their
backs.”
But outside of standing up
for his teammates, Van Wyhe
hasn’t had a huge impact on the
stat sheet. He has started as the
fourth-line center in all nine
games for No. 16 Michigan (5-4
overall, 1-1 Big Ten), but his
linemates changed throughout
the first few weeks, making
line chemistry — and offensive
success — more difficult.
In
the
last
couple
weeks,
it
seems
that
the
line
has
settled in with
freshman
forward
Nolan
Moyle
and
sophomore
forward Dakota
Raabe on the left
and right wings,
respectively.
Van Wyhe, Moyle and Raabe
have
found
some
chances
to score since they’ve been
playing together, but across the
three of them, Raabe is the only
one who has found twine.
The first and second lines
are carrying the Wolverines on
offense to this point, with 37
combined points
—
compared
to
the
nine
combined across
the bottom two
lines. That’s an
unsustainable
recipe across a
full season.
“We’re
still
trying
to
find
some
scoring
from
some different people,” said
Michigan coach Mel Pearson.
“We’ve got a couple lines that
are carrying us. We need some
other guys to kick in here
and there, and obviously that
secondary scoring.”
Now that the players seem
to be locked into positions, it
could be Van Wyhe, Moyle and
Raabe that help the Wolverines
find that secondary scoring
they’ll need through the rest of
the season.
In
the
2-1
win
against
Notre Dame on Nov. 9, it was
that fourth line of forwards
that kept the game moving in
Michigan’s favor. It seemed that
nearly every time they were on
the ice, they were stealing the
puck from the Fighting Irish or
putting pressure on goaltender
Cale Morris.
“They’ve controlled the play
in the other team’s offensive
zone when they’ve been out
there, and that’s what you’re
looking
for,”
Pearson
said.
“They’ve been good momentum
changers, too. There’s been a
couple times in games we’re
playing in our zone, we throw
them out there and they change
the momentum and they play in
the other team’s zone, so good
for them. We’re gonna need
that.”
Now, it seems, the only
thing
left
for
Van
Wyhe,
Raabe and Moyle is to break
through on the stat sheet. The
scoring chances are coming
more and more frequently, but
they haven’t found consistent
success on those chances yet.
With
Van
Wyhe
as
the
center of the line, the offense
is expected to flow through
him. Pearson said he’s good at
distributing the puck but added
that some of his open shots
have caught him a bit off guard.
“I think he’s
pretty
right
on
that
one,”
Van Wyhe said
when
told
of
his
coach’s
comments.
“I think I get
a
little
too
anxious if I find
myself with a
little more time
than I thought
and kinda just get in my own
head. Calming down is kinda
the perfect term for it. Just rely
on my instincts and be able to
bury chances.”
When Van Wyhe and the
rest of his linemates get the
chemistry they need, they’ll
be valuable additions to the
Wolverines’
offense.
And
the
chemistry
has
improved
every
game
they’ve
played
together, so it
seems to be only
a matter of time
before there’s a
breakthrough.
“They’ve
got
the potential to
score,” Pearson said. “I think
once they get a little more
chemistry and once they kick
in a couple, that dam’s gonna
break, and look out.”
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Freshman center Garrett Van Wyhe made an impact physically in Michigan’s opening game of the season against Vermont, but he and his linemates haven’t been able to string offensive production together.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
“We’ve got
a couple
lines that are
carrying us.”
“Once they kick
in a couple, that
dam’s gonna
break.”