The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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After the Wolverines pulled away for a 28-0 win, the Ravens head coach delivered a message that his younger brother considered worth repeating days later. "He's playing good," Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said of Rudock. "His job is to win football games, and that's what he's doing. I heard John Harbaugh say that to him in the locker room after the game. He's doing a good job and that's his job — win football games. I concur, that's how I feel." Rudock noted: "It's huge, when- ever you have any of the Harbaughs telling you you're doing a good job, getting wins. I've said that before — it's the most important statistic for a quarterback, wins and losses. Hope- fully, I can continue doing that." Jedd Fisch hopes so as well. Michi- gan's quarterbacks coach has invested plenty into seeing Rudock succeed in his final season of college football. He also hears the "game manager" label and isn't impressed by it. Nor is he convinced it fits. "I'm not a big fan of that particular title," Fisch said. "It does not give them the credit. He does a very good job. He's a good leader. He's been completing a lot of passes. He's been smart with the football. He's done a lot of things you would expect a fifth-year player to do. "He's been able to bounce back from a three-interception game open- ing night, play five [now six] games, and throw three combined since then, and one of them was a fluky play. He's mature, he can make all the throws, he can make all the reads and just needs to continue to lead our football team." One of Rudock's greatest character- istics involves resilience, according to Fisch. The veteran quarterback's con- fidence certainly wasn't destroyed by his rocky outing against Utah in the season opener. Rudock not only shook off the Utah might-have-beens in the weeks following the game, he bounced back within those 60 minutes, Fisch pointed out. "He just handles it extremely well," Fisch explained. "He bounces right back. Even in the Utah game. No matter what happened. The first drive of the game, right? We drove all the way down and then we wound up throwing an interception. "It doesn't faze him. I think it's his maturity. He's done it now three years as a starter in the Big Ten. He's just a smart, mature guy." Harbaugh acknowledged rattling Rudock's cage a bit, just like another high-profile Michigan coach once Rudock "It's huge, whenever you have any of the Harbaughs telling you you're doing a good job, getting wins. I've said that before — it's the most important statistic for a quarterback, wins and losses. Hopefully, I can continue doing that."