4B — Monday, September 9, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Donning a plush blanket and 
a 
happy-go-lucky 
demeanor, 
Kevin and Paula Cooper sat 
atop Section 10 of Michigan 
Stadium late Saturday morning. 
They were there early to catch 
a glimpse of their son, David, 
who’s one of Army’s backup 
kickers. Paula served in the 
military from 1992-1997. Kevin 
has served the last 27 years.
“I’m just happy to be here,” 
Paula said, as the conversation 
wound down. “Did I mention 
that?”
It was still hours before two 
fourth-down stops rattled the 
steel beams supporting sections 
8-12. 
Hours 
before 
inches 
separated her son’s team from 
a monumental upset win and 
hours before the defeat that 
ensued. Hours before Kwity 
Paye and Aidan Hutchinson 
rescued a lackluster Michigan 
performance, forcing a fumble 
in overtime to somehow salvage 
a 24-21 win. 
There will be droves of 
analysis on what that means, 
how it came to be, where things 
go now. Soon thereafter, it 
will be discarded into the vast 
archives, receding under the 
tidal wave of whatever happens 
next.
Some spent the afternoon 
lamenting Michigan’s decision 
to schedule Army in the first 
place. Playing against a triple-
option the second week of the 
season, the thinking went, only 
invited pitfalls. The logic is 
sound.
But there were reminders 
littered 
throughout 
every 
crevice of Michigan Stadium 
of the larger factors at play. 
College football itself is a 
uniquely American enterprise, 
warts and all. Within that 
ecosystem, military academies 
are the living embodiment of 

that patriotism. If you dug deep 
enough Saturday, walked to 
enough sections, stumbled upon 
enough clues, it wasn’t hard to 
unearth a microcosm of what 
this sport, at its best, can mean 
to those who celebrate it.
“They’re 
going 
to 
be 
teammates and most of them 
are going to go straight into a 
combat zone. So what they’re 
building here will stand in a 
good stint for the next 40 years. 
He and I have been classmates 
for 40 years — ‘78,” said Chuck 
Dimeco, a former Army football 
player, 
before 
the 
game, 
gesturing to the man seated 
by his side. “That, I think, is 
different than what you get at a 
regular university. These guys 

have a reason for being there 
other than being on the field.
“It’s 
a 
loyalty 
to 
the 
institution, to the Army, to the 
communities, to the people who 
sacrificed. It just brings back 
memories that 99 percent of the 
population will never have.”
One 
man, 
watching 
the 
fourth 
quarter 
from 
the 
concourse, said he attended 
a 1,700-person Army tailgate 
before the game. “I might not 
know everyone (there),” he said, 
“but I know somebody who 
knows somebody, who knows 
somebody.”
As he spoke, a friend nudged 
his shoulder, trying to get his 
attention. The two exchange 
pleasantries before he walked 

off to the restroom.
“Bill’s still in the army, but 
I hadn’t talked to him in 20 
years,” gesturing to his friend, 
now walking away. “I reached 
out to him like five years ago. 
It’s like he’s my roommate again 
— calls me everyday, we hang 
out. He moved to Madison. He’s 
an army colonel, and he’s up in 
Madison stationed out there. 
… So we all come here not only 
for the game — 50 percent of 
the game and the 50 percent is 
the camaraderie and the bond 
that we reconnect when we get 
here.”
That understanding is part 
of the “Long Gray Line” — a 
phrase those at West Point use 
to bind Army graduates past, 

present and future.
For some, that manifests 
itself through family lineage. 
Darrell Scales sat next to his 
wife, Katie, and one of their 
daughters. Both Darrell and 
Katie were Army alums, and 
had driven up from Atlanta for 
the game.
“For our girls, they just want 
to be a part of the gray line,” 
Katie said. “ ‘That Long Gray 
Line,’ they call it.”
As 
Army’s 
stranglehold 
on the game tightened, their 
excitement grew. The roars 
became louder. High-fives more 
intense. Sure, it was one thing 
to see the tailgates, reunite 
with friends, share in a bond. It 
would’ve been another for that 

