The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, September 19, 2019 — 5A
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
Faculty couple seeking
jr., sr., or grad student as
study helper for 19-year-
old dyslexic daughter. 2-3
days/week, max 10 hours,
$15/hour, flexible
schedule. Email
tareid458@gmail.com
By Jeffrey Wechsler
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/19/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
09/19/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Thursday, September 19, 2019
ACROSS
1 Barista’s
concoction
6 Domino dots
10 Rotating rod
14 Construction rod
15 Square __
16 Skirt with a
flounce
17 Tall display of
dishwashing
liquid?
19 MiG developer
20 Wee
21 Soy sauce taste
22 Sleuth of radio,
movies and TV
23 Sitcom star from
Melmac
25 Sticker
27 Global donation
of dishwashing
liquid?
32 Set in a golf bag
34 TV exec Arledge
35 Barcelona bear
36 Short dog, for
short
37 Or so
38 1956 crisis site
39 Chest-beating
beast
40 Darts
41 Slow, to Ravel
42 Rock band’s
preferred
dishwashing
liquid?
45 “Supergirl” actor
Jon
46 It can be thin but
not fat
47 Glance through
48 Goaded, with “on”
52 Seed used in
smoothies
56 “O brawling love!
O loving __!”:
Romeo
57 Using
dishwashing
liquid in the
shower?
59 “__ that a lot”
60 One likely to snap
61 Spree
62 Like everything in
a she shed
63 Ballpark figure
64 Aconcagua’s
range
DOWN
1 Pram pusher
2 Son of Leah
3 Black, to a bard
4 Zero, quaintly
5 Martini
specification
6 Dance with a
queen
7 Captain Kirk’s
home state
8 Common
greeting card
content
9 Far from
soothing
10 Masonry finish
11 Bully
12 “Everything’s
ready to go!”
13 Chance at the
spinner
18 Clump of dune
grass
24 Fleur-de-__
26 Baa ma
27 One whose work
is laughable
28 Heavenly path
29 Gear bit
30 Word with hot
or dog
31 Zonk out
32 Tablet with Air,
Pro and Mini
models
33 Update the look
of, as a product
37 Like some
bistros
38 1957 Coasters
chart-topper
with the refrain
“Gonna find her”
40 Opponent
41 Fragrant chain
43 MLB team with
Mr. and Mrs.
mascots
44 Duchamp genre
47 __ Tzu
49 Trusted advisor
50 Pesky bug
51 Goes back
53 Rear
54 “Picnic”
playwright
55 Forever
58 Placeholder abbr.
HELP WANTED
S
aturday presents a pivot
point in this Michigan
football season.
It’s not a season-defining
one. The Wolverines can lose
on Saturday and still accom-
plish all
their intend-
ed goals. On
the converse,
they can win
on Saturday
and still
fail to reach
those same
goals.
It is the
archetype
of game Jim
Harbaugh has yet to win and
needs to start winning, plain
and simple. Which begs the
question that, on the surface,
might seem hyperbolic: Would
a win against Wisconsin on
Saturday be the best victory of
the Harbaugh era?
Substitute any words in that
sentence — “most impressive,”
“most meaningful”, “most
impactful” — and you can have
an entirely different conversa-
tion. But would it be the best?
That is highly determinant
on, you know, how the game
actually plays out. Would a
30-point drubbing over the
Badgers be far more impres-
sive than a squeaker? Maybe,
maybe not. Does is matter how
the rest of Wisconsin’s season
plays out? Sure.
But, in the interest of can-
dor, this is a question that
speaks far more to Harbaugh’s
teams’ shortcomings rather
than this one specific game.
Michigan will go to Madison
having been an underdog in
seven games in the Harbaugh
era; it has lost all seven. The
Wolverines have yet to beat a
ranked opponent on the road
in his tenure. Their only win
over a top-10 team in that
span came against Wisconsin
at home in a game they were
favored by nearly a touchdown.
The most impressive wins of
the Harbaugh era are, in some
order, as follows:
— A 32-23 win at Michigan
State in 2016 against a group
that would eventually flounder
to 3-9 on the season.
— A 21-7 win over the 24th-
ranked Spartans last year,
which teetered in the balance
until the Shea Patterson/Don-
ovan Peoples-Jones 79-yard
touchdown.
— A 49-10 romp of Penn
State in 2016.
— A 41-7 blowout over the
14th-ranked Nittany Lions in
what eventually amounted to a
down year for Penn State.
— A 14-7 win over No. 8
Wisconsin in 2016, otherwise
known as The Jourdan Lewis
Interception Game.
— A 38-13 win over the 15th-
ranked Badgers last year.
— A 41-7 win over Florida in
the 2015 Citrus Bowl that set
the table for the 2016 team to
hit the ground running.
And that’s really it.
The success of this year,
as with any year now, will
be largely determinant on
whether or not there’s a Big
Ten Title. That’s the only bar
worth discussing right now.
And Michigan cannot win
those until they start winning
these types of games.
