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Monday, September 17, 2018

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Offense stays hot For the second straight game, Michigan’s offense exploded, this time in a 45-20 win over SMU to move to 2-1.

» Page 1B RESEARCH

Executive on record with anti-union sentiments KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Kathy Griswold,incoming City Council member, D-Ward 2, speaks with The Michigan Daily about the election and their endorsements of new officials at the Student Publications Building Sunday afternoon.

Griswold, outspoken critic of mayor, looks to first council term

Known for her passionate remarks at City Council meetings, Griswold will serve first term RACHEL CUNNINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter

The city of Ann Arbor saw three out of four incumbent City Council members defeated in the August primary elections. Councilmember Kirk Westphal, D-Ward 2, lost his primary

race to Kathy Griswold bt 53 votes. The Michigan Daily sat down with incoming Councilmember Griswold, to discuss her platform and future plans. Griswold is a former trustee for the Ann Arbor Public Schools district and will run now uncontested for her ward

seat this November. Though this will be Griswold’s first term as a council member, she has attended meetings for years and is known for providing frequent, impassioned remarks during public commentary in City Council meetings. Her main points have been promoting public safety and accelerating

sewer and road repairs. Furthermore, she spoke out against a 2014 proposal to expand transit services and the 2016 proposal to increase City Council terms to four years.

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ACADEMICS

In 2018 Ford School survey, 42 percent of local governments oppose use in community JULIA FORD

Daily Staff Writer

In a survey of over 1,800 local governments in Michigan, the Ford School of Public Policy’s spring 2018 Michigan Public Policy survey showed most prohibit medical marijuana and nearly half report that medical marijuana created issues in their community. This survey gauged where the state’s municipal governments stand on the issue of medical marijuana. As of Aug. 31, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Sharon Township are the only Washtenaw County towns represented in the 8 percent of governments surveyed that allow medical marijuana businesses. The survey reports 75 percent of Michigan’s local governments are to prohibit medical marijuana facilities, while 16 percent have not finalized any legislation. Of the local officials polled, 42 percent reported experiencing problems with medical marijuana use in their community and 21 percent reported witnessing benefits related to medical marijuana use. Though the majority of Michigan governments don’t permit medical marijuana facilities in their jurisdictions, many Washtenaw County residents, such as Ypsilanti local Michael Moriarty, see public health Check out the Daily’s News podcast, The Daily Weekly

benefits associated with local dispensaries. “I think there’s a number of conditions that medicinal marijuana is beneficial for in ways that maybe traditional pharmaceuticals are not,” Moriarty said. “I know, for example, a handful of people with migraines that it’s beneficial for, cancer patients who lose their appetites, that kind of thing.” According to the Harvard Medical School’s Harvard

Health Blog, about 85 percent of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana. LSA senior Johnny Cole said he thinks dispensaries should open where they can do the most good for the communities they are serving. “I feel like if it’s been proven that it can help with certain conditions, then I think that dispensaries should be in places where people with those conditions are most common,” Cole said.

In addition to pain relief and other medical purposes, some residents, such as Moriarty, see the potential tax revenue and job creation medical marijuana businesses could generate. Michigan legalized medical marijuana in 2008, and according to Forbes magazine, the state has reported over $600 million in marijuana sales revenue to date. Medical marijuana sales are taxed at 6 percent in See MARIJUANA, Page 2A

gun control advocates

B.R.A.V.E, March For Our Lives to be youngest recipients ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Writer

In past years, the University of Michigan’s Wallenberg Medal has been awarded to anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, civil rights leader John Lewis and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. This year medal will be given to two national anti-gun violence groups Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere and March for Our Lives. These awardees are distinct in two ways: They are organizations, not individuals, and they are the youngest recipients of the award in its 26-year history. The award was created to commemorate the legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, a U-M alum who saved more than 80,000 Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. It is awarded to those who “demonstrate the capacity of the human spirit to stand up for the helpless, to defend the integrity of the powerless, and to speak out on behalf of the voiceless… (and) demonstrate that one person, individually or collectively, can

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NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6

SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............5 SPORTS....................1B

News

2A — Monday, September 17, 2018

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

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ON THE DAILY: MARCHING BAND CALLS ATTENDEES TO VOTE

The Michigan Marching Band gave an electoral themed performance Saturday to support the efforts of the Big Ten Voting Challenge during University of Michigan football game against Southern Methodist University halftime show. The challenge seeks to increase voter participation across the 14 Big Ten universities, awarding schools with the highest and best improvement ineligible voter turnout. In one of its most politically charged presentations, the

band performed several formations on the field related to U.S. history and politics, including the phrase “We the People” and the American f lag. The band also used its act to highlight low voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election as well as low voter turnout among college students in the primaries this year. Thanks to Dr. Mark Schlissel, Dr. Martin A. Philbert, Cynthia Wilbanks, Kallie Michels, Edie Goldenberg, and Mark Clague for their help with yesterday’s halftime show! Also thanks to Bill and Janelle Sykes for their support of Saturday’s

halftime performance. In the video aired on the big screen before the performance, University President Mark Schlissel urged students to participate in their opportunity to share their voice this November. Following Schlissel’s video presentation, speeches from former Presidents Gerald Ford, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln were presented on the video screen. At one point in the presentation, marching band members held up two large f lags one opposite ends of the field, depicting the Republican party elephant and the Democratic party

donkey. The band then brought the two f lags together, urging attendees to look beyond party. “Election day is almost here,” Schlissel said. “We urge students to get involved in civilian life, get registered and out to vote and bring home the trophy for the Maize and Blue.” Central Student Government and the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning have collaborated to help with the online voter registration process. The University has also partnered with Turbovote to collect voting data and help students with registration.

MARIJUANA From Page 1A

Michigan. “In the

I mean it’s tax revenue,” Moriarty said. “Usually they’re small businesses that are locally owned. I don’t really see a negative impact on communities coming from them.” However, legalizing medical marijuana facilities can cause controversy, which LSA junior Kyla Truax experienced in her hometown. “I actually live in a town up north (Michigan), and they were thinking of putting in a plant right where I live,” Truax said. “A lot of people opposed it, so it ended up getting shut down and moved to a different city … I know a lot of people that were in support, thought it was a great idea to bring in jobs.” The Public Policy School survey also included questions about recreational marijuana. Though only 21 percent of local government officials support the legalization of recreational marijuana, 61 percent of

Michigan residents support it. Engineering junior Margaret Kohler understands the rationale for the legalization of recreational marijuana because she foresees people without legitimate medical marijuana cards gaining access to the drug anyway. “I think you’d also expect an increase in fake medical marijuana cards so that people could get it, and it’s almost a better argument just to legalize recreational use,” Kohler said. Moriarty said he supports the total legalization of marijuana. “On top of medicinal, I would support full legalization of marijuana, and to that end, it also decreases the criminal element, decreases having to put people in prison over marijuana offenses,” Moriarty said. “I don’t really see a downside under any circumstance.” According to the Public Policy School survey, low support of recreational marijuana legalization among officials is true across political affiliation and age.

