2B — October 16, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsWednesday

THE FULBRIGHT STUDENT PROGRAM
YOUR ROAD TO FULBRIGHT

Fulbright fellows travel to over 140 countries to teach, study,
research, and train in the creative arts. Come learn about the
application process and grant opportunities.

WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 16
5:30 PM
1010 WEISER HALL

Pizza and refreshments provided

Michelle Bolourchi
Fulbright Outreach and Recruitment
Specialist

Introduction by
Chiamaka Ukachukwu, M.S.
Fulbright Alumni Ambassador and
creator of Fulbright Noir

Undergraduates, grad students, and alumni at all levels and in all academic
fields are welcome to attend! For info: ii.umich.edu

T

wo seasons ago in mid-
October, Michigan held
a 5-1
record that
seemed to
paper over
greater con-
cerns. The
Wolverines
went into half-
time with Cin-
cinnati and Air
Force in games
at home. John
O’Korn strug-
gled to replace Wilton Speight at
quarterback after he went down
with an injury and the offense
lagged its way to a loss at home
against Michigan State. It took two
overtimes to put away Indiana in
Bloomington the week after that.
Two days later, Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh got asked about
the next game on the schedule — a
prime-time matchup with Penn
State, a white out and a College
Gameday visit to Happy Valley.
“I’m excited about it,” Harbaugh
told reporters then, “and if you talk
to the players about how they feel,
I feel like they would feel the same
way. Excited for the opportunity.
They’ve been on the big stage
already this year multiple times
in big games and having another
crack at this, knowing our guys the
way I do, they’re competitors.”
You probably already know
what happened next. If you don’t,
here’s a refresher: Penn State’s
Saquon Barkley took the game’s
second snap for a 69-yard touch-
down, and it got worse from there.
All the problems the first six games
of the season foreshadowed came
to pass. The Wolverines lost, 42-13,
all but eliminating themselves
from Playoff and Big Ten conten-
tion and before the season was
over, they would lose three more
times for the worst mark of Har-
baugh’s tenure.
It’s hard not to see the parallels.
Again, Michigan is 5-1 in mid-
October heading into a matchup
with Penn State. Again, there have
been a series of less-than-con-

vincing wins — double-overtime
at home against Army, scoring
10 points at home against Iowa,
and most recently, Illinois pulling
within a three-
point deficit at the
start of the fourth
quarter. Again,
the game is in
prime time, with
College Gameday
in Happy Valley,
and there will be a
white out.
“Every loss
sticks with me,”
said senior safety
Josh Metellus on Tuesday. “That
one (in 2017) really stuck. That
could’ve been the real defining
part of our season. We lost that
game and we went downhill from

there.”
Of course, that loss was the
defining point in Michigan’s sea-
son — just not in the way Metellus
wanted it to be. It
put the Wolver-
ines’ flaws on dis-
play for everyone
to see. It ended the
chances of meet-
ing their goals.
If they lose on
Saturday, be it in
the same spec-
tacular fashion
or not, it could
set the season on
the same course as two years ago.
Michigan isn’t expected to win
this game — Vegas currently has
Penn State as a nine-point favor-
ite and, going by the eye test, it’s

hard to argue the Wolverines are
the better team. Inside of Schem-
bechler Hall, predictably, belief
has permeated on both sides of the
ball.
“We execute,
there’s nobody in
the country bet-
ter than us,” said
senior linebacker
Josh Uche this
Monday, speaking
about the defense.
“And that’s a fact.”
Uche, minutes
earlier, had taken
the media to task
for calling out the defense after
the Wolverines’ loss at Wisconsin.
He took the criticism to heart,
adamantly contending that it was
misplaced, that those outside the

team couldn’t possibly understand
schematics well enough to accu-
rately comment on things of that
nature.
When a
reporter pointed
out the bottom
line — Michigan
gave up 35 points
to the Badgers and
let them run for
359 yards — must
mean something,
Uche bristled.
“That’s what y’all
was claiming,” he
said.
To Uche’s credit, the defense,
even to the untrained eye, has been
significantly improved since that
day in Madison. The stats back
that up, as the Wolverines are third

