The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MARCH 2019 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS 2 U-M products made Pro Football Focus' countdown of the top 101 NFL players during the 2018 season — No. 7 Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and No. 50 Brandon Graham of the Philadelphia Eagles. Brady earned his ninth nod to the list after winning his sixth Super Bowl ring and becoming the only quarterback to record "elite" overall season grades of at least 90.0 in each of the last four years, while Graham made his fifth top 101 appearance after totaling 70 pressures (56 hurries, nine hits and five sacks) to rank fourth among NFL edge defenders. 4 Votes received by five-star signee Daxton Hill in ESPN.com's anonymous poll of 65 college football coaches and personnel directors about whom the best 2019 recruit was and why they stood out so much. Hill's vote total tied for third nationally, and came from assistants in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12, as well as a director of player personnel. "Daxton Hill is about as clean a player as you'll see," the Pac- 12 assistant said. "Verified times; tape validates it. Good background. A human Swiss Army knife as far as where you can put him and what his skill set allows him to do." 5th Nationally is where Michigan ranked in ESPN's Football Power Index, updated after Na- tional Signing Day. The metric based on recent team performance, returning starters and coaches, and recruiting rank- ings lists the Wolverines sixth nationally on offense, ninth on defense and first on special teams. 10 Of the 10 starters on the No. 4 wrestling team were ranked in the Feb. 14 coaches panel rankings of the top 33 grapplers at each weight class nationally. The Wolverines' rankings were: No. 13 125-pounder Drew Mattin, No. 1 133-pounder Stevan Micic, No. 6 141-pounder Kanen Storr, No. 25 149-pounder Ma- lik Amine, No. 5 157-pounder Alec Pantaleo, No. 7 165-pounder Logan Massa, No. 4 174-pounder Myles Amine, No. 28 184-pounder Jelani Embree, No. 30 197-pounder Jackson Striggow and No. 5 heavyweight Mason Parris. The only other teams to have all 10 starters ranked were Oklahoma State and Ohio State. 10:54.47 Was the Big Ten-record-setting and national-leading time U- M's quartet of sophomore Alice Hill, sophomore Chloe Foster, freshman Aurora Rynda and fifth-year senior Hannah Meier posted Feb. 16 in the distance medley relay (DMR). The Wol- verines beat, by more than three seconds, an Indiana team that returned three runners from the foursome that set the league's all-time record last year with a 10:54.86. U-M clocked just the 15th sub-10:55 performance in collegiate history and the only one so far in the country this year, putting U-M in position for what would be an NCAA-record fifth DMR national title. The Big Ten Indoor Championships, hosted by U-M Feb. 22-23, will see the Wolverines go- ing for their 15th conference title in the event over the last 18 seasons. 42.7 Will be the average age of the 10 full-time as- sistants on the football staff for opening kickoff of the 2019 season, a de- crease from last year's opening day average age of 47.3. Every new hire made this offseason is under 40, meaning next year's 10-man staff boasts seven assistants under four decades old, while last year's staff had just five coaches under 54. The youngest of the 10 assistants next fall will be 30-year-old running backs coach Jay Harbaugh, while the oldest will be 64-year-old defensive coordinator Don Brown. 121 Big Ten wins for U-M h e a d c o a c h J O H N BEILEIN after the men's basketball team posted a 77-65 win over Rutgers Feb. 5, the coach's 66th birthday. The victory allowed Beilein, in his 12th year at the helm, to surpass Johnny Orr's school-record 120 con- ference victories during his 12 years from 1969- 80. As of Feb. 20, Beilein stands 123-90 in his U-M career against Big Ten foes and is the school's all-time wins leader with an overall mark of 271-146. By The NUMBERS PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL