TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
FootballSaturday, November 2, 2018
4B
JON RUNYAN JR. is staring down pressure -
just as always.
KATELYN MULCAHY/DAILY
DESIGN BY KATE GLAD
ETHAN WOLFE / DAILY SPORTS WRITER
EVAN AARON / DAILY
Jon Runyan Jr. was a household
name among the Michigan
offensive line. But along that
front, being talked about is
everything to avoid.
Runyan
was
the
obvious
scapegoat after the redshirt
junior’s first collegiate start
at left tackle Sept. 1 at Notre
Dame.
Michigan’s
offensive
line wholly struggled keeping
its flashy, new quarterback
upright.
His
shortcomings
headlined the Wolverines’ only
loss to date.
Runyan,
one
of
two
new
starters on offense, got the
preponderance of flack.
During
Jim
Harbaugh’s
Monday
press
conference
following the game, he fielded
four questions about offensive
line play. Harbaugh said his
line
looked
improved
and
expressed confidence in his
starting
five.
Elsewhere,
Runyan and the rest of his line
were pilloried. Messages from
angry fans flooded Runyan’s
social media profiles, and there
was plenty more said indirectly
about his play.
“It was difficult, there were
people coming after me from
all angles,” Runyan said. “For
two or three weeks after the
Notre Dame game, I put my
phone down and took (social
media) off my phone and tried
not to pay attention to it.”
He remembers the number of
fans who directly messaged him
online with harsh criticisms —
four people on Facebook, five
on Twitter, 10 on Instagram.
As much as Runyan attempted
to avoid that noise and move on,
he still knew his performance
wasn’t adequate.
“It was a little bit rough, and I
told him right after the game,”
said his father, Jon Runyan
Runyan can point to the exact moment
things changed for him this year.
It was on an outside zone play during
Michigan’s second drive on week four
against Nebraska. Runyan pinned his
matchup and knocked the Cornhusker
defensive end backwards and into the
ground
before
Karan
Higdon
even
approached the line of scrimmage. And
when Higdon did, Runyan and junior guard
Ben Bredeson had created such a massive
gap opening to nothing but turf — and the
endzone — in front of the senior running
back.
“Ever since then, I’ve really started feeling
good in the left tackle spot in the run and
pass game,” Runyan said. “I can really
narrow it down to that play.”
It was a welcome realization for Runyan,
beyond performing at a career-best level.
His first career start was in the Outback
Bowl loss last season. The three games
after falling short in a prove-yourself start
in South Bend stood to mend a broken
reputation.
Breaking
through
against
Nebraska displayed what being a collegiate
standout could be like.
Runyan pinpoints that game as when
the switch flipped. But the ghosts of the
season opener still find themselves cozy in
Runyan’s mind. Through four more weeks
without a hiccup in his play, including
benchmark wins against Wisconsin and
Michigan State, Runyan took time to look
directly into his mistakes.
He was off to the film room.
“And going back into it, I watched that
because it was during the bye week,”
Runyan said. “I just wanted to remind
myself where I started and where I’m going
to go, and how I don’t want to have that
feeling anymore that I had with the Notre
Dame game.”
With two weeks left in the regular season,
the feeling hasn’t seemed to return.
Through 10 weeks, Higdon is the first
Michigan running back to reach 1,000
yards since 2011. Junior quarterback Shea
Patterson has only been sacked once a game
on average, and boasts the second best
passer rating in the Big Ten.
First year offensive line coach Ed Warinner
has garnered much of the praise for the
resurgence of an oft-criticized front. The
simplification of schemes that Warinner
has introduced have been crucial according
to Runyan. Warinner just calls it focusing
on each of the lineman’s strengths.
“We ask him to do what he’s really good at
and do it really hard,” Warinner said. “And
so that’s made him a very confident player.
There’s nothing more defeating as a player
than to ask me to do something I know he
can’t do.”
Fans can surely look for a scapegoat, but
there isn’t one.
***
Jon Runyan Sr. was known for his
roughhouse attitude on the field.
His son being bullied by the Fighting Irish
could certainly besmirch the family name.
But Runyan Jr.’s skill sets vary from his
father’s; it’s consistently reinforced.
“As a parent, you understand the pressure,
how he’s going to compare,” Runyan Sr.
said. “But I feel he has his head on straight.
