The Wolverine

December 2015 Issue

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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M ichigan quarterback Jake Rudock is rarely caught off guard in front of the media. The future surgeon (if all goes ac‑ cording to plan) is smart and seasoned, having dealt with the scribes for four years at Iowa before arriv‑ ing at U‑M as a fifth‑ year senior graduate transfer, so there's usually no fooling him. Recently, though, he stumbled a bit when asked if he'd be parading around in his Iowa or Michi‑ gan gear a few years down the road. He'd been a two‑year starter for Hawk‑ eyes head coach Kirk Ferentz and still has a number of friends on the team. At the same time, he's now "the man" at the most important position on the field for the Wolver‑ ines, who are still in the thick of the Big Ten race in November, thanks in large part to his play. "He's got a great way of looking at the game and studying the game, very detailed. Like you'd want your surgeon to be," head coach Jim Har‑ baugh said. "If you were laying on the table and looking up, you'd want it to be somebody like Jake Rudock. "After he goes to medical school and if I have a problem, I'll be just fine if I look up and see Jake Rudock there with the scalpel in his hand. He's that kind of a person." And just think about where Michi‑ gan would be without him. In September, when Rudock was taking criticism for a rash of turnovers, Harbaugh stepped up to defend him in saying there was no close second to Ru‑ dock as U‑M's man under center. Sure, there were things he could have done better — he didn't connect on a long ball with his re‑ ceivers through the first nine games, and his seven interceptions against eight touchdowns during that span wasn't the best ratio — but he did his part to lead the Wolverines to seven wins, and it would have been eight if not for a fluke special teams gaffe to end the Michigan State loss. The best part — he was still im‑ proving dramatically through nine games, and he was dynamite in the 10th, helping the team to its eighth victory. INSIDE MICHIGAN   CHRIS BALAS Jake Rudock: Michigan Man R u d o c k h a d t h r o w n 1 4 T D passes against eight intercep- tions through 10 games, but the most important number is the eight wins he has recorded with the Wolverines. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN

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