8A — Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Position review: Quarterbacks

With 
the 
Michigan 
football 

team’s 2018 regular season in the 
books, The Daily looks back at the 
performance of each unit this year 
and peers ahead to the future in 
2019. In this edition: quarterbacks.

Coming off a 2017 season 

handicapped by poor quarterback 
play — one which ended with John 
O’Korn in tears at the podium 
after the Ohio State game — even 
average quarterback play would 
have sufficed. 

In 2018, Shea Patterson cleared 

that low bar with room to spare. 

Patterson 
threw 
for 
2,600 

yards, the highest total since Jake 
Rudock in 2015. He threw for 22 
touchdowns, the most since Chad 
Henne also posted 22 in 2006. His 
touchdown to interception ratio — 
22-to-7 — was the best since Drew 
Henson’s in 2000. 

There’s a very real case for 

it being the best season from a 
Michigan quarterback this decade. 
In fact, it might not even warrant 
an argument.

Whether that surpassed the 

massive expectations planted on 
Patterson after his transfer from 
Ole Miss is subject to personal 
evaluation. He did not merit All-
Big Ten or All-American selection. 
He was no “savior of the program,” 
as some optimistically posited. But 
one thing is clear: With Patterson 
at the helm heading into 2019, the 
Wolverines are as comfortable at 
quarterback as they’ve been in 
quite some time.

HIGH POINT: The Michigan 

offense got the ball back in the 
middle of the fourth quarter 
with a four-point deficit and a 
quarterback oozing confidence.

Just hours earlier, Northwestern 

had jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the 
first half, threatening to derail the 
Wolverines’ season before it even 
took flight. With one loss already 
under their belt, a loss to the 

Wildcats would have effectively 
served as a death knell.

Slowly but surely, Patterson 

helped awaken Michigan’s offense 
from its prior doldrums. Then he 
orchestrated a decisive 11-play, 
67-yard drive in 5:59 to grab a 
20-17 lead that would soon become 
final.

On the drive, Patterson showed 

the tools that made him effective 
all year. He rushed for nine yards 
into Northwestern territory on 
a key 3rd-and-6. Then, two plays 
later, he rifled a missile to the back 
shoulder of tight end Zach Gentry, 
sending Gentry lumbering down 
to the six-yard line.

Above all, he showed the moxie 

to carry the sputtering Wolverines 
out of Evanston with a win when 
the alternative seemed inevitable 

all evening.

“I just know there’s something 

about him,” said fifth-year senior 
defensive end Chase Winovich 
after the game. “I saw it the very 
first time we had met. He was a 
major factor in me coming back 
because there’s just an aura about 
him. … He’s a football player.

“But something about Shea is 

special. People can see it. Being on 
the team with him, you can feel it.”

LOW 
POINT: 
Somewhere 

between the first interception and 
the second interception, Michigan 
viscerally lost hope.

Much of what derailed in the 

Peach Bowl was out of Patterson’s 
control. Florida rushed 40 times 
for 257 yards, eviscerating the 
porous, under-manned Wolverines 
defense. Michigan’s leading rusher 

in the game, Christian Turner, 
totaled just 32 yards.

But a stinging 41-15 defeat falls 

in part at the feet of its leaders — 
and Patterson earned his share 
of the blame. For him, the game 
represented an opportunity to 
move past the debacle at Ohio 
State. He had a chance, playing 
without many of the departing 
stars, to usher in optimism for the 
year ahead with his play and his 
demeanor. A chance, in short, to 
lead.

Patterson’s sloppy play did 

nothing of the sort. 

The junior quarterback ended 

the day with middling statistics — 
236 yards, one touchdown and two 
interceptions on a season-high 
36 attempts. In the first quarter, 
he guided the lone touchdown 

drive with three pinpoint throws, 
including a back-shoulder pass 
to Donovan Peoples-Jones for a 
score.

It was that ease which made the 

ensuing stagnation all the more 
frustrating.

Early in the first half, Patterson 

tried to throw a deep post-route 
to Nico Collins. Underthrown 
and misread, Patterson’s pass fell 
easily into the arms of Florida 
safety Chancey Gardner-Johnson, 
symbolically turning the tide of 
the game. From there, the Gators 
scored 28 of the game’s final 
33 points, including a 30-yard 
Gardner-Johnson pick-six to twist 
the knife already entrenched in 
the Wolverines’ back.

Patterson doesn’t assume all 

the fault for the loss, of course. 

And the loss, in a vacuum, changes 
little about the overall outlook of 
Michigan’s season, one congruent 
with the ethos of Michigan football 
these days: just good enough to 
tantalize, not good enough to win 
anything meaningful.

But 
the 
Peach 
Bowl 
was 

Patterson’s 
to 
seize. 
Having 

already announced his return, 
Patterson held the trajectory of the 
program and the present mentality 
of the team. The ambivalent 
performance did nothing to satisfy 
either.

THE 
FUTURE: 
In 
terms 

of present upside and future 
depth, Michigan’s quarterback 
room is in as good a position as 
it’s been in over a decade. While 
Patterson enters next season as 
the presumed incumbent, Joe 
Milton and Dylan McCaffrey both 
offer future starting quarterback 
potential. 

