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.