He blazes his own trail, and we’re all
different and we have different talents. I’ve
told him since he was in high school, he is a
better athlete than I was.”
Added Runyan Jr.: “My dad was known as
one of the nastiest people. I try to emulate
that watching little clips of him knocking
Michael Strahan down. I don’t know if I’m
there, but hopefully I’ll be able to get there.”
In his fourth season, walking back-and-
forth in front of images of his father
plastered in Schembechler Hall, the road
following his father’s legacy seems to be
winding down.
Contingent on College Football Playoff or
Big Ten championship success, Runyan
Jr. could be known just for anchoring the
left side of the line.
He isn’t his father, and that doesn’t
bother him. He’s been berated in high
school because of it, despite success. He
was put on a stake after Notre Dame, and
silenced critics for the next 11 weeks.
It doesn’t mean the pressure of being a
Runyan is gone. It just means Jon Runyan
Jr. is being himself.
“This name kinda carries a lot of weight,”
Runyan Jr. said. “I’m proud to have it,
and I don’t pay too much attention to
what everybody says about me. I received
a lot of criticism from people on the
outside after the Notre Dame game. But
my father was right there backing me
up. A bunch of my friends I went to high
school with, my teammates, they would
lift me up.
“We’ve been having a good season, and
those people talking trash about us at the
beginning (have) all come crawling back
like, ‘Oh, maybe this offensive line is
good. Maybe Juwann Bushell-Beatty, Jon
Runyan Jr. are good tackles.’ I just take it
all with a grain of salt.
“I don’t really care. I just stay level-
headed and don’t let it faze me at all.”
Daily
Sports
Editor
Mark
Calcagno
contributed to the reporting of this story.
Sr. “He played high because he wasn’t
used to it. (He needed) better footwork,
footwork with purpose so he didn’t have
to rely on his athletic ability to recover.”
Added the younger Runyan: “I felt sick
because, going back and watching it, it
was just kinda a bad grade — like you
don’t want to show your parents. But you
know that it’s there and they’re going
to find out. You try to hide from them
but you can’t because you know that it’s
there.”
For
most
student-athletes,
parental
advice is complementary to the day-to-
day grind. When your father is a former
All-American
lineman
at
Michigan,
NFL Pro Bowler and New Jersey state
representative, the advice is gospel.
So with Runyan Jr. finding himself on
the wrong end of football commentary,
change was needed — an especially tall
order for a veteran.
But it wasn’t an unusual task.
***
Behind the fame of his father, he’s been
doing it his whole football life.
He starred as an offensive lineman
at
St.
Joseph’s
Preparatory
High
School in Philadelphia, catalyzing an
offensive line and team that celebrated
two Pennsylvania Interstate Athletic
Association state championships.
It was a drop in the bucket for Runyan.
“Jon, despite coming from a dad with
such success, was a shy kid,” said his high
school coach, Gabe Infante. “I think it
was really big shoes to fit into. I think
everyone expects a young man like that
to be his father from the moment he steps
on a football field. But Jon was like any
other 14- or 15-year old kid: basically a
boy trapped in a man’s body.”
No
accolades
would
help
Runyan
escape the shadow cast by his father.
Not coaches’ visits, state titles or even
the popularity of being attached with
football notoriety.
The weight of the last name on the back
of his jersey was an insult flung in the
middle of games, a foot-in-the-door for
an opponent’s animus.
“People like to talk about me as a
sophomore, junior in high school how
I’d never live up to my dad,” Runyan
said, reflecting on a Catholic League
championship game. “Stuff like that just
in the game. It didn’t confuse me, but it
kinda angered me. Coach Infante was
always there telling me that I’m not my
dad, I’m my own person. It’s not fair to
judge someone like me going off what my
dad has done.
“Judge me off what I’m doing, not what
— like I’m my own measuring stick.
You don’t have to measure me up to my
dad because he’s a completely different
person and player than me.”
To
call
it
a
burden
would
be
a
mischaracterization. He plays in the
footsteps of his very father after all.
Winning can solve problems, too.
It seems like an obvious observation: the
son of Jon Runyan Sr. is not Jon Runyan
Sr., and that’s not a bad thing. The sooner
that Runyan Jr. reconciled that, the more
he stood out on his own.
***