On Monday, amidst a siege of
questions about the impending clash
between No. 6 Michigan and No. 8
Michigan State, Jim Harbaugh largely
resorted to a tried and true cliché.
“Those
questions
just
answer
themselves,”
the
Michigan
coach
repeatedly opined when pressed about
the game’s importance.
Harbaugh, albeit blunt, is correct;
the implications of the game do speak
for themselves. The winner will not
only be rewarded with the upper-hand
in a bitter in-state rivalry but will also
be solidified as a legitimate College
Football Playoff contender. Chances of a
Big Ten Championship, too, grow more
formidable.
The loser, by contrast, is kicked to
the curb, the feel-good mojo from an
undefeated start all but dashed.
Harbaugh knows this. And yet,
despite his terse answers, he did break
character when asked to articulate what
a win over the Spartans would mean for
the Wolverines’ postseason fate:
“It sure would give it a boost,”
Harbaugh said with a chuckle. “You talk
about winning the conference, winning
the National Championship. It’s an
elimination mindset, a playoff mindset
at this point. Win this game and it will
help your chances.”
The answer speaks volumes about
Michigan’s rapid ascension back into
college football’s upper echelon. Just
ten months ago, the Wolverines were
wrapping up a disastrous 2-4 season
amidst a COVID-19 outbreak while
questions swirled around Harbaugh’s
future and the general direction of the
program.
And now? Well, things have changed.
“It could really help propel us through
the rest of the season,” senior offensive
tackle Ryan Hayes said about a potential
victory. “We’ve got a few more tough
games to prepare for. This could help us
with our momentum and confidence for
the rest of the season.”
Hayes is among a contingent of
Wolverines who are steeped in the
culture of the rivalry. A Traverse City,
MI, native, he has watched the game
and rooted for Michigan since before
he can remember. The same can be said
for fifth-year linebacker Josh Ross, who
hails from Southfield, MI, and watched
his older brother, James III, lose to
the Spartans three times during his
Michigan tenure.
At the same time, as a collective
group, the current Wolverines have
little rivalry experience. Last season,
amidst the backdrop of a pandemic and
inside an empty Michigan Stadium, the
atmosphere was subdued. Michigan
last visited East Lansing in 2018, when
Hayes was a freshman who saw no game
action and didn’t even make the trip.
Nonetheless,
fables
and
tales
— everything from the trademark
physicality to the intensity of the hour-
plus bus ride to Mike Hart’s infamous
“little brother” quip — have made their
way around the locker room.
“There’s definitely been some
talk about what it means to them,”
sophomore
running
back
Blake
Corum said. “For the guys that
haven’t played the game, the older
guys will tell them what it’s like and
what it means.
“… But right now, we’re just locking in
on film and getting ready.”
All season, the Wolverines have
embraced a slogan imparted to them
by linebackers coach George Helow:
“nameless, faceless opponents.”
Back in September, for instance,
sophomore
receiver
A.J.
Henning
referred to former teammate Giles
Jackson as a “faceless opponent” ahead
of the Washington game; while Jackson
may be a confidant off the field, on it he is
merely the opposition.
Now more than ever, in the most
pivotal game of the season, the refrain
is applicable. Ross noted that this year’s
matchup brings “new blood.”
“It doesn’t matter who you’re going
against, you’re just gonna give it your all
and do your job and go get it,” he said.
And that’s why, in advance of
Michigan State, Michigan is riding the
same formula that has buoyed them to a
7-0 start. If they deviate from it? “Lest a
team be painfully humbled,” Harbaugh
said.
Ross added: “When you change how
you prepare during the season, that’s a
problem. We’ve been preparing the right
way every week. This week, it definitely
has higher stakes, but just attack it the
same way.”
Ross conducted his press conference
with a palpable sense of energy.
Harbaugh, too, exuded a certain
eagerness; on two separate occasions, he
noted his excitement “to get to practice
and roll.”
Certainly, the game’s implications
play a factor in all of that.
“Everything that we’ve done so far
this season, going into Michigan State,
beating them in their stadium, I think it
would take our season to another level,”
Corum said.
As for the alternative?
Well,
to
borrow
Harbaugh’s
vernacular, the question answers itself.
‘Elimination mindset’: Michigan embracing
high stakes ahead of MSU showdown
After a career of setbacks, D.J. Turner
shines in starting role
EMMA MATI/Daily
After a promising early career at Michigan, D.J. Turner has come into his own this season, making a key inter-
ception against Northwestern.
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Editor
Before this season, D.J. Turner
had always been on the precipice.
Over the last few years,
Turner’s name had been tossed
around as a breakout candidate
during the Michigan football
team’s spring practices. Jim
Harbaugh praised the young
cornerback’s progress as an
early enrollee and freshman in
2019, but an injury sidelined him
for much of the year. Turner
made his first appearance in the
secondary during the pandemic-
shortened 2020 season, though
most of his action came on special
teams once again.
But this season, the former
three-star recruit is living up to
the praise he’s collected for years.
Through
seven
appearances,
the junior has tallied 11 tackles,
an interception and a pass
breakup while holding his own in
coverage.
“My sense is he’s always been
great,” Harbaugh said Monday.
“He’s always kind of been right
there as a starting player and then
had a setback … where he was
working through something that
slows him down. But he always
battled right back. It’s great to see
him peaking at a great time.”
During
Saturday’s
33-7 win over Northwestern,
Turner’s late interception put
an exclamation point on the
Wolverines’ victory. After a pass
to the sideline was tipped three
times, Turner snagged it and took
it the other direction, putting a
circus pick on Michigan’s season
highlight reel in the process.
Turner earned his first career
start at No. 2 cornerback on
Saturday over senior Gemon
Green, who usually lines up
opposite senior Vincent Gray
to round out the Wolverines’
cornerback tandem. He played a
career-high 43 snaps, earning a
team-best 78.7 coverage grade on
Pro Football Focus.
“He’s been battling the whole
season,” junior safety Daxton
Hill said Saturday. “This season,
before the season, the spring. This
has been a long year for him, and
I’m proud of him for stepping up,
making plays and helping out the
defense.”
Prior to the interception, it
was clear the Wildcats were
making a conscious effort to
target Turner. Northwestern
quarterback
Ryan
Hilinksi
threw his way multiple times in
the first half but backed off after
Turner blew up a screen pass in
the backfield.
From start to finish, the strong
performance caught Harbaugh’s
eye.
“I thought he had a great
game,” Harbaugh said Monday.
“The interception, I think it’s one
of the best I’ve seen all season
in college football. Also really
impressed with his physicality.
He made some big tackles in the
game, a tackle for loss (on) one of
the screens Northwestern had
run. Two of our guys had taken a
bad angle and the ball got out, but
he took a great angle, came from
the other side of the field. He’s
playing really good football. Great
to see.”
As a recruit, Turner committed
to Michigan just three days after
taking his official visit to Ann
Arbor. Hosted by linebacker Josh
Ross, Turner’s visit sealed the
deal ahead of his college pledge.
Now a fifth-year senior, Ross has
watched Turner grow from his
initial arrival on campus.
So, it was only fitting that
Ross became his lead blocker
after his interception on Saturday.
“That’s a guy that always
attacks everything the right
way, works hard,” Ross said. “As
I opened up from my drop and
broke over and saw him get that
tipped pick, I was just so happy
for him. It was an amazing play
and he’s going to continue to do
big things for us and our defense.”
DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Editor
EMMA MATI/Daily
Going into this weekend against No. 8 Michigan State, the stakes are, as Jim Harbaugh
knows, incredibly high.
Four years ago, I got an
email from the Michigan State
admissions office. Two weeks
after I had applied, I had been
accepted.
At
the
moment,
going to East
Lansing wasn’t
really on my
radar. I applied
because
it
was fun — my
senior year of
high
school,
I got into the
bad
habit
of
getting drunk and applying to
bad schools for the validation.
As the year went on, though,
I started seriously consider-
ing going to Michigan State.
It seemed like a half-decent
option, and hey, at some level,
it’s about what you make out
of your education and not the
quality of the education itself.
I wouldn’t be a student jour-
nalist if I went to Michigan
State. I wouldn’t have covered
women’s basketball or gone
to Omaha to cover the men’s
College World Series if I went
there. I’m a computer science
major, not a journalism major,
and I’ve never been interested
in a career in journalism.
