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.

***