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RIVALRY EDITION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN x OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

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BEGINNING 11.26.19

8 — Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Ahead of matchup with Hoosiers, Wolverines shrug off ‘trap game’ cliche

There are tropes that should 
naturally come along with this 
week, narratives pre-constructed 
to fill a certain template.
The week after… The week 
before… Trap game in between… 
In the aftermath of a 44-10 
drubbing 
of 
in-state 
rival 
Michigan State and less than two 
weeks from The Game, there is a 
propensity to look past Indiana — 
the foe sandwiched in between.
That’s also, in some ways, 
become an expired cliché.
In the four times the Wolverines 
have played the Hoosiers in the 
Jim Harbaugh era, two of those 
matchups have ended in overtime. 
The other two were close games 
in which the host pulled away late. 
At Monday’s press availability, 
reporters thus lined up to ask how 
Michigan would avoid looking 
past its opponent. What was 
lacking was the natural follow-
up: Is it really a trap game if the 
players and coaches pretty clearly 
see the bait?
“I don’t think it’s difficult to 
look past this week at all,” said 
fifth-year senior left tackle Jon 

Runyan. “Indiana was ranked in 
the AP Poll last week, they were 
down by three to Penn State 
with, I think, nine minutes to go. 
... They’re a good offense, kind of 
similar to what we do. It’ll be fun 
to see how they match up with our 
defense, but definitely can’t look 
past this Indiana team. Last few 
times we’ve been to Bloomington 
and gone to overtime. 
“There’s just something about 
them that they kind of always get 
the best of us.”
This year, in particular, few in 
and around Schembechler Hall 
are under any illusions about the 
challenge of going to Indiana. The 
Hoosiers boast the top passing 
offense in the Big Ten, now led 
by senior quarterback Peyton 
Ramsey, 
who 
has 
completed 
over 72 percent of his passes and 
tossed 10 touchdowns to just 
three interceptions in five games 
this year.
Indiana has totaled at least 
27 points in each of its last six 
games. The Hoosiers will be one 
of the most difficult offenses — 
schematically and talent-wise — 
Michigan faces all year. 
That’s the only real trap here.
“Sometimes, 
the 
Indiana 

offenses have been a little bit of 
a departure from what we’ve 
played throughout the year — the 
potential of hurry-up, the threat 
of that,” said fifth-year senior 
linebacker 
Jordan 
Glasgow. 
“Obviously spacing you out as 
much as they can. We need to 
prepare for that.”
Added Harbaugh: “I think 
it’s challenging as any offense 
in the Big Ten. Receivers that 
are dynamic and can make plays 
down the field. Fast. Catch the 
ball and run with it.”
For now, the Wolverines are 
riding high, undoubtedly playing 
their best football of the season. 
Saturday’s win marked the high 
point for an offense that had 
slowly grown from its early season 
mishaps.
In an honest moment, players 
would admit the rest of this 
season boils down to the outcome 
of the Ohio State game. As that 
allure draws closer — the chance 
to re-configure narratives and 
dynamics — it’s mere human 
nature 
to 
prepare. 
That’s 
accentuated in a year where the 
self-assigned 
“game-by-game” 
mentality is cheapened by a lack 
of viable postseason aspirations.

Asked 
whether 
suppressing 
that 
foresight 
needs 
to 
be 
expressed verbally, Harbaugh did 
not even entertain the premise.
“Yeah, I mean, we come off a 
big game against Michigan State,” 
he said, “and you come back to 
work, regroup, refit, retool, get 
ready for your next opponent.”
It just so turns out that the 

next opponent comes with a set 
of challenges all its own. A game 
that could sneakily make the case 
for most impressive road win of 
the Harbaugh era, were it to come 
to fruition. 
“They 
kind 
of 
have 
this 
momentum 
carrying 
them, 
having a good season,” Runyan 
said. “I’m sure they’re going to 

have a lot of fans come out, more 
than usual. I haven’t watched too 
much film on them yet, but I know 
there’s something really special 
going on over there.”
Which is to say, if anyone’s 
peering down the track past 
Saturday, 
they 
sure 
seem 
cognizant of the hurdle waiting in 
between.

