8A — Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Patterson looks to make a statement

When Jim Harbaugh strode to 
the podium on Monday, he carried 
the demeanor of a man focused 
only on what was ahead of him, 
unwilling to admit distraction.
Harbaugh was asked about the 
offensive struggles, about where 
his team had improved over the 
bye week and where it needed 
to improve further. He was 
asked about ball security and the 
challenges of playing Wisconsin, 
and none of this would be notable 
if it didn’t carry a certain air to 
it — a connotation that Michigan 
would be in an uphill battle on 
Saturday. Then things got more 
direct, with a reporter asking 
about the feeling of being a Vegas 
underdog. Harbaugh barely gave 
a cursory stare.
“That’s irrelevant,” he said.
So, a day later when the 
normally 
soft-spoken 
senior 
quarterback Shea Patterson took 
his turn, it was unsurprising when 
he, too, fell back on platitudes in 
the face of those same questions.
But after 10 minutes of being 
lobbed questions connoting a 
challenge, giving little benefit of 
the doubt to what Patterson was 
saying about the offense letting 
loose, maybe his patience wore a 
bit thin. He was asked how close 
the Wolverines are to showing 
the world what they’ve seen in 
practice — an offense that can fire 
on all cylinders.
“Uh, what is it?” Patterson 
asked in response. “Three-and-a-
half, four days?”
Indeed, from Tuesday night 
when Patterson spoke, it was four 
until gameday.
“Yeah, we’re gonna go out 
there and make a statement,” 
Patterson said. “Simple as that.”
And 
despite 
the 
obvious 
hedge — winning on the road 
at Wisconsin, a top-15 team in 
a venue the Wolverines haven’t 
walked out of with a victory since 
2001 would be a statement unto 
itself — everyone knows it isn’t 
that simple.

A statement would be following 
up on what we heard all spring 
and summer about this offense. 
It would mean going in and 
showing everyone what this unit 
— a senior quarterback with three 
NFL-caliber receivers, should 
Donovan Peoples-Jones return, 
a top-50 recruit at running back 
and an offensive line chock full 
of returning starters — can do 
when it’s rolling and when its 
coordinator doesn’t get gun-shy.
Patterson 
is, 
literally 
and 
figuratively, 
often 
a 
quiet 
figure 
with 
recorders thrust 
into his face. 
That does not 
mean he lacks 
confidence. He 
hasn’t 
since 
fifth 
grade, 
when his dad 
coached 
him. 
“It was a little 
rough at first,” Patterson said. Yet 
here he is.
“I’m very confident and that 
comes with the guys around me,” 
Patterson said. “How can you 
not have confidence in yourself 
when you have our O-Line and 
unbelievable targets outside and a 
hell of a defense behind you?”
It’s a good question, and really 
the only answer is to point to 
the last two weeks. The offense 
turned the ball over, unable to 
hold onto it. The defense gave 
up points when it got put in bad 
situations. Even when they kept 

the ball, the Wolverines played 
with timidity and struggled to 
move the chains. Michigan nearly 
lost to an unranked Army team at 
home.
Do that against Wisconsin and 
the Wolverines won’t walk out so 
lucky.
Patterson 
knows 
that, 
and so does everyone else in 
Schembechler Hall.
“We haven’t been playing the 
best football we can play and we 
know that,” said senior safety 
Josh 
Metellus. 
“We got guys in 
this building who, 
potential, like way 
up here. We’re not 
reaching that.”
The 
only 
news 
there 
is 
that 
Michigan 
is 
publicly 
acknowledging 
what 
everyone 
can 
see. 
Make 
the kind of statement Patterson 
talked about and the conversation 
will quickly turn back to where it 
was two weeks ago, all about Big 
Ten titles and College Football 
Playoff berths. As many questions 
surround 
the 
Wolverines 
now, narratives change fast. 
Statements aren’t made in the 
quiet comfort of your own 
practice facility.
“I’m done talking about it,” 
Patterson said at the end of his 
session Tuesday, walking away 
from the group of reporters.
It’s time to show it.