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Michigan in Color

Monday, September 17, 2018 — 3A

Expressing identity through fashion Boat People A virus of the mind: Justice for the Uyghurs ELIZABETH LE MiC Columnist

HALIMAT OLANIYAN MiC Contributor

I’ve never really cared about or followed the latest trends. Instead, I’ve always thought of myself as a trendsetter. But on Monday, I stumbled upon Seek Refuge, a clothing company that uses its platform and products for female empowerment, Muslim representation and refugee aid. They’re branded as the first to make streetwear for Muslim women regardless of their personal modesty choices. For me, my wardrobe is an extension of who I am. My style is a reflection of my personality and my commitment to be unapologetically me. Like my wardrobe, I don’t neatly fit into one box or category. I am boho-chic, professional and daring. I am Nigerian-American, Muslim and progressive. Like my personality, my closet is overflowing with vibrant colors, patterns and fabrics. I am as bright as my favorite coral dress, as unique as my African attire and as strong as my leather handbags. Like the way my outfits change as the seasons pass, I am adaptable, reliable and a little unpredictable. Yet, I have always struggled to find a balance between expressing myself through fashion and staying true to

my faith as a Muslim woman. I see Muslim women cloaked in beautiful robes and tightly pinned hijabs and yearn to look as beautiful as they do. Yet, when I pin up my hair and look into the mirror, I don’t see me. It’s taken me so long to feel comfortable and beautiful in my own skin and now I’m proud to show it off. I’m finally starting to find a balance and defining my own type of modesty. Seek Refuge gives Muslim women a way to define

“Like my wardrobe, I don’t neatly fit into one box or category. I am boho-chic, professional and daring” modesty for themselves. The best part is a portion of every purchase is donated to refugee aid organizations overseas. Lately, I’ve felt pretty frustrated with my inability to aid in the growing refugee crisis across the globe. I feel guilty at times knowing I have two homes when about 11 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes, but

companies like Seek Refuge give me a way to do something I probably would have done anyway while giving back. I personally cannot wait to get my very own “Refuge Jacket,” their feature item. Its oversized fit and the Arabic script on the back perfectly embodies Seek Refuge’s mission. It’s quite literally a fashion statement. The Arabic script on the back, handwritten by a Muslim calligrapher, is a poem written by a Syrian refugee. It reads: Once we were at least happy. There once was peace where we resided In our land of birth; our homeland. We never anticipated this That war would tear us apart and leave us miserable this way We witnessed so powerlessly our brothers and sisters brutalized Our homes and properties burnt, and then came our displacement We have hopes but in despair. We cried peace but in bloodshed That oh, we’d better seek refuge. We ran for our dear lives Hunting for safety across the borders our dreams seem direly shattered As we seek for a new homeland, in a land where no one wants us. What’s your fashion statement?

Don’t ask why we came. Ask why we left. Some say the story ends in liberation, but there was no end, only the horizon. In the distance, a military ship. Men dove into the water like fish eager for home. But I, who had learned to escape, not swim, remained onboard. Safety was already far behind us. And in front, a soldier. One finger on the trigger, the rest clawing through my bag. Our compass buried at the bottom of a rice bowl. Your father, a boy of seventeen with a twist in his leg, passed the time in the nape of my neck. No one could know us now. I was so hungry for a new life that I had swallowed the paper trail. There are no heroes in this version, only survivors. I’ve always been that kind of person, the kind to remember the way things were yet still forget to be afraid. Don’t feel bad, my dear. These aren’t tears — just the ocean left in my eyes. You could never love Vietnam, for you are a December child, and to return to that country is to step into summer forever. But do not think you could come from anywhere else. You look like me after all.

MAYA MOKH

Assistant MiC Editor

Somewhere in China, a little girl talks to her father on the phone. He is in the United States. She tells him he is a bad person and that the Chinese police are good people. That’s the last he hears from her for six months. His wife soon divorces him, because being married to him puts a “target on her back.” He is left hopeless, posting on social media in hopes of finding his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, the reason for this separation is this man, Tahir Imin, and his family have been diagnosed with a deadly disease. It’s very contagious, a “virus of the mind” the government calls it, and it has infected over a billion people worldwide. The disease is called Islam. What’s happening in China is rarely talked about, but it’s real and it’s terrifying. China has deemed the religion of Islam a “contagious disease” and an “ideological illness” and has sent about one million Uighurs (a predominately Muslim ethnic minority in northwest China) to internment camps to be brainwashed and forced to denounce their own thinking. According to The Atlantic, when parents are sent to these camps, “younger children are sent to de facto orphanages known as child welfare guidance centers and older children are sometimes sent to state-run vocational schools.” The conditions in these camps are horrible, described by a worker in Xinjiang — a name, which means “Muslim Frontier Land,” the Han Chinese gave to the Uyghur Autonomous Region — as a place where children are “locked up like farm animals in a shed.” The little girl, Imin’s daughter, has been trained to despise her religion and express loyalty to the Chinese Communist party.

Families are being ripped apart as the Chinese government attempts to erase generations of traditions, beliefs and ideals. The government is so strict about this surveillance that citizens are afraid to even say Islam-related words on the phone. The party has even gone to the disturbing extent of initiating “home stays,” in which “officials temporarily move in with families in Xinjiang to surveil and report on them.” Muslims detained in these camps are also forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which is against the tenants of their faith. Among some of the punishments for failure to denounce their religion and identities include starvation, beatings and solitary confinement. One can only imagine the psychological damage that ensues from this type of treatment. Islam and Muslims have been the target of hate and bigotry since 9/11, but this bizarre phenomenon of treating the religion like an actual disease and sending Muslims to be quarantined is absolutely outrageous. Referred to as the “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today,” the lack of attention and concern for this issue baffles me. My heart goes out to all the Chinese Muslims who live in fear, who are being tortured and brainwashed, who are being stripped of their faith and their families and their identities. Uighurs’ unique religious and ethnic traditions are being replaced with manufactured Chinese communist pride. I pray we see a day when Muslims of every race and country can freely practice and be rid of the life sentence of scrutiny that the world has inflicted upon us. I pray we see a day when the world understands the real “ideological illness” is hatred and the inability to allow humans to exist as humans and not targets.

Bollywood films: My problematic fave ZAINAB BHINDARWALA Senior MiC Editor

“ Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,” “Dil Chahta Hai,” “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” “Mujhse Dosti Karoge!”, “Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai” - I grew up watching the sappiest romance movies ever. My first celebrity crush was a Bollywood actor and I’ve always cared more about the newest Hindi movie than the latest Jonas Brothers album (my worlds have been colliding a lot recently … ). When I was younger I’d get teased for not having seen “Toy Story” or not being able to quote “The Parent Trap.” While my friends debated the spelling of “sup ercalifragilisticexpialidocio us,” I was singing, “chanda chamke cham cham chikhe chaukanna chor, chiti chate chinee chatoree chinikhor” from “Fanaa.” When I was younger, I watched Bollywood movies because that’s what my desi parents watched and it’s all I knew. As I got older, I continued to watch them for a multitude of reasons. When I would visit my cousins abroad, they made fun of my weird American accent and how I couldn’t really communicate with anyone outside of our family. My cousins in Mumbai learned Hindi and English in school as well as our family dialect. I, on the other hand, grew up in the United States, where the only additional language I learned

was English. I used to visit India confused about everything and with zero communication skills. So, I watched Bollywood movies in the hopes of learning Hindi. I continued watching Bollywood movies in the hopes of learning about customs that weren’t mine. I didn’t like the astonished reactions I would get when I told people I didn’t

“As much as I love the Bollywood film industry...I can’t help but feel some cognitive dissonance every time I sit down to watch one.” know the answer to their question about Hindu rituals that they assumed were Indian traditions, or when my nonMuslim desi friends mentioned holidays or ceremonies that my family didn’t participate in. I wanted to be part of the desi community around me and watching Bollywood movies was how I tried to decipher all the things that to an outsider I looked like I would know, but just didn’t. Now, I watch Bollywood movies because these movies are a connection to my South

Asian roots. I’ve spent so much of my life internalizing racist ideals and distancing myself from my parent’s heritage that Hindi movies have become my way of learning to love my culture. As much as I love the Bollywood film industry and Hindi-language films, I can’t help but feel some cognitive dissonance every time I sit down to watch one. Bollywood movies are SO problematic. This is, of course, a reflection of the society that creates these movies and the audiences that consume them. Yet, while I recognize the problems in these movies, I haven’t been able to bring myself to boycott them the way I will Hollywood movies. How can I cut myself off from the one thing that’s keeping me rooted in my culture? Ultimately, I’ve decided that I can still appreciate a typical Bollywood blockbuster for its filmy drama, while acknowledging that some of the jokes, and sometimes even the entire plot, is extremely problematic. This column will be a space for me to talk about my problematic favs. The biggest Bollywood movies always have questionable elements and I want to think about them critically while still being able to appreciate the reasons that I bother watching these movies in the first place. Stay tuned for movie reviews, rants about the many messed up parts of the Hindi film industry and some celebrity buzz too.

