8 — Friday, September 13, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

C O M M E M O R AT I N G

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

University of Michigan Law School, 1225 Jeffries Hall

4:10–5:30 p.m. 

Sponsored by U-M Office of the Provost

A CONVERSATION WITH 
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 
JUSTIN AMASH

Glasgow making impact at WILL

Don Brown knows you’ll think 
he’s crazy, but he doesn’t much 
care.
After all, he’s been around 
the block a time or two. In over 
40 years in the profession, he’s 
coached 
All-Americans 
and 
future professionals. He’s spent 
his life living and breathing 
defensive football — and he’s one 
of the best around.
That gives him the license to 
make a determination that strays 
from conventional wisdom a 
time or two. On Monday, that 
particular claim came in regard 
to 
senior 
linebacker 
Jordan 
Glasgow.
“I’ll say this, and I might be 
criticized: This guy might be one 
of the best players in the Big Ten,” 
Brown said. “Watch him run and 
hit people. Just watch him play.”
Coming 
into 
the 
season, 
the 
fifth-year 
senior was seen 
as 
valuable 
versatility — a 
depth piece to 
shore 
up 
the 
linebacking 
corps. He wasn’t 
the 
starter 
at 
VIPER, the spot 
belonging 
to 
senior 
Khaleke 
Hudson. 
He 
wasn’t the heir apparent to Devin 
Bush at the MIKE linebacker 
spot, either. That position, the 
general consensus held, was 
going to be Josh Ross’. He wasn’t 
slated to be the WILL linebacker 
either, but he won that job 
anyway.
And in a personnel group 
defined in the early season by 
volatility, Glasgow remains a 
steadying presence. In the early 
weeks of the season, he’s taken 
that play up a notch.
In a week one win over Middle 
Tennessee 
State, 
Glasgow 
secured two sacks, matching 
his career total to that point. 
Against Army the next week, he 

seamlessly slotted into one of the 
inside linebacker spots, helping 
hold the Black Knights to their 
lowest yards-per-rush average 
since 2015 and their lowest total 
yardage since 2017.
Asked to dissect why Glasgow 
was accepting of a move inside, 
from his more 
natural 
VIPER 
spot, 
Brown 
initially scoffed.
“Are 
you 
serious? He had 
no choice, ‘You’re 
moving 
inside,’ 
” Brown joked. 
“(Glasgow) 
was 
willing (to make 
the move). He’s a 
great dude.”
Glasgow came to Michigan 
a walk-on — and brother of 
Graham, who then manned the 
Wolverines’ offensive line and 
now plays for the Detroit Lions. 
His career at Michigan has 
been a coach’s dream — steady 
ascension, gradual increase in 
role, sudden blossom, invaluable 
veteran contributor. In many 
ways, though, he still carries the 
stereotypes that hang around his 
path. Asked after his standout 
opening-week 
performance 
about newfound speed, Glasgow 
instead shrugs it off.
“It’s difficult to say. I don’t 
consider myself very fast relative 
to the other people on the team, 

people that are my size,” Glasgow 
said. “I think that you may be 
exaggerating how fast I am.”
Turn 
to 
Brown, 
though, 
and he’ll entertain no such 
degradation.
“I mean, he’s a junkie,” Brown 
said. “He might be one of the 
funnest guys in the world to 
coach, because he loves it. He eats 
it. He drinks it and he backs it up, 
because he smashes everybody 
that moves.”
Brown then offered a quick 
anecdote to illustrate that point, 
recalling a phone call he received 
one night.
Coach, 
I’ll 
be 
available 
tomorrow morning at 7:20. I’d like 
to go over my plays.
OK, I’ll see you tomorrow to go 
over your plays.
I specifically want to go over my 
(naked bootlegs). 
OK, we’ll go over the (naked 
bootlegs).
If anything, Glasgow’s path 
lends more credence to his merit, 
not less. He is no longer a walk-
on. He is no longer just Graham’s 
brother. He’s shed nearly every 
hindrance in his path, and he’s 
done so on his own terms. Two 
weeks into his final collegiate 
season, Glasgow is a steadying 
force for a group once seen as a 
possible liability. 
And 
if 
Don 
Brown 
has 
anything to say about it, one of 
the best players in the Big Ten.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Senior linebacker Jordan Glasgow has impressed Don Brown this year.

