The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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16 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW MICHIGAN FOOTBALL Grant Perry garnered plenty of trust by the Michigan coaching staff as a true freshman in 2015, playing in all 13 games at wide receiver. He went from the team struggles of the season-opening loss at Utah to the 41-7 rumble past Florida in the Citrus Bowl. That game demonstrated the rookie's growth over the course of the campaign. He set career highs in catches (five) and receiv- ing yards (51) while hauling in his first col- legiate touchdown catch. Needless to say, Perry sailed into the off- season dreaming of major accomplishments to come, ones that involve all of the 10-3 Wolverines. At the same time, he's learned enough to assure that … well, nothing's as- sured. "We're looking real good on both sides of the ball," Perry said. "But I don't think we buy into all the preseason hype. Coach [Jim] Harbaugh says: 'Just focus on the game. You've got to win in order to be something. The preseason means nothing.' "We don't really look too much into that. We just look for- ward to every Satur- day." Perry knows he'll have a role in what- e v e r M i c h i g a n 's outcome happens to be. He wants to be regarded as reliable, someone U-M's quar- terbacks can trust. He became that someone more and more over the course of the 2015 season. His debut in a winged helmet proved tough for everyone at Utah, when the Wolverines couldn't quite get over the hump in a 24-17 loss. "Every loss hurts, but that one bit hard," Perry said. "That was a bad one. It was the first game, and my first game being on the field. I took that a little extra personal." Perry looks back on it as a good teaching moment, one of many over the course of the season. He had plenty of company, the receivers and grad-transfer quarterback Jake Rudock developing a consistency together throughout the year. "It was tremendous," Perry said. "We all got a lot better as the season went on. You could obviously see that in the Florida game, from every receiver. "We really focused on the little things. Our connection with Jake obviously grew. We just kept working on it." Specifically, Perry noted, sitting down to watch film with Rudock taught him lessons he couldn't have learned otherwise. "He just sees things people don't," Perry said. "He just points it out. Whether it's a safety rotation that predicts what kind of coverage they're going to be in or how their corner is playing, what things does he give away? "It's things like that I wasn't really aware of in the first game. He showed me that or timing on a route — the little things that go into big things." Perry doesn't feel like he and Michigan's other receivers are starting from scratch in 2016. Obviously, Rudock is gone, but the main contenders for the starting quarterback job have all been around for at least a year. The sophomore has worked with them all, plus he carries the confidence not only in knowledge gained, but actual im- proved performance on the field over the course of the season. The Wolverines also gained more team co- hesiveness during the week of spring ball they spent in Florida, Perry pointed out. "I roomed with four linemen and a running back," Perry said. "I'm usually just with the receiv- ers. That was a good change, and I really liked it … " We w e n t t o a baseball game, and that was a lot of fun. Just going to the beach was great. You don't get to go to the beach that much up here in Michigan. Being able to go to the beach after a nice, hard day of practice was really nice." Perry acknowledged that after a nice, hard year of learning his craft at the collegiate level, he'll enter the 2016 campaign with a whole different outlook. "I definitely feel like I'm a lot more pre- pared," he said. "In the spring game, it felt way more natural. It felt like I'd already been out there for two years. I'll be ready. It's go- ing to be a good season." Jim Harbaugh Has Brought Back High-Level Competition Jon Jansen remembers what it was like when he played at Michigan. He recalls fighting for everything he earned, which eventually involved a national cham- pionship, All-America status and a captain's role on the squad. Nothing came easily, he stressed. At this point, noth- ing is coming easily for those playing under Jim Har- baugh, and Jansen doesn't hide his excitement about that development. "One of the things I love about Coach Harbaugh is he's brought the competition back to practice," noted Jansen, now a commentator on Michigan radio net - work broadcasts. "He's brought competition back to position battles. There is nobody that's written in ink going into the season at their position. "It doesn't matter who you are. If you're a fifth-year scholarship guy or a first-year walk-on, if you go out there and you perform and you can do the job, you're going to be the one that's on the field. "That pushes everybody to play better, to be better. You look at the offensive line unit, and you start talking to those guys. There is a great feeling of unity among those guys." Part of that unity, Jansen observed, stems from play - ers completely locked in on the present, and what they can accomplish in a winged helmet. There is no getting ahead of the game or pondering the next level, he mentioned. "It's not, 'Yeah, I'm trying to be the best tackle or best guard I can be, so I get drafted,'" he said. "It's trying to have the best unit we can have, so that if we get in position like you guys were in '96 at Ohio State, and we have to get a first down to keep the clock going, or run seven or eight minutes off the clock, that's what they're focused on. "They're not focused on, 'What can I do to improve my draft status?' It's all about the team, and the fact that the competition is there, that unity is there. It's something that is going to make the difference for Michigan." Perry produced 14 catches, 128 receiving yards and one touchdown in his first colle- giate season last year. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Harbaugh is making his players earn ev- erything they get in practice while also fostering an atmosphere of team unity. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN Grant Perry Ready For A Stronger Push Forward