Interested in writing about campus or pop culture? Michigan in Color is hiring bloggers! Email michiganincolor@michigandaily.com for more

October 1, 2018

Opinion

4A — Monday, September 17, 2018

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FROM THE DAILY

The problems with cross-examination

ast Friday, September 7th, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a controversial sexual assault case against the University of Michigan. Judge Amul Thapar wrote the decision, ruling that “if a public university has to choose between competing narratives to resolve a case, the university must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to cross-examine the accuser and adverse witnesses in the presence of a neutral fact-finder.” This case involved a male student, referred to as John Doe, and a female student, named Jane Roe, who were attending a fraternit y part y. Doe allegedly sexually assaulted Roe af ter ser ving her alcohol, and Roe went to the hospital to have a rape kit administered later that evening. No criminal charges were made against Doe; however, the Universit y decided he was g uilt y of sexual misconduct, and he lef t school before being expelled. Doe then sued the Universit y on the g rounds that he was denied his right to a cross-examination of his accuser, and the circuit court eventually ruled in favor of Doe. In light of this ruling, we as the Editboard at The Michigan Daily encourage the Universit y to stay committed to supporting and protecting all sur vivors of sexual assault. The ruling declares those accused of sexual misconduct must be given the option to cross-examine their accuser. Researchers have shown that live cross-examination does little to find truth in legal proceedings, but rather it gives the defense an opportunity to intimidate and manipulate the victim. Cross-examination is, at its essence, combative and aggressive; Thapar himself characterizes the practice as “the back-and-forth of adversarial questioning ” in the ruling. In cases of sexual misconduct, this process of adversarial questioning is gratuitously traumatizing for the accuser, as it requires them to face their alleged abuser and recall distressing events. Due to this effect, the ruling may discourage victims from coming forward to the University about the assault or misconduct they have experienced, in fear that

they will be forced to relive it through cross-examination. Furthermore, it may also discourage witnesses from testif ying on behalf of accusers, as they are also subject to cross-examination. There is reason for having separate University and legal proceedings in sexual assault cases, so as to provide the survivor with greater agency in handling the case. This ruling narrows the gap between these two kinds of proceedings, thus removing a substantial part of that

Crossexamination is, at its essence, combative and aggressive

this way is dangerous and harmf ul to sur vivors of all genders. The University has yet to announce if they will appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court. We hope regardless of their decision, they will stand ardently on the side of survivors and not succumb to rhetoric that seeks to intimidate them. Assuring that sexual assault proceedings are done in a manner that makes the victim as comfortable as possible is essential to this goal, as we want survivors to feel empowered to come forward, rather than discouraged by fear of intimidation. Moreover, we encourage the University to continue creating a process that encourages healing for survivors rather than disturbing traumatic memories. In summary, we as an Editboard do not believe cross-examination will add anything beneficial to sexual assault cases at the University; moreover, it will unnecessarily upset survivors. The rhetoric surrounding the case has also been harmful and counterproductive. For these reasons, we do not support the circuit court’s ruling. Despite the University’s decision in this particular case, we hope they will continue to protect their students by supporting survivors in all future legal proceedings.

agency. This ruling also has implications beyond crossexamination; it has been framed as a victor y for the accused in cases of sexual assault, and also as a victor y on behalf of men in general. In the ruling, the judge writes the Universit y has “discredited all males, including Doe, and credited all females, including Roe, because of gender bias,” suggesting in the effort to support sur vivors, the Do you love to debate today’s Universit y has in fact been important issues? Do you want your discriminator y against all voice heard? We hold twice-weekly men. This rhetoric conf lates Editorial Board meetings at our “males” with “accused,” and newsroom at 420 Maynard St. in Ann “females” with “accusers,” Arbor, where we discuss local, state which reinforces the idea and national issues relevant to campus. that men cannot be victims to We meet Mondays and Wednesdays sexual assault. Furthermore, from 7:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. it paints an image of accusers Learn more about how to join as conniving or wrongly Editboard here. motivated in coming forward. Framing sexual assault in

JILLIAN LI | CONTACT JILLIAN AT LIJILLI@UMICH.EDU

Institutions under attack

he White House was rocked last week following The New York Times’s publication of a critical Op-Ed from an anonymous senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration, eliciting a far-reaching array of reactions from all sides of the political spectrum. The Op-Ed, which praised the president’s conservative legislative achievements while condemning the president’s “anti-democratic” impulses and “amoral” disposition, publicly embarrassed the White House and left prominent administration officials scrambling to deny any role in the editorial’s authorship. Arg uably the most extreme reaction was from Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist and “altright” leader, who declared the Op-Ed a “coup” and part of a “broader conspiracy” against Trump, likening the author to George McClellan, the Civil War general who was punished for ignoring Abraham Lincoln’s orders. Bannon’s comments are characteristically hyperbolic and only loosely based in reality, but, ironically, he draws attention to one of the greatest dangers of the Trump presidency: the damage to our nation’s political system and institutions that could linger long after Trump leaves office. Trump came to Washington, D.C., with a pledge to “drain the swamp,” but that vow has manifested itself as a bitter assault against anyone and any institution that resist Trump’s political narrative and proposed policies. Rather than root out corruption or inefficiency, the president has merely normalized the reckless and childish rhetoric that defined his campaign. At times it feels redundant, or even tiresome, to evaluate the president’s leadership and temperament, but let’s examine his interaction with the various actors and institutions in our political system. Trump’s most acrimonious relationship is the combative rivalry he has cultivated with the media. Trump’s relationship with the mainstream media has been strained since his campaign began over three years ago.

Trump’s penchant for lying led to countless news articles and hours of media coverage devoted to fact-checking his various tweets and speeches. Trump responded by deriding mainstream media outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN as “fake news.” One hoped Trump’s animosity toward the press would subside once he took office, but rather the president has attempted to use the office to legitimize his contempt of the media. From lying about the size of his inauguration crowd to euphemizing these false claims as “alternative facts,” to comically distorting his own statements at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, frequent lies and attacks on the media have become a defining staple of the

The reality is that our political institutions are under attack...by the president Trump White House. The president’s assault on the press has worked, at least among his base. Over half of Republicans believe the press is the “enemy of the people” and 43 percent say Trump should be allowed to shut down news organizations. These numbers are incredibly disconcerting, and symptomatic of an administration that has legitimized the notion that facts are subjective. When the facts don’t align with your beliefs, the appropriate response is to reevaluate your beliefs, not to get new “facts.” Unfortunately, Trump has normalized the baseless rejection of opposing evidence, exacerbating political divisions and impeding efforts to govern effectively. Furthermore, the deluge of falsehoods from the West Wing has degraded the credibility of the executive branch and created a mindset that White House statements are to be scrutinized rather than respected. Another one of Trump’s favorite targets is the legal system. Trump has

routinely disparaged special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference during the presidential election and publicly blasted judges whose decisions he disapproved. He either fails to understand or fails to appreciate the virtues of an independent justice system, evidenced by his frequent criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation and his f iring of FBI Director James Comey — a decision Trump himself said was partly due to the way Comey handled the Russia investigation. In a way, Steve Bannon is right — our ideal world is not one where the president is undermined by his own aides and allies. But our ideal world is also not one where the president starts trade wars, threatens to shut down news agencies, withdraws from multiple international treaties and muses about assassinating foreign rulers — often on a whim. The reality is that our political institutions are under attack — not by whistleblowers or the Op-Ed’s author, but by the president. This is not to say that our political system cannot recover. Our Constitution is strong, the separation of powers is well-established and as The New York Times’s Op-Ed demonstrates, even many of those within the administration will resist the president’s worst ideas and impulses. Still, we must guard the health and integrity of our democratic institutions. A vibrant free press and strong, independent judicial system are both central pillars of democracy, which is why Trump’s incessant attacks on them are so irresponsible. The fallout from these attacks threaten to remain long after he leaves office. Bad policies can be reversed, but it is far harder to repair a political system that has been continuously attacked by the most powerful man in the country. Likewise, the true threat of the Trump presidency lies not in his legislative agenda, but in his shameless disparagement of our democratic institutions.