McCaffrey 
showed 
brief 

glimpses of that potential in 2018. 
He completed 4-of-6 passes and, 
anecdotally, looked comfortable 
in relief duty at Notre Dame. He 
rushed for a 44-yard touchdown 
against Wisconsin and had an 
80-yard rush called back on a 
holding call against Nebraska. In a 
mop-up appearance against Penn 
State, though, McCaffrey injured 
his collarbone and was out for the 
remainder of the year.

For Milton, the hype remains 

just that — largely centered around 
whispers of practice feats here and 
there and one 60-yard missile 
against Ohio State. He didn’t 
clear the four-game threshold, 
remaining eligible for a redshirt 
if he and the coaching staff so 
choose.

With Patterson in tow, and 

highly-regarded new coach Josh 
Gattis in control of the offense, 
there’s reason for tepid optimism 
ahead of 2019. Amid an offense 
returning most of its core, the 
quarterback position represents 
one of the team’s biggest strengths.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

In 2018, Shea Patterson helped lift Michigan’s quarterback room to new heights. What’s in store next year and beyond?

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson threw for 2,600 yards, 22 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, returning in 2019 to headline a strong quarterback room.

Simpson leads way with triple-double in 65-49 win over Ohio State

Kaleb Wesson barked at Zavier 

Simpson. 
He 
was 
frustrated 

with the junior guard’s relentless 
defense after Simpson blocked a 
shot seemingly out of nowhere.

Simpson, of course, barked 

back.

It wasn’t long before both teams 

got involved, exchanging words 
and shoves before the refs broke 
it up.

In the end, both teams got two 

technicals plus a common foul on 
the Buckeyes. Junior center Jon 
Teske sunk both free throws and 
the Michigan men’s basketball 
team — buoyed by a chorus of boos 
— had all the momentum against 
Ohio State. The Wolverines scored 

five straight points afterward 
to cap off a 9-0 run and extend 
Michigan’s 
lead 

to 18.

“That’s 
our 

motivation, when 
things get chippy 
in 
the 
game,” 

Simpson 
said. 

“We 
thrive 
off 

that. That hungers 
us, keeps us going. 
That 
makes 
us 

wanna make the 
next best play.”

And the Buckeyes’ frustration 

with 
Simpson 
started 
long 

before the fight. On the previous 
possession, Simpson hit a 3-pointer 
to break up a three-minute scoring 
drought. Before that, he was 
a constant presence, grabbing 

boards left and right and dishing 
out assists. He finished with a 

triple-double, 
the first of his 
career — scoring 
11 
points, 
10 

rebounds and 12 
assists and acting 
as the Wolverines’ 
catalyst 
in 
its 

65-49 win.

The Buckeyes 

stymied 
Michigan at first 
with 
different 

defensive looks, including a three-
quarters trap and a 2-3 zone. The 
Wolverines couldn’t get any shots 
to fall — for two or for three. Ohio 
State, though, gave the ball away 
and fouled so frequently that it 
minimized its own volume of 

chances. In the first minute of the 
second half alone, the Buckeyes 
had two fouls and 
two giveaways.

Parts 
of 
the 

game 
seemed 

like an exercise 
in 
not 
scoring. 

But 
despite 
its 

lack of efficiency, 
Michigan 
generated enough 
chances to build 
up a lead. On one 
possession, Poole 
missed two triples before finally 
making the third. Two minutes 
later, 
Ohio 
State 
committed 

another turnover late in the shot 
clock. Sophomore forward Isaiah 
Livers hit a 3-pointer on the other 
end to give the Wolverines their 
first lead of the game.

From there, the shots started 

falling. Michigan took the lead 

for good on a trey 
by redshirt junior 
wing 
Charles 

Matthews 
and 

finished with 10 
3-pointers on 37 
percent shooting 
from beyond the 
arc

“(We) 
were 

confused a little 
bit and once we 
got 
a 
rhythm 

for it, we started to play with a 
better rhythm, whether it was 
zone or man in the first half,” said 
Michigan coach John Beilein. 
“In the second half they played 
a couple sets of zone and I think 
(Poole) hit a three and somebody 
else hit a three and they didn’t play 

zone anymore.”

During the final media timeout, 

two 
assistants 
whispered 
to 

Simpson a simple message: “Get 
another rebound.” It was then that 
he realized he was approaching 
a milestone. With 2:49 left in the 
game, following a missed jumper, 
he finally got his 10th.

“My teammates, they told me to 

get it,” Simpson said. “So having 
it come up, two of them could’ve 
gotten the rebound. I’m like, ‘Hey, 
I’m here.’ They kinda let it bounce. 
… That means a lot.”

A minute later, Simpson was 

called for a foul and removed 
from the game, but instead of the 
usual boos to accompany such 
a call, Simpson exited to cheers 
of “triple-double” and “Zavier 
Simpson” and then, finally, a 
standing ovation.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

EVAN AARON/Daily

Sophomore point guard Zavier Simpson posted a triple-double Tuesday night, with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.

That’s our 
motivation, 

when things get 

chippy...

Parts of the 
game seemed 
like an exercise 
in not scoring.

