The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, October 28, 2020 — 15

MINNEAPOLIS — There were 

10 months of alternating hope and 
despair, and at the end of it, there 
was a swarm of white jerseys in a 
barren stadium in Minneapolis, 
congregating on the 20-yard line to 
celebrate a season-opening victory.

That was the scene Saturday 

night at TCF Bank Stadium, closed 
to all but 589 family and friends due 
to the COVID-19 pandemic that 
delayed the start of Big Ten play by 
eight weeks, after No. 18 Michigan 
beat No. 21 Minnesota, 49-24.

It was a moment cemented 

by 58 minutes of the Wolverines 
answering every question they’ve 
faced for the past eight months.

“I’m really, just really proud of 

our team,” Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh said. “I believe in them 
and I respect them and I trust 
them. And I just wanted to go out 
there tonight and just let it rip and 
they did that.”

In 
the 
opening 
moments, 

though, Michigan didn’t have it so 
easy.

A promising opening drive was 

derailed by a pair of negative plays 
before a blocked punt set up an 
easy Gophers’ touchdown. As the 
Wolverines trotted off the field 
down 7-0, it was easy wonder if 
they were mired in the same place 
they were 297 days ago, when they 
rang in the new year with a Citrus 
Bowl loss that made you wonder 
how anything would ever change.

The 10 months since have 

only added to that frustration. 
Michigan had to replace its two-
year starting quarterback, Shea 
Patterson, and 12 other starters, all 
while navigating a pandemic that 
temporarily canceled the season 
back in August.

And then suddenly, over the 

course of a few first-quarter 
minutes 
Saturday 
night, 

everything changed. At the center 
of it all stood junior quarterback 
Joe Milton, guiding Michigan 
through one last hurdle.

“Joe, he’s always cool and 

collected,” junior running back 
Hassan Haskins said. “He don’t 
get worried like that. You know 
he’s gonna do his thing. So that’s 
why we got all our trust in him. We 
know he’s gonna do his job.”

Beleaguered 
for 
his 
lack 

of experience, Milton was a 
commanding presence all night, 
finishing with 277 total yards and 
no turnovers in his first career 
start. Famed for his arm strength, 
he helped Michigan pull away 
in the first quarter with a third-
down touch pass into the heart 
of Minnesota’s defense followed 
by a smart, simple toss to senior 
fullback Ben Mason for an eight-
yard touchdown.

“(Milton) handled everything 

with aplomb,” Harbaugh said. “His 
accuracy in the passing game, real 
command of the offense.”

But on a day that was regarded 

as Milton’s reckoning, he often 
took a backseat to the Wolverines’ 
run game, spearheaded by an 
offensive line featuring four new 
starters. It’s a unit that’s faced an 
offseason of constant skepticism, 
but throughout it all, Michigan 
remained confident.

Ten plays into the game, 

skepticism evaporated in the form 
of a perfectly executed power run 
that sophomore running back 
Zach Charbonnet took 70 yards 
untouched into the end zone, tying 
the score at seven.

Three drives later, the defense 

got on the board. Junior VIPER 
Michael Barrett came off the 
edge to fold Gophers’ quarterback 
Tanner Morgan in half on the 
precipice of his own goal line, 
leaving the ball spilling away from 
his splayed body into defensive 
tackle Donovan Jeter’s open arms 
for a Michigan lead.

“(Defensive coordinator Don 

Brown) put a gameplan to give 
some looks that we haven’t gave 
before,” Barrett said. “It definitely 
made an impact on them. You can 
tell that they started checking, 
being extra cautious. So yeah, it 

definitely had an impact on the 
game.”

The Wolverines never looked 

back, scoring five touchdowns in 
their next six drives, four of them 
on the ground.

But with the sense of occasion 

marred by an eerie silence that 
could only meet game-changing 
plays with a murmer, Michigan’s 
jubilation never fully boiled over. 
There were high fives and hugs, 
but never scrums spilling onto the 
field in celebration of Harbaugh’s 
most decisive away win over a 
ranked opponent.

And at the end of it, the only 

sign of a dejected home crowd 
was Minnesota’s parents turning 
toward the exits en masse, a 
small trickle where a river would 
normally flow. On the other side 
of the stadium, Michigan’s parents 
gravitated down towards their 
sons, who headed into the locker 
room.

There, the Little Brown Jug 

awaited, providing confirmation 
that their first game in 297 days 
had finished with their first win 
in 336.

Twenty 
minutes 
after 

Michigan 
wrapped 
up 
a 

blowout win over Minnesota — 
on the road, against a ranked 
team, no less — Josh Gattis left 
a short message on Twitter.

“1-0,” he wrote. “We will 

clean it up and keep working!”

Last year when Gattis made 

similar remarks, they sounded 
like excuses for an offense that 
was inconsistent and made too 
many mistakes. This time, they 
felt like a nitpick.

Sure, there are always things 

for an offense to clean up, but 
the offense that showed up in 
Minneapolis Saturday felt far 
removed from that of Gattis’ 
first year.

The Wolverines put up 49 

points, more than they did 
against any team last year 
except Rutgers. They didn’t 
have a single turnover. Ten 
different players had a run or 
pass play of at least 10 yards. 
Four of seven third downs were 

converted.

A year after Gattis came to 

Michigan 
preaching 
“speed 

in space,” here it finally was 
in all its glory. Finally, the 
Wolverines seemed to have a 
cohesive gameplan designed to 
fit its offense — and executed it.

“It 
feels 
great 
for 
me 

because I don’t have to do too 
much,” junior quarterback Joe 
Milton said. “I’ve got a lot of 
playmakers. Give those guys 
the ball because that’s what 
they’re here for, they’re gonna 
make a play.”

Indeed, Milton wasn’t asked 

to do a lot. Despite Milton’s 
well-known arm strength, he 
attempted few deep bombs 
Saturday. Instead, he tossed 
screen passes and end-arounds 
and ran the ball himself. But 
the reason Milton didn’t need 
to get too fancy was because 
the plan worked. He finished 
15-of-22 for 225 yards on the 
night.

Whether it was junior wide 

receiver Ronnie Bell breaking 
tackles en route to a 30-yard run 

in, senior fullback Ben Mason 
cartwheeling the ball into the 
end zone, junior running back 
Hassan 
Haskins 
barreling 

through defenders or Milton 
keeping the ball himself, each 
play seemed like it was catered 
to the person making it.

“Our gameplan going in was 

just, make big plays, you hear 
me?” Haskins said. “We’ve got 
playmakers, we’ve just gotta 
make big plays. We’ve got all 
the tools. … Everyone gonna 
touch the field, when you’ve 
got so many you can just go to 
whoever you want. Everybody 
get their shine on, everybody 
do their thing and just go like 
that.”

Last year, Michigan largely 

lacked an offensive identity. 
Against teams like Penn State, 
Wisconsin and Ohio State, it 
played too sloppy and turned 
the ball over too many times. 
Meanwhile, 
it 
consistently 

came up short in big moments.

Saturday was, of course, one 

game. The next step for the 
Wolverines is doing it again 
and again. But the win over the 
Golden Gophers showed what 
Michigan’s offense can be — one 
full of playmakers and capable 
of getting those playmakers the 
ball consistently.

“I just trust them and I 

just wanted them to do that 
because they’re talented guys,” 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
said. “Just put talented guys out 
there … and see what happens 
and let everybody be surprised 
at how good he does. That’s 
what I envisioned, that’s how I 
visualized this game.”

Just put talented guys out 

there and see what happens. 
If the Wolverines can do that 
every Saturday, they could 
have an offense capable of 
making noise against good 
teams. That’s credit to Gattis 
and his offensive philosophy 
that seems to finally be coming 
to fruition.

