The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
November 18, 2019 — 2B

Ronnie Bell
is ready to
write his
own story

As the Michigan football team
returned to the sideline with the end
zone covered in towels, a stadium
rocking and the game in hand, Ronnie
Bell had his helmet off. He was talking
to Josh Gattis. It was the start of the
fourth quarter and the game was well
in hand, the Wolverines leading by 24.
Whatever advice was being given, it
probably wasn’t urgent.
On the next drive, Bell bubbled out
for a screen and got upfield. As tempers
flared and flags were thrown, he tossed
the ball nicely to the referee, and when
his yardage got waved off in favor of a
penalty on Michigan State, he bubbled
out again for another 12 yards.
That was Bell on Saturday — the calm
in the center of a storm, a constant amid
shifting emotions. As Michigan rode its
passing game to a 44-10 beatdown of
the Spartans, Bell found himself the
team’s leading receiver for the fifth
time this year with 150 yards on nine
catches.
“Ronnie Bell, that was a career
game so far,” said Michigan coach Jim
Harbaugh. “Young career, so there’s
more to go, but he was running hard. It
was hard to tackle Ronnie Bell today.”
Perhaps it’s worth talking about that
on its own, with no predetermined
narrative. A sophomore receiver, Bell’s
career has been pulled through so many
lenses that it can be hard to remember
to give him any credit.
Just last month, after dropping a
potential game-tying touchdown at
Penn State, Bell unwittingly found
himself the focus of both vitriol and a
larger discussion about how fans treat
college athletes, prompted by an email
sent to him. Throughout the season, he
has gotten ire simply because he was
targeted more than other purportedly
more talented receivers. Before that,
he was pigeonholed as an ex-basketball
recruit.
On Saturday, Bell got to write his
own story. It was a pretty good one, and
it went like this: The most receptions
by a Michigan player this year and the
first time a receiver has broken 100
yards. A spark lit on a 98-yard second-
quarter touchdown drive when senior
quarterback Shea Patterson extended
a play and Bell found an open spot in
the middle of the field, then turned
to make it an 18-yard gain. Two more
key catches on the next drive, the first
a second-down curl for a short gain
and the next a slot fade that went for
42 yards when a defender fell down,
giving Bell nothing but grass to run in
as he stumbled towards the sideline.
Another curl on Michigan’s first drive
of the second half, this one for 20 yards
and to set up a Donovan Peoples-Jones
touchdown on the very next play.
You get the picture.
“We’ve developed a certain kind of
chemistry,” Patterson said. “And I think
we just play well together — Donovan
and Ronnie and all those guys. When
stuff breaks down in the pocket, they
just find the open space. At that point,
you’re just playing backyard football.”
Bell is a two-star basketball recruit,
he dropped a key pass in State College
and he does not have the same NFL
potential as Peoples-Jones or Nico
Collins. It turns out, he’s still pretty
good.
Good enough to have earned the
trust of Patterson and Harbaugh. Good
enough to have kept it after that drop
last month and good enough to have
bounced back, to sit at a podium smiling
after a dominant performance over a
rival just three games later.
“The support that I got — my family,
my friends, this team — it’s unreal and
it’s a blessing,” Bell said. “And they all
picked me up.”
Bell hasn’t scored a touchdown yet
this year, a fact brought up afterwards.
It doesn’t matter. The Wolverines
carved up the Spartans for 467 yards
on Saturday in a dominant win, and
Bell was right in the middle of it. In a
receiving depth chart that includes
Collins, Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black
— three NFL talents presumed to have
a stranglehold on targets when the
season started — Bell has carved out a
place for himself at the top.
“I don’t know, man, there’s just
something special about the vibe that
we had today when Shea was throwing
the ball in warmups,” Bell said. “Guys
were just running around, everybody
was playing so hard and we just
executed at a high level and it showed.”
And, on the best day of Michigan’s
season so far, Bell was the story. For
once, he was the author.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
stopped Shea Patterson moments
before he trotted onto the field to
put the finishing touches on his best
performance as a Wolverine.
“I told him before he went out
to take that snap, I said, ‘Now this
year, after you take the kneel down,
keep the ball and don’t throw it
up in the air,’ Harbaugh recalled.
“Because he had a heckuva game
and I thought he should have the
game ball.”
“I’ve got another plan,” Patterson
replied.
The senior quarterback took his
kneel from the pistol, let the clock
wilt away and darted straight back
to the sideline to hand the ball back
to his coach.
It was a snapshot befitting of
the moment — the new high-point
of a marriage between coach and
quarterback that was consummated
just two years ago. Patterson tallied
384 yards, his single-game high at
Michigan, and four touchdowns in
the Wolverines’ 44-10 romp over
Michigan State, his fingerprints
lining the game from start to finish.
In a game rife with confrontation,
Patterson held above the fray
— calm, patient, professorial —
taking what was given at first,
then pushing the envelope when
opportunity arose.
“They were dropping a lot in
coverage fairly early on,” Patterson
said.
“We
started
taking
the
underneath stuff. Then they started
playing underneath, and took the
over-the-top stuff.”
On the first drive of the game,
Patterson
found
sophomore
receiver
Ronnie
Bell
streaking
toward the sideline while rolling
to his left on third-and-14. The duo
combined for nine catches and 150
yards, furthering a chemistry that
has been evident all year. On his

last drive, he sold the quarterback
run, only to find freshman receiver
Cornelius Johnson streaking down
the left sideline for a 39-yard
touchdown.
He celebrated by turning to his
sideline and thrusting his arms in
the air, a typically stoic personality
suddenly vibrant. The players on the
sideline responded. The remaining
crowd bounced. This game meant
more to everyone, but for the senior,
now 2-0 against Michigan’s in-state
rival, there was a healthy urgency.

“He just brought a different
type of passion today,” said junior
receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones.
“He’s always passionate, but today,
the whole team, it meant a little
bit more. All throughout the week
I could see it in practice. He was
confident with his reads, confident
with his throws. He trusted us, he
trusted the gameplan.”
Still,
it
was
the
kind
of
performance, beginning to end,
Michigan has hardly seen from
Patterson in his two years at the
helm. And it was one that appeared
to catch the opponents off guard.
At the beginning of the fourth
quarter,
Patterson
hit
junior
receiver Nico Collins in stride for
a 22-yard touchdown, giving the
Wolverines a 34-10 lead with one
of his 14 pass plays of 15 yards or

more. Michigan State coach Mark
Dantonio looked on, head craned
forward. Ten seconds passed, but
Dantonio didn’t so much as blink.
Then, clipboard in his right hand,
Dantonio dismissively thrust his
arm forward, turned around and
receded into the sideline.
“Didn’t anticipate they would
throw the ball as effectively as
they did,” Dantonio said after
the game. “Too many third-down
opportunities where we had the
chance to get off the field, we did
not. Some credit to them, some
discredit to us in terms of coverage
play or whatever.”
Patterson
hardly
felt
like
delineating such credit or blame.
“This one’s special. I’m proud to
just be a part of this team, part of a
dominating win like that. We knew
how important this game was, and
we prepared our tails off. Like I
said, I wish I had two more chances
(to play Michigan State).”
Still, between the lines of his
post-game
comments
was
an
implicit understanding. Michigan
will not win the Big Ten title or
make the playoff, but it has goals
— namely, one goal — still in sight.
Patterson knows as well as anyone
that a duplicate performance two
weeks from Saturday will give his
team a shot to do what it’s done just
once in 16 years.
He will not get two more shots at
Michigan State. But he will get one
final shot at something more.
Harbaugh, Patterson and co. will
bask in this one for now, though
— the kind of game that will leave
an imprint on an already reeling
opposing locker room.
As for capping that off, Harbaugh
had one last piece of business to
take care before coming out to
speak with the media.
“(I) went back in the locker room
and (the game ball is) now in his
book bag,” Harbaugh clarified. “I
shoved it back in his backpack.”

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

All throughout
the week, I
could see it
in practice.
(Patterson) was
confident.