traveling contingent to walk out 
of Michigan Stadium with a win 
for the ages.
Michigan fans resorted to 
nervous 
tendencies 
outside 
section 11 — one nursing a Diet 
Coke, another clutching his 
vape — while Army fans kept 
their cool. Eric Lee, a father of 
an Army student, slotted his 
hands in his pockets, watching 
the field goal at the end of 
regulation drift ever-so-slightly 
right and fall ever-so-slightly 
short.
“You know what the student 
body is at West Point,” he chided 
after the miss, “right?”
When the game ended — an 
abrupt halt to Army’s upset bid 
— Michigan players joined with 
Army players, gathered around 
those dressed in uniform on 
the sideline. Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh had asked Army 
coach Jeff Monken before the 
game if they had a postgame 
ritual the Wolverines should 
partake in. Monken explained 
they sing the alma mater, and 
he’d be honored if Michigan 
joined. 
So there they were, conjoined 
under a bright blue sky. The 
crowd stood up. The alma mater 
blared. The whisper of “U-S-
A” soon cascaded into a full-
stadium chant. The players all 
stood there, bound by a sport 
that is stitched together by its 
eccentricities. 
“I’m proud of our guys,” 
Monken said shortly after. “I’m 
proud of how they represented 
West Point today. I’m proud 
of how they represented the 
United States Army. I hope that 
everybody that had a chance to 
watch — not everybody bought a 
ticket, them included, people on 
TV, I’m sure they were watching 
— we made them proud of our 
United States Army and the 
determination of the American 
soldier. Because that’s what 
those guys are.”

A near loss, with plenty gained

On a day when Michigan skirted a disastrous loss, there were plenty of reminders of a greater meaning

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Army fans flooded The Big House on Saturday, offering reminders throughout the stadium of a greater importance than just the results on the field.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

Fake punt propels ‘M’ in victory

In 
his 
postgame 
press 
conference 
Saturday, 
Army 
coach Jeff Monken emphasized 
one play more than any other.
It 
wasn’t 
any 
of 
his 
team’s 
three 
touchdowns or 
three 
fumble 
recoveries. 
It 
wasn’t 
the 
clinching 
play 
of 
the 
game, 
where 
his 
quarterback 
was 
sacked 
and 
fumbled. 
It 
wasn’t 
the 
Black Knights’ 
missed 
game-winning 
field 
goal attempt, either.
Monken wanted one play 
back: Michigan’s fake punt.
“We knew we needed to get 
some turnovers if we were 
gonna beat them,” Monken 
said. “We had to get some balls 
away from them and steal a 
possession, and they stole one 
from us on the fake punt. That 
was my call. … They stole one 
from us there and it’s probably 
my greatest regret.”
The 
game 
couldn’t 

have started out any more 
disastrous for the Wolverines. 
Senior 
quarterback 
Shea 
Patterson fumbled on the first 
drive, gifting Army the ball 
and an eventual touchdown. 
Michigan got the ball back, of 
course, but it wasn’t long before 
the Wolverines 
ran into trouble 
again.
Michigan’s 
drive stalled as 
it faced fourth-
and-5 
from 
its own 47. To 
make 
matters 
worse, 
it 
seemed, senior 
linebacker 
Devin 
Gil’s 
false start moved everyone 
back five yards.
But before the false start, 
the Michigan coaches noticed 
something 
in 
the 
Black 
Knights’ punt coverage. They’d 
eschewed a deep corner in 
order to put an extra man in the 
box, hoping to block the kick. 
It’s the kind of coverage you 
run when you’re the underdog, 
when you need some big, crazy 
plays to win.
Except 
that 
when 
the 
Wolverines lined up again 

and saw Army in the same 
coverage, they were one step 
ahead. Sophomore linebacker 
Michael Barrett — a former 
high-school quarterback who 
contributes mostly on special 
teams — lined up in front of 
punter Will Hart, took a direct 
snap and threw a pass to the 
waiting freshman safety Dax 
Hill, who broke through a 
diving tackle for 25 yards and 
the first down.
Five plays later, Michigan 
tied the game up with a 
touchdown. They went on to 
squeak out a win, 24-21, in 
double overtime.
“Disappointed 
in 
myself. 
I wish I would’ve changed 
the call there,” Monken said. 
“But ... we’re not gonna be 
safe, we’re gonna go play. So if 
I’m safe as a coach, that can’t 
be the way I lead. They gotta 
know I got confidence saying 
we’re gonna go for it. You 
know what? We went for it, got 
a guy out there and we missed 
the tackle.”
Ronnie Bell was sitting on 
the sidelines during the play, 
not knowing what was about 
to 
happen. 
Ben 
Bredeson 
and Aidan Hutchinson were 
equally clueless.
“All of a sudden I see 
everybody 
screaming,” 
Bell 
said. “And I looked and Dax 
made the miss and I was like, 
‘Oh, let’s go,’ so I was excited 
as everybody else.”
Most of the key players 
in the Wolverines’ offense 
don’t play on special teams 
and subsequently had no idea 
it was a play Michigan even 
practiced. But on Saturday, 
it was the reserves and the 
freshmen who pulled out the 
play that brought the drive 
back from the dead.
Monken spent so much time 
dissecting the play because 
he realized that it led to one 
of the Wolverines’ only two 
touchdowns 
of 
regulation. 
The fake punt was a game-
saving play for Michigan, and 
perhaps a season-saving one.
For the Black Knights, it 
was merely the one that got 
away.

Charbonnet becomes workhorse

Michigan’s 
running 
game 
wasn’t supposed to look this 
way.
All 
offseason, 
coaches 
posited that it would be a 
three-headed 
committee. 
When running backs coach Jay 
Harbaugh spoke to the media 
three days before the start of 
the season, he listed five names 
in consideration for touches.
And for one week, reality 
bore that out. Then Saturday 
afternoon arrived. The final 
carry split: Zach Charbonnet, 
33; Christian Turner, 3; Ben 
VanSumeren, 1.
That’s not to say that the 
Wolverines’ 
backfield 
will 
always look this way. After 
the game, Jim Harbaugh said 
that split was a product of 
circumstance. But the truth 
remains: two games into his 
college career, Charbonnet is 
Michigan’s workhorse.
“Full faith in Zach,” said 
senior guard Ben Bredeson. 
“He had a great fall camp, he’s 
doing a great job. Still is, as you 
can see from today. If he’s got 
the ball, we as 
an O-line are 
absolutely fine 
with that.”
At the heart 
of Charbonnet’s 
emergence 
have 
been 
performances 
that 
stand 
in 
direct contrast 
to 
everything 
a 
freshman 
running back is 
supposed to be.
He has run well, to the tune 
of 190 yards on 41 touches — 
4.6 yards per carry. He has 
provided a threat in the passing 
game with four receptions. 
He has punched the ball into 
the end zone when asked to, 
scoring all three of Michigan’s 
touchdowns against Army on 
Saturday.
“You’ve gotta give the kid 
a lot of credit,” Harbaugh 
said Saturday. “He rose to 
the occasion. Had to be tired, 

but did a heck of a job in my 
opinion.”
But 
Christian 
Turner 
— 
bar the touchdowns — has 
done that too, averaging 4.9 
yards per carry and showing a 
dangerous burst to the outside. 
The difference between the two 
has been in pass protection, the 
one area where common sense 
dictates that the sophomore 
Turner’s 
experience 
should 
give him an edge.
In 
week 
one 
against 
Middle Tennessee State, all 
of 
Michigan’s 
presumed 
top 
three backs — 
Charbonnet, 
Turner 
and 
redshirt 
junior 
Tru Wilson — 
were perfect in 
pass protection, 
according 
to 
Harbaugh. And 
the carry split 
followed: 11 for 
Turner, 
eight 
for Charbonnet, two for Wilson 
before he hurt his hand on a 
blitz pickup.
Against 
Army, 
the 
plan 
seemed to follow a similar path 
through two drives. Wilson 
stood on the sideline, dressed 
but not fully healthy, while 
Charbonnet and Turner split 
the early carries. Then, on 
Michigan’s third drive, Turner 
failed to pick up a corner blitz, 
allowing Elijah Riley to force 
Shea Patterson into his second 
fumble of the game.

The rest of the way, Turner 
saw just one carry. Charbonnet 
had 28.
“I just felt like we had to 
really lean on Zach today,” 
Harbaugh said. “(VanSumeren) 
fumbled and we had another 
(Turner) that missed protection 
and we just felt like we just had 
to give it to Zach.”
But 
while 
Charbonnet 
converted 
his 
opportunities 
into 
100 
yards 
and 
three 
touchdowns, 
Harbaugh 
still 
wants 
to 
shy 
away 
from 
overburdening him.
“This next week, that’s going 
to be something that — next 
two weeks, really — getting 
that next back that we can get 
in there and really trust and 
play well,” Harbaugh said. “And 
we’ll evaluate this week to get 
another back in because that’s 
tough duty, going a whole game 
on a hot day.”
The 
issue 
then 
becomes 
which running backs can earn 
that trust. Through two games, 
Turner and sophomore Hassan 
Haskins 
have 
each 
missed 
a vital blitz pickup, while 
VanSumeren’s fumble led to an 
Army touchdown.
Maybe Wilson will fit the 
bill when he returns. His path 
to playing time a year ago was 
pass protection and the blitz 
pickup that he got injured on 
led to a touchdown. But for 
now, Harbaugh has a running 
back he knows he can trust to 
be a workhorse — if he needs 
one.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Freshman Daxton Hill caught a fake punt late in the first quarter on Saturday.

They stole 
one ... and it’s 
probably my 
greatest regret.
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Freshman Zach Charbonnet got the bulk of Michigan’s carries on Saturday.

I just felt like 
we really had 
to lean on Zach 
today.

