The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1508023
16 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2023 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS NUMBERS AND QUOTES 1st African American head coach in Michigan football history is MIKE HART, who served in the role on an interim basis in the second half of the Wolver- ines' win over UNLV Sept. 9. Hart, U-M's run game coordinator and running backs coach, called it an "honor" to earn that distinction at the university that "changed my life." Offensive coordinator and line coach Sherrone Moore became Michigan's second-ever African American head coach when handling interim duties during head man Jim Har- baugh's third of a three-game suspension in a Sept. 16 victory over Bowling Green. 37 37 Rushing touchdowns for Michigan senior running back Blake Corum after scoring twice against Bowling Green Sept. 16. One week earlier, he had 3 TDs, marking his fourth-ever 3-plus rushing score game, in a 35-7 win over UNLV. Corum is now No. 6 on the school's all-time list for career rushing TDs, passing QB Rick Leach (34). Corum is now 2 scores away from tying No. 5 Chris Perry (39), 4 from tying his position coach and U-M's all-time leader in rushing yards Mike Hart (41) and 18 from tying No. 1 Anthony Thomas (55). 192 Or more rushing yards for Michigan in its seven previous nonconference regular-season games until the Wolverines failed to reach that mark in both of their first two tilts of the 2023 campaign — versus East Carolina (122) and UNLV (179). The Wolverines actually rushed for 300 or more yards in four of the seven aforementioned contests — Notre Dame in 2019 (303) and Western Michigan (335), Washington (343) and Northern Illinois (373) in 2021. I think he really hasn't even scratched the surface yet, which is a little bit scary. He's going to be a dominant player." — Defensive line coach Mike Elston on sophomore defensive tackle Kenneth Grant 7 FBS teams didn't allow a sack through two weeks, including Michigan. Accord- ing to Pro Football Focus, junior quar- terback J.J. McCarthy was only pres- sured 9 times, on 16.1 percent of his dropbacks, as well. After Week 2, there were 123 quarterbacks in the nation who had been pressured on 10 or more occasions. Mike has changed the mindset of everybody on our team, not just the defensive backs. He's easy to be drawn to. If I was a player, I'd be right there next to him. In my opinion, you have fol- lowers, you have leaders and you have influencers. I think Mike is an influencer." — Co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale on graduate cornerback Mike Sainristil I really love the identity that this new group seems to be taking on right now. There's always some uncertainty when you're trying to blend so many new faces and so many new personalities. One of the things that I know [fifth-year Michigan head] Coach Juwan [Howard] really tries to preach into our guys is having this ego-less environment. When you have so much of a shuffling of the deck with current guys and incoming guys, let's be honest, there's a space for conflict, jealousy or whatever you want to call it, to occur. But this group really seems to have just bought into the idea of being family, of being Michigan." — Basketball assistant coach Saddi Washington (via 'Defend The Block') 17 Straight home victories for Michi- gan football, the program's lon- gest home winning streak since a 21-game stretch from 1998-2001. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL