8 — Friday, April 12, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
In replacing Kinnel, J’Marick Woods develops beyond hitting hard
It was his freshman year,
Ambry Thomas thinks. His
first spring ball. That was
when he first saw J’Marick
Woods take off a guy’s head.
“I was at corner. He was
at safety,” Thomas says. “He
came down like on a basic
route and just took the tight
end out.”
In
the
middle
of
the
sentence, Thomas claps for
emphasis.
“Crazy. From a freshman
that just got up out of high
school.”
There
is,
of
course,
a
difference
between
being
someone who hits hard and
being a good football player.
As Woods enters his junior
season
as
a
presumptive
starter
alongside
Josh
Metellus, it’s a gap those
surrounding him think he’s
successfully bridged.
When Woods came into
the
program,
safeties
and
special teams coach Chris
Partridge said, there was some
developing to do. He was 17
years old and had to adjust to
college ball on both a physical
and mental level. That means
learning a playbook and it
means
developing
in
the
weight room.
“He was like a baby deer
running around,” Partridge
said. “And he is now developed
into a man.”
In the past, the Wolverines
didn’t need Woods as anything
more than a depth piece. Last
season, Metellus and Tyree
Kinnel
could
dependably
take the bulk of snaps at the
position — between them, the
two missed just one game.
Metellus is back and will
undoubtedly be a leader for
the defense, as Partridge said
multiple times on Thursday.
But Kinnel has graduated, and
that’s a void Woods will be
expected to fill.
“I’ve seen his athleticism,”
said
fifth-
year
senior
linebacker
Jordan Glasgow.
“His potential,
like, in terms
of
size.
He’s
6-(foot)-3, 210,
205
(pounds),
I’m
not
sure.
Fast,
can
hit
harder than I’ve
really ever seen
anyone. He can really put his
body out there and lay it all on
the line.”
Woods’ game has gotten
more refined. He’s got the
playbook down, which means
there’s
time
to
work
on
technique. That seems to be
going pretty well.
“He’s controlling his body,”
Partridge said. “We saw it in
December, before the bowl
game. And he’s come into
this spring ball
and he’s been
lights
out
to
where he had to
develop a little
bit. And we’re
excited
about
him. Like I said,
he’s
becoming
a
man.
He’s
taking
a
stronghold.
He’s
seeing
formations.
He’s
taking
coaching.”
The
hitting,
that’s
still
there. It has been since day
one, and it’s still a defining
characteristic. Glasgow called
Woods
the
hardest
hitter
on the team and when told
that, Thomas concurred, and
put it simply. “He lay that
wood,” the junior corner said.
Hitting so hard in spring ball
that the sound reverberates
throughout
the
practice
field,
as
Glasgow
recalled, sets one
hell of a tone.
“That
gets
everyone going,”
Glasgow
said.
“... Just makes
everyone
stop
and
say,
‘Oh,
shit. This guy’s
going 100 miles
an hour.’ And that makes
everyone else wanna do that
as well.”
Kinnel’s departure is far
from the only one Michigan
will have to answer for come
the fall. With Chase Winovich,
Rashan
Gary
and
Devin
Bush all gone as well, the
void Kinnel leaves is one the
Wolverines don’t have quite as
much time to think about.
If Woods can make it so they
don’t have to
think about it
at all, that’s all
the better.
“We
want
dogs. We want
people
that
want
to
be
here,” Thomas
said. “We want
people ready to
compete. And
when I know
he’s beside me, or people on
defense beside me, I know
they’re coming to play with
me.”
ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior safety J’Marick Woods is known for being a hard hitter but has refined his technical ability since his freshman season and will likely replace Tyree Kinnel.
He came down
... and just took
the tight end
out.
Just makes
everyone stop
and say, “Oh,
shit.”
Quinn Nordin, Jake Moody and the benefits of a kicking competition
Jim
Harbaugh
frequently
preaches a “no job is safe”
mentality,
playing
up
competitions for starting spots,
even at positions where that role
is all but determined by the start
of spring practice.
But if there’s one player
who hasn’t really faced a true
positional battle in his time at
Michigan, it’s redshirt junior
kicker Quinn Nordin. For a
season
and
a
half,
the
job
was his and it
wasn’t really a
question.
Now, though?
He’s locked in a
bona fide battle
with sophomore
Jake Moody, a
battle Harbaugh
called “neck and
neck” on April 3.
