The Wolverine

February 2012

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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WOLVERINE WATCH JOHN BORTON Seniors Scrub Stain With Sugar Doug Skene took his place on five Big Ten championship squads for the Wolverines, from 1988-92. The burly offensive lineman out of Fairview, Texas, sports enough conference title rings to start his own jewelry store. Yet the contributor to and beneficiary of an incredibly strong run by Michigan football insists the seniors of Team 132 will never have to be ashamed. They can come sit at his table at future Michigan football reunions, without a moment's hesitation. "I'll stand up for them," Skene recently vowed. In a way, that's what this 2011 season involved for seniors such as Mike Martin, David Molk, Ryan Van Bergen, Junior Hemingway and a host of others. They didn't want to be the grape juice stain on the freshly pressed white tuxedo shirt of The Big House. They were starving for a season in which they'd show they too belong in the winning tapestry of 13-plus decades of football in Ann Arbor. They wanted to leave with their heads held high. Some of them, in moments of quiet revelation, wondered if that would ever happen. They were caught amid two coaching transitions in their careers, the first of which played out disastrously. They were a part of more first-this and worst-that than they'd like to recount. They sat home at bowl season. When they finally went after those jarring New Year's Days on the couch, they might have wished they'd stayed home. Not so, Team 132. This group embarked upon a mission, even before the generals were introduced. Michigan's seniors decided they were going to stick together, rise up and become the first true building block of a new era of football success. They didn't get any league hardware, but they'll wear a Sugar Bowl champions ring with as much pride as if they'd won the national cham- pionship. That's because they understand the road required to get to 11-2, to a celebration awash in confetti on the floor of New Orleans' cavernous Superdome. Molk knows the pain it required. He's gone down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. He's missed games with a fractured foot. And nothing matched what he felt when the foot popped again in the moments leading up to the Sugar Bowl. He still played. He wasn't going to sit and watch. He couldn't, even if it meant going against Virginia Tech on one leg. "David, he's a warrior," head coach Brady Hoke assured. He fought without armor, against a Virginia Tech defense that swarmed and slammed U-M's offense. Had it not been for a pair of leaping touch- down grabs by Hemingway, Molk's gutty effort — representative of every ounce of blood and sweat the Wolverines put in since last January — would have been lost in a season- ending disappointment. Hemingway and, most of all, Michigan's defense wouldn't let that happen. "Our defense is the greatest thing that's ever happened to us," insisted redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Taylor Lewan, who played on an injured ankle himself. "Coach [Greg] Mattison has done a great job. All of the seniors have done a great job of leading. The defense made this game happen." "They stepped up exactly when we needed them," Molk concurred. "We were soft on offense, we weren't scoring, we weren't moving the ball. We had nothing going. But that defense we have stuck to it. They were the reason we stayed in this game. They were the reason we held them to field goals. That was absolutely miraculous." What's really miraculous is a BCS bowl champion talking about its great defense, a year after fielding the most porous contingent, point-wise, in the his- tory of Michigan football. That's why Martin, Van Bergen and others won't be wearing identity- obscuring sunglasses for the next half-century's worth of reunions. That's also why Mattison stood beaming after the game. Not because he'd now be proclaimed a genius for the turnaround. He already knows he knows what he's doing. He wanted to see this group, one that suffered through so much indignity, walk away winners. That's precisely what they did. "Every pain is away, now that we have a victory," Molk said. "That's all that matters." Molk was speaking about his injury, in the narrower sense. But in a broader scope, he represented all of those who weren't going to get an- other chance. They'll be watching carefully, as a top-five recruiting class rolls into town and takes its place among the Wolverines. They'll scrutinize from afar, to see which veterans step up and lead. They'll focus on what coordinator Al Borges and senior quarterback De- nard Robinson do with the offense, and what further miracles Mattison can muster with a rebuilt defense. What they won't do is stay away from Ann Arbor — in anger, sadness or even shame. They'll come back and look the Doug Skenes, Charles Woodsons and Desmond Howards right in the eye. And that's how it should be. ❑ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @JB_Wolverine. Center David Molk and the rest of this year's seniors cre- ated a lasting legacy by leading U-M to an 11-win season. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN

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