Noah Harrison can be reached at noahharr@umich.edu.

REBECCA BROWN | WOLVERINES ABROAD

New hemisphere, new perspective

t the 5,000-foot summit of a mountain in Wanaka, New Zealand, I cried. I was sitting on the ground eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after having trekked up the nearly four miles of straight incline trail. There was salt on my face from the sweat, chilling against my skin in the breeze. As I looked out on the water and mountains surrounding me, I felt a sense of calm I had never known — so much so that I was overwhelmed and, before I knew it, I was actually, embarrassingly, crying. Next to the sleepy town of Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand lies Roy’s Peak, which offers a full-day zigzagging hike up the side of Mount Roy through grass and packed gravel, littered with sheep and the presents they leave behind. It was a difficult hike for a novice like me, especially considering I was ill-equipped with a pair of worn-in running sneakers and the same Jansport backpack that I use to carry my books to class. Once I reached the summit, I was forced to forget the pain in my legs and reckon with the panoramic, seemingly endless views across and beyond Lake Wanaka. There are some places and moments that defy description. It’s cliché, trite and frankly groaninducing of me to say, but this was one of those moments. Not in terms of physical description — I could wax poetic about the rolling hills and cascading mountains, about the bluest blue of the water, about the eerie and comforting sound of only the wind and the footsteps of fellow hikers — but in terms of the feelings it inspired.

I traveled to New Zealand for 10 days during my semester abroad in Sydney, Australia. The decision to study in Sydney was spurred by a desire to go to Australia for as long as I could remember. It’s where I was born and my family lived for five years in the mid-’90s before returning home to Boston. I spent four months in the Southern Hemisphere, kicked off with a trip to Southeast Asia and bookended by nearly two whole days sitting on a plane. To say I experienced more natural beauty abroad than I had seen in the last 21 years of my life would be a given. To say I saw the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world, had what is likely an increasingly rare chance to see the Great Barrier Reef and tasted the Australian delicacy that is a Tim Tam would be bragging. To say I experienced a change within me that can only come with travel would be more accurate, albeit nauseatingly cheesy. On the other side of the world, in a place that I barely knew, I felt surer of myself than ever before. I felt more grounded and less anxious. I felt less worried about how I was being perceived and more concerned about the next item on my bucket list. I’m almost positive I blinked less, keeping my eyes open wide as much as possible to soak up everything around me. I watched more, I noticed more, I learned more. A trip like this is few and far between. One where you focus on what is directly in front of you rather than the noise inside your head. One where you wake up and go to sleep when the sun does, rather than when your phone alarm tells

you. One where you are overcome with emotion — on more than one occasion — from contemplating just how much bigger and more important the world is than you. If you are young, have the physical ability and the financial means and are eager to be better, you should travel — as frequently and as widely as possible. Hop in a car, on a plane, on a bus. Plan, but not too much. Eat whatever you think you can stomach, even if it’s a bird embryo in Vietnam. Talk to people. Learn. Be open. The more places I see and experience, the smaller I feel. The world is impossibly vast, and the more I explore it, the more I realize how little I know, how many places I have yet to go, how much more I have to learn. Traveling makes you feel insignificant in the good kind of way. This specific, humbling insignificance, I have decided, is my favorite kind of feeling. I want to pocket it for times when I feel too self-assured, too smug, too caught up in my own minute troubles. I want to feel tiny and unwise and know I have places to go that will bring me, in the most literal sense, back down to earth. I want to hold on to this feeling for the rest of my life. When I set off for my return down Roy’s Peak — with a quiet brain, tired legs and a huge smile on my face — I set off in pursuit of that insignificance.

Rebecca Brown is an LSA senior. To search for education abroad opportunities and register your travel visit global.umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Monday, September 17, 2018 — 5A

CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMN

Strange Beautiful Music and the mosaic of Detroit’s avant-garde It has become something of a tradition for me to begin the year by writing about Strange Beautiful Music, an annual contemporary music marathon put on by the musicians’ collective New Music Detroit — and who am I to break with tradition? Running now for 11 years, the Strange Beautiful concerts had their latest iteration over the weekend, and there’s as much to say about them as ever. This year the marathon was divided across two days and three different venues, presenting a genre-defying hodgepodge of performances. Friday saw the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and The Detroit Institute of Art play host to a variety of different sets, and Saturday saw 10 hours of music at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s The Cube. Due to the expansiveness of the events, I wasn’t able to catch the entire marathon (missing the Wright Museum sets on Friday), but what I did see proved to be an effective reminder of the cultural vibrancy of Southeast Michigan’s avant-garde music

space was the Rivera Court, a spacious chamber in the center of the museum named after the painter of the famous “Detroit Industry” murals that adorn its walls, Diego Rivera. I arrived partway through a performance by the James Cornish Light Opera, a group of some 13 musicians and two dancers, who were performing

DAYTON HARE a musical interpretation of the poem “I Come From There” by the late Mahmoud Darwish, a poet who has been called the national poet of Palestine. I later learned that the music and dancing were largely improvised, but by that time I

aching melancholy familiar to those who have yearned for something unattainable. By the end, however, the music turned ferocious and terrifying, a clamour that filled the reverberant walls with a harrowing sound of apocalypse, a thunderous noise that left me shaken to the core. The best way I can describe the music is simply as essential (in the true sense of something being part of one’s essence) and somehow referential to a longing at the core of the human spirit. After a brief interlude the next set went on, Marcus Elliot’s Beyond Rebellious Ensemble. Made up of a rotating cast of characters, this weekend’s version of the group played a set of tunes coming out of the avant garde jazz tradition. Elliot, as bandleader and conductor, provided a collection of melodies and structures beforehand, and during the performance would direct the feeling of the music and cue the ensemble as needed throughout, occasionally writing directions on a small whiteboard he would show to the group. Afterward he

DETROIT SYMPHONY MUSIC

who weren’t able to attend the first show for them to present a set at Strange Beautiful Music. The group played a variety of compositions, each with its own personality, and by the end one was left with a good impression of the diversity of music being made contemporary classical scene today. This impression of musical diversity was only augmented as the day went on. Another group stemming from the classical tradition was the University’s own Contemporary Directions Ensemble, which presented a stunning program of works from three living

women composers, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Angélica Negrón and Julia Wolfe. The Thorvaldsdottir in particular was wonderful and spacious, enveloping the listener in a meditative sound-world until, near the end, a beautiful melody appeared, breaking through the music like sunlight through clouds. Set in contrast to the Wolfe, which was thrillingly energetic, the piece made quite a lasting impression. Throughout the rest of the day audience members heard from groups like the freewheeling and noisey group ONO, the “sono-cybernetic

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

NETFLIX

DETROIT SYMPHONY MUSIC

scene. Friday evening’s sets in The DIA were intense and viscerally moving in a way that I haven’t encountered too many times in my life. The performance

was taken by the raw emotion of it. Making use of drones and a free sort of meter, the sonic space the musicians created was meditative and ritualistic, infused with the sort of

