The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/116680
michigan football defender. He was just 1-of-5 passing on the year when he was pressed into duty at Nebraska following an injury to starting quarterback Denard Robinson, and the evening did not go well. Bellomy completed 3 of 16 attempts with three interceptions. He was criticized heavily and lost his job to Devin Gardner, and would not appear in a game again the rest of the year. But don't expect him to stay down for long, ceding the starting job to Gardner or the backup role to freshman Shane Morris, his former high school coach declared. "The Russell I know is a fierce competitor, highly intelligent, and still very excited about the opportunity in front of him at Michigan," Bob Wager said. "He hasn't given up on himself. "I think people forget he was only a redshirt freshman last year, and how many redshirt freshmen saw playing time and were huge successes? When you're that young and inexperienced, you're going to take some lumps, but the learning curve is there with this kid. "He was a 19-year-old playing in front of 100,000, and he learned a hard lesson about expectations, and maybe he wasn't quite ready for it, but knowing Russell he has always had a mindset that he'll take any experience, positive or negative, and find a way to use that to make himself a better quarterback." Hoke echoed those thoughts, noting Bellomy had a terrific winter. "At times, he's the lost man in this whole conversation, but Russell Bellomy … you look at what he's done over the winter and what he looks like," Hoke said. "He's a competitive guy. Obviously, we thought he was a pretty good quarterback or we wouldn't have gone down to Texas and recruited him. We're excited about him." Swagger • Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Quinton Washington was a breakout performer for the Maize and Blue in 2012, finishing with 32 tackles, including three tackles for loss, while plugging holes and occupying blockers in the middle of the defensive line. He's poised for even greater success in 2013. "The learning curve for him was pretty steep because he didn't really have that defensive background in high school," said Art Craig, who coached Washing- Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Quinton Washington was a breakout performer for the Maize and Blue in 2012, finishing with 32 tackles, including three tackles for loss. photo by lon horwedel