Cam McGrone growing beyond speed

Every time Cam McGrone took 
to the practice field during the week 
leading up to Michigan’s game 
against Rutgers, his body shook 
with nerves.
A 
few 
days 
earlier, 
junior 
linebacker Josh Ross went down 
with an injury against Wisconsin, 
thrusting 
the 
Wolverines’ 
established 
starting 
linebacker 
trio into peril. As the top choice to 
step in for Ross, McGrone’s first 
impressions weren’t resoundingly 
positive 
— 
his 
highlight-reel 
goal-line stuff contrasted missed 
assignments in a 35-14 loss to the 
Badgers.
Still, the redshirt freshman 
linebacker was the clear choice to 
take over as Michigan’s starting 
middle linebacker when Ross’ 
injury developed into a multi-
week absence. The message from 
defensive coordinator Don Brown 
was simple: Just be ready.
Two months later, McGrone 
has done that and then some, 
developing into a permanent starter 
as a now-healthy Ross watches 
from the sidelines to preserve his 
redshirt.
“(McGrone brings) physicality, 
speed,” said Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh. “And getting better and 
better with understanding all the 

adjustments to the defensive calls. 
His responsibilities and the others 
around him. Just playing really 
good football.”
Those attributes — namely his 
speed — are what pop off the field 
on Saturdays. They’re what draw 
comparisons to Devin Bush and 
have the Wolverines salivating 
about what McGrone could become.
To get there, he had to become 
more than just speed.
“Seeing him as a freshman, I 
thought that he was very mature 
for where he stood when he came 
in,” said fifth-year senior linebacker 
Jordan Glasgow. “I felt, physically 
and mentally, that he was at a 
pretty high level already. And then 
he made a big improvement from 
freshman to sophomore year. And 
obviously you can see how good of 
a player he is now.”
As 
the 
MIKE 
linebacker 
in 
Brown’s 
defense, 
McGrone 
is 
sandwiched 
between 
the 
experienced duo of Glasgow and 
senior VIPER Khaleke Hudson. 
And yet, he carries the most 
responsibility, 
diagnosing 
an 
offense’s formation as it unfolds.
“As a MIKE linebacker, you have 
everything on your shoulders,” 
McGrone said. “So it hasn’t gotten 
any worse, any better. But it’s 
definitely just been fun to be there, 
kinda like the middle of the defense, 
helping everybody out.”

It’s a responsibility seemingly at 
odds with McGrone’s inexperience, 
but through seven career starts, 
that’s the marriage he’s making.
“Just being out there, running 
the plays that I’ve been running for 
over a year and really seeing it in 
real time on the big stage, it kinda 
clicks like that,” McGrone said. 
“Because it has to because the next 
play, it could be the same thing.”
Ask McGrone himself and he’ll 
tell you he’s a slow learner — the 
type of player who needs a year 
of experience before being ready 
to jump into heavy playing time. 
Ask anyone else and they’ll extoll 
his ability to step in for Ross and 
immediately become the linchpin of 
Michigan’s defense.
It’s why, when Glasgow — a 
Butkus Award semifinalist for the 
nation’s best linebacker — was 
asked about his personal accolades, 
he deflected, saying, “I feel like I 
play with better linebackers than 
myself.”
Throughout his career, that’s 
been true because of players more 
experienced than him — players 
who were expected to be stars 
entering the season.
Now, it’s true because of a 
redshirt freshman.
“Cam, if he started all the 
games,” Glasgow said, “I wouldn’t 
be surprised if he was up there 
instead of myself.”

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
The Michigan football team plays Indiana between two rivalry games, against Michigan State and Ohio State.

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Redshirt freshman linebacker Cam McGrone has become a focal point of Michigan’s defense in recent weeks.