Release Date: Monday, September 17, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Potato chips source 5 __ bean 9 Rick’s “Casablanca” love 13 “Aww!” 14 Spring bloom 15 Les __-Unis 16 Neighbor of Yemen 17 Large-scale departure 19 Island setting for Melville’s “Omoo” 21 Court order to testify 22 Mindless memorization 24 Farm sound 25 Blue expanse, on a clear day 26 Cost of a car, in most family budgets 31 1860s White House nickname 32 Thought 33 Traffic light color 37 Gardener’s bane 39 Quick taste 41 Produced 42 American flag feature 45 At hand 48 Buddhist school 49 Edmund Hillary’s conquest 52 Fermented quaff 55 Slugger’s stat 56 Get up 57 Removing from the text 60 1971 New York prison riot site 64 Region including Egypt, Israel, etc. 66 “__ be fine”: “No prob” 67 Sad verse 68 Spell-checker discovery 69 Not virtual 70 __ a one 71 The “Y” in “YTD” 72 TV award, and a homophonic hint to the four longest puzzle answers DOWN 1 Loch Ness local 2 Adidas rival

3 Home of the NBA’s Jazz 4 Robert of “Dirty Grandpa” 5 Restricted in number, as an edition 6 Nest egg acronym 7 Hit’s opposite 8 Take for granted 9 “Was __ hard on you?” 10 Stows cargo 11 Caused some nose-pinching 12 Evaluate, as metal 15 Bring to light 18 Traditional black piano key wood 20 Singer Amos 23 Old flames 26 Big mouths 27 Help rob the bank 28 Taunt from the bleachers 29 Emulate Degas 30 “Slippery” tree 34 Do nothing 35 Wordsworth works 36 Attended, with “to”

38 Reduce in brightness 40 __ pressure 43 Rotund 44 Jazzman Blake 46 Pilot 47 Take ten 50 Distance between bases, in feet 51 Go to bed 52 Commercial writers

53 Bizet opera priestess 54 Tribal leader 58 Avant-garde 59 Motown’s Marvin 61 Receipt detail 62 Linguine seafood sauce morsel 63 One on your side 65 Daycation destination

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

09/17/18

described this process as “conduction,” a term which he credited to the composer Butch Morris. The set itself was incredibly engaging — one man who sat to my right described it as “transcendent” — and incredibly varied. At some moments there were catchy head tunes I later found myself whistling, and at other times there were wild, raucous explosions of sound or ethereal squeals that offered a new perspective on the sorts of sound an ensemble like that could produce. Saturday featured around 10 hours of performances at the DSO. As one might expect, these ranged widely in style, tone and genre, varied in such a way that nothing ever seemed to grow stale. As one also might expect, I won’t touch on everything that happened during the 10 hours, but I do feel like it’s important to mention a few of the performances that I found to be the most meaningful. One of the more conventional groups to perform on Saturday was the Detroit Composers’ Project, a collective formed by composer Harriet Steinke (who was a peer of mine a couple summers ago at a music program in Paris) to promote the work of Michigan-based composers. When I say conventional, it’s important not to think of it as a pejorative; I say “conventional” only insofar as it refers to what you tend to find at “contemporary classical” concerts, which is to say classical musicians performing notated music on classical instruments. The project already premiered a number of compositions earlier this month, at the DIA, and it was a delight for those of us

exoskeleton”-donning Synergistic Mythologies, the experimental band saajtak, the New Music Detroit collective itself — I could go on, but the point is that there wasn’t any one dominant idea at the marathon. It was a wild, wacky amalgamation of all of the vaguely out-there music being made around Detroit, and a beautiful reflection of the artistic diversity of the city. Strange Beautiful Music continues to be an invaluable platform for the avant-garde, the weird and the unclassifiable, and one of the highlights of the year.

Hasan Minhaj brings joy to the Michigan Theater NITYA GUPTA Daily Arts Writer

There’s something utterly charming about comedian Hasan Minhaj. He has big eyes that bug out whenever he delivers a joke and he’s not afraid to be self-deprecating at any chance he gets. Last weekend, comedian Minhaj visited the Michigan Theater with his “Before the Storm” standup show. The show is meant to be a preview for his upcoming show on Netflix, “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” which will debut in Oct. 28, 2018. Ann Arbor didn’t disappoint in its enthusiasm, delivering two sold-out shows. Hundreds of people flocked outside the Michigan Theater’s entrance, and their nervous energy was infectious. I felt like I was waiting outside of the movie theater to watch a Bollywood movie premiere in the U.S. after it became a huge hit in India. Minhaj immediately thanked us for agreeing to lock up our phones with Yondr so that we wouldn’t leak any spoilers for “Patriot Act.” At the beginning of his tour, he had asked the audience to refrain from taking and posting videos, but inevitably, he would look down at the front row and see lots of “old uncles” with their phones up, taking a video even as he asked them not to. With the quick wit that brought Minhaj to “The

Daily Show” as a senior correspondent, he launched into the heart of his show, discussing politics in an entertaining but serious way. Minhaj is a master of using our emotions to build up our laughter and energy so that when he tells us something somber, we feel it hard. Using video clips, graphics and some funny pictures, Minhaj commented on the country’s political and cultural landscape, from the fear of terrorism to media portrayals of people from different ethnic backgrounds. For the same reason we had to lock up our phones, I’m not going to spoil too many of Minhaj’s bits about politics. What I will say is that if you’re looking to figure out the cost of terrorism insurance, then Minhaj is your guy. My favorite part of the show was the conclusion, when Minhaj stepped aside from politics and delved into his personal life with the story of how he proposed to his wife. Upon deciding it was time to finally make the commitment, Minhaj set out to buy an engagement ring, and saw his bank account hit $0 for the first time in his life. Then, Minhaj realized he still needed money for the actual proposal part. He turned to the ultimate source of good deals — Groupon — to book a sunrise hot air balloon ride on a Wednesday morning. After facing a few challenges (his soon-to-be wife thinking he was going

to murder her when he drove her to an empty field at 4:00 a.m., realizing the hot air balloon pilot would come up with them in that tiny basket and another couple going up on a balloon next to them and the guy proposing to his girlfriend with a massive sign), Minhaj drove her to the closest breakfast place he could find that was open (Applebee’s) and proposed. This show was everything I wanted it to be and more. As Minhaj has stated earlier in his Netflix special “Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King,” there weren’t many people of similar backgrounds for him to look up to while growing up. Going to school, dating and pursuing his passions all came with their own complications in addition to his confusion with identity as an Indian American from a Muslim family. Looking at the audience last weekend, it was clear that others felt the same way. But in simply sharing his stories, Minhaj is telling us it’s okay, because we’ve all faced similar challenges, and now we’re better for it. “Before the Storm” was just a taste of how Minhaj seamlessly talks about pressing issues in today’s American society without becoming too dark. Sometimes the truth can be hard-hitting, but with Minhaj’s eyes bugging out every five seconds and his selfdeprecating personal stories, it’s much less scary with lots of laughter.

