The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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8 THE WOLVERINE ❱ AUGUST 2025 W elcome to the Year In Re- v iew issue of T he Wol- verine, taking a look back on all that unfolded over the past 10 months — the best performers, the most outstanding teams, the victories to be recalled forever. It's good to revel in success. It's even better to take a step back and re- alize why the success came about and consider what it means for the future. L ong-t i me bu i lder of powerf u l, mauling Michigan football offensive lines Jerry Hanlon used to hear the question, How's this recruiting class, Coach? His stock answer: "Ask me in 40 years." P ressed on h is mea n i ng, he ex- plained that the genuine measure of a collection of young men couldn't be realized through how many Big Ten championships they won, how many road crowds they qu ieted, or how many times they pounded each other in a jubilant end zone celebration. It involved what kind of men they be- came, what sort of husbands, fathers, citizens and contributors to wherever they ended up in life. The No. 1 golfer in the world, Scottie Scheff ler, talked about the game be- yond the field prior to The Open Cham- pionship at Royal Portrush. He admit- ted that as much as he loves to win and hates to lose, he doesn't draw lasting satisfaction from victories, even don- ning the green jacket at Augusta. He'd rather be a great dad than a great golfer, he insisted. If the latter ever interfered with the former, he'd walk away. That sense came through in conver- sations with some of Michigan's very best this year. Savannah Sutherland burned through the 400-meter hurdles at the NCA A Championships like no other ever has at Michigan, at the title meet, or in collegiate competition, pe- riod. Yet when the Saskatchewan na- tive spoke of her greatest career tri- umph, one of her deepest joys involved her family coming down from Canada to witness and share in her triumph at Oregon's storied Hayward Field. When men's gymnast Paul Juda lined up for the biggest vault in his life — to seal the program's first national title since 2014 — he tapped totally into the lessons he'd learned, and the prepa- ration that wou ld n't just ca rry h im through the moment, but through life. "I owe a huge nod to mental health, v i s u a l i zat ion a nd sp or ts psychol- ogy," Juda said. "Without the journey I've gone on in my sports psychology, there's no chance that a feeble-minded Paul would be able to handle the pres- sure of the moment, let alone forget about the pressure. I was always a very hot-and-cold gymnast when I was a ju- nior. I would either have the best com- petition of my life or I would fall all over the place. I'd be pouty and moody and so upset with my performance. "I've gotten th is mon i ker of be- ing this extremely consistent, level- headed, slow, steady competitor. No one understands that is completely not my M.O. at all. The work I did in sports psychology was ultimately about let- ting yourself do the action that your body knows how to do. Get out of your own way. All too often, we're capable of doing great things, but pressure is created inside of our minds. A ll I'd done in preparation for this competi- tion was put myself in different sce- narios and pretend to go last with the meet on the line. "I'd close my eyes in my room or at the gym, especially when we figured out we were going to end on vault. I'd pretend Crisler A rena was full, we have to get a land, get a great vault, and it's for the w in. W hat are you going to do in that moment? I would practice that, over and over and over, inside my head. When I came to that moment, I wasn't nervous. I was al- most excited to do it. I was ready to live the moment out, as I had been liv- ing it inside my head." Juda can relive it down the road, when he needs to deliver in life. They all can. That's why it's more than a game, more than an event. It's a win- dow into life, and those immersed in it can tap into their success — and the preparation toward it — for decades to come. * * * T hat said, you still might ask how footba l l recr u it i ng i s goi ng. Wel l, anytime you get commitments from a Bear, a Titan and a Brady from the state of California in the same class, you're onto something. And by all non- name-related metrics, Sherrone Moore and Michigan are onto something, in a very big way. The Wolverines went on a commit- ment tear in Ju ne and Ju ly, ran king among the greatest in memory. T he new wave of football talent — 18 new verbal commits since mid-May — gets documented in detail in this issue. It's obvious Moore wants more — far more — than 8-5. The Wolverines enter this fall with Hellfire missiles rather than musket balls, and they're already reloading for the future. ❏ WOLVERINE WATCH ❱ JOHN BORTON Hail To Success That Transcends Our annual Year In Review issue chronicles the super- latives of the 2024-25 season and salutes Michigan's best athletes and teams, headlined by the NCAA title- winning men's gymnastics program. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Senior writer John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @JB_Wolverine.