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September 20, 2019 - Image 8

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The Michigan Daily

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8 — Friday,September 20, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Once dreaming of Wisconsin, the Bredeson brothers found a home

Jack Bredeson remembers
the routine perfectly.
Every
Saturday
morning
in the fall, his high school
football team would wake up
sore from the previous night’s
game and go straight into a
two-hour lifting session at 8
a.m. Arrowhead High School
in Hartland, Wis. was 30
minutes west of Milwaukee.
Or, more importantly, an hour
east of Madison.
Because seven Saturdays in
the fall, that’s where Jack and
Ben Bredeson raced to.
As soon as lifts ended, half
of their team changed as fast
as possible, piled in a car and
sped up to Camp Randall in
time for 11 a.m. kickoff.
“That’s just what you did,”
Jack said. “You went to Badger
football games, you grew up
Badger fans. It was awesome.”
So before Ben became a
two-time
All-Big
Ten
left
guard at Michigan and before
Jack’s four years as pitcher for
the Wolverines’ baseball team,
Camp Randall was the dream.
The conscious part was
that they would play football
together

Ben
on
the
offensive line and Jack at
defensive end, where he played
in high school. Wisconsin was
just the world they came from.
“All Ben and I knew growing
up was Wisconsin, Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,” Jack said.
Five years later, Ben is
careful to note that coming
to Michigan was not a joint
decision. Going to college
together
was
a
childhood
dream, but once the recruiting
process became real, that
dream dissipated, with each
of their personal paths leading
them to Michigan separately.
“Everyone likes to make it
this big deal in my recruiting
process,” Ben told The Daily
this week. “It really was not.
He was excited for me to come

here cause it’s where I wanted
to come. And when I say that,
a lot of people don’t believe
me. But we were raised by the
same parents, with the same
values, in the same house and
it’s really no surprise that we
both value the things that
Michigan has to offer.”
Still, playing sports together
was an integral part of each of
their childhoods, even before
football entered both of their
lives in eighth grade. Their
dad, Mike, played center at
Illinois State in the 1980s, but
didn’t see the point of his sons
playing football before middle
school.
So instead, Mike used his
skills as a home builder to
build a full hockey rink in
the
Bredesons’
backyard,
complete with full boards
and everything. On their local
travel team, Ben played up a

year so he could be in Jack’s
age group.
“Those are probably the
best memories of childhood
sports we have is just messing
around on the ice rink,” Jack
said. “You go down there
every night until your toes are
frozen and you come back.”
The
timing
worked
out
perfectly. Ben got too big for
hockey right as football gave
him and Jack another sport to
play together.
Once Ben grew out of hockey,
football became his primary
focus. For a time, Jack thought
it would be his too. With their
positions naturally lining up
across from each other every
day at practice, fights between
the two became so common
that coaches banned them
from matching up with one
another.
“Lot of cheap shots,” Jack

said. “Lot of awkward rides
home from practice.”
But
sometime
mid-way
through Jack’s junior year
of high school, he decided
he would be playing baseball
in college. And with that
decision, a pair of dreams
died. The brothers wouldn’t be
football teammates in college,
as they had always talked
about. And they wouldn’t be
going to Wisconsin together,
as they had always assumed,
because the Badgers don’t
have a baseball program.
For a year, as Ben — a
heavily-recruited four-star —
learned about college football
beyond
Camp
Randall,
it
seemed that Jack’s senior year
of high school would be their
last together.
Then came Jim Harbaugh.
“Once
they
made
the
Harbaugh signing (in Ben’s

junior) year of high school,
that’s
when
things
really
changed and where Michigan
kinda blew up the charts for
him and passed a couple other
schools,” Jack said. “So once
that happened, I guess the
dream and hope of going to
school together became more
of a reality again.”
Before Ben even made his
official visit in November
of his senior year, he was
committed. The official visit
was a mere formality, mixed
in with casual trips down to
Ann Arbor to see Jack and go
to games.
“When I came out and saw
Jack, just his personality, he
likes to run the show,” Ben
said. “So he was taking us all
around Ann Arbor showing
us — he’d been here for two
months but it seemed like
he’d been here for two years.

And he did an outstanding
job and made me excited and
reassured my choice of coming
here.”
For the next three years,
neither missed a home game
for the other. If the baseball
team
was
at
home,
Ben
would finish practice, walk
across the parking lot from
Schembechler Hall to Ray
Fisher Stadium and watch his
brother pitch.
Last summer required a
slightly longer trip — 10 hours
to the College World Series
in
Omaha,
Neb.
Between
summer classes and offseason
workouts, Ben only made it out
for the last two games, but as
he drove across Illinois and
Iowa, emotions took over.
“It’s the last baseball game
he’ll ever play and just how
many hundreds of baseball
games I’ve gone to see him
play,” Ben said. “And I was
going to go to the final one.
It was just a very emotional
moment for both of us and just
kind of surreal. Like it really
hadn’t hit me at the time that
that chapter of his life was
going to be over. But I’m happy
that I was able to catch every
single one that I did.”
Jack’s back home now in
Hartland,
catching
up
on
lost time with their younger
brother, Max. This weekend,
the whole family will pack into
Camp Randall, just as Jack
and Ben did in high school,
only wearing different colors.
By now, Ben’s well-versed
in talking about Wisconsin.
Every year around this time,
the
inevitable
questions
arise about his past and the
decision that took him across
Lake Michigan. But as he talks
about Jack and what Michigan
gave them, his voice still
cracks a little, even four years
later.
“Those last three years
when he and I were here were
the best three years of my
life.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

