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.