The Wolverines haven’t won
in Madison since 2001, which
is a stat that has been repeated
all week, but ignores they’ve
only played four such contests
in that span. One that holds
more weight? The last time
Michigan went on the road and
beat a top-15 team was… Sep-
tember 16, 2006 at No. 2 Notre
Dame under head coach Lloyd
Carr. They’re 0-14 in such
games since.
That context helps bring
us back to the Harbaugh era
writ large, toiling still in this
really-good-but-not-great sta-
sis that regularly seems on the
verge of a next step. That was
supposed to come against Ohio
State in 2016, but fell literal
inches short. It was supposed
to happen in 2017 before that
washed away in the pouring
rain against Michigan State —
sending the rest of the season
flooding away with it. It was
supposed to happen in Colum-
bus again last year, where the
Wolverines entered roughly
a 4-point favorite over an
uncharacteristically vulner-
able Buckeyes side.
We all know how that
ended.
A win Saturday wouldn’t
quite be a program-altering
moment like those would have
been. It’s hard to say just how
good this Wisconsin team is
right now. Two wins by a com-
bined 110-0 certainly hint it’s a
strong group. Sample size and
quality of opponent make it
such that we just don’t know.
There are also, as has been
well-documented, questions
about whether this Michigan
team is ready. The shine is off
the new offense, and there’s
little shot at emerging victori-
ous without taking a step for-
ward on that side of the ball.
The defense has looked up to
snuff early on, but those two
performances came against a
Conference USA team and a
triple-option side the Wolver-
ines had all summer to prepare
for.
Going to Madison, stymy-
ing perhaps the best rushing
attack in the nation, overcom-
ing offensive speed bumps and
leaving with a win would be a
whole different animal.
To make a long story short:
Harbaugh has yet to win a
game at Michigan he wasn’t
supposed to win. It is the cen-
tral, most-pressing criticism of
the era. As a result, he’s never
won a Big Ten Title and he’s
never brought his team to the
College Football Playoff.
His team can’t do anything
to alter the latter point on
Saturday. But in order to get
there, they have to remedy the
former point.
Here’s another chance.
Marcovitch can be reached
at maxmarco@umich.edu or on
Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.
Ryan Hayes and the luxury of sitting
Mike Zordich laughed.
“My secret?” he asked. “I don’t
know if I have a secret.”
Zordich,
Michigan’s
cornerbacks coach, had been
asked
about
the
program’s
seemingly never-ending churn
of NFL-caliber players at the
position
he
coaches.
After
another year of losing a starter,
David Long, to the league, the
Wolverines
seem
just
fine.
Ambry
Thomas
has
slotted
in perfectly, and even when it
seemed like Thomas would miss
time with colitis, they were fine
anyway — Vincent Gray, in his
first extended time, has played
like a veteran.
The biggest secret Zordich
may have lies in plain sight, on
Michigan’s
247Sports
page.
Since 2013 — two years before
Zordich or Jim Harbaugh got
hired — the Wolverines have
recruited the position to near
perfection. Besides the transition
class between Brady Hoke and
Harbaugh, when they didn’t take
a corner, Michigan’s record of
getting corners to the next level
since then is almost 100 percent.
Jourdan Lewis and Jabrill
Peppers are established players in
the league. Brandon Watson and
Channing Stribling have gotten
practice squad opportunities.
Long was a third-round pick
last April, and Lavert Hill will
almost certainly get his shot this
April. That encompasses every
Michigan class of cornerbacks
from 2013-16; the three classes
since are still enrolled.
There’s an extent to which
that’s a self-fulfilling cycle —
young players come in, sit and
learn from the older guys and
by the time those older guys go
to the NFL, the young ones are
ready to go. Now that Long and
Watson are gone, Thomas and
Gray stepped right into their
place.
“Just about everybody that
plays corner ends up being
really good here,” Harbaugh
said Monday, “goes on to be pro
players.”
That’s the kind of cycle every
position coach dreams of, which
brings us to the offensive line,
a position where Michigan has
been as far away from that cycle
as can be over the Harbaugh era.
Young players benefit from
sitting and learning, and their
development gets hindered from
getting thrown into the fire too
early. Nowhere is that more true
than the offensive line — a fact
that Michigan exemplified for
the first few years of Harbaugh’s
tenure, and a cycle it’s finally
starting to break.
When the Wolverines were
struggling
to
recruit
elite
offensive linemen — Cesar Ruiz
is the only current starter from
a five-man 2017 class — guys
had to play before they were
ready. When that happened in
2017, Michigan ranked 117th in
adjusted sack rate with two of its
quarterbacks suffering injuries.
The Wolverines endured that
slog so they could get to now. The
guys who couldn’t hack it that
year — Ruiz, Runyan, Bredeson
and Onwenu among them — are
now integral starters on a line
that came into this year as a point
of confidence. Talk about a new
scheme all you want. Experience
goes a long way.
When
Michigan
nets
a
talented recruit now, it has the
luxury of sitting him. When Ryan
Hayes, a redshirt freshman, had
to play the season’s first two
games against Middle Tennessee
and Army, there were no alarm
bells to sound.