“It’s not what you want (if
you’re Nordin),” said safeties
and special teams coach Chris
Partridge on Thursday. “It’s not
what anyone asked for. But he’s
gotten adverse situations, he
looked it in the eyes and come
in and he’s competed. He hasn’t
backed down from it.”
Nordin was as hyped as a
kicker recruit can
be — an in-state
kid who was the
No. 1 player at his
position
in
the
country, a player
that
Harbaugh
famously wanted
so
much
that
he slept over at
Nordin’s house in
an effort to secure
his commitment.
The sleepover worked, but
the rest hasn’t gone according to
plan. Nordin redshirted in 2016,
and going into 2017, the job was
his. Crystal clear. There was no
competition, no one else who
even attempted a single field
goal the entire season.
He made 19-of-24 that year
and
his
inconsistency
was
on full display. He made a
55-yarder in the season opener,
but during a four-game stretch
in October and November, he
missed four-straight kicks and
two extra points. It was the kind
of performance that inspired
an eyeroll, a declaration of
“college kickers!” and a video of
Harbaugh in a shouting match
with Nordin on the sidelines —
not one expected from a onetime
No. 1 recruit.
In
2018,
the
job
was
once
again
handed
to him. But the
performance only
got worse. Nordin
was just 11-for-16
on field goals and
notably
missed
two
in
a
win
over
Wisconsin.
Two weeks later,
against
Indiana,
Nordin was reported out with
an undisclosed illness. Moody
trotted out in his place.
The rest is history. Moody
made six kicks — a program
record no one saw coming —
that saved the game. Even with
Michigan facing its two biggest
games of the season, Nordin
didn’t attempt another field
goal the rest of
the way. Moody
took the reins
and performed
well
against
Ohio State and
Florida.
Nordin,
instead, sat on
the
sidelines,
his
job
in
jeopardy due to
a freshman that
— like most kickers — nobody
had heard of going in. Nordin
was just another kicker, albeit
one with a prominent sleepover
anecdote to his name.
Now, if Nordin wants his job
back, he’ll have to truly beat
Moody rather than coasting on
the hype that once surrounded
him so long ago.
“He’s
gotta
grow
and
understand that that’s what this
world is,” Partridge said. “We
had conversations
about, you wanna
kick, you’ve got
the ability to kick
further in your
career and go to
the
NFL,
well,
they’re constantly
gonna
bring
in
people to compete
and
beat
you
out and this is
how you have to
handle it.”
It would be easy for Nordin
and
Moody
to
treat
the
competition
as
a
zero-sum
game — and subsequently feel
resentment toward each other
about it. But that’s not how
it’s been. The two are friends,
working
out
together
and
encouraging each other every
step of the way.
Both
also
recognize
the
benefits of the battle, because
ultimately,
knowing
that
they truly have
to
earn
their
job makes each
one
better.
According
to
Partridge, each
has
missed
two
or
three
field goals in
practice,
with
Nordin hitting
a few deeper ones, but nothing
enough to create separation.
And for Nordin especially,
perhaps this was just what he
needed. Amid the uncertainty,
he’s found a maturity that wasn’t
present before.
“He’s just putting everything
on himself and attacking the
football and not really thinking
about his leg swing as much and
just relying on what he’s coached
and what he does,” Partridge
said. “He tends
to
overthink
sometimes.
I
think
his
maturity
has
helped him not
do that. … He’s
really
matured
from
(the
competition)
and handled it
a really, really
good way.”
In all likelihood, there won’t
be any clarity as to the winner of
that competition until one trots
out on the field Aug. 31 against
Middle Tennessee State. And
even then, the one who does win
will come in knowing that if he
performs poorly, it’s his job to
lose.
But with both Nordin and
Moody performing well in spring
ball — even getting a nod from
Partridge as “two of the best
kickers around”
— perhaps this
is a validation
of
Harbaugh’s
philosophy.
No
job is safe, and
both are better
players because
of it.
“They
both
go out there and
compete
every
single day,” said
junior
defensive
back
Brad
Hawkins. “They both go out
there and be the best players
that they can be for this football
team, so they’re both doing what
they do best. Just kicking the
ball and competing against each
other.”
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Redshirt junior kicker Quinn Nordin is in a competition for the starting job for the first time ever, after getting benched for Jake Moody late last season.
He looked it in
the eyes and
come in and
he’s competed.
You’ve got the
ability to kick
further in your
career.
They both go
out there and
compete every
single day.
He’s gotta grow
and understand
that that’s what
this world is.