in defensive SP+. They have won
three straight games, and have the
defense to thank, as it’s given up
just 28 total points in that span.
“We feel a lot better. We’ve been
feeling like we’re getting back to
our roots,” Metellus said. “We
know we got a lotta guys that can
play football. We all know what
we’re capable of doing.”
For the last few weeks, that’s
been a common theme. After the
Wolverines scored just 10 points
against Iowa, Harbaugh claimed
the offense was hitting its stride
and later in the week, senior quar-
terback Shea Patterson backed him
up. Both fell back on what fans and
media couldn’t see — in practice
and on tape — to argue that the
score wasn’t representative.
And, to the credit of Harbaugh
and Patterson, the offense clicked
for stretches against Illinois in
ways that it hadn’t all year. Michi-
gan averaged 6.1 yards per run,
and came out looking to hand the
ball off with eight straight runs.
Patterson stepped up in the fourth
quarter with a clutch 79-yard
drive, perhaps his best moment of
the year.
Doing all of that against a team
of the Nittany Lions’ caliber — one
that could easily beat even a good
defense — is another matter entire-
ly. So is doing it against Notre
Dame, Michigan State and Ohio
State. Throughout Harbaugh’s ten-
ure, and never more so than 2017,
an inability to get it done against
those kinds of teams has come to
be the nagging factor underlying
any success.
“We already got a loss,”
Metellus said. “We can’t afford
another one.”
Win or lose, Saturday will set
the Wolverines’ season on its
defining course. So if Michigan
wants to back up its words and
make the public eat theirs, it
should start before the second
snap.

Sears can be reached at searseth@

umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_sears.

A repeat of 2017 rout would end Michigan’s season

Hassan Haskins making most of his opportunity

Position switches in football
are relatively common, but what
happened to Hassan Haskins is
much more rare.
The redshirt freshman doesn’t
remember exactly when, but he
knows that sometime last year,
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
called him in for a meeting and
told him that instead of playing
running back, where he was
recruited, his best fit was at
linebacker. But after a season
of learning how to play viper,
Haskins switched back to his
original position.
For many players, such a switch
would delay their development
and keep them from seeing the
field much. Not for Haskins.
Saturday
in
Champaign,
Haskins took the field on the fifth
play of the Wolverines’ first drive.
On their four previous plays,
freshman running back Zach
Charbonnet had run all the way to
the 29-yard line, but Haskins did

him one better.
After the handoff, Haskins
spun past his would-be tackler
and broke through, with nothing
but turf between him and the end
zone. He topped off his first career
touchdown with an emphatic fist
pump.
“I
was
trying
to
get
a
touchdown,”
Haskins
said.
“Every play I run, I’m trying to get
a touchdown. I just move. I felt it
after my spin — nobody around
me, so I took off.”
Added senior tight end Nick
Eubanks: “I was blocking, was
thinking the play was over and
this dude springs out from a tackle
and keeps his feet going, so I was
kinda surprised.”
Haskins finished the game
with 125 yards on 12 rushes and
was Michigan’s leading rusher
on the day in net yards, yards per
rush (10.4) and longest run (29
yards).
But the performance didn’t
come from nowhere. Anyone
who’s been watching the last few
games could see that Haskins was

primed for a breakout. Against
Rutgers two weeks ago, Haskins
ran for 45 yards, including a
game-high 15-yard run. He also
garnered 22 yards on 10 carries
against Iowa and even made
a tackle while playing special
teams.
If Haskins ever questioned the
coaches’ plans for him, he never
said so Monday, instead repeating
that he was willing to do whatever
it took to help the team and that
he wanted to make the most of
any opportunity he got, no matter
what side of the ball. And instead

of stunting his development,
Haskins believes the switch to
linebacker aided him when he
returned to running back.
“I feel like I can tell what the
defense, what they doing, so
they help me for sure.” Haskins
said. “I feel like I got a defensive
mindset. I think I have a better
vision of a running lane. I’m more
comfortable.”
Senior viper Khaleke Hudson
worked with Haskins during his
brief foray into playing defense
and in Haskins saw a fast-twitch
player with good instincts and a
knack for the ball. Linebackers
have to see the same holes as the
running backs — and their success
is often predicated on seeing those
holes before the running backs do.
From
his
vantage
point,
Hudson sees how much Haskins’
experience on the other side
helped his vision. But he also
made sure to add that Haskins
was “great in man coverage” and
“could definitely come back and
play on the defensive side of the
ball” if Michigan ever needed him.
Now, Haskins seems to have
firmly cemented himself as the
fourth member of the Wolverines’
running back rotation, a unit that
seemed to finally find its footing
against the Illini after several
lackluster games. And if his
teammates and coaches are to be
believed, this is just the start for
Haskins.
“The progression has been
ascending each and every week,”
Harbaugh said. “Some wild type
of plays in practice and now
we’ve seen it in games, somebody
getting better and better. This last
game was a great game, 100 yards.
… His ability to see holes, sink his
hips, get yards after contact really
showed up.”

