Desmond Howard On Being Back In Ann Arbor — 'It Reenergizes My Soul'
Before the season began, ESPN analyst and Michigan alum Desmond Howard picked the Wolverines to win the National Title.
The Maize and Blue still have a chance to do so, but will more than likely need to win the rest of their games in order for that to become a reality.
With College GameDay in town on Friday for tomorrow’s monstrous showdown with Wisconsin, Howard took a look back at his preseason prediction.
“If Michigan wins out, they’ll have a shot to win it all,” he said. “I like to think outside the box. If everyone picked Alabama before the year, what fun would that be? Michigan still has a chance to do something special.”
Howard played at U-M from 1989-91, and admitted that returning to Ann Arbor is always a special occasion for him.
“It reenergizes my soul,” he explained. “It’s a great campus with wonderful people, and I appreciate the fall weather.
“I actually had dinner last night at Mediterrano. I don’t like to eat cheese a lot, but they have great cheese there — it’s probably the only cheese I'll eat all year.”
As for the game itself, Howard explained how impressed he’s been with the improvements Michigan’s offense has made, specifically those by junior quarterback Shea Patterson.
“They’re starting to play much better,” he admitted. “It all starts with the offensive line. [Sophomore center] Cesar Ruiz is really coming into his own, and that opens up the playbook and the offense even more.
“Patterson is benefitting from the line’s improved play. Just watching him, it’s obvious he’s becoming more comfortable and getting into a rhythm. He’s looking like the player people expected to see when he came in from Ole Miss.”
In fact, the former Heisman winner went on to say that Patterson is the main factor why this Michigan team is different than one the ones in recent years. The Wolverines started 5-1 in both 2015 and 2017 and 9-0 in 2016, but failed to win the Big Ten title in each of those years.
“Quarterback is the main difference this season," he noted. "It’s no secret Patterson is the most athletic signal caller Harbaugh has had here, and you need that from the position nowadays.
“Patterson is very athletic and competitive, and his teammates took to him as soon as he arrived here. It’s natural for a guy like him to want to make a difference. Coach Harbaugh and Pep Hamilton are trying to make him understand he doesn’t have to do everything on his own though, and that he has play makers around him.”
Having a lights out defense to work with is also beneficial for the junior quarterback and the U-M offense, and Howard explained why he appreciates Don Brown’s schemes so much.
“His defenses are aggressive,” the analyst laughed. “I’m an old school guy, so I appreciate a defense that sets the tempo, dictates the game and takes risks.
“I respect that so much. They’ll man up and try and get to your quarterback, so I am on board with his philosophy and approach.”
Michigan hasn’t fared as well under Harbaugh in big games as fans had hoped when he was first hired, but Howard explained that it's important to put things in perspective, noting the rebuild was perhaps a bit larger than some realized.
“You have to remember what he had to rectify,” Howard said. “The Rich Rod years changed the whole culture and it just wasn’t Michigan football. Then you went to Brady Hoke, so I think Harbaugh had a bigger job than people anticipated.
“He’s turning it around, but maybe not at the pace people expected. You have to look at both the record and the product. Teams can lose games, but you it’s important to see if they're competitive.
"Look at Chip Kelly at UCLA and Scott Frost at Nebraska — you have to take into account whether or not they’re competitive, not just their records.”
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