Runyan’s return a boost to O-Line

Jon Runyan and Ben Bredeson
sit next to each other in every
meeting. They practice together
and have started 13 games next
to each other on the offensive line
as the left tackle and left guard.
At 7:30 on Wednesday morning,
they were together with offensive
line coach Ed Warinner, watching
film.
But for the Michigan football
team’s first two games this
season, Bredeson took his normal
spot on the line while Runyan
sat and watched, out with an
undisclosed
injury.
Instead,
Bredeson played next to redshirt
freshman tackle Ryan Hayes,
who is talented but inexperienced
and hadn’t developed the same
level of trust with Bredeson.
But Runyan is expected to be
back this week, just in time for
a marquee matchup with No. 13
Wisconsin.
“Jon and I played with each
other now going on year two and
he and I just know everything that
the other’s gonna do, a telepathic
sense of it just from being next
to the guy for so long,” Bredeson
said. “He’s got that experience
level for a Big Ten road game that
we’re about to go into, so it’ll be
nice getting Jon back. I’m excited

for that.”
In games, offensive linemen
— who are just feet away from
opponents waiting to maul them
— opt not to use full sentences
to communicate. So instead,
Bredeson and Runyan have a type
of code, little words and non-
verbal signs they use to talk to
each other in-game.
This weekend, that will be
especially
important.
Camp
Randall Stadium is the kind of
place where the noise can suck the
life out of you. Communication is
vital — especially since Warinner
noted that communication wasn’t
always there when Bredeson
and junior center Cesar Ruiz
committed
multiple
false
start penalties against Middle
Tennessee and Army. And that’s
an area where Runyan can make
a big difference.
“They know they have to rely
on each other for everything
on that side, it’s like a pilot
and a co-pilot,” Warinner said.
“Their whole life is intertwined
four hours a day or whatever.
They hang out off the field, and
so I think that just trust and
confidence. And they had a good
run together last year, and I think
they’re excited about getting that
rolling again.”
On
Wednesday,
Warinner
detailed what it takes to win the

line of scrimmage against a team
like the Badgers. It starts with
preparation, watching the film
and knowing the schemes. The
Wolverines will have to make sure
they’re in top shape physically
to match Wisconsin’s intensity
and play a full four quarters
instead of starting slow, as they
have a tendency to do. And they
already know they’ll have to be
able communicate in front of tens
of thousands of rowdy fan who
decidedly aren’t on their side.
Warinner has faith in the
offensive line to do just that.
“We had our best practice
yesterday since we started in
August,
without
question,”
Warinner said. “And so that’s
encouraging because with the bye
week, we had a little extra time to
work on those guys and so I think
our guys are very confident in what
they’re doing and they’re doing it
with a great demeanor.”
And Runyan’s return brings
more than just his chemistry with
Bredeson. Runyan earned All-Big
Ten honors last year, and he brings
talent, experience and veteran
presence that could be a boon to the
offensive line. When asked about
how Ryan Hayes could factor into
the rotation in the future, Warinner
gave an answer that spoke volumes.
“We’ll work through that,” he
said, “after the Jon Runyan era.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior left tackle Jon Runyan is slated to return to the starting unit after missing the first two games due to injury.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

MICHIGAN
#11

#13
WISCONSIN

2-0

2-0

ARIA GERSON: 21-17 Wisconsin

ETHAN SEARS: 24-10 Wisconsin

THEO MACKIE: 20-16 MICHIGAN

MAX MARCOVITCH: 28-20 Wisconsin

FOOTBALL BEAT PREDICTS

It’s a close game dominated by two of the best defenses in the
country, but Michigan doesn’t quite have its offensive wrinkles
ironed out, and the home team pulls it out.

Michigan’s offense is too talented to not figure it out, even if Donovan
Peoples-Jones is still sitting. And, as we saw last year, Wisconsin
isn’t dynamic enough to take advantage of Michigan’s secondary.

Something tells me if this game is in November, we’re having a far
different conversation. But it’s not — and this Michigan offense
has too many questions right now to go win a tough conference
game in a hostile environment.

This offense isn’t ready to go on the road against a defense of Wis-
consin’s caliber yet. The Wolverines come out of Madison with their
season undergoing re-evaluation.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior guard Ben Bredeson followed his brother, Jack, to Michigan after the elder Bredeson had already committed to play for the baseball team.

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