Wolverine Watch: Joe Milton & Co. Flip The Script
Michigan’s defense will need to rise up to cover for its sputtering offensive start, given a new offensive line and quarterback.
So went the narrative in some quarters. If redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Milton and Co. heard any of it, they probably got a good laugh.
See, they were planning to lay some explosives on the turf at TCF Bank Stadium. And did they ever.
Boom!
Nearly 500 yards and almost half-a-hundred points later, Minnesota’s defense looked like Wile E. Coyote after another ACME disaster. That made TCF an easy heist, masks or no masks.
Milton looked as sharp in a debut as any Michigan quarterback in memory. No, he didn’t throw for five touchdowns and 400 yards. He didn’t need to.
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Instead, he spread the football around like he was tossing candy from a parade float, except the throws weren’t random. They were precise, on the money, confidently delivered.
If anyone looked for nerves out of the third-year Wolverine, they didn’t look long. Milton insisted they evaporated on the first snap, with the Gophers soon to follow.
“I felt great,” Milton said. “I didn’t panic. As a first start, I wasn’t scared. I always say to myself, ‘Fear God. Faith over fear.’
“With my touch tonight, I was pretty impressed with myself. I’ve been working on that a long time.”
Milton had plenty of company in the impressed department, starting with his head coach.
“His accuracy in the passing game, a real command of the offense, and he ran with the football with authority and ball security,” marveled Jim Harbaugh of the positives afterwards. “He just really played an outstanding game.”
Michigan featured huge plays all over the place — a 70-yard touchdown run by sophomore tailback Zach Charbonnet, a 66-yard bolt by redshirt sophomore back Hassan Haskins and some catchable lightning bolts along the way from Milton.
Nobody expected all that. Not on the road, not in the QB’s first start behind an emerging offensive line. Not against a Big Ten West team on the rise after an 11-2 season a year ago.
Nobody except Harbaugh, Milton and roughly 100 other inhabitants of Schembechler Hall. Pleased? Sure. Shocked? Not a chance.
“I really did,” Harbaugh said, when pressed about whether he expected the Wolverines to come out clicking on offense. “I really trusted our team. I believe in them that way, and every way. This is a really high-character team that’s been through a lot. That’s been well documented.
“They stick together through all things. They’ve really displayed that high character. I just trust them. I just wanted them to do that because they’re talented guys. You put talented guys out there like Joe Milton and see what happens.”
Suddenly, everyone wants to see what happens next. Because if the triggerman can deliver like he did against the Gophers, all kinds of talent will rise.
Consider these head-turners:
• Michigan showed off one of the fastest trios of freshmen ever unveiled at the same time. Rookie running back Blake Corum, along with classmate receivers Roman Wilson and A.J. Henning, didn’t look at all out of place in the lineup. They were slicing through the Gophers like they were ready to flex on P.J. Fleck’s crew.
• Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis insisted he wanted more explosive runs this year. Bolts of 70 and 66 aren’t bad for starters, and Milton himself broke off a 23-yarder to set up a score. Corum dashed away with a 24-yarder to open the game, off a dump-and-run swing pass. In all, seven Wolverines made plays of 18 yards or more.
• The revamped offensive line kept Milton clean all night. And at 6-5 with time to survey, he can stand and deliver like he did Saturday night.
Milton worked for this, long and hard. He never wavered when buried at No. 3 on the depth chart last year, and when the questions about him transferring came like blitzing linebackers. No, he assured. He wasn’t going anywhere.
When the moment arrived, it wasn’t too big. Milton proved bigger, and the moment proved just right.
“In the beginning, I was fine,” he insisted. “Like pregame, I was fine. I was listening to my music, so I was fine. And then when I got in the locker room, I took my headphones off and I started tearing up, because it’s real and it’s time to prove to the world who I am and what I can do."
And he did. And so did this Michigan offense, backed by a defense that produced a touchdown of its own and made a veteran quarterback look more like the rookie.
It’s just one game, one very solid road win. But putting a match to the now-torched narrative could heat things up in a hurry.
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