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Wednesday, October 13, 2021 — 11

SportsWednesday: Michigan just proved 

it can be a contender this season

Going into the season, 8-4 was a 

hopeful prediction for the Michigan 
football team’s record. Our own 
beat’s highest prediction was that. 
Washington, 
Wisconsin, Penn 
State and Ohio 
State smelled like 
instant 
losses. 

Michigan 
State 

and 
Indiana 

would push them, 
and winning both 
would be a sign of 
progress 
after 

losses last year.

This year was supposed to be a gap 

year — a year to let freshman phenom 
J.J. McCarthy mature and allow the 
new defense to settle in. But now, 6-0 
and ranked in the top 10, this season is 
no longer a bridge to a brighter future, 
it is an opportunity for the Wolverines 
to be disruptive and play at a national 
scale.

Two weeks ago against Rutgers, 

the defense held strong and kept 
the Scarlet Knights from turning 
the table after an abysmal offensive 
second half from the Wolverines. A 
week ago, Jim Harbaugh won his 
biggest road win at Michigan. This 
week, the offense kept the team in 
it even as the defense floundered. 
Then, when it needed to, the defense 
forced a late fumble to set up a game-
winning field goal.

“We didn’t flinch,” senior safety 

Brad Hawkins said. “We stayed 
composed throughout the whole 
game. We knew adversity was going 
to hit. It hit, and we didn’t flinch. I 
love this team, I love this defense, 
and I know we’re fighters.”

Michigan teams of the past 

couldn’t have done any of those 
things. 

This year, the dominoes are falling 

the right way for the Wolverines. 
When looking across college football, 

the traditionally top teams are 
struggling. Oklahoma has scraped 
by in five of its six games, Alabama 
lost to an unranked team, Clemson 
has plummeted out of even the top 
25. Notre Dame has looked ugly in 
its 5-1 start and now Penn State has 
a questionable quarterback situation 
due to Sean Clifford’s injury. 

There is actually a path to the 

College Football Playoff. Which 
is, inherently, a ridiculous thing to 
write. 

But Michigan still has to face its 

biggest tests. Michigan State, the 
Nittany Lions and Ohio State are all 
top 10 teams left on its schedule, and 
each of them is finding its identity 
(Clifford’s injury aside). 

If the Wolverines lose just 

two of those games, this could be 
Harbaugh’s best season ever at 
Michigan. If they lose one of those 
games, they would be contenders 
for the College Football Playoff and 

likely give Harbaugh his first Big Ten 
Title. 

And after the past three weeks, 

Michigan losing only one of those 
games isn’t a laughably absurd 
thought. Because unlike in previous 
years, the Wolverines have shown an 
ability to adjust and learn from their 
shortcomings.

The abysmal offense from Rutgers’ 

second half hasn’t reappeared, and 
that game remains the only one 
in which Michigan failed to score 
more than 30 points. McNamara has 
improved throughout the season, 
and despite a few missed throws on 
Saturday he played well. The defense 
has made in-game adjustments, 
repeatedly shutting down teams after 
their first drive. There’s no reason to 
suspect it won’t learn from Nebraska’s 
second half.

All that goes to show that this 

isn’t a gap year for Michigan — 
not because it’s biding its time for 

McCarthy to take the starting job but 
because it won’t accept a loss. That’s 
why the team danced despite being 
behind at the end of the third quarter 
and why they continued to respond. 

“The grit they have, the fight 

they have, the mindset of not being 
denied,” Harbaugh said. “The way 
they prepare and they have fun 

doing it. It’s in the eyes. Practice and 
games.”

Now, 8-4 would be a disappointing 

end. And Ohio State, Penn State 
and Michigan State are winnable 
games and the Las Vegas Bowl a let 
down. So forget the gap year, the 
Wolverines have crashed the playoff 
conversation.

Unlike past years, this team finds 
ways to win in tough environments

LINCOLN — For a moment, as Cade 

McNamara walked off the field late in 
the third quarter, 
it felt like the same 
old Michigan. 

The 
junior 

quarterback 
had just thrown 
his 
first 
career 

interception, and as 
a whole, the ninth-
ranked Wolverines 
were 
reeling. 