6A — Monday, September 17, 2018

News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MUSIC REVIEW

The conclusion of Fred Thomas’s trilogy is an anxious ice bath SEAN LANG

Daily Arts Writer

When I stumbled on All Are Saved in early 2015, approaching my high school graduation, I was certain I didn’t think I would be writing this review almost four years later. My graduation from university is now more imminent than is comfortable. I remember vacationing in Folly Beach, S.C. during spring break, the same

Aftering Fred Thomas Polyvinyl week that Carrie & Lowell was released to the world at large. I was just beginning to find music for myself, exploring Stereogum, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound and NPR and digesting every word as gospel. One morning during that week of vacation, I was seeking out new music on Pitchfork and found it: Fred Thomas’s All Are Saved, with a clean little “8.0” next to

into a neat narrative surrounding Thomas’s life: He had gotten married, quit his job and moved to Montreal where his wife would be getting her graduate degree. Now, Aftering has been pitched as the end of an informal trilogy, in part nonspecific reflections penned from abroad — Thomas watching from the outside as his home country elected Trump — and in part hyper-personal anecdote. The best way to think about the concept of Aftering is as a long walk off a short pier. Or a dead sprint straight off the edge of a cliff, followed by a careful narration of the seemingly endless fall. The first five songs on the album, especially “Hopeless Ocean Drinker,” “Good Times Are Gone Again” and “Altar,” are pure melody, catchy guitar and keyboard hooks under Thomas’s sometimes endearingly offkey vocals. The album opener, “Ridiculous Landscapes,” features the Montreal-based Common Holly and Detroitbased Anna Burch, whose music Thomas forwarded directly to

TV REVIEW

that water is, how slow things move, the tragedy of youth and memory and growing up. It’s half-

Aftering has been pitched as the end of an informal trilogy, in part nonspecific reflections penned from abroad

conscious confusion and sharp self-awareness in equal measure,

LIFETIME

Lifetime’s ‘You’ skewers the romantic comedy MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN Daily Arts Writer

The #MeToo movement, revealing and cathartic as it has been, has also felt profoundly disorienting. There’s little that hasn’t been dredged up and laid bare on a mental dissection table for study. Who are these people we thought we knew? What should we make of experiences we hadn’t made anything of before? And as consumers of pop culture, what role have we played in it all? How badly have our own concepts of love and boundaries been warped and

“You” Lifetime Series premiere Sundays at 10 p.m.

POLYVINYL RECORDS

the album cover. I had recently paid my enrollment deposit to the University, and a line in the first paragraph of the review read “Fred Thomas is always standing right behind you at a basement show in Ann Arbor.” Some quick research revealed that Thomas had been a mainstay of the southeast Mich. scene for over 20 years by then — 25 by now. Although I had only been to town a couple of times then, I was more than prepared to make Thomas’s music mine, something literally close to home that I could latch onto. All Are Saved was Thomas’s ninth solo album, but the first to receive any real critical attention. Changer, a more guitar-driven effort with hints of power-pop, arrived in early 2017, falling

Polyvinyl, earning her a contract. Both will be joining Thomas for a fall tour. Following the rush of “Altar,” things go downhill quickly — imagine the rug pulled out from under your feet, only to reveal that there was no floor beneath it. “House Show, Late December” is the embodiment of that immediate anxiety, the plunge into the lake waiting at the end of the pier. It’s a steamroller that builds and builds as Thomas just talks at you, only a hint of sing-song in his voice. Thomas’s nostalgic musings removed, the song could easily pass as something by Explosions in the Sky. The last three songs follow suit. If “House Show” is the plunge, the rest of the album is the realization of how damn cold

all over fuzzed out electronics, keyboard and carefully orchestrated strings. When I interviewed Thomas earlier this year, I asked him if he could name a number of artists or albums that have influenced or continue to influence his writing. He responded saying that, though it may sound pretentious, his inspirations are largely just his experiences (though he has uploaded a playlist to Spotify titled “Aftering Mood Board”) and it’s evident that this is more or less true. “Alcohol Poisoning” and “House Show, Late December” function in concert as reflections on the difficulties of touring and the anxiety that accompanies being a local artist who is trying to get by on their art alone, spoken from the mouth of the ultimate lifer. Meanwhile, “What The Sermon Said” dives deep into Thomas’s childhood. He recalls the child miscreant he was, and how he couldn’t make friends his own age, and how his family never went back to that church. “Mother, Daughter, Pharmaprix” includes an anecdote about a mother and daughter arguing in French: the daughter who “simply hates her / With that blinding burning meanness only teens get / Like she has to / Like her mom did to her mom / Like we all do,” and the mother who “loves her so much that she’s constantly terrified.” Thomas’s storytelling here is at its best: He takes a simple interaction and teases something like objective truth out of it. He can’t speak the language but he understands the subtext all too well; we weren’t there, but we can see it in ourselves. This, it seems, is Thomas’s ultimate goal, and one he approaches with an alarming urgency: to find solidarity, connection and empathy in the days when good times are gone again.

corrupted? “You,” a thrilling new series from Lifetime, is a remarkably sharp attempt to grapple with those questions. It begins in an Upper East Side bookstore, where Joe (Penn Badgley, “Gossip Girl”), the manager, encounters Beck (Elizabeth Lail, “Once Upon a Time”) a doe-eyed MFA student in search of some Paula Fox essays. It’s the meetcute that launched a thousand romances — they gossip about the other customers, lapse into playful banter and trade reading recommendations. But it doesn’t take long inside Joe’s inner monologue for us to realize that our sensitive

bookstore owner is in fact r/ TheRedPill personified, a deeply insecure creep with a toxic savior complex that deems Beck a damsel worthy of his rescue. It might be a touch on the nose that Beck’s given name is Guinevere. Oh, how quickly one fleeting interaction turns into a dangerous obsession. Joe has soon pored through Beck’s social media, found her apartment, studied her relationships and learned her routines, all while making grand, improbable conclusions about the sort of person she must be: “Every account is set to public — you want to be seen.” Most frightening is the ease with which he’s able to convince himself that everything he’s doing is just fine. Hiding in Beck’s shower, after her early return cuts his apartment breakin short, Joe laughs the whole thing off in a voice-over. “I’ve seen enough romantic comedies to know that guys like me are always getting in jams like this.” It’s a smart indictment of our culture — the Western canon has always reassured the Joes of the world that nice guys win in the end. In one telling scene, he brings home a copy of “Don Quixote” for his forlorn kid neighbor. “It’s about a guy who believes in chivalry, so he decides to become an old-school knight,” Joe tells him. Um, aren’t you forgetting something, Joe? The Man of La Mancha was delusional. “You” is sometimes weakened by its tendency toward the

absurd — let’s just say there’s a giant plexiglass book repair cell in the basement of Joe’s store that may or may not function as a makeshift torture chamber. But in other moments, “You” is buoyed by its disinterest in being tethered to reality or subtlety. It’s what keeps the show exciting and gives it the freedom to wander around New York, poking fun of Brooklynite caricatures, like Beck’s insufferable ex-boyfriend Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci, “The Story of Luke”), whose line of artisanal soda is, in his words, “legit, period.” And for all the fun “You” is, it manages to stay terrifying and familiar. In the wake of #MeToo, some men have lamented that they’re being forced to reassess their every move and gesture lest they be misinterpreted. It’s ironic, because, as “You” illustrates, that’s exactly the sort of mental calculus women have to perform all the time. When Beck pays for her book with a credit card, Joe decides it must be a deliberate invitation: “You have enough cash to cover this, but you want me to know your name.” There is nothing quite like the terror of moving through the world constantly wondering whether the quiet guy at the bookstore might really be a deranged chauvinist. If “You” stays smart and probing, it could function as a thoughtful look at romance in the digital age. At the very least, the pilot offers a few pointers upfront: Keep your blinds closed and your Instagram private.

FILM REVIEW

‘Three Identical Strangers’ BECKY PORTMAN Senior Arts Editor

In what more closely resembles a melodramatic mystery than reality, Tim Wardle’s (“One Killer Punch”) shocking documentary breaks conventions in style and tone to tell a true story that can only be described as jaw-

“Three Identical Strangers” NEON dropping. “Three Identical Strangers” tells the story of identical triplets, Robert Shafran, Edward Galland and David Kellman, separated at birth and placed into three different homes. Their reunion led them to become global sensations, appearing on TV shows and even checking out Madonna in “Desperately Seeking Susan.” The three brothers even opened a restaurant together in New York City, not surprisingly dubbed “Triplets.” What seems like a happily-ever-after type of tale twists itself into a dark nightmarish saga of deception, experimentation and loss as the nature of the triplets’ adoption becomes more clear. The documentary combines home videos with talking heads footage alongside tastefully

shadowed re-enactments. The re-enactments are not forced; rather, they create a narrative as twisted as the reality the triplets faced. In a way, the re-enactments make the story feel more fictional, played by curly-headed lookalikes of the triplets clad in striped polos and flared jeans. The triplets’ first-hand accounts of their story emphasize the reality of it, reminding the viewer that the film before them is unfortunately not fiction at all. Sooner rather than later, the viewer might notice the absence of one-third of the triplets. While Shafran and Kellman have a lot to say in their interviews, Galland is mysteriously not present. As the film progresses, the viewer will come to understand the dark nature of Galland’s absence. The film slowly unravels the mystery of the triplets’ separation keeping the viewer engrossed until the very last minute. What is uncovered is the fact that the triplets were separated for the purpose of scientific study. A psychiatrist by the name of Peter B. Neubauer, an Austrian Jew who escaped Nazi occupation, led dozens of these “twinstudies” that separated twins and triplets into different families based on economic status and parenting style to discover the real difference between nature and nurture. Children adopted

through the Louise Wise Agency with help from the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services were used for these experiments, unbeknownst to the adopted parents or the children. For years, the triplets were not privy to files that detailed the purpose of their separation; in fact, the adoption agency that handled their case and so many other twin separations have sealed the files until the year 2066. However, since the film’s release and other twin discoveries, some of the information regarding the study has been released to individuals who were adopted from the Louise Wise Agency. Still, there are dozens of people out there who have no idea that they have a twin. Wardle’s film has inspired many to investigate their pasts and has even led to reunions of siblings that had no idea the other existed. The most unsettling part of the film is the human experimentation that took place without knowledge or consent. Even more troubling is the Jewish adoption agency and the Jewish researcher that re-created these Mengele-esque experiments on Jews in a post-Holocaust United States. Many draw an ethical comparison between Neubauer’s twin experiments to those of the Nazi regime, making the irony devastatingly clear.

SportsMonday

2B — September 17, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Patterson needs backup hea

Patterson has played even better than the MIKE most PERSAK optimistic Michigan fans could have expected. Saturday’s 45-20 win over SMU was the most recent example. And yes, it’s only a three-game sample, but the consistency and prolificity with which Patterson has played in those three games is something that hasn’t been seen in Ann Arbor since … maybe Denard Robinson, but probably Chad Henne. It’s certainly the best quarterback play Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh has had in his tenure. “Accuracy, really. His reads feel really good, he’s making really good decisions,” Harbaugh said after the game. “… He’s getting out of trouble and creating plays when sometimes there isn’t one to be there. Just playing really — playing the position really well. And then making the throws when they present themselves. He’s hitting the short ones, he’s hitting the intermediate ones, he’s hitting the deep ones. Good quarterback play.” Strong quarterback play is something that Michigan has been searching for since Harbaugh has arrived in Ann Arbor. Jake Rudock showed f lashes in 2015, but the supporting cast around him wasn’t ready, and Rudock didn’t have the physical talent Patterson has. The last two seasons, Wilton Speight, Brandon Peters and John O’Korn were surrounded by elite athletes, but couldn’t put it all together

EVAN AARON/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson has proven he is the most talented quarterback of coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure, but he’ll need some help from his teammates.

to lead the Wolverines to the promised land. Patterson is that quarterback. The throws that were missed in past losses, like the ones against Iowa in 2016 or to Michigan State and Ohio State in 2017 — he can make those. We’ve already seen it. Patterson is now 46-for-65 for 589 passing yards and six touchdowns this season, including three touchdowns each in the last two games. Michigan hadn’t thrown three touchdowns in a game since Nov. 5, 2016, against Maryland. Last season’s team didn’t have six passing

touchdowns until the ninth game of the season. “We’ve had Jake Rudock here, and there’s problems that are beyond the scope of a quarterback, but in terms of how our offense efficiently played and how Shea looked, I’d say it’s as good as any quarterback I’ve seen here,” said fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich after the Wolverines’ win over Western Michigan two weeks ago. “It was weird being on the sideline and them just scoring touchdowns. I remember ( junior safety) Josh Metellus … he goes, I just remember

“His reads feel really good, he’s making really good decisions.”

him sitting there looking, he’s like ‘Man, this is nice!’ I think the feeling is mutual from my half.” It’s ironic, then, that now that Michigan and Harbaugh finally have the quarterback who can make all the throws, question marks have popped up around the rest of the roster. It isn’t the offensive line, though they have struggled, because that position has been a trouble area for at least the last two seasons. What is different is that the defense that made Michigan a force to be reckoned with in the Harbaugh era has looked

“He’s the man for the job, and he can get the job done.”

The good, the bad and the ugly: SMU MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor

The good: Patterson/PeoplesJones connection In Saturday’s postgame press conference, a reporter asked junior quarterback Shea Patterson and sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones about one of the duo’s three touchdown connections on the day — a back-shoulder fade to move the score to 28-7. Is that something you regularly practice? Both paused. Patterson glanced at Peoples-Jones and smiled. It took everyone in the receiving corps some time to feel comfortable with the new signal-caller. But after some time, it seems Peoples-Jones and Patterson — each former glistening fivestar talents — have found that comfortability, and the offense, is being rewarded in droves. Saturday, Peoples-Jones notched the first three-touchdown game from a Michigan wide receiver since Jehu Chesson scored four touchdowns against Indiana in 2015. It is also Peoples-Jones’ first multi-touchdown game, as the former top wide receiver commit in the country continues to show an ever-expanding toolset. The first touchdown came on a crossing route late in the first half. He glided across the field, caught a dart from Patterson and turned up field for a 35-yard score. Then came the back-shoulder fade — the first such score in recent Michigan history (with only exaggeration). The ability to adjust his body, find the ball and get his feet down offered the clearest sign of a wide receiver with a world of potential starting to put it together. The throw — from the quarterback completing nearly 80 percent of his passes — was on the money. Then, to cap it off, Patterson found Peoples-Jones in stride on a 41-yard deep post for a score, a route Harbaugh called “terrific” and a throw he deemed “right on the money.” Peoples-Jones finished the day with four catches for 90 yards and three touchdowns, a banner day for

a receiver and a quarterback who seem to just be getting started. The bad: the secondary If you’d never heard of James Proche before Saturday, the SMU receiver offered a memorable introduction. Proche pranced around the Michigan secondary all day, catching everything in sight and drawing pass intereference calls on the off chance he didn’t. In the end, Proche tallied 11 catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns. That seems low. While Proche, who has over 100 career catches and nearly 2000 yards, has clear talent, it’s a foreboding sign that an American Athletic Conference receiver had his way with a secondary that is supposed to be one of the nation’s best. Juniors Lavert Hill, David Long and Josh Metellus, along with several others, took their shot at the Mustangs’ top receiver. Time and time again, Proche had his way. One such error included a simple wheel route from the slot, crossing with a receiver running to the

middle of the field. Metellus and sophomore safety Brad Hawkins had a miscommunication on the coverage, leading to a walk-in 50-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven. All this complementing the seven penalties that plagued the defense — many of which came on pass interference calls. With Big Ten play set to begin, Michigan’s secondary simply has to be better. The margin for error is going to get much slimmer in the coming weeks. The ugly: penalties* You won’t win many games with 13 penalties for 137 yards. Against SMU, it can be used as a harmless teaching point. Against a formidable opponent, it could be a back-breaker. On the verge of Big Ten play, Harbaugh will be sure to emphasize the former. “My point is, you address each of them,” Harbaugh said. “And penalties are hurting us. That’s something we have to clean up and get better at. We address each one — technique, what we’re using, the

vulnerable at times. The things that put the Wolverines in a hole against Notre Dame popped up again Saturday. There were penalties and missed assignments that, against a better team, might be a death sentence. Heck, if it was last year’s offense that was on the field against the Mustangs, the defensive lapses might have been a death sentence, too. But it wasn’t, because Patterson made play after play and throw after throw. Michigan, for the second week in a row, scored more points than it scored in any

discipline that we have. Get them corrected, get them coached, get improved. Don’t want 13 penalties in a game.” Some of them, Harbaugh disagreed with. Some even emphatically so. In the third quarter, junior VIPER Khaleke Hudson was ejected for targeting. Harbaugh — and anyone who was asked about it after the game — took objection to that call in particular. The point remains, though, that it’s among the flaws the Wolverines will seek to correct going forward. Perhaps based on the sheer randomness of penalties, it’s less dire than other flaws (say, pass protection or safety play), but penalties reared their ugly head on Saturday. *This section noticeably leaves out SMU coach Sonny Dykes kicking an onside kick with a player who wasn’t a kicker, then promptly getting penalized for it. This is a Michigan publication. Unfortunately, this play did not qualify for publication. It was, however, quite ugly.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson connected with sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones for 18 points.