Healthy Jeter aims to boost defense

Don Brown let out a sigh and 
a trailing “you know” before 
pausing.
Standing in the Schembechler 
Hall lobby last week, he had just 
been asked for his assessment of his 
defense through two weeks. The 
indecision in his initial reaction 
continued throughout his answer 
as he shuffled between positives 
and negatives, resistant to any 
grand declarations.
The evidence for each came 
naturally. In its first two games, 
every regulation touchdown that 
Michigan’s 
first-team 
defense 
allowed came off a turnover. And 
yet, the Wolverines were 50th in 
Division I with 21 points per game 
allowed despite not facing a Power 
Five team.
All of that, though, was before 
the bye week.
“We haven’t been playing the 
best football we can play,” said 
senior safety Josh Metellus. “And 
we know that we’ve got guys in this 
building whose potential is way up 
here. We’re not reaching that.”
A bye week, of course, isn’t some 
magic cure. Wisconsin had one of 
its own and was off a start in which 
it outscored opposition, 110-0.
Still, it’s an opportunity for 

Michigan to look itself in the 
mirror and diagnose what went 
wrong in its underwhelming start. 
The Wolverines will hold most of 
that diagnosis close to their chest 
until Saturday, but junior defensive 
tackle Donovan Jeter’s return to 
full health is one piece of the puzzle 
that can’t be hidden.
“Donovan’s a really aggressive 
player,” said junior defensive tackle 
Ben Mason. “He adds a lot. Big guy, 
comes off the ball hard. So it should 
a good add for us this week.”
After missing the opener against 
Middle Tennessee State, Jeter 
returned against Army in week 
two, but was limited to a few snaps. 
It stood in direct contrast to the 
expectations that bubbled for him 
throughout the spring, when he 
was one of Michigan’s most hyped 
players.
For months, this was supposed 
to be Jeter’s breakout after two 
years of sitting behind a deep 
defensive line that graduated both 
starters last offseason. “You get 
tired of sitting on the bench,” Jeter 
said Tuesday, reflecting on those 
two years.
But instead of a breakthrough, 
Jeter got hurt. Meanwhile, Mason 
struggled and senior Michael 
Dwumfour played one snap before 
getting sidelined with an injury of 
his own.

“It was frustrating cause I 
obviously want to be out there 
helping the team,” Jeter said. 
“But luckily it was just one week, 
nothing too severe. It could’ve been 
worse, I missed my freshman year 
with something a lot worse. It was 
frustrating, but at the end of the 
day, it was only one week.”
The resulting adjustment had 
a domino effect down Michigan’s 
defense. Sophomore defensive end 
Aidan Hutchinson moved to tackle 
beside Carlo Kemp, while senior 
linebacker Josh Uche had to move 
into an every-down role on the 
front four.
Against MTSU and Army, that 
speed-heavy look mostly worked. 
But Wisconsin wins games in the 
trenches, by pounding the ball 
up the middle with All-American 
running back Jonathan Taylor.
Metellus wants to come back 
to Ann Arbor on Sunday and say, 
“This team is playing the best 
football right now. This team is 
reaching strides. This team is 
moving up better than we were 
the past couple weeks. This team is 
really doing something that we’re 
capable of.”
To make that a reality, the 
Wolverines will need to stop Taylor. 
They’ll need to make good on two 
weeks of post-Army adjustments. 
And, most likely, they’ll need Jeter.

Mel Pearson calls for rules changes ahead of Big Ten coaches’ meeting

It looked like an ordinary, run-
of-the-mill practice. The entire 
Michigan hockey team was on 
the ice working through drills 
and skating the occasional sprint, 
while the three goaltenders 
rotated in and out of the nets at 
each end.
But there was one major 
difference that made for an 
atypical day at Yost Ice Arena 
last Wednesday.
Instead of being down on the 
ice coaching, Mel Pearson and 
his staff were forced to sit in the 
stands and watch.
According to Big Ten rules, 
teams must have two days off 
per week before the official start 
of their season. But on those 
days off, coaches can make the 
ice available for any player who 
would like to get extra reps in.
“(The rule is) to try and help 
student athletes and take some 
of the burden off of them as far 
as the practice out of season and 
whatnot,” Pearson said Sept. 11. 
“But if you ask our guys (on days) 
like today, would they rather be 
out there with coaches or just out 
there (doing) their own thing?
“They’re hockey players. A 
couple of them are gonna be 
multi-million-dollar 
athletes. 
They’re training. It’s why they’re 
here. That’s what they want to 
do.”
Pearson isn’t normally one to 
voice his frustrations with rules 
or officiating, but at a meeting 
of the Big Ten hockey coaches 
on Wednesday, Pearson hopes 
they’ll get the ball rolling on a 
conversation 
about 
potential 
changes. It’s clear there are a few 
hot-button issues Pearson feels 
strongly about, including being 
allowed to add a third full-time 
assistant coach.
When asked about the issue of 
a third coach, Pearson answered 
quickly and decisively, stating 
his answer before the question 
was fully posed.
“Yes,” 
Pearson 
said. 
“Absolutely.”
The 
Wolverines 
have 
28 
players and just three full-time 
coaches — Pearson, associate 

