The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 11, 2019 — 7A
With injuries in the past, Black
hopes to key offensive progression
As soon as Tarik Black heard
the
question,
a
contagious
smile took over his face.
He had just been asked about
his week one touchdown — his
first since a nearly-identical
one in his Michigan debut two
years earlier. That was back
when Black was the future of
the Wolverines’ wide receiver
corps, the promising freshman
who tallied 149 yards in his
first three games.
Then, just as soon as his
career had taken off, he broke
his foot, sidelining him for the
season. Less than a year later, it
happened again — same thing,
different foot.
“I knew exactly what it was,”
Black said of his second injury.
“… I simply just ran a route and
I guess the way I broke, the
way I planted, my foot didn’t
like it.”
By
now,
Black’s
injury-
related struggles have been
well-documented. He returned
to play three games late last
season, but was never 100
percent. He finished the year
with just four receptions for 35
yards.
In
the
meantime,
conversations with his mom
helped him get through it all.
When a reporter asked him
Tuesday whether he considered
quitting football, an automatic
“absolutely not” shut down the
question.
Because now — for the first
time in two years — Black is
ready to move on.
“I’ve never been hurt playing
football in my life,” Black said.
“So it was kind of something
new for me and I kind of got
a little PTSD from it coming
back. But now I think I’m out
of that phase, just past that and
ready to move forward.”
With
the
injury
behind
him, Michigan’s new offensive
era
was
beginning,
even
with Donovan Peoples-Jones
temporarily sidelined.
Everything,
it
seemed,
was falling into place. Then
the Wolverines nearly lost to
Army as that offensive promise
floundered in a game that went
to overtime tied at 14.
“Our guys have made some
plays and I wish we had some
big plays that we’ve missed
cause they’ve been big plays,”
said
offensive
coordinator
Josh Gattis. “But we’ve just
got to continue to work on
... the timing, the speed of
routes, releases. When we have
guys wide open, we’ve got to
cash in on those. So our kids
understand it and we’ve gotta
make those plays.”
And Black, despite his seven
receptions and 104 yards in
two games, knows it. Through
two games, Michigan has just
nine self-described “explosive”
plays — passes of 16-plus yards
or rushes of 12-plus. The
Wolverines
have
repeatedly
been within inches of breaking
games open with big plays.
Instead, balls have bounced off
receivers’ hands or just beyond
their reach and the big-play
potential of their receiving
corps has only fleetingly come
to fruition.
“I think we can go way up
from here,” Black said. “If you
watch the film, there’s a lot of
plays that we can make going
forward. And I think you guys
will see — trust me, you’ll see
— that this offense is going to
be crazy.”
Black stands at the center
of the Wolverines’ offensive
dichotomy. When Michigan’s
offense was at its best in its
27-point
first
half
against
MTSU, he was its standout
performer, notching 80 yards
before halftime. Late in the
second quarter, he missed a
drive with cramps — a product
of not having a full workload in
two years. Since then, he has
just 24 yards on three catches.
Conditioning is one of the
key areas that Black says the
Wolverines’ current bye week
will
help
with.
Continued
familiarity in Gattis’ offense
is another, as is Peoples-Jones
potential return to health.
And
maybe
Michigan’s
offensive promises won’t have
to be promises anymore.
“I want our play to do the
talking for us,” Black said.
“And I think moving forward,
you guys will see that we are a
really good group of receivers
and we’re going to work our
tails off to do whatever we can
to have our team win.”
How one yell changed the game
Michigan’s defense had its back
against the wall.
It was one thing to fall a
touchdown behind to an unranked
foe in the first half. Three lost
fumbles tend to produce such
tenuous positions, and Army
had done its best to capitalize.
But a two-touchdown deficit in
the second half against a ball-
controlling savant — in the midst
of offensive woes — would’ve been
another mountain to scale entirely.
Perhaps even a death knell.
The Black Knights completed
a 29-yard pass to vault into the
Wolverines’ territory, then slowly
marched inside the 10 with under
nine minutes to play in the third
quarter. That’s when Don Brown’s
defense toughened up and made its
game-changing sequence happen.
“Now, it’s 1st and goal at the 4.
We gave up two explosive plays
— one run, one pass,” Brown
said Monday, gesticulating and
enunciating
in
a
professorial
manner. “We gave up the explosive
pass, now they’re 1st and goal at
the 4. They run speed option to the
right. Jordan Anthony goes in, he
grabs one leg. Ben Mason’s trying
to get in, he grabs another. And
then Glasgow comes over the top
and shoulders him, and then Uche
pulls him back to keep him out of
the end zone.”
