Wolverine Watch: Quarantined From Criticism
Wisconsin and Michigan are emerging from quarantine just in time for the Restoration Bowl on Saturday. Unfortunately for someone, only one will come away on the mend.
The Badgers have been sequestered due to COVID-19, of course. There’s no truth to the rumor they were looking for an easy spot in the schedule to reemerge, when they announced this week they’d appear at Michigan Stadium.
The Wolverines are peeking out from a quarantine of their own — ears plugged, eyes on each other, vaccinating against the negativity surrounding their 1-2 start. They’re fighting off some sickness of their own, but it mostly resides in numbers fit for an infirmary.
They reel at No. 68 in the nation for total defense, yielding 411.7 yards per game — roughly twice as much as most Don Brown defenses at this time of year. They’re No. 71 in pass efficiency defense, having made Rocky Lombardi and Michael Penix look like Tom Brady and Drew Brees the past two weeks.
They’ve picked off one pass this year, putting them in a tie for No. 94 (dead last) nationally in that category. They’re tied for No. 85 in sacks, averaging 1.67 per game. That’s because they notched five in the opener against Minnesota, and none since.
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They haven’t run the ball consistently since opening well against the Gophers’ woeful defense. While redshirt sophomore Joe Milton shows considerable promise at quarterback, he’s not getting much help — including from the defense, which created zero turnovers over the past 120 minutes of football.
Wolverines are checking out of action left and right. They lost their best receiver (Nico Collins) and cornerback (Ambry Thomas) before the campaign ever began, thanks to the Big Ten’s dithering about hosting a season.
They lost their two starting tackles to injury heading into the Indiana game. They were down two starting defensive ends coming out of it — junior Aidan Hutchinson presumably for the season, with a leg fracture.
Their cornerbacks are getting picked on mercilessly, mercy not ranking as a top Big Ten priority. It’s no wonder Jim Harbaugh isn’t particularly attentive to sports talk radio, internet message boards and Urban Meyer these days.
“Their pass defense is very porous,” Meyer said on the Big Ten Network. “They’re not in position to make plays down the field. You saw Michigan State, who couldn’t score a touchdown against Iowa the following week, throw it all over the field on the Wolverines.
“And this past week, I’m sitting there, like probably most of the country, almost in awe of what Indiana was doing.”
Now admittedly, the former Ohio State coach has to fake a cringe when saying these things. But he’s not wrong.
“They were getting behind the defensive backs,” Meyer said of Indiana’s receivers. “And the defensive backs, at times they’re there — but they’re not playing the ball. What does that mean down the road? They’re in trouble …
“When you start seeing Indiana and Michigan State just light them up down the field, throwing the ball for over 300 yards in each game, that’s very alarming.”
It’s Harbaugh’s job, of course, to keep too many alarms from going off inside Schembechler Hall, while putting out the fire. Asked if he’s tuned in to what outsiders are saying these days, he remained stoic and stiff-arm ready.
“It depends on someone’s willingness or interest to listen to what they say,” Harbaugh said. “I have a very low interest in willingness to do that, and I communicate that to our team as well.”
Redshirt junior offensive lineman Andrew Stueber backed that approach, especially when it comes to social media.
“Social media is not really a huge part of my life,” he assured. “It’s something that we’ve talked about. Our strength staff has emphasized that a lot, and our coaching staff has.
“The thing they mostly focus on is, it’s the people in the building, the people that come in here, day-in and day-out. They know the best. They have first-hand experience of what it’s like, what we need to improve.
“While it might make you angry for a little bit, might get you frustrated, when you come back in here, it kind of all goes away. It’s about us in this building, and being the best for us.”
Michigan radio sideline reporter Doug Karsch has seen the good times come and go for the Wolverines. He insists he’s witnessed no evidence of losing becoming acceptable to Harbaugh’s crew.
“I do know, in some of the bleaker years in my time, after certain losses, there would be fire and brimstone speeches in the locker room after the game — sometimes from players, sometimes from coaches,” Karsch noted. “Then after some losses, you kind of felt an acceptance, like it was here we go again.”
The Wolverines need to avoid the latter right now, at all costs. Otherwise, the quarantine will only deepen.
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