The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1111798
MAY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS THEY SAID IT "No desire to [speak with former U-M and current Ohio State assistant coaches Greg Mattison and Al Washington] at all. I've been here five years and consider myself an alumni of Michigan, and I'm a 'Go Blue' guy all the way, so I don't have a desire to reach out. [Their moves] were odd because that doesn't ever really happen, so I'm not going to pretend to understand their reasons. We're here with locked arms and ready to walk down that alley and do what's needed to win — that's all I care about. It was his [Mattison's] decision and he made his bed, so he needs to lie in it." — Michigan special teams and safeties coach Chris Partridge April 11, when asked if he has spoken with Mattison or Washington since they departed for Ohio State in January "I think Jim Harbaugh has realized this is a new game right now, and the double tights and the kind of offense with the fullback dive he ran at Stanford was effective 10-plus years ago. You've got to go RPO [run-pass option] and up-tempo, and [new offensive coordinator] Josh Gattis is going to cre- ate that tempo and cadence, and get contemporary here. Michigan will be much more productive offensively — they need to be." — Lansing radio sports talk co-host Tom Crawford on TheWolverine.com's April 9 podcast "I know it was a whirlwind with Michigan there late, but the U-M visit just had such an impact on him. He initially made the wrong switch [to Alabama] and decided to switch back within two days, and we all felt at peace as a family." — Tia Hill, the mother of incoming five-star freshman safety Daxton Hill, on Jim Harbaugh's April 16 "Attack Each Day" podcast "After last year, I told myself I'd never again fall for the hype around Michigan, and after 62-39, I certainly wouldn't ever again pick the Wolverines to beat Ohio State as long as Harbaugh was still the coach. But now he's gone and done the one thing I felt he needed to do the most — modern- ize his offense. You can already see where this is headed. Ohio State, with a new coaching staff and questions at quarterback, might be vulnerable this season. And the game is in Ann Arbor. … There's a lot riding on touted redshirt freshman [running back] Christian Turner, who took advantage of the new redshirt rule last season and actually played quite a bit in the bowl game. If, however, he and another freshman, Zach Charbonnet, emerge as the real deal … nope, not going to say it yet. Prove me wrong, Harbaugh." — The Athletic college football editor in chief Stewart Mandel Junior swimmer Felix Auböck on his performance at the NCAA Championships, where he entered the 500-yard freestyle as the top seed but didn't score team points by finishing 35th. However, he bounced back to win his first national title on the last day in the 1,650-yard freestyle "Looking back, I would say it was a bad meet with the best outcome I've ever had. I had a rough week, the lowest amount of points I've ever scored for the team. If I had gone faster on the relay, we could've moved up spots in the standings. I didn't score in the 500 and didn't score in the 200. I lost points for my team. … Honestly, I don't know what went wrong and still don't. … But it also taught me a valuable lesson. Your meet isn't really over until the last day." PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY