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