The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, September 12, 2019 — 7

Jess Speight earns scholarship

Just before the start of fall camp, 
Jess Speight was at dinner with his 
dad when he missed a call from Jim 
Harbaugh.
He spent the next hour nervous, 
mind scrambling, wondering what 
the news could possibly be.
Then, Harbaugh called back. 
He wanted the junior to switch 
to defensive line. After losing so 
many linemen in the offseason, 
the Michigan football team was 
dangerously 
shallow 
at 
nose 
tackle and three-technique, and 
Harbaugh thought Speight would 
be better utilized there rather than 
as the third-string center.
Speight was a little apprehensive 
when he first heard the news. He 
came in as a preferred walk-on and 
dedicated two years to offensive 
line, only to suddenly switch — a 
week before fall camp, no less. 
Speight played both lines in high 
school, but preferred offense then 
and focused his training there. But 
after calling his family, including 
his older brother, former Michigan 
quarterback Wilton Speight, to tell 
them the news, his nerves began to 
melt into excitement.

“(I was) confused what to 
think,” Speight said. “I didn’t know 
if I had just been wasting time 
playing offensive line. (Wilton) was 
immediately ecstatic, enthusiastic, 
saying that this might be one of 
the best moves that I’ve ever made 
while I played football.”
So Speight decided to embrace 
his new position. He changed his 
mindset to attack mode, wanting 
to run through someone on every 
play, trying to develop as fast as he 
could to make up for lost time.
At center, Speight had to think 
a lot, and it slowed him down 
sometimes. Now, at defensive line, 
he doesn’t have to think — just 
attack. He’s become close with 
defensive line coach Shaun Nua, 
who pushes him without being 
overbearing. And then, he began to 
love his new position.
“Everybody knows it was a little 
bit of an awkward position just 
because I’ve already been here two 
years and putting a good bit of time 
into offensive line,” Speight said. 
“The way Harbaugh presented it 
was that they’re just going to try 
me at D-line and I was probably a 
week in and realized that I really 
liked it, really had a passion for it. 
So I just tried to develop as quickly 

as I could, try to make up for two 
years that I lost playing O-line.”
The Monday after the Middle 
Tennessee 
game, 
Harbaugh 
gathered 
the 
team 
together 
and 
announced 
that 
Speight 
and 
junior 
offensive 
lineman 
Andrew Vastardis would receive 
scholarships. Speight had gotten 
into the game on special teams, 
making the moment even more 
special.
Speight and Vastardis had an 
idea scholarships were coming. 
Earlier, Harbaugh had made a list 
of who he was considering, and 
both players were on it. But still, it 
was a big moment, a culmination 
of the hard work that at first had 
seemed so pointless.
Speight estimated that scout 
team guys like him could do 500 
reps in practice just to get one rep 
in a game. But now, with some 
playing time and a scholarship, 
those reps he’s put in have finally 
begun to pay off.
“When he went to defense, it was 
sad to see him go,” Vastardis said. 
“But we gave him the opportunity 
to achieve all this. I think he’s 
really taken it and ran, and it’s been 
fun to watch. It’s been fun to play 
against him too, on different sides.”

Anthony gives depth at linebacker

The complexities of football 
don’t become easier defending 
against a triple-option.
Against Army last Saturday, 
Don 
Brown 
said 
Michigan 
called a blitz “every snap of 
the game.” Of course, it’s more 
complex than that — they only 
actually ran a blitz 18-20 times. 
Bridging the space between 
the initial call and what the 
Wolverines 
actually 
ended 
up doing falls to the middle 
linebacker.
Brown gave the example of 
Army coming out in a double 
slot formation. The middle 
linebacker’s job was to use the 
‘Horns up’ signal — Longhorn, 
in 
Michigan’s 
parlance 
— 
indicating 
the 
triple 
option, 
which 
starts 
with the same 
letter 
T 
as 
Texas. 
The 
alternative 
is 
just 
yelling 
“Blitz!” 
the 
result 
of 
which is self-
explanatory.
The example 
was small and understandable 
enough 
that 
Brown 
could 
explain 
it 
to 
a 
group 
of 
reporters — most of whom 
aren’t qualified to step onto a 
football field — in minutes. So 
imagine a whole book of them, 
then imagine a player getting 
that responsibility thrust on 
him midgame, and then you 
might 
understand 
Jordan 
Anthony’s predicament.
Anthony, 
a 
redshirt 
sophomore, had played in eight 
games at Michigan before last 
Saturday. In three of them, he 
played only special teams, and 
in the other five, he contributed 
in bite-sized increments, often 
at the end of blowouts. He’s 
never totaled a sack or a tackle 
for loss in college. Certainly, 
he had never played a half of 

