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.”