U-M 41, Florida 7: Notes, Quotes & Observations

Happy New Year Michigan fans, Jim Harbaugh style.

Word had it before Michigan’s Citrus Bowl game with Florida that the Wolverines had plans for their fun after the game – not before – and were approaching this one like a business trip. A 10-win season was on the line, and recruits nationwide were watching to see how Harbaugh’s team would fare against the big, bad, SEC.

The second half became a recruiting pitch for Michigan football. U-M ran the football against a defense that was supposed to be nearly impenetrable. Grad transfer quarterback Jake Rudock earned player of the game honors after picking the Gators secondary apart, and the defense dominated after the first quarter, limiting Florida to 273 yards.

U-M played without defensive MVP Jabrill Peppers (hand) and punter Blake O’Neill (knee), but only needed one. Redshirt junior Kenny Allen punted only once in replacing O’Neill and booted a 57-yarder through the end zone. The Wolverines’ game plan was, simply, to score and score again, and they did it against a defense that had been one of the NCAA’s most stellar.

Rudock – again – was the key. He completed 20 of 31 passes for 278 yards with three touchdowns.

“He’s done everything we want our quarterback to do, and how he’s done it – I think he threw for over 250 yards the last six games of the year, right? Something like that – last five games of the year,” passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch said. “I don’t know if that’s been done before, but that’s been awesome.

“He really has just continued to find ways to move the ball and work with receivers, work with tight ends and running backs … The standard is just to play good, efficient football, and to do things right. That’s what he does so well: he does things right all of the time. It matters to him. The guy’s decision-making skills are great, the way he handles himself is tremendous on and off the field.”

He was the leader the Wolverines needed to usher in the Harbaugh era, but this turnaround was a team effort. The most startling play Friday came from the men up front, a maligned offensive line that more than held its own against Florida’s NFL defensive front. The creases they opened created room for a running game that managed 225 yards, including 109 from junior De’Veon Smith and 58 from redshirt junior Drake Johnson.

The Wolverines managed 503 yards against a defense that was sixth nationally, having faced some of college football’s best throughout the year. And nowhere was the domination more evident than in the second half. U-M outscored the Gators 24-0, and outgained them 293 yards to 28. First downs were 15 to one, the Wolverines didn’t punt (Florida kicked three times), and third down conversions were 8-of-9 for Michigan to 0-for-5 for the Gators.

Harbaugh called it the “best game we played all year,” a great team win. The offense had never played better, he said, and the defense was “magnificent.”

“Every single guy - I mean, we can go through another list of guys like [senior tight end] A.J. Williams, [redshirt junior defensive end Chris] Wormley, [senior linebacker James] Ross, [senior linebacker Royce] Jenkins-Stone, [junior corner] Jourdan Lewis, I mean, just guys that want to be good. You know, they really wanted to be good and they were serious about being good and worked with that intent … It was the same demanding, intense, punishing pace all the way through.

“Jackhammers.”

And for a guy that uses that word to describe what he wants to be, that’s the ultimate compliment.

The best is yet to come.

OBSERVATIONS

• Harbaugh left Rudock in the game until the end, and the Iowa transfer – the guy who would have been the Hawkeyes’ second string quarterback behind C.J. Beathard – took the snap in victory formation to end the season with 3,017 yards.

Nobody knows why Harbaugh had his first string quarterback in the game with a 34-point lead – maybe to become the second quarterback to reach the 3,000-yard plateau (he finished with 3,017)? Perhaps so he could [deservingly] kneel on the ball on the game’s last snap.

Count us among those who don't care. Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, notorious for trying to add “style points” at the end of games, used to say, “It’s not up to us to stop us. It’s up to them.”

The Wolverines didn’t run the score up, but Harbaugh made it clear this year that his first priority was to his guys … his team. And we’ve seen the alternative the last seven years – apologizing for blowout losses to Mississippi State and singing hymns at the football bust, asking for forgiveness for players planting stakes on the opponents’ turf (Michigan State’s, no less, and after getting blown out).

The program needed a big dose of ‘what’s your deal?’ and Harbaugh has been only too happy to oblige. The Wolverines left their first string defense on the field to preserve a third straight shutout (against Northwestern, 38-0) because they had earned it.

Flat out, Harbaugh was exactly what the program needed. And if there had been any doubt he could be the guy to give the Big Ten another national championship contender in the near future – and let’s be honest, U-M and Ohio State are the two that will be carrying the torch for the conference in the near future, the only two that have the kind of recruiting clout to compete with the Alabamas of the world – he eliminated a lot of it in Friday’s blowout.

“It set a foundation for us, I think, because we showed the heart out there and it's a new year,” Smith said. “So we're going to carry this over into next year in 2016, and I believe our team will it do that and I'm pretty sure Coach Harbaugh will push us until we do that.

“We just came out there and competed today, and it showed, that work and work and work actually pays off, so I know he's going to keep that going on into 2016.”

• The Wolverines got the bowl game they deserved after an inexplicable 42-13 loss to Ohio State to end the regular season, but they could very well have been in the Rose Bowl against Stanford with a win. Only a fluke loss to Michigan State – and yes, it was the “fluke of all flukes,” as special teams coach John Baxter said weeks after the 27-23 loss on a dropped punt snap by grad senior punter Blake O’Neill – kept this from being an 11-2 team, which would have matched Brady Hoke’s 2011 record in his first season.

Take nothing from the 2011 team, but this group was better. The 2011 team was as fortunate as this year’s group was unfortunate at times – this team lost two of its best defensive players in linemen Ryan Glasgow and Mario Ojemudia and struggled with spread, tempo teams.

That’s something they’ll still need to address going forward, but given MSU and Iowa’s bowl game embarrassments, the Wolverines will be No. 2 behind OSU in many postseason conference power rankings.

• Most improved player of the year – this one goes to redshirt junior Jehu Chesson. The wide receiver has always had elite speed, but his route running and hands have made him one of the Big Ten’s best. Next year he could be among the nation’s top pass catchers. He finished with five catches for 118 yards and a touchdown.

That he did it against Florida All-American Vernon Hargreaves III didn’t seem to impress him. That’s what makes Chesson all the more impressive.

“If you don’t think that [you can beat him], why go out there?” Chesson said. “If you don’t think you’re going to have a good game, why play? If you think you’re going to lose, you might as well stay in the locker room.

“From an athlete’s perspective, both teams go into a game thinking they’re going to win the game, because why wouldn’t you think that? If you don’t think you’re going to win the game, you have no chance; you’ve already defeated yourself. I just thought to myself - and the rest of the receivers thought - we’d have a great game against this secondary. It was a great test, great final exam for us, and I’m glad we passed it.”

Chesson wouldn’t have beaten Hargreaves III last year, and in all honestly, the Wolverines might not have tested him the way Harbaugh and passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch could. They’re just that good. A double move for a 31-yard touchdown in the second quarter exploited Hargreaves’ aggressiveness; Harbaugh had his hands up to signal touchdown before Rudock even threw the ball.

“When you’re going up against a great corner like that, you have to be careful, because even if you do double-move him … I made my move so close to the red zone that I don’t need to run 20 more yards,” Chesson said. “The end zone is right there 10 yards away.

“When you double-move a guy like that, he has great recovery speed, Jake just put the ball where he needed to put it when he needed to put it there. Hargreaves could’ve recovered if [the pass] was farther out in the field. We prepared for it all week, and it worked – coach called it at a great time.”

The Wolverines also – finally – hit a deep post route to Chesson for 45 yards, something that’s eluded them all year.

“It was great to get a post route. It was great to hit that,” Harbaugh said. “A lot of tight throws were made today. I mean, Florida is so athletic and has so much speed that there are only tiny windows to make those throws and complete those catches. And Jake Rudock was fabulous, on the money today. I mean, darned near flawless.”

• Speaking of Rudock, he is this team’s season MVP (though Chesson was the actual worthy recipient). And if there was any doubt he was a Michigan Man before Saturday – and there shouldn’t have been - there’s none now.

Rudock credited passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch after the game, noting he knew what to look for when he was out there, but Rudock was the catalyst behind the 11-win season. And again, where would the Wolverines have been without him? Neither Wilton Speight nor Shane Morris would have led this team to more than seven wins, but Rudock will go down in history as the second player in U-M history to pass for more than 3,000 yards in a season.

“Jake Rudock getting hit and [completing] passes against corners that were going to be playing in the NFL … he's going to be drafted,” Harbaugh said.

He wasn’t the only one to earn Harbaugh’s praise.

“[Fifth-year senior center] Graham Glasgow, what an amazing player,” he said. “I bet he's going to be a -- he could be a first-round pick, the way he played today, the way he's played all year against -- there are pro players on that Florida defensive line, without question. [Senior safety] Jarrod Wilson, I think he'll be a guy that's drafted to the NFL, got an interception today, and it's his best year of football. If you asked him, he'd probably say that.”

NOTES

• Chesson said he planned to be back for a fifth year next season.

“No I did not [ask for an NFL grade]. I don’t know why. I just – I don’t know if it’s just naïve,” he said. “It’s great to have individual success, but that’s not where I get happiness from. If I don’t play and I see other guys being successful, it’s great. If I can help the team win any way they need me, I’ll do it.

“Asking for an NFL grade – those who ask, great for them if they need to know – those who don’t ask, they have reasons for not asking, too. Mine is just I feel like maybe that day will come when I do ask or Coach will tell me. God works things out in his own timing, and whatever needs to happen will happen. As long as I stay the path, stay the course, and stay disciplined and hard-working, things will turn out.”