The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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He studied up, though, in many ways. The pre-med student went right to work, learning his new team- mates along with Michigan's intri- cate new offense. As much as anything else he did, the latter won over anyone inclined to be skeptical. "He did an awesome job coming in," redshirt junior guard Kyle Kalis observed. "As soon as he came in, he became known as the type of guy who wanted to put the extra work in. That's how he first earned our respect, just being in the film room, countless hours, watching stuff, with the coaches, going through stuff. "The second thing was through player-led practices, coming out and physically competing. We got to see what he did there. Off the field, he's a super cool dude. Jake's an awesome guy. He's super smart. He's going to be a doctor or something like that someday … that's good." "At first, I think it may have been a little bit harder for Jake, with all of us knowing each other for a long time," fifth-year senior center Gra- ham Glasgow pointed out. "We'd been together for a while. It almost seemed like Jake was one of these freshmen coming in, in June. You re- ally don't know anybody and you're trying to get used to the offense. "But Jake picked it up really quickly. He just took a hold of the offense. That's what we needed from our quarterback. He's done a great job." Rudock's receivers felt the same, from relative rookies to seasoned vet- erans. "Jake is a natural born leader," redshirt freshman wideout Maurice Ways said. "He just came in, learned the offense, took heed to us during seven-on-sevens, getting the timing down. Right now, you can tell the hard work is paying off." "I couldn't imagine," redshirt ju- nior wideout Amara Darboh added. "He's just coming in, and he's like a freshman. He had to win a spot. He worked, and that says a lot about him as a person and as a player, to earn our respect and now to lead us." JUDGED BY WINNING Michigan's 5-2 start is all the ré- sumé builder Rudock requires for now, although he knows how close it is to 7-0. He's learned not to get ahead of himself, and not to give in to nagging doubts or setbacks. He doesn't try to deliver a lot of rah-rah type inspiration to his new crew, according to teammates. When he speaks, though, he's worth a lis- ten, they say. "We do 'Wise Words' after prac- tice," Glasgow said. "Jake's wise words to us were, 'You can't get too high, you can't get too low. You've always got to stay even-keeled.' He seems to live by that. He's always consistently Jake." He's also getting better and better, according to U-M offensive coordina- tor Tim Drevno. "He was never with us in spring ball, and he comes out in the sum- mertime and we can't work with him, so really the first time is in train- ing camp," Drevno said. "We've all been in situations like this. Usually,