head coach Bill Muckalt and 
assistant coach Kris Mayotte. 
For 
perspective, 
Michigan 
basketball has 15 players and 
four 
full-time 
coaches, 
and 
Michigan football has 11 coaches 
for 85 scholarship players and a 
number of walk-ons.
While other college sports 
have the option of recruiting 
during their offseason, hockey 
season runs the same portion 
of the year at every level of 
the sport, forcing Pearson and 
his staff to balance being at 
Michigan with being out on the 
road recruiting.
Pearson spent 23 years with 
the 
Wolverines 
under 
Red 
Berenson, and he said for most 
road trips, only Berenson and one 
assistant would travel with the 
team while the other assistant 

went out on recruiting trips.
There 
have 
been 
conversations about advocating 
for an additional coach, but the 
Division II and III schools with 
Division I hockey programs tend 
to put a stop to 
such talks. While 
schools 
like 
Michigan 
and 
other Power Five 
teams can afford 
another 
salary, 
the 
smaller 
schools 
with 
more 
limited 
resources 
are 
more resistant to 
additional staff.
“We’re not as unified and as 
organized as some of the other 
coaches’ associations, and that’s 
where (the decision) has to come 

from,” Pearson said. “I know 
softball and baseball are trying 
to get another third coach right 
now. We definitely need one.”
Other rules also frustrate 
Pearson, such as the NCAA-
mandated extra 
14 
days 
that 
must be taken off 
during the school 
year. 
Because 
Michigan starts 
school 
after 
Labor Day and 
begins 
second 
semester 
early 
in January, the 
Wolverines have 
to 
take 
their 
extra days off in-season or much 
closer to the season than Pearson 
would like.
“Some programs, it doesn’t 

affect,” Pearson said Monday. 
“But for us, because of our 
academic 
calendar, 
it 
really 
affects our program, taking the 
extra 14 days off. I’d like to see 
that change.”
Part of Pearson’s displeasure 
comes from the fact that the 
rules vary by conference, with 
few rules about days off and the 
like shared across college hockey. 
The off-day that required him to 
sit and watch practice from the 
stands is mandated by the Big 
Ten, but schools like Ferris State, 
which the Wolverines will face 
at the Great Lakes Invitational, 
only have to take one day off per 
week.
“You’re 
already 
behind,” 
Pearson said Sept. 11. “Every 
week you lose a day.”
On Wednesday, the Big Ten 

hockey head coaches and sport 
administrators from each school 
will meet to discuss some of 
the issues facing the sport. 
While Pearson is hopeful they’ll 
start a conversation for some 
rule changes, both within the 
conference and across the sport, 
he has a cynical attitude about it 
after nearly 40 years in coaching.
“When you get 60 schools 
voting on something — I know 
that the way it’s structured is 
that Division I schools are the 
only ones supposed to vote on 
Division I issues — but with 
hockey, 
it’s 
weird,” 
Pearson 
said. “A lot of times we don’t get 
things passed, even though we’re 
in a Power Five conference. We 
should have power. We don’t 
have any power. It’s one of the 
most frustrating parts.”

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Quarterback Shea Patterson is confident in Michigan’s chances Saturday.

We haven’t 
been playing 
the best football 
we can play.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Mel Pearson called for multiple rule changes, including additional practice time and the ability to add a third full-time assistant coach, similar to other Big Ten revenue sports.

They’re 
training. It’s 
why they’re 
here.

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Junior defensive lineman Donovan Jeter is fully healthy ahead of Michigan’s matchup with Wisconsin.

