The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/178977
The bearer of Desmond Howard's No. 21 gave a memorable and gutty performance in the Outback Bowl, hauling in nine catches for 145 yards and two touchdowns. He finished the game with a leg injury significant enough to slow him in the first part of spring practice, some two and a half months later. Gallon has to be dragged from the field, when the competition is on. He and Gardner worked too hard to not be there when the lights go on, he hints. "There have been long days, hours before practice, we would come in and run routes," Gallon said. "After practice, we would stay and run routes, and he would throw to me. On a Sunday after we watch film, if we don't throw, we'll be talking about football, watch film with each other, just to get a feel for the game." Gallon had the feel against the Irish, all right. He torched them on a 61-yard touchdown burst, a perfectly thrown back-shoulder toss from Gardner and another intermediate route, two years after making the catch to set the Irish up for heartbreak in Under The Lights I at Michigan Stadium. This time around, he didn't sneak up on anybody. "Jeremy just had a lights-out game," U-M offensive coordinator Al Borges observed. "He's a good player, knows how to run routes, get loose. He's obviously a good runafter-catch guy. "He did what he's capable of doing. I've been saying it from the beginning — he's not a very tall guy, but plays taller than he is. And he's a tough guy that has explosive strength. That makes a big difference.