In an impressive first start, Joe Milton vindicates Michigan’s process

MINNEAPOLIS — Joe Milton 

didn’t think he’d be emotional.

He had prepared for this 

moment for the better part of 
three years or, in some senses, 
a lifetime. He thought that 
meant he would be stoic on 
Saturday, when he was set to 
suit up as Michigan’s starting 
quarterback for the first time.

So 
Milton 
embarked 
on 

the same routine he’s carried 
out as the Wolverines’ third 
stringer for the past two years. 
He walked into the locker 
room, dressed head to toe 
in blue Michigan warmups, 
save for a pair of all-black 
Nike Air Force 1s and a white 
beanie emblazoned with the 
logo of The Uniform Funding 
Foundation. Over the beanie, he 
played music through a pair of 
black headphones.

When he got into the locker 

room, Milton sat down and 
removed 
his 
headphones, 

immersing 
himself 
in 
the 

surroundings 
of 
TCF 
Bank 

Stadium’s away locker room.

That’s when it hit him.
“I started tearing up,” Milton 

said, “because it’s real.”

Four hours later, he had 

commanded 
a 
convincing, 

49-24, 
win 
over 
No. 
21 

Minnesota, the biggest road 
win over a ranked team in the 
Jim 
Harbaugh 
era. 
Milton 

completed 15 of 22 passes for 
225 yards and a touchdown, 
adding 52 yards and a score on 
the ground.

For Milton, it was a dream 

debut. For Michigan, it was 
the 
vindicating 
culmination 

of four years of scouting and 
development.

The Wolverines first heard 

about 
Milton 
in 
part 
due 

to his high school coach’s 
connections on the Michigan 
staff. Immediately, Milton, a 
converted wide receiver, caught 
the eye of Harbaugh and then-
offensive 
coordinator 
Tim 

Drevno.

“His arm strength was huge 

coming out of high school,” 

Drevno told The Daily this 
week. “He was a guy who could 
make a play where there was no 
play to be made.”

That much is lore by now — 

the 80-yard throws in practice, 
the 
passes 
delivered 
with 

such force that they mangle 
receivers’ hands.

But shrouding the talent was 

a unique lack of production. 
While 
most 
four-star 
high 

school 
quarterbacks 
are 

leading their teams to state 
titles, Milton never eclipsed a 
50% completion percentage at 
Olympia High School.

His weaknesses, according to 

Drevno, ranged from dropback 
technique to going through his 
reads. And yet, excitement in 
their new recruit bubbled at 
Schembechler Hall.

“You don’t want to get the 

guy that’s already polished,” 
Drevno said. “You wanna know 
a guy, what’s his ceiling? How 
much better is he gonna get?”

In Milton, Michigan had that 

to the extreme. So from the 
moment he arrived on campus 

in the winter of 2018, the 
Wolverines had a development 
plan.

Initially fourth on the depth 

chart behind Shea Patterson, 
Dylan McCaffrey and Brandon 
Peters, Milton still saw an 
outsized share of the workload 
in practices to acclimate him to 
the speed of college football.

“They knew what he was 

capable of,” Kyle Grady, a walk 
on quarterback who was with 
the team during the 2018-19 
school year, told The Daily. 
“And they did a good job of 
getting him in there, getting 
him physical reps.”

But more important at first 

was his work in the film room.

Over the course of his first 

year 
at 
Michigan, 
Milton 

worked with Pep Hamilton, 
the Wolverines’ passing game 
coordinator at the time, to 
improve his understanding of 
defenses. 
That 
development 

course 
accelerated 
in 
Jan. 

2019, when Michigan replaced 
Hamilton 
with 
offensive 

coordinator Josh Gattis and 

promoted 
offensive 
analyst 

Ben McDaniels to quarterbacks 
coach.

According 
to 
Grady, 

McDaniels 
had 
a 
different 

approach 
to 
Milton’s 

development. 
McDaniels 

started 
from 
square 
one, 

making Milton re-learn the 
most basic defensive schemes 
— Cover 0 and Cover 1 — and 
building up to obscure and 
disguised variances of more 
flexible schemes like Cover 2 
and Cover 6.