This guy might 
be one of the 
best players in 
the Big Ten.

OL looking to clean up penalties

As Cesar Ruiz assessed the 
state of Michigan’s offensive line 
earlier this week, he was careful 
not to label any struggles as 
“growing pains.”
The implication accompanying 
that term is that the Wolverines’ 
inconsistency on the offensive 
line is a result of Josh Gattis’ new 
offense. The junior center knows 
that isn’t the case.
“We 
all 
understand 
the 
offense, 
we 
all 
understand 
everything,” Ruiz said. “It’s just, 
once you get in the game, you’ve 
got to understand everything’s 
fast-paced and there’s no re-dos.”
But 
the 
truth 
remains 
inescapable. 
Two 
weeks 
into 
Michigan’s 
season, 
the 
Wolverines’ offense hasn’t lived 
up to expectations.
So what gives?
“When you look at it over the 
past few games, we’ve got seven 
turnovers, we have 10 penalties, 
but then we also have seven 
drops,” Gattis said. “So you go 
back and look at all those plays in 
critical situations, they’re killers.”
Turnovers have led to every 
regulation touchdown given up by 

the first-team defense and drops 
have held the offense to nine self-
described “explosive” plays so 
far. But as Michigan’s offensive 
linemen spoke this week, it 
became clear that penalties are 
at the crux of the Wolverines’ bye 
week focuses.
At first glance, 58 penalty yards 
doesn’t seem comparable to three 
turnovers on the list of reasons 
that Michigan went to overtime 
in a game it entered as a 23-point 
favorite. But when four of those 
penalties came in a seven-point 
first half on an offensive line 
returning three starters, it’s cause 
for alarm.
“We had some penalties that 
shouldn’t happen,” said senior 
guard Ben Bredeson. “Procedure 
penalties that we’re better than 
that, we know better than that. 
And obviously just (frustrated) 
with myself for that one. But it’s 
just focus time and something 
that we need to correct going 
forward.”
So 
as 
Ruiz 
watched 
his 
offensive line struggle against a 
defensive line with no player over 
300 pounds, he had a message for 
the unit.
“My thing was, we can’t lose,” 
Ruiz said. “We can’t lose to this 

team. We can’t keep shooting 
ourselves in the foot. That was my 
main message. We had a few false 
start penalties — I had one. ... You 
don’t get too many chances with 
the football against this team 
so we’ve got to maximize every 
opportunity we have.”
Against 
Wisconsin 
next 
Saturday, the Wolverines will be 
confronted with one of the Big 
Ten’s premier defensive units, 
further limiting their margin for 
error. It’s why Bredeson called 
the bye week “not the worst 
(timing) in the world.” Now, the 
challenge is taking advantage of 
these two weeks.
While eliminating unfocused 
penalties will be a point of 
emphasis during the bye week, 
Michigan will also be focusing 
on spotting blitzes and picking 
up assignments — two things the 
Wolverines practice every day, 
according to Ruiz.
Now, the challenge is turning 
them into live reps.
“Every game’s not going to be 
perfect,” Ruiz said. “But it’s up to 
us to minimize every single one 
of those mistakes. It’s great we 
have a bye week to focus on a lot 
of those things and to be extra 
focused on those.”

Back at Yost Ice Arena, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor makes his presence felt