Hayes is the kind of recruit
who needed developing, a high
school tight end with a wide
base and weight to gain. In an
ideal world he wouldn’t have
played this year at all, but his
development seems to have come
faster than normal. He acquitted
himself well in those first two
games, enough that offensive
line coach Ed Warinner said he’ll
probably play some snaps against
Wisconsin even with Runyan
back from injury.
That’s fine and good. It’s also
beside the point.
“Playing
tight
end
and
running routes is not like playing
O-Line,” Warinner said. “Playing
O-Line at Michigan. So just
learning and high repetition of
the techniques and the calls and
the job description and the work
ethic and the culture and all that.
“Cause that’s different. Being
a grinder offensive lineman
is different than being a skill
guy. That’s a whole different
culture, a whole different way
of life, a whole different way of
practicing. And, so I think it just
took time.”
It took Hayes a season, and it
can take longer than that.
Now, Michigan has the luxury
of waiting.
York, Beecher ready for challenge
Last October, Cam York and
Johnny Beecher took the ice at
Yost Ice Arena for the first time.
The
U.S.
National
Team
Development
Program’s
U18
squad faced the Wolverines in an
exhibition, and both were in the
starting lineup for the USNTDP.
York tallied an assist as his team
defeated Michigan, 6-3.
Just under a year later, York
and Beecher are back at Yost —
this time, as freshmen for the
Wolverines.
The duo took different paths to
Michigan, but both are expected
to hit the ground running and
contribute right away. In this
year’s NHL Entry Draft, York
was drafted No. 14 overall by the
Philadelphia Flyers and Beecher
went No. 30 overall to the Boston
Bruins.
“(They’re)
obviously
bright
spots,” said associate head coach
Bill Muckalt. “We’re excited about
them. I think they’re both going to
add a lot to our team.”
When York came to Yost in
October, he didn’t know that he’d
be returning to Ann Arbor the
following year. At the time, he was
committed to Boston College, but
when then-associate head coach
Greg Brown left the Eagles to be
an assistant coach in the NHL,
York began to reconsider his
decision.
For Michigan’s coaching staff,
York’s decommitment was an
opportunity to go after a highly-
ranked prospect and a player
who could be in the pipeline
behind former defenseman Quinn
Hughes.
“We knew he’s obviously a
high-end offensive player and
someone that (former assistant
coach Brian Wiseman) and I and
(coach Mel Pearson) really were
interested in,” Muckalt said. “We
discussed and we thought, ‘You
know, he’s probably the best player
on the board at that position.’ We
were excited to try to recruit him.”
And when York’s team came to
play the Wolverines, the crowd at
Yost sealed the decision.
“I think that was kind of the
cherry on top,” York told The
Daily last December. “That’s what
kind of sold me, for sure. Just
the atmosphere of that place and
just the way that Michigan fans
support their team. It’s a special
place.”
Muckalt and Pearson knew
Hughes was likely going to depart
for the Vancouver Canucks — the
team that drafted him No. 7 overall
in 2018 — after his sophomore
season, and York stood out as an
offensive-minded
defenseman
who could fill that spot on the
left side for the Wolverines. In
63 games with the USNTDP in
the 2018-19 season, York tallied
14 goals and added 51 assists for a
total of 65 points — a single-season
program record for a blueliner.
“No question,” Muckalt said
when asked if York could replace
Hughes. “I think with his vision
and his offensive instincts, I think
it’ll be a — I don’t want to put any
pressure on him, but I think it’ll be
a smooth transition.”
While York just decided nine
months ago to commit to the
Wolverines, Beecher has known
for years that Michigan was his
future home.
The Wolverines first reached
out
to
Beecher
during
his
sophomore year at the Salisbury
School in Salisbury, Conn. In
that
initial
contact,
though,
Beecher learned that then-coach
Red Berenson would likely be
retiring at the end of the season,
so he decided to wait and see
who the new coach was before
he went further in the process.
When Pearson was hired, he and
Wiseman paid a visit to Beecher
and he was sold.
Through
two
successful
years at the USNTDP, Beecher’s
commitment never wavered. Now
that he’s on campus, the coaching
staff is hopeful that he’ll continue
to grow as a player and realize his
potential.
“(Beecher
has
high-level)
skating ability and he can shoot
the puck,” Muckalt said. “I think
he’s going to be a tremendous asset
in a lot of areas, and I think he’s
just scratching the surface of the
player that he can become.”
For the talented duo, the
biggest challenge in adjusting to
college hockey will be joining a
team that had a difficult season
last year. Michigan won just 13 of
its 36 games last season, while the
USNTDP squad won 47 of 63.
But Beecher is clearly ready for
the challenge of turning around a
struggling team.
“I think the energy is really
high in the locker room right
now,” Beecher said. “And I think
everybody’s excited. I mean, we
know the talent that we have, and
I think we’re all pretty eager to
get started. I think it’s going to be
a great season. Can’t wait for the
first game to come.”
Harbaugh’s best win?
MAX
MARCOVITCH
NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has yet to win a game of Saturday’s magnitude.
ETHAN SERS
Managing Sports Editor
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Redshirt freshman tackle Ryan Hayes benefitted from sitting a year.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Freshman forward Johnny Beecher was drafted by the Bruins this spring.