In the moment, the touchdown-
saving play seemed to only delay
the inevitable. Army had the ball at
the one-yard line. Giving a triple-
option side three plays to get one
yard is akin to baking a cake with
all the ingredients already poured.
Placing it in the oven is nothing
more than a formality.
“What do you think our shot is
to stop 2nd and 1?” Brown asked,
rhetorically. “Pretty hard, right?
By the skin of its teeth,
Michigan’s defense lived to play
another down. That’s when it all
turned.
What first appeared to be
merely a boneheaded mistake
by Army — the fullback moving
prematurely for a false start,
sending the offense back five yards
— turned out to be a shrewd tactic
by the Wolverines.
It was all part of a plan the
defense
had
been
practicing
beforehand.
“So, we come out and we’re
going to move the defense. We’re
going to show them the three-
man front and we’re going to go
ahead and step in the front two
to try to stop this fullback. So our
call is “MOVE!” ’ Brown yelps,
his violent cadence re-enacting
that of his team. “So when we
made the move call, the fullback
went *stutter steps* and that
moved them back five yards.”
Senior
cornerback
Lavert
Hill flashed a sly smile when
that stunt comes up in media
availability three days later.
“We had practiced it a couple
times and we decided to just call
it in the game,” he said.
Is he surprised it actually
worked?
“Yeah,” he chuckled, “a little
bit.”
The
off-schedule
play
subsequently forced Army into a
play it almost never makes. The
Black Knights finished 129th (of
130 teams) in both interceptions
and turnovers in 2018. But there
it was — senior VIPER Khaleke
Hudson in the quarterback’s
face, ball fluttering well short of
an intended target, then falling
helplessly into the arms of an
awaiting Lavert Hill.
Perhaps unexpectedly, they’d
chosen to throw the ball, and
the defense was prepared. Hill
made amends for his dropped
interception
a
week
prior,
securing the pick, returning it to
the 22-yard line and breathing
life into a team that had been
slowly succumbing to a relentless
Army offense.
The
Wolverines’
offense
marched right down the field,
traversing 78 yards in 12 plays to
tie the game up on a touchdown
from freshman running back
Zach Charbonnet. It was a
14-point swing in no more than
a half-dozen minutes of game
time.
It’s hardly hyperbolic to say
the play salvaged a game that
was rapidly extending beyond
the team’s grasp. It may have
saved a season from crashing
before it could even take flight.
“That’s probably the key of
the game,” Brown said, “because
if we don’t make that stop there,
who knows? You can’t predict
it.”
Michigan bounces back from loss
to Stanford, dispatches California
With less than a minute
remaining, the No. 7 Michigan
women’s field hockey team
(2-2) was in a pinch.
Defending
a
one-score
lead, the Wolverines defense
watched a California player
bring the ball just outside the
Wolverines’ goal in a last-ditch
effort to score. But after an
errant pass led to a scramble
for the ball, Michigan senior
Guadalupe Fernandez Lacort
managed to scoop up the ball
and take it out from the goal,
capping off the team’s road
weekend with a win.
“I was proud of our team,
at
how
hard
they
fought,
especially in the second half,”
said Michigan coach Marcia
Pankratz. “… I think (junior
back)
Halle
O’Neill’s
been
playing amazing defense; she’s
really been our field general
and just the foundation of the
backfield, and really proud of
her play. She’s been playing
really inspired field hockey.”
But the Wolverines faced a
heartbreaker of their own on
Friday in Palo Alto against No.
21 Stanford. Michigan started
with a two-score lead following
a goal by sophomore forward
Tina D’Angolell early in the
second half. That advantage
soon collapsed, though, when
Stanford’s
Corinne
Zanolli
scored
twice
in
just
five
minutes to tie the game.
The score remained tied
through two overtime periods,
eventually going to a shootout
competition. The Wolverines
looked to have the game in the
bag after the Cardinal failed to
score on their first three out of
five attempts, while Michigan
had scored on its first two.
But the Wolverines fell apart
thereafter, failing on their next
three attempts while Stanford
rallied to tie the shootout.
In the next round, Michigan
again was denied, and Zanolli
scored to win the upset for the
Cardinal.
“It was a long, hard-fought
game,” Pankratz said. “I think
our team’s really resilient, so
they’re positive and supportive
of each other and just moving
forward to learn and grow and
get better.”
