The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/122487
michigan football tain first-round selection in the NFL Draft to return to Michigan and try to win a championship. While most Michigan fans hailed Lewan's loyalty to the Maize and Blue as commendable, it didn't always play well in the supermarket. Lewan recalled a certain offseason encounter that took him aback, albeit in a humorous way. "An old lady saw me in Kroger when I was with my dad," Lewan recalled. "She said, 'Are you that No. 77, Taylor?' I said, 'Yeah. I'm Taylor,' and she says, 'You're an idiot. You're dumb.'" Whether or not the sharp-tongued shopper had ventured down from East Lansing during the day or not remains unconfirmed, but Lewan got a kick out of the encounter. "I said, 'I appreciate it, thank you. Go Blue,'" he noted, with a laugh. "I didn't know what to say. No one is going to understand why I did what I did unless they played at the University of Michigan or have been a part of this program so long. I'm so happy to be back, I wouldn't change it for the world." Lewan does want to change the bottom line, one involving an 8-5 campaign last year. He wants to bring a Big Ten championship home to Ann Arbor, and feels the Wolverines aren't far off in that pursuit. So he's pouring his efforts and energy into guiding Michigan's younger linemen, getting on teammates who need to pick it up, and also self scrutinizing to improve on his All-America campaign from 2012. Lewan opted to forego an almost certain first-round selection in the NFL Draft to return to Michigan and try to win a championship in his fifth-year senior season. photo by lon horwedel "I need to work on everything," he insisted. "Have I hit the top? Absolutely not. But this is not about me. It's about the team. Everything I do is going to help or hurt our team. A younger Taylor Lewan might do things that possibly hurt the team, but everything is now about helping the team on or off the field. I'm going to bed earlier, keeping in shape during spring, summer, winter."