football for the Wolverines in 
which he was on the field as 
much as Saturday. As soon as 
starting linebacker Josh Ross 
went out with a stinger, it was 
almost inevitable that Anthony 
would 
notch 
career highs in 
every 
category 
in which he put 
up a stat.
“He’s played 
about this much 
time 
for 
us 
since he’s been 
here,” 
Brown 
said, gesturing 
to indicate just 
how little time 
it was. “Now he’s going to take 
over.”
For Michigan’s defense, a 
unit that faced questions all 
offseason about losing Devin 
Bush in the middle, this was 
quietly as big a test as Ross 
taking over the 
position. In the 
past, it had the 
requisite depth 
to 
withstand 
injuries. Now?
Let 
Lavert 
Hill explain.
“Jordan 
Anthony came 
in, 
he 
just 
stepped up big 
time for Josh 
Ross,” the senior cornerback 
said. “He just came in, did what 
he had to do, just helped us get 

to win.”
The Black Knights scored 
14 points in the first half; they 
wouldn’t 
score 
again 
until 
overtime. Anthony made four 
tackles — as many as he did 
all of last season — and kept 
up with those calls. Michigan 
won, and the consternation this 
week is not about a defense that 
lost its best three players to the 
NFL, but an offense that came 
into this season as a presumed 
upgrade.
This is the kind of depth that 
Brown dreams of at any position. 
Ross is a year ahead of Anthony, 
having played his freshman 
year instead of redshirting. 
Through two games (with the 
obvious disclaimer for level 
of competition), he’s provided 
adequate replacement of Bush. 
When he went down, Anthony 
did the same for him, and did 
it against a team for which 
complication 
is 
inherent.
“And in the 
half of football 
— ‘How did he 
play?’ ” Brown 
said, incredulous 
at his own fake 
question. “Well 
all I know is the 
half of football 
he played, they 
scored 
zero 
points, so how do you think he 
played? 
“It’s amazing to me.”

A 
slight 
smell 
of 
sweat 
permeated the nearby offices of 
Yost Ice Arena.
A group of defensive players, 
straight from practice, had been 
ushered into a room. But no one 
cared about the discomfort of 
their noses. Their eyes and ears 
laid focused on a single person, 
breaking down a cip from the 
day’s practice.
Newly hired assistant coach 
Kris Mayotte was giving a 
lesson.
It did not take 
a discerning eye 
to 
tell 
where 
the 
Michigan 
hockey 
team 
needed help.
Out 
of 
the 
60 
teams 
in 
the nation, the 
Wolverines 
ranked 
46th 
in 
penalty 
kills. 
And 
for 
goaltending 
save 
percentage, 
they ranked second-to-last in 
the nation. It was very clear 
what they needed to change to 
fix their struggles.
The original intent was to 
keep everything similar, amid 
concerns 
that 
overreacting 
would be detrimental to the 
team’s 
progress 
in 
buying 
into the current system. But 
former assistant coach Brian 
Wiseman’s abrupt move to the 
Edmonton Oilers 
forced Michigan 
coach 
Mel 
Pearson’s hand, 
and 
he 
made 
the 
necessary 
adjustments.
“Goaltending, 
save percentage 
59th out of 60 
teams 
in 
the 
country. 
That’s 
not 
gonna 
cut 
it. Penalty killing. We have to 
get better,” Pearson said. “So 
we’ve added Kris Mayotte from 
Providence who’s brought in 
some new ideas and given us a 
different perspective.”
Mayotte 
left 
the 
Friars, 

where he helped the team tie 
for sixth in the nation in penalty 
kill percentage and 14th in 
goaltender 
save 
percentage. 
His expertise lays in the two 
areas Michigan struggled with 
most, and when the Wolverines 
narrowed the search, his name 
headlined the shortlist.
 “A tremendous amount of 
people interested in the job,” 
Pearson said. “We just broke it 
down and looked at strengths 
and weaknesses of the program, 
on the ice, the coaching end of 
it, also the recruiting part of 
it. He just sort of came at the 
top of the list as 
far as adding a 
defensive 
guy 
and a goalie guy 
and a guy to run 
the PK and some 
areas where we 
really 
needed 
some help.”
A 
phone 
call 
later, 
and 
Mayotte 
let 
it 
sink in. He would 
be coaching for Michigan, where 
he was the de facto penalty kill 
coach, as well as assisting with 
goaltending 
coaching 
duties 
with 
volunteer 
coach 
Steve 
Shields. Upon accepting the job, 
he picked up the phone again in 
the proceeding days, this time to 
make calls to introduce himself 
to the players and his new 
system.
Mayotte’s belief about penalty 
killing systems are that they are, 
for the most part, 
all the same.
To him, what 
differentiates 
systems are the 
things 
people 
choose 
to 
emphasize.
“If you talk 
to 10 different 
coaches, 
what 
they emphasize 
when they teach 
this specific system is the subtle 
difference,” Mayotte said. “Some 
talk about pressure, first and 
foremost, some talk about stick 
positioning, first and foremost, 
some talk about, reading. 
“There’s a couple different 