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson passed Tom Brady in all-time yards against Michigan State with a 384-yard performance on Saturday.

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Senior tight end Nick Eubanks scored a five-yard touchdown on Saturday as Michigan beat Michigan State, 44-10.

For Michigan

State and Mark

Dantonio, what

now?
M

ichigan rushed the field, lifting
the Paul Bunyan trophy in the
end zone and gesturing to the
crowd.
Mark Dantonio
walked off slowly, fol-
lowing his team into
the tunnel.
A few minutes later,
as Dantonio sat in a
cramped press room,
the green and white
video backdrop not
quite covering the
maize and blue one,
Dantonio faced the
music. Last week, after a collapse and a
loss to Illinois, Dantonio evaded every-
one’s questions. But after losing to his most
hated rival, 44-10, he could no longer lean
on “next question.”
“Disappointing opportunity lost,” he
said. “We go forward, gotta recollect our-
selves. ... Our focus will always be on what
happens next.”
But what is next for Dantonio and
Michigan State?
A 6-6 season? The Quick Lane Bowl?
Nostalgia about the Spartans’ best win
over … Indiana?
Maybe this is Dantonio’s last stand,
though Michigan State’s athletic depart-
ment has stuck by him all season, and
Dantonio seemingly has too much pride to
go out like this.
Regardless of whether or not this is the
end, this wasn’t how it was supposed to
happen.
Dantonio was the coach who brought
the Spartans back to prominence, who
flipped the rivalry on its head and went
8-4 against the Wolverines before Satur-
day. Dantonio was the coach who heard
his program called “little brother” and
warned that pride comes before the fall.
This was the coach who took scrappy
Michigan State teams and led them to vic-
tory on botched snaps and defensive slogs,
the one who had a bag full of trick plays
and made everyone believe he could win
any game. Even here, at the Big House, a
limping 4-5 team against one that was 7-2
and playing its best football of the season.
If anyone could do it, Dantonio could.
Now, this is the coach who prevented
all but his captains from speaking to the
media to avoid distractions and instructed
his players to come off the bus wearing
helmets to get in game mode — and got
run off the field. The coach who got beat
so badly the opposing players told him to
go home.
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson
threw for four touchdowns. Michigan led
by 10 at halftime, then ran up the score
and clamped down defensively. The Wol-
verines gained 467 yards.
“Unacceptable,” said Michigan State
safety David Dowell.
Once, that kind of performance against
Michigan was not only unacceptable for
the Spartans, but unheard of.
Now, it’s reality.
“The game sorta went from 24-10 to
31-10 to 37-10 and then boom,” Dantonio
said. “Very quickly from there.”
He talked about how his team commit-
ted a false start and were forced to punt,
how that punt was subsequently blocked
and the Wolverines scored a touchdown
on the next play. That was when the Spar-
tans knew it was over.
He talked about how the Wolverines
torched Michigan State with screen passes
and converted far too often on third down.
How now, it’s time to win two games,
because that’s what the Spartans have to
do just to get to a bowl.
During the press conference, players
and reporters alike danced around the
Dantonio question. But one asked about
the leadership and if the message needed
to change.
“We have the leadership, as far as
coaches and as players, we have leadership
in place,” said linebacker Tyriq Thompson.
“And if we didn’t have faith and belief and
trust in that, and the people that are lead-
ing, then they wouldn’t be there in the first
place.”
That was as close to a referendum on
Dantonio as anyone was going to get, and
in a lot of ways, he earned that trust. No
matter how this season ends, he’s still the
best coach in program history.
But something more monumental hap-
pened at the Big House on Saturday than
the difference between a .500 season and
a winning one, or the difference between a
middling bowl and a bottom-tier one.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, once
left in the dust in exactly these sorts of
rivalry games, seized back the rivalry in
one fell swoop. Dantonio, who survived so
many questions because he could still beat
Michigan, seemed to no longer be able to
do just that.

shea’s day

Patterson has career game in 44-10 win over Spartans

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

ARIA
GERSON