‘M’ beats Wildcats in OT

After a grueling fight, during
the final minute of regulation play,
sophomore
midfielder
Raleigh
Loughman fired a powerful corner
kick into a crowded box and
was able to connect with junior
midfielder
Nicki
Hernandez.
Hernandez executed a precise
header that met the back of the net
and earned the Michigan women’s
soccer team a well-deserved first
goal of the match.
What seemed like the winner
was anything but as just a few
seconds after the first goal, a
handball inside the box off a corner
kick resulted in a Northwestern
penalty kick. Wildcats forward
Mikayla Hampton scored from the
spot tying up the game and sending
it to overtime — the Wolverines’
fourth OT game of the season.
After beating Illinois 4-1 on
Friday, Michigan (11-3-1 overall,
6-1-1 Big Ten) had the confidence to
prevail against Northwestern (5-7-
2, 3-3-1) in overtime after a grueling
fight.
Both
teams
came
into
Sunday’s matchup off of conference
victories on Friday — Michigan
defeated Illinois and Northwestern
beat Michigan State—adding to the
excitement of Sunday afternoon’s
game.
The Wolverines endured two
long shots in the first six minutes
of the match and responded with
force, keeping the ball out of the box
and creating more opportunities
during buildup play for shots
against the Wildcats’ aggressive
defensive
line.
Michigan’s
top
scorer, junior midfielder Sarah
Stratigakis, was able beat her
defender and take a shot late in the
half that was eventually blocked,
with another shot attempt in the
final two minutes of the half.
Though
Northwestern
had
greater ball possession during the
first half, it appeared as if Michigan
had the ball more due to its excellent
ball control, communication in
the midfield and ambitious shot
attempts. Freshman Jayde Riviere
was key to this midfield control
by consistently outrunning her
opponents and preventing the
Wildcats
from
executing
on
opportunities inside the box.

The Wolverines were especially
hungry to beat Northwestern, who
won its last two matchups. Adding
to the stakes, Michigan hadn’t been
victorious in Evanston since 2013 —
where the conditions always prove
difficult.
“We were aware that with the
location of their field that it was
going to be windy,” said Michigan
coach Jennifer Klein, “so we really
wanted to keep the ball on the
ground and connect passes to get up
into the final third.”
At the start of the second half, the
Wolverines’ offense continued to
struggle to penetrate the Wildcats’
defense, while the defense was
threatened by Northwestern’s shots
on goal. Riverie’s two powerful,
ambitious shots from 30 yards out
showed that Michigan would be
relentless until its shots connected
with the back of the net.
“They (the team) felt like they
created some good opportunities
in the run of play and just were a
bit unfortunate, so I think for them
they wanted to win and so they
went out and got it,” Klein said.
In
overtime,
Michigan’s
effort was there and it outshot
Northwestern 3-0. During the 8th
minute of the first overtime half,
sophomore midfielder Meredith
Haakeson was unstoppable after a
clean assist from freshman forward
Hannah Blake, sending the ball
into the right corner of the net
and scoring a Michigan victory.
Haakeson is now the Wolverines’
top scorer.
Klein led Michigan back into the
Big Ten Tournament for the first
time since 2016 last season, and
another conference victory shows
the team is continuing to grow this
season under her guidance. The win
marks the first time that Michigan
has reached double-digit wins since
2016 when it made its last NCAA
Tournament appearance.
“The changing of the culture
and of the style of play has led to
that,” Klein said. “But I think a big
thing that we did from last year
to this year that is putting us in a
better position to get those results
is our commitment to be disciplined
defensively, and I think the girls
have done a great job responding
to that and being relentless to help
keep the ball out of our net.”

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
OLIVIA MCKENZIE
For The Daily

ETHAN
SEARS

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson led his team on a key 10-play drive at the start of the fourth quarter against Illinois, perhaps his best moment of the season.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Running back Hassan Haskins went for 125 yards on 12 carries.

We execute,
there’s nobody
in the country
better than us.

We lost that
game (in 2017)
and we went
downhill...