Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is a Schembechler-era savant and once again he’ll be diligently handing out his postgame helmet stickers after each game. Sap has pored over hours and hours of U-M games over several decades, and in these posts he’s able to tie the present to the past. I encourage you to subscribe to Dr. Sap on YouTube, or follow Sap on Twitter:
So how many of you thought this game was over when the score was, 17-0? As poorly as the Wolverines looked, were you confident they would rebound?
Did you really think this was going to be a tale of two halves?
Did you know that prior to the Northwestern game in 1984, Bo said this?
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
So in that vein let’s hand out some helmet stickers, just like Bo did back in the day.
OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – In tight games, like this one was, you wanna put the ball in the hands of your playmakers. Saturday night, that playmaker was Shea Patterson. When a 3rd down conversion was needed to keep the drive (and game) alive, #2 kept moving the chains with his arm and/or his legs. He played a gutty game and willed his team to victory. A game like that will not only endear you to your teammates & coaches, but it will also earn you this title from yours truly: “The New Guts and Glue of the Maize and Blue is #2.” Much like Ricky Leach gutted out key 3rd down conversions forty years ago, Patterson is starting to display that same kind of moxie. That’s good because that kind of grit will inspire, motivate and elevate the play of his teammates. Winning on the road in the B1G is tough, but when you get clutch QB play like Michigan got from Patterson, you can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – It was difficult to imagine that this game would come down to the final play and more difficult to imagine that Josh Uche would register the game-clinching sack that sealed the victory for Michigan. When you pitch a shutout for 3 quarters and limit your opponent to under 100 yards of offense, your defense is doing something right – especially with their best player out with an injury. It’s been the mantra of the Wolverine team for years: Next Man Up. Against Northwestern that was #6. He registered not one, but two sacks and his second one that ended the game reminded me of this one from old Seadog – Thomas Seabron:
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION – When you kick two field goals on the road and even boot one out of the stadium, like Quinn Nordin did, that deserves a helmet sticker. Coach Harbaugh likes to say that all offensive drives should end with a kick. Nordin was 2 for 2 and while I’m sure we all wanted 7 points instead of 3 points, you have to take points any way you can get them when playing on the road. Missed field goals can be momentum-swinging plays but Nordin was having none of that Saturday night against the Wildcats. Good thing for the maize and blue!
UNIFORM CHAMPION – I said it last year, and I’m gonna keep saying it until it becomes a B1G rule – both teams should NOT wear the same colored pants in a game. If they can’t wear the same color jersey, the same rule should apply to the pants! What’s wrong with wearing the maize pants on the road? There – I feel better now. But if Michigan IS going to wear an all-white uniform, I DO like the socks hiked up all the way to the knees!! That’s just a classic look!
And lastly – DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE HOLDING CALL ON HIGDON!!!