“That was huge for all the 

quarterbacks’ 
development, 

but Joe specifically to go from 
square 
one, 
ask 
questions 

he needs to ask and really 
thoroughly understand what 
the defense is trying to do to 
you,” Grady said.

By last fall, when McCaffrey 

suffered 
a 
concussion 
that 

forced Milton into backup duty, 
his progress was tangible. He 
showed the touch that Harbaugh 
has repeatedly emphasized on 
multiple occasions, including on 
his first career touchdown pass 
against Rutgers.

“There’s 
different 
ball 

flights, different appropriate 
throws,” Harbaugh said then. 
“Not everything is a line drive 
fastball.”

Early in the first quarter 

on 
Saturday, 
it 
was 
that 

development that crystalized 
itself on the most important 
play of Milton’s young career. 
Tied at seven on the edge of 
field goal range, Michigan faced 
a key early third-and-5.

Freshman receiver Roman 

Wilson lined up in the slot 
to the left, running a post 
route over the middle, where 
Milton delivered a perfectly 
placed touch pass in between 
the dropping linebackers and 
converging safeties.

A drive later, it was Milton’s 

decision making on display. 
Rolling out to his left from the 
eight-yard line, Milton had 
Wilson and sophomore tight 
end Erick All running routes in 
the end zone. When both players 
were covered, he sold a fake to 
All and found senior fullback 
Ben Mason in the flat, allowing 
Mason to make an acrobatic 

play for the touchdown.

“He was on target all night 

and played with the poise of a 
savvy veteran,” Harbaugh said 
after the game. “Had a great 
command of the offense.”

There were times, too, when 

Milton’s innate duality shone 
through.

With 22 seconds left in 

the first half, he misread the 
defense, throwing to All in 
double coverage on a four 
verticals concept and narrowly 
avoiding an interception. After 
the 
game, 
Harbaugh 
said, 

“He went through his reads 
extremely 
well. 
Maybe 
he 

missed one that I can think of,” 
likely in reference to the play.

Milton, though, regrouped 

and made the type of throw that 
had the Wolverines salivating 
over him as a high school 
prospect. Rolling to his left 
away from pressure, Milton 
flicked his wrist and delivered 
a 45-yard pass across his body, 
inches away from sophomore 
receiver 
Giles 
Jackson’s 

outstretched arms, only foiled 
by Jackson’s indirect route to 
the ball.

A quarter later, Milton made 

a similar play, only more within 
the realm of human possibility. 
Stepping up to his left again, he 
found All in the flat. Harbaugh 
later called it a “perfect” throw, 
on a play that he said Milton 
wouldn’t have been able to make 
a year or two ago.

It came a play after Milton 

jumped sideways down the 
Michigan sideline, with his 
left arm on his hip and right 
arm pointed toward All in 
celebration 
of 
a 
surefire 

touchdown only to see his pass 
drop through All’s hands. When 
it fell, Milton briefly dropped 
his head in dejection, before 
jogging back to the huddle and 
trying again.

Two 
plays 
later, 
the 

Wolverines were in the end 
zone anyway, thanks to their 
new quarterback, and the three 
years that turned his promise 
into reality.

“I was pretty impressed with 

myself,” Milton said through a 
thin smile. “I’ve been working 
on that a long time.”

Hunting Gophers

Behind high-powered offensive attack, Wolverines beat Minnesota in season opener, 49-24

THEO MACKIE

Managing Sports Editor

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

COURTESY OF THE MINNESOTA DAILY

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck was left without answers as his defense gave up 49 points to Michigan on Saturday.

COURTESY OF THE MINNESOTA DAILY

Junior quarterback Joe Milton was 15-for-22 for 225 yards and a touchdown with 52 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in his long-awaited debut.

THEO MACKIE

Managing Sports Editor