systems, 
there’s 
high 
opt 
pressure, there’s a little bit more 
passive, where you can block 
low, a few more shots, and just 
sit and shot lanes and try and be 
inside. And then what you see 
in the NHL is what they call, a 
track down or triangle and one.”
The system Mayotte likes to 
teach, however, is none of those. 
What he prefers is a straight 
line, 
go 
press 
style. He believes 
the 
aggressive 
attitude 
on 
the 
penalty 
kill 
forces 
the 
opponents 
to 
have 
to 
make 
the 
plays 
and 
subsequently, 
the errors.
Evaluating his 
roster, he found 
the Wolverine players had two 
strengths: 
they 
were 
quick, 
and they were smart. And so 
his emphasis was on those two 
things. Make the read. Call the 
press. Be aggressive.
“One-go-all-go type things 

so that the pressure isn’t for 
naught,” Mayotte said. “(The 
team’s) 
taken 
advantage 
of 

(the speed and smartness), and 
hopefully forcing the power play 
to play a little faster than they’re 
comfortable playing. And then 
force mistakes that way.”
As for goaltenders, Mayotte 
believes in the exact opposite. 
There was no forcing anything 
with 
the 
netminder. 
He 
simply waits and 
listens.
“Even 
just 
from 
practices, 
I’ll start clicking 
video for them,” 
Mayotte 
said. 
“So 
that 
we 
can 
sit 
down 
and watch and 
kind of go over 
a couple of things, and have 
conversations and the big thing 
with the goalies, is you know, 
I’m not going to ask them to 
play my game, or they have to be 
comfortable.”
His focus with goaltenders 

is to hear them out. In his 
eyes, there are things to do, 
but overall, Hayden Lavigne 
and Strauss Mann are not bad 
goalies.
“Hayden backs up this team 
— they’re Frozen Four the 
year 
before,” 
Mayotte 
said. 
“And Strauss, you know, won a 
championship, and he really had 
a good junior career.”
So Mayotte’s 
approach with 
them 
was 
simply 
to 
let 
them 
hit 
the 
reset 
button 
and talk them 
through 
the 
bad times. Stop 
a puck and shut 
out a game, and 
they get a lot of 
confidence. Let 
in a breakaway or a backdoor 
goal, and suddenly that affects 
them and the game slips away.
“You go out and you have a bad 
game and you give up five, it’s 
how do you respond,” Mayotte 
said. “And I think that’s our goal 

is just, be consistent.”
And one of the methods to 
consistency is talk through the 
tough streaks.
“You talk only all the time. 
And 
sometimes 
that’s 
just 
what goalies like to do is talk 
goalie. They just want someone 
that they can talk to about 
their situation and have an 
understanding because it is 
ultimately better 
or worse, it is a 
different position. 
The 
other 
five 
guys 
are 
doing 
something playing 
a 
completely 
different 
game 
than the goalie 
is 
playing. 
And 
sometimes 
they 
just need to vent 
and 
sometimes 
they just need someone to 
understand 
what 
the 
heck 
they’re talking about.”
Waving the players in to 
talk, Mayotte opens the door 
to his office, ushering in a new 
approach with his tenure.

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh gave Jess Speight a scholarship after he switched positions from center to defensive line.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Jordan Anthony backed up Josh Ross at middle linebacker on Saturday.

(Anthony) just 
stepped up big 
time for Josh 
Ross

The half of 
football he 
played, they 
scored zero.

Wolverines hire Kris Mayotte as assistant coach to help in goal, on PK

TIEN LE
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Sophomore goaltender Strauss Mann will work with newly hired assistant coach Kris Mayotte, who comes to the Wolverines from a job at Providence.

Goaltending, 
save 
percentage, 
59th out of 60.

Even just from 
practices, I’ll 
start clicking 
video for them.

And I think 
that’s our 
goal is just, be 
consistent.

We ... looked at 
strengths and 
weaknesses of 
the program.