Moments 
before, 

they’d been sitting comfortably with 
a two-score advantage and a defense 
that effectively suffocated Nebraska’s 
dynamic offense. One throw and a 
two-point conversion later, it became a 
three-point Cornhuskers lead. 

The sudden momentum shift 

evoked memories of Jim Harbaugh-
coached teams of years past. Perhaps 
it reminded onlookers of Michigan’s 
2019 loss against Ohio State, when 
the Wolverines scored on their 
first drive, then surrendered a 
touchdown on the next possession 
and never led again. Or the 2017 
Outback Bowl, where a 16-point lead 
late in the third quarter devolved 
into a seven-point loss.

Let’s be frank — the Michigan of 

years past would have lost Saturday’s 
game at Memorial Stadium. The 
mistakes that allowed the Wolverines’ 
advantage to disappear would have 
compounded into more frustrations, 
more 
errors 
and, 
ultimately, 
a 

humiliating defeat snatched from the 
jaws of victory. 

But this isn’t the Michigan of years 

past. This team — which marched 
out of Lincoln with a 32-29 win over a 
much-improved Nebraska team — is 
different. The Wolverines of the last 
four years were almost extraordinary 
at finding ways to lose close games. 

This year’s team finds ways to win 

them. 

“I think overall that this team has 

decided to be different this year,” 
McNamara said. “And I think it’s 
not as much what you see football-
wise, it’s the atmosphere that we’ve 
created, and really the mindset that 

we’ve rebuilt this offseason, and I 
think it showed today.”

McNamara 
exemplified 
that 

bounce-back mentality. By no means 
was he extraordinary on Saturday 
— he missed several open receivers 
throughout the night and often 
delivered the ball too late for his 
receivers to do much with it. The 
interception itself was ugly, thrown 
straight to a Cornhuskers defender. 

But after that throw, McNamara 

and the entire offense kept its collective 
composure. The very next possession, 
Michigan manufactured a 10-play, 
75-yard touchdown drive to regain the 
lead. When the defense surrendered it 
moments later, the offense responded 
again with a field goal to tie the game 
(Nebraska would never lead again). 

During those drives, it never seemed 

as if McNamara was pressing. He still 

made mistakes, but rarely were those 
the product of mental lapses. On plays 
where his first read wasn’t open, he 
didn’t force the ball and instead opted 
to find his tight ends over the middle. 
He displayed the poise and calmness 
that any team — especially one that’s 
certain to be in close games moving 
forward — needs out of its quarterback. 

That’s something the Wolverines 

haven’t had recently. 

“I’ve always thought that that 

was one of the huge tests for any 

quarterback,” 
Harbaugh 
said. 

“After you throw an interception, 
do they have the ability on the next 
possession to drive the offense for 
points? Right there, in a nutshell, 
you can tell so much about any 
quarterback.”

As with everything new about 

Michigan’s team, those changes didn’t 
stop with one player. They were visible 
in the defense, which somehow pulled 
out two stops at the end after looking 
helpless for most of the second half. 
It permeated throughout the sideline, 
which exploded with energy during 
Memorial 
Stadium’s 
post-third 

quarter light show — despite trailing 
for the first time all season at that 
point. 

And most of all, it shows in the 

Wolverines’ record midway through 
the season: 6-0. Say what you want about 

the competition, the inconsistency, the 
dumb errors on the road; despite all of 
that, Michigan’s entering its bye week 
exceeding all expectations and on the 
cusp of potentially competing for a Big 
Ten Championship. 

Somehow, the Wolverines are 

winning games. They’ve chosen to 
abandon the status quo of the Harbaugh 
era and embrace a new identity. 

For McNamara, the motivations 

behind that choice are simple:

“We’re tired of losing.”

KENT

SCHWARTZ

BRENDAN

ROOSE

Less than two minutes after drilling the most 

important kick of his career, Jake Moody trotted onto 
the field. His next one would be even bigger.

That was how the final stretch of Saturday’s 

narrow win at Nebraska unfolded for the No. 8 
Michigan football team’s senior kicker. With the 
Wolverines trailing, 29-26, Moody’s 31-yard field goal 
tied the game with 3:05 to play. And after Michigan’s 
defense forced a critical turnover, Moody put the 
Wolverines on top for good with a 39-yard field goal as 
the clock ticked down to 1:28.