A sea of players took to the 
rink in Yost Ice Arena.
Some 
wore 
blue 
practice 
jerseys, others white. One even 
wore purple — a signal for 
exemption from physical contact. 
But the one thing all the players 
of the Michigan hockey team 
shared was the navy helmet they 
wore, crowning them a member 
of the Wolverines.
But as practice began this 
week, and even before that, a 
different colored helmet could 
be spotted — a player donning a 
white helmet in a white jersey 
— shooting pucks hours after 
practice had concluded and all 
the players had trickled off the 
ice to the locker room.
It was Kyle Connor.
The former Michigan forward 
recorded 
35 
goals 
and 
36 
assists in his lone year with the 
Wolverines, placing runner-up 

for the Hobey Baker Award in 
2015-16. Connor got drafted into 
the National Hockey League 
with the Winnipeg Jets where he 
continued his success, recording 
two 
back-to-back, 
30-goal 
seasons.
And lately, Connor’s presence, 
as an elite player and friend, has 
been felt at Yost.
“Kyle’s been around,” said 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson. 
“He’s been around the last few 
summers since he’s turned pro. 
He always comes back to Ann 
Arbor. He enjoys it here.”
Swinging by, summer after 
summer. A standstill in contract 
talks has extended his annual 
summer visit into September 
this year. When he comes to Yost, 
Connor arrives with a wealth of 
knowledge and experience. With 
three years as a professional, on 
top of a storied college career, 
Connor has insights on what 
it takes to be successful at all 
levels.

“As a coach, I want to ask him 
questions,” Pearson said. “Just 
about little things, whether it’s 
about analytics at the next level 
or practice at the next level, or 
how hard they work or what 
it might be. Or 
different drills. 
You’re 
always 
trying to steal 
ideas and steal 
thoughts 
and 
whatnot.”
Connor’s time 
at 
Michigan 
didn’t 
overlap 
with 
Pearson, 
who 
was 
the 
then-head coach 
of Michigan Tech before taking 
over for Red Berenson before 
the 2017-18 season. But the lack 
of familiarity didn’t stop the two 
from conversing and learning 
more about each other’s path to 
success. And it wasn’t a one-way 
affair.
“As a young kid coming in,” 

Connor told The Daily, “you just 
want to pick his brain and talk, 
kind of similar to Red.”
The trading of information 
wasn’t limited to just coach and 
pro, though. Pearson thought his 
players would be 
“well-served” 
to ask for a few 
pointers 
from 
“one of the best 
at what he does.” 
But the players 
didn’t 
need 
the push from 
Pearson to act — 
they had already 
approached 
the 
NHL 
star 
themselves.
Though Connor was gone 
by the time the current seniors 
stepped foot on campus as 
freshmen, they had seen him 
plenty, whether for summer skate 
or a drop-by during practice.
“I’ve talked to a lot of the guys, 
just kind of the upperclassmen,” 

Connor said. “I know them a 
little bit, just being familiar and 
talking to them. They’re a great 
group of guys. And they work 
hard. I mean, that’s the biggest 
thing.”
His 
pointers 
to the seniors, 
including 
forwards 
Will 
Lockwood 
and 
Jake 
Slaker, 
were 
centered 
around Connor’s 
specialties: 
shooting 
and 
passing.
“We were out 
there 
doing 
a 
shooting drill, and he was talking 
about what it takes to score at the 
next level,” Lockwood said. “And 
just some things to work on, 
which obviously, coming from 
him, is a pretty big deal — he 
scores 30 goals a year.”
Puck 
release, 
speed 
of 
shot, shooting on net. Connor 

emphasized the importance of 
getting the puck off quickly, 
regardless of the power behind 
the stroke. 
“You just got to hit the net and 
get it off quickly, especially when 
the puck’s going 
from side to side, 
Lockwood said. 
“So some good 
advice 
from 
him.” 
But 
just 
as 
important 
as 
Connor’s 
words 
are his everyday 
actions at Yost. 
As he practices, 
skating 
or 
shooting, eyes wander in his 
direction, looking to him to lead 
by example.
“It’s not even him talking. Just 
kind of watching him you know, 
of course as an elite player in 
the NHL,” Slaker said. “So just 
watching him you just learn. It’s 
fun having him there.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior center Cesar Ruiz is among the offensive linemen who committed avoidable penalties against Army.

TIEN LE
Daily Sports Editor

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Former Michigan forward Kyle Connor has been practicing at Yost Ice Arena and giving advice to Michigan players as he waits for a contract standoff to end.

You just want to 
pick (Pearson’s) 
brain and talk ... 
similar to Red.

Just kind of 
watching 
(Connor) ... as 
an elite player.

