The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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JANUARY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 23 BY CHRIS BALAS I njuries happen — that's not ex- actly the college football mantra any coach would pick if given the opportunity to choose, but it's a fact they deal with year-in and year-out. Some programs are better equipped to deal with them, while others that don't recruit as well can see a season go up in flames with a few key losses. Michigan's 2018 team probably falls somewhere in between. The Wolverines lost their projected top receiver, redshirt freshman Tarik Black, to a broken foot before the season started, and junior defensive end Rashan Gary went out following the Northwestern game after playing through an injury he suffered prior to the season-opening 24-17 loss at Notre Dame. Sophomore punter Brad Rob- bins was another casualty, lost in preseason camp to a back injury on which he'd have surgery, while sophomore defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon was in and out of the lineup with a knee injury, limited to five games played. He'd miss the Ohio State game, and his loss proved costly when the Wolverines failed to get any pressure on OSU quarterback Dwayne Haskins in a 62-39 loss to end the regular season. Three other losses also hurt for the final game. Fifth-year senior right tackle Juwann Bushell-Beatty, one of the team's most improved play- ers this year, missed the game (and most of the previous week's contest against Indiana) with an undisclosed injury, while junior linebacker Devin Bush Jr. and junior cornerback David Long both went out in the second half. "Devin has a hip issue, but I don't think it's anything that's going to be long term," head coach Jim Har- baugh reported. "Same with [senior receiver] Grant Perry; he had a hip pointer. David Long had a hip flexor strain. "We believe all three are not long- term injuries, but not good for [the OSU game]." Redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry got a concussion after drop- ping a third-quarter pass and junior quarterback Shea Patterson suffered a bone bruise on his knee. All of the replacements did okay at times, but mostly struggled against the fired-up Buckeyes. That wasn't the case much of the year, however. The "next man up" mantra hasn't changed in Ann Arbor over the last five decades. It's still the "expecta- tion is for the position," and while it's easy in theory, it's tough to do if coaches aren't recruiting and devel- oping good players. STEPPING UP The Michigan staff clearly has recruited depth, evidenced by the play of many of the backups on de- fense, especially. Solomon and Gary weren't 100 percent for much (if any) of the year, and while few on defense stepped up against the Buckeyes, sophomore end Kwity Paye and ju- nior Carlo Kemp were among those who came up big in several games in their absence. Paye finished the regular season with 29 tackles, including 5.5 for loss and two sacks, plus a forced fumble. "Kwity Paye is one of the guys that we take great pride in here," defen- sive line coach Greg Mattison said. "We want to bring in great athletes with great character that want to be very good football players, and then just watch them grow. "Here's a young man that was a 10.9 [second] 100-meter guy in high school at 224 pounds. I think right now he's 265 pounds, and he works as hard as he can." Paye's an example of why Mat- tison said he's in coaching and why "Michigan is Michigan." "You get a guy like that, that just keeps working and working, and then, all of a sudden, he needs to step up, and he does," Mattison said. "I'm really proud of him and what he's doing. It's going to be fun watching him keep growing." Paye will have a great opportu- nity to start next year. He's also able to man several positions, having played at both ends as well as inside at tackle in some situations. "He's very versatile," Mattison said. "He's an anchor — he played anchor behind Rashan. He also would be the first guy to back up Chase [Winovich]. In some of the packages that Coach [Don] Brown puts together, he can do a lot of very, very different things, because he's very intelligent and he's very fast. He's a real plus." His teammates have grown to love him for his non-stop motor. "It's awesome just having a guy THE IMPACT OF DEPTH Michigan's Improved Recruiting Has Led To Increased Success Despite Injuries Junior linebacker Josh Uche is just a rota- tional player but still led the team with seven sacks. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Sophomore defensive end Kwity Paye started off the year behind starters Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich, but managed enough playing time to log 29 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN