The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Cross country fifth-year senior Craig TOP PERFORMERS OF THE MONTH MICHIGAN'S Forys: In his final hurrah, the Howell, N.J., native was U-M's top individual performer at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Nov. 12 (placing third) and then again at the NCAA Cham- pionships Nov. 21 (a 75th-place showing). The efforts represented career-best finishes for the senior at those events. Men's soccer junior Kofi Opare: A defen- seman, Opare was named to the All-Big Ten second team this season. A Niagara Falls, Ont., native, he started all 20 games for the Wolverines this season, playing a team-high 1,781 minutes, and contrib- uted two goals and an assist. Opare earned all-conference accolades for the second time in his career, previously drawing All-Fresh- man team recognition in 2009. Field hockey senior Bryn Bain: An All- Big Ten and All-West Region first-team performer, Bain was named a National Field Hockey Coaches Association second- team All-American in her senor year after registering seven goals and nine assists for 23 points. Bain led U-M to a Big Ten regular-sea- son title and the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Sophomore teammate Rachael Mack was named to the NFHCA All-America third team. Wrestling fifth-year senior Justin Zeerip: The Fremont, Mich., native ex- acted some revenge early this season on a pair of opponents — Pittsburgh's Ethan Headlee and Michigan State's Curran Jacobs — who had beaten him during his junior season. Wrestling at 174 pounds this year, Zeerip was off to a 6-0 start when U-M headed west to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational Dec. 2-3. Volleyball freshman Lexi Dannemiller: The West Chester, Ohio, native was named to the Big Ten All- Freshman Team after leading the conference in total assists (1,394) and ranking second in assists per set (11.62) at the end of the regular season. Three times named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Dannemiller had 13 double- doubles (assists and digs) this season and ranked second among Wolverines with 287 digs. She added 67 kills in 32 matches. 18 THE WOLVERINE DECEMBER 2011 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Another Opinion Yahoo! Sports Columnist Dan Wetzel Yahoo! Sports feature columnist Dan Wetzel was on hand for the Wolverines' 40-34 win over Ohio State, and he can see the rivalry heating up, especially with coach Urban Meyer taking the reins in Columbus. In his story from the game, he wrote, "Woody and Bo. Brady and Urban. Fasten up the chinstraps in the Midwest. This is about to get really interesting." The Wolverine sat down with him for a few questions. The Wolverine: Did the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry live up to expectations? Wetzel: "I've been to a few of them before. I went to one as a fan, the Tim Biakabutuka 1995 game a long time ago. And I was at the No. 1 vs. No. 2 game a few years ago [in 2006]. "This was a different game than normal for two reasons. One of the teams wasn't really a great team, with Ohio State going 6-6, which you don't normally get. I also thought — not that Michigan fans took any less enjoyment out of beating Ohio State — but part of rivalries is that not only do you win, you get to watch the other guys suffer. "Last year, you had all that coaching uncertainty with Michigan fans. But Ohio State had already pretty much answered the coaching question [going into the game]. Michigan fans celebrated the same, but I'm not sure Ohio State fans suffered the same, because they knew they were getting Urban Meyer." The Wolverine: Obviously, the rivalry has lost some luster in the past few years. With Meyer, is this what the game needs to get back into the upper echelon of national-type rivalries? Wetzel: "I think it is. Both him and Brady Hoke. You look at these two guys and say, 'All right, Michigan got a really, really good coach, and there's no rea- son Michigan can't be an elite program or at least top of the Big Ten. They're going to win.' And you look at the other side and say, 'Ohio State's a tremen- dous program, and they got a coach who can get them back to the elite and the top of the Big Ten.' "I always thought very highly of Lloyd Carr, but clearly Jim Tressel had his num- ber. And we'll see. Maybe Brady Hoke has Urban Meyer's number or vice versa. "There have been these huge swings of momentum. Ohio State won seven in a row. Before that, Michigan won 10 of 13 in the John Cooper era. Obviously, if you're a Michigan fan, you'd love to win the next 10 in a row. But ideally, the best of a rivalry, you go 5-5 in a 10-year span. Every year, you're going into this thing saying, 'Oh my gosh, we don't know what's going to happen.' "Whether that's for a BCS Championship berth or a Big Ten title spot or you're both 9-2 at the time, that's what you want. With both schools now having great coaches, and they're both proven winners, we have a chance at a really, really great run in this rivalry." The Wolverine: If someone told you in August that Michigan would win 10 games this year, what would you have said? Wetzel: "That this coaching staff did a great job. There were some advanta- geous things going on: a lot of home games, you avoided some tough teams like Wisconsin. But 10 wins is 10 wins. The Big Ten is a grind right now, because there are so many good teams. "They did a great job. This is about as good as you could have hoped for a first year. They won some dramatic games, like the Notre Dame game, which is still one of the most exciting games of the year. If you looked back, it would be that and the Alabama-LSU game will be probably the most remembered games of the year. "Recruits and fans and everyone can look at this and say, 'We have a guy we're confident in. Let's go forward.' I don't know how you can have a doubt about how good Brady Hoke can be. This is a good coach, and he has a good staff, and they know what they're doing. "We'll see how it plays out. If they can get into the Sugar Bowl and win that game, that's a heck of a story and great publicity moving forward." — Andy Reid