Sunday’s win over the Bears
brought a gratifying end to a
weekend that was bitter at first
for the Wolverines. Michigan
was able to protect its lead,
O’Neill was a standout on
defense and freshman Sarah
Pyrtek secured the win late
in the game by scoring off a
rebound for her first collegiate
goal.
Pankratz indicated that going
forward the team would look to
improve one-on-one defense
and find combinations with
good chemistry on the field,
as well as focus on recovery
following a demanding road
trip — one that tested the
resolve of her team.
“We’re still growing, it’s a
process,” Pankratz said. “We’re
getting better every day. I think
we can always get better at
everything, like any team.”
‘M’ glides to 3-0 victory over Cornell
With 11 minutes remaining in
the first half, Michigan senior
forward Jack Hallahan sped
down the right side of the field,
lofting a pass over the head of
a bystanding Cornell defender
into the box to graduate student
forward Nebojas Popovic.
Popovic instantly redirected
the ball towards junior forward
Mohammed Zakyi, who fired a
point-blank shot past the arms
of diving Big Red goalkeeper
Brady McSwain to give the
Wolverines (2-1-0) the lead, 1-0.
Michigan never looked back
on Friday night, scoring two
additional goals to shut out
Cornell (0-1-0) 3-0, in a match
highlighted by a suffocating
Wolverines defensive unit and
opportunistic forward play.
Prior to Zakyi’s goal, each
team held the other to brief
possessions
in
the
middle
of the field and struggled to
advanceinto their opponent’s
territory.
But
Michigan’s
defense,
anchored by veteran junior
defender Jackson Ragen, soon
clamped down on Cornell’s
forwards and disbanded their
efforts,
giving
its
offense
the
necessary
possessions
to
produce
goal-scoring
opportunities.
“The defense
kept
shutting
them out and
getting us the
ball. And that
just put more
pressure
on
their
defense,”
Popovic
said.
“Because
of
that,
we
got
more space in
the middle of the park.”
As the pendulum swung in
their favor, the Wolverines
were able to spread out the Big
Red’s defense, allowing their
forwards to open up the field
with long passes and run their
offense
through
Hallahan’s
swift ball-handling on the right
side.
“(Hallahan)
opens
teams
up with his dribbling and his
eye,” Michigan coach Chaka
Daley said. “(The forwards)
are
all
benefitting
because
of the attention put on Jack.
We are fortunate to have him
facilitating for the others.”
Three
minutes
into
the
second
half,
the Wolverines
capitalized on a
free kick from
junior midfielder
Marc
Ybarra.
Ybarra rocketed
the
ball
deep
into
Cornell’s
box
towards
Ragen, who then
launched a tight-
angled shot from
the back post behind McSwain
to extend their lead, 2-0.
As the game progressed,
Michigan
only
intensified
its
stifling
defensive
play,
limiting the Big Red to only
three shots in the second half.
Senior
goalkeeper
Andrew
Verdi tallied all four of his
saves during the half in his first
shutout since returning to the
starting position.
“(Verdi’s) done great. After
not playing for a little while,
it’s definitely hard to adjust,”
Ragen said. “I will bet that he
will be even more comfortable
now.”
Just like their defense, the
Wolverines’ offense refused to
let up on the gas pedal at any
point throughout the rest of
the game. With two minutes
remaining
in
the
contest,
Popovic tapped a goal past
McSwain to ice the game for
Michigan.
Despite a slow start in which
neither team could seem to hold
onto possession, the Wolverines
eventually clicked into the right
gears to generate a dominating
performance on both sides of
the ball.
“We talk a lot about getting
momentum. If we win the first
ball, let’s get the second ball.
And then connect the first
pass,” said Daley. “If we can do
those things, we think we have
enough in the locker to unlock
teams or keep going until they
make a mistake.”
PHILIP CALDWELL
Daily Sports Writer
DREW COX
Daily Sports Writer
CARTER FOX/Daily
Junior back Halle O’Neill helped guide the Wolverines over California on Sunday after a heartbreaking loss to No. 21
Stanford on Friday in Palo Alto.
CARTER FOX/Daily
Senior forward Jack Hallahan got the assist on Michigan’s first goal of the game.
We are
fortunate
to have him
facilitating...
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor
MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior wide receiver Tarik Black is fully healthy for the first time in two years.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Defensive coordinator Don Brown was pleased with Lavert Hill’s interception.