The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/666058
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? remember walking out of the room thinking, 'I think I just committed to Michigan, but I'm not sure,'" Pearson recalled with a laugh. "I remember Coach Carr telling the story years later that Bobby Morrison, the recruiting coordinator at the time, came out of his office and Coach Carr told him he offered me a scholarship. Bobby yelled at him and said, 'You were just supposed to talk to him. You weren't supposed to offer him a scholarship!' "Apparently I said all the right things and impressed Coach Carr enough that he decided I was worth taking a chance on." He'd prove it throughout his five years at Michigan, but never more than his last two seasons. The coaches needed a center after Kurt Anderson graduated, and none of the offensive linemen they'd recruited were up to the task while still getting their feet wet. Pearson, meanwhile, had packed on several pounds to prepare to play defensive line in the Big Ten after spending his high school days at middle linebacker and tight end. He'd played sparingly in his first two years after redshirting, but Malone approached him with what proved to be an offer he couldn't refuse — a chance to compete for a starting job on the offensive line. It wasn't just any job, either … he'd be the straw that stirred the drink. "I'd had some great players in that class with me on the defensive line in Grant Bowman, Norm Heuer and a couple other guys. This was a great opportunity because the center position was vacated and there wasn't anybody really to step into Kurt's place," Pearson recalled. "I moved over, and I think the position suited me much better on the offense side than the defensive side. "Everybody really embraced it. I remember Tony Pape, our tackle at the time, had been pushing people to think about it. I really hadn't thought about it too much, but I decided to jump at the opportunity and take it on." Snapping took a while to learn, and it wasn't until a few games into his junior season that he really felt comfortable, Pearson admitted. Still, he proved to be a natural. Having been a defensive player, he knew where the enemy was coming from and often how they'd attack, knowing what the safeties and linebackers might be doing and what the offense might be up against. Pape often crowed about Pearson's play in interviews, having been pushing for it and called his teammate the O-line's "brain." "I think that was one of the reasons it suited me — it was a more cerebral position than a lot of them on the field," Pearson said. "You can affect change with your mind a little more, make sure people are in the right positions, just sort of help quarterback the team from the offensive line position." He earned second-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior and helped lead the Wolverines to an undisputed conference title in 2003, capping the regular season with a 35-21 win over Ohio State. Pearson played in the