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.