For Moody, Saturday night’s heroics are the latest 

example of his consistent success. He finished 4-for-
4 on field goals and 2-for-2 on extra-point attempts, 
earning 
Big 
Ten 
Special 

Teams Player of the Week 
honors in the process. He’s 
converted 12 of his 13 field goal 
tries — including a 52-yarder 
against Washington — this 
season 
while 
successfully 

knocking through all 25 extra 
points.

“Jake is a part of the 

offense. We can always 
count 
on 
Jake,” 
junior 

receiver 
Mike 
Sainristil 

said 
Monday. 
“Moody, 

he’s real cold, to do what 
he did on Saturday. As a 
player 
himself, 
having 

that confidence in those 
situations, I just love that 
from Moody.”

Similar to a baseball pitcher managing his arm, the 

Wolverines’ coaches keep Moody on a “kick count.” 
He kicks just three days per week — twice at practice 
and once during games — in order to maintain leg 
strength and longevity.

For the first three years of his career, Moody 

split time with fellow kicker Quinn Nordin. Moody 
struggled to establish rhythm after his freshman 
season, missing six of his 13 field goal attempts in 2019 
and 2020. But with Nordin now in the NFL, Moody 
can take comfort in knowing he’s the Wolverines’ 
clear No. 1 option.

“It feels good going into the games knowing it’s 

going to be you no matter what,” Moody said last 
Tuesday. “I enjoyed having Quinn around. It made 
both of us better for sure. But knowing it’s going to 
be you and you’re the guy for every single kick, it’s a 
pretty good feeling.”

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 

2020, Moody and Nordin were locked into a battle for 
starting kicker duties. A native of Northville, Mich., 
Moody returned home to train at his high school 
field. He posted a video of himself kicking a personal-
record 69-yard field goal in April and claims he made 
multiple kicks from 70-plus afterwards.

But last fall, that offseason work didn’t translate to 

results. Moody attempted four field goals during the 
pandemic-shortened season and missed three of them.

Through the first six weeks of this season, Moody 

has rebounded in a big way. Part of that comes from 
a new snap operation. Fifth-year senior punter Brad 
Robbins began receiving and holding junior William 
Wagner’s snaps during fall camp and the results have 
been encouraging.

“It’s been the confidence, the preparation,” 

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Saturday. “Brad 

Robbins is a huge part of it, not 
just because he’s the holder, 
but his mental fortitude and 
positive daily infusion on our 
entire team, especially that 
snap, hold, kick battery. … 
Moody is just a straight calm, 
cool, collected kind of guy.”

Now, Moody says he’s 

comfortable kicking from 
anywhere inside 60 yards 
in good conditions. Wind 
gets tricky across the Big 
Ten during football season, 
but 
Michigan’s 
special 

teams unit always takes the 
field early for warmups on 
game days to test out the 
weather. While on the road, 
Moody looks for gaps in the 

top of each stadium and takes note of any wind 
deflections within.

Rainfall and wind may be out of the Wolverines’ 

control, but those factors are closely monitored on 
game days. What never changes with the weather, 
however, is Moody’s visualization of success.

“I’ll be sitting up in bed, can’t fall asleep, just kind 

of thinking of those different scenarios,” Moody said. 
“Like kicking a game-winner in the Big House against 
Ohio State. Stuff like that. Going into every game, 
I like to think of different kicks. Could be a game-
winner, could be an extra point.

“I feel like once you visualize that kick in your 

head, once you get out there on the field, you feel a lot 
more comfortable since you’ve already kind of seen it 
through your head.”

On Saturday night in Lincoln, that dream of a 

game-winning kick became a reality.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily 

Michigan senior kicker Jake Moody kicked 
Saturday’s game-winning field goal. 

TESS CROWLEY/Daily 

Michigan junior quarterback Cade McNamara is playing with confidence.

Inside Moody’s emergence as a 
reliable, game-changing kicker

BECCA MAHON/Daily 

Michigan junior quarterback Cade McNamara took ownership of this team.

DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Editor