Every year in these dueling
columns, the State News writer
comes out and exclaims, “We’re
better than you because we
have a journalism school.” They
even started the jabs a little
early this year, so I imagine this
dig will make up most of their
column, with Adam Schefter at
the center of it.
First off, Michigan did have
a journalism program when
Schefter
went
here.
Luck-
ily, your alumni were quick to
help you on that point. He also
went to Medill for grad school.
Perhaps he learned to send his
stories to the subject for edits
in a class similar to JRN 200,
“Writing and Reporting News,”
in a J-School.
Or maybe he learned it in
a class similar to JRN 317,
“Sports Journalism.” Or JRN
418, “Advanced Sports Report-
ing.” Two very valuable classes
for your staff members to take,
since they don’t seem to do
much decent sports journalism
for the State News.
You do realize that Michigan
State has a field hockey team,
right? You’ve written three sto-
ries about the team since 2017.
I get it, you have a small staff.
I’m actually impressed that you
have enough people to cover
men’s and women’s soccer reg-
ularly, as well as volleyball. I’m
happy to see that you’ve come
out of the pandemic with a big-
ger staff, eager to cover as much
as possible.
Yet since The Daily allows
any “riff raff off the street” to
write for us, while the State
News is competitive and its
members go through the rigor-
ous academic course load con-
sisting of the classes “Advanced
Reporting” and “Journalism
History,” you’d think the sports
you do write about would have
high-quality articles.
If that were true, then why
do sentences like this, “Tucker
is free to leave if he wants if he
is offered something that he
deems as undeniable,” make the
cut? And how come you don’t
know the difference between
an em dash (—) and hyphen
(-), leading to this monstrously
confusing sentence, “Cole said
the development of the unit
on sheer repetition-and the
blind hope that it’ll work-and
is optimistic production from
their two power-play units will
continue to trend in the right
direction.”
But I get it, editing is hard.
You can see that in all your
past Dueling Columns, when
for some reason you thought
it was okay to publish this line
in 2014: “Outside of sports, our
parties are louder, our women
are prettier.” Or publish this in
2013: “Like the females in Ann
Arbor, the past isn’t as glam-
orous when you take a longer
look.”
The State News’ shortcom-
ings don’t stop with just your
editing skills: Your website
blows up the images to the point
where they’re grainier than one
of your agriculture labs. When I
showed one of the photos to our
assistant photo editors with no
context, she just said, “Is there
anything better than that? It’s
not very interesting.”
And when I showed the photo
and quote to one of our manag-
ing photo editors, she said the
assistant editor was being very,
incredibly nice. I’ll save you
from hearing the rest of her
quote because I’m not sure your
inferiority complex can take it.
But your website’s prob-
lems go even further than that.
When you load an article, you
see a Dune ad. Right beneath an
even larger ad. Once you scroll
down, you finally get to the
article.
Great, an ad with an arti-
cle attached to it. Just what I
wanted to read. Even our old
website, which you creatively
attacked year after year after
year, wasn’t that bad. By the
way, did you see who won an
online Pacemaker this year?
It’s cute that you’re finally
practicing for the game. Maybe
your #MarginalGains will get
you to the point where you lose
8-1, instead of 8-0. Maybe you
won’t have to weather accu-
sations of not trying. Maybe
you’ll still get that keg for sim-
ply scoring on us. Maybe you’ll
actually tweet a story from
your sports account, some-
thing you haven’t done since
Oct. 8.
On Friday, when we beat you
for the 16th time in a row in a
touch football game one of your
past editors said “quite honest-
ly, I couldn’t care less about,” it
won’t be because we have any
riff-raff from the street on our
staff.
It’ll be because we’re better
than you — at journalism and
touch football.
Managing Sports Editor Kent
Schwartz can be reached on
Twitter at @nottherealkent.
BECCA MAHON/Daily
With a 16-year losing streak and copious typos, The State News continues to prove touch football skills directly correlate
to ability to produce a newspaper.
Dueling Columns: The Michigan Daily vs. The State News
KENT
SCHWARTZ
MICHIGAN VS MICHIGAN STATE
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Wednesday, October 27, 2021 — 11