game last season. SMU’s first touchdown came when the Wolverines miscommunicated in coverage, and wide receiver James Proche ran wide open up the sideline for a 50-yard pitch and catch. On the next drive, Patterson drove Michigan right back down the field, 60 yards in five plays. He capped it off with a 35-yard toss to sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones. It wasn’t a hard throw, as Peoples-Jones was wide open, but in the past year or so, even the easy throws couldn’t be taken for granted. “The thing about Shea is that he just has such a sense of conf idence that doesn’t come off as cocky, but you just know and he knows — this is my opinion about it — that he’s the man,” Winovich said last week. “He’s the man for the job, and he can get the job done. I think for him, it was just another day at the off ice.” I think I have written this part in every one of my columns, but I do feel it’s appropriate to repeat when being critical this early in the season. It would be misg uided to say that there are problems that will not be fixed, or at least patched up enough to win any game moving forward — especially for a team with this talent. But if the rest of the Wolverines don’t solidif y themselves, this season might feel like a huge missed opportunity. Because Shea Patterson is the quarterback Michigan has wanted. It would be a shame to let that go to waste. Persak can be reached at mdpers@umich.edu or on Twitter @MikeDPersak or Venmo @Mike-Persak

FIELD HOCKEY

‘M’ opens Big Ten play THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

It wasn’t overtime and it wasn’t a game winner but the No. 10 Michigan field hockey team (1-0 Big Ten, 4-3 overall) notched its third straight victory Friday night. Once again, senior forward Emma Way is to thank. After an onslaught of seven goals in six games to start the season, including two overtime winners last weekend, Way’s dominance came in a more balanced manner on Friday. She assisted two goals in the Wolverines’ 3-1 win over No. 17 Rutgers (0-1, 5-1). Freshman midfielder Kathryn Peterson opened the scoring 25 minutes in with her first collegiate goal on a left-handed shot past Scarlet Knights goalie Gianna Glatz. “It’s just fun,” Peterson said. “And my family was here so that was a little more significant, but it was just one of those goals with a good feeling about it.” Of course, it was Way on the assist. Way came around the backside of Michigan’s press to receive the ball just outside of the circle, where she passed it beyond the last defender into Peterson’s path. “She’s just a machine,” Peterson said. “She’s just a captain that gets the job done. You can look to her for an example. “Emma’s getting her part done, so you gotta go get your part done.” Minutes after the halftime break, Way notched her second assist of the game. This time, she received a corner at the top of the circle, dragged the ball to her left and unleashed a ferocious shot into traffic. Another freshman, midfielder Sofia Southam, got her stick to the ball to deflect it past Glatz. But once again, Way was at the center of the Wolverines’ offense. “She’s just such a special player,” said Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. “She does

some things that a lot of other players can’t even imagine doing.” Unfortunately for Pankratz, last year’s loss of Big Ten Player of the Year Katie Trombetta means she no longer has a defensive counterpart to Way. Early in the season, that posed a challenge for the Wolverines, who allowed 10 goals in three early losses after posting 16 shutouts in 24 tries last year. With three consecutive games of allowing just one goal, that tide may be shifting. Michigan’s defensive spirit was evident on a play late in the first half when Rutgers appeared to have tied the game before redshirt freshman defender Abbey Hutton raced back to slap the ball away from the Wolverines’ goal line. “It’s not luck that she was in the right position to get that ball out,” Pankratz said. “She’s a smart player, and she was in the right position to make that happen. “It’s a very, very young defense. … It’s tremendous what they’ve been able to accomplish. They’ve been really disciplined and communicate well, and they’ve been playing with a lot of confidence, so I’ve been proud of them.” In the end, Way once again sealed the win for Michigan, extending her goal streak to six games in the process. Like her second assist, she received a corner at the top of the circle. This time, she baited two Rutgers defenders into charging at her before calmly taking the ball around them and ripping a shot to the near post to make it 3-1, Wolverines. With that, Michigan completed a dominating win in which it controlled the game from start to finish against an undefeated Rutgers team. “We owned our house,” Peterson said. “And we shut them down when it mattered.” After whiffing on each of their marquee non-conference win opportunities, that was exactly the start to Big Ten play that the Wolverines needed.

SportsMonday

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Two units and two perspectives A s

Donovan Peoples-Jones surveys the media during postgame interviews, he ETHAN compliments WOLFE his quarterback for sparking his collegiate breakthrough performance. Peoples-Jones found the end zone three times in Michigan’s 45-20 victory over SMU, so a little praise was warranted. That very quarterback, junior Shea Patterson, sits beside the wide receiver on stage, squeezing his shoulder after the shoutout. “I feel like we’ve been doing a heck of a better job,” PeoplesJones says of the offense. “Today showed improvement, but we’ve gotta keep working hard.” It is a snapshot of a quarterbackwide receiver duo that has been there, done that in the past. They see the offense is clicking — it has outscored last season’s high of 36 points in consecutive games. Shortly after, Chase Winovich walks into the room with his chest puffed but an expression of nonchalance. The fifth-year senior defensive end is asked if he thinks the defense is as dominant as advertised. “I feel like you’re pigeonholing me into a response,” Winovich says through a grin. The answer to the question, for those with eyes and a television, was a resounding “no.” Allowing 20 points — 15.7 per game on average — wouldn’t qualify as dominant, though it’s a far cry from a concern. But giving up 166 yards and two touchdowns to the Mustangs’ James Proche is. Seven defensive penalties — 13 in total — are. Especially when you are expected to be a top-five defense in the country. “I think we played pretty decent and we could do a lot

better,” said junior safety Josh Metellus, who recorded a pivotal pick-six on Saturday. “We strive on being the best defense in the nation. “Today, we didn’t really look like it.” The dichotomy between the offensive excitement and defensive indifference is uncharacteristic, but unsurprising. The stalwart defense believes it’s trending in the wrong direction, while the identity-seeking offense believes the opposite. Both could be true, but that doesn’t guarantee the same results. Problems with penalties and giving up long plays — those plaguing the Wolverines against SMU — have slowly been injected into their character. Michigan has committed 27 penalties through three games — 113th in the country. A staggering 21 have come on defense, 12 of which have resulted in first downs. Call it early season rust, but that time is evaporating. Call it a byproduct of Don Brown’s aggressive defense — one that’s ranked in the top five nationally the past three seasons — but you

must question if it’s worth it, especially with the toughest games ahead. “How we see ourselves is how we performed in the most recent game, and I felt like we made a lot of mistakes, especially with penalties,” Winovich said. “… That was not ideal, especially when you can’t be extending drives. I feel like SMU wasn’t able to take advantage of those as other teams down the road will.” Against Western Michigan on Sept. 8, penalties and mental lapses were excusable — three of six defensive flags came in garbage time after all. You’d be hard-pressed to find a comment more boilerplate than “we need to improve next week.” Now, the offense and defense combined for another blowout against the Mustangs, but with incongruent evaluations of their respective units. Redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry thought the offense was “getting better every week” with “a lot more to prove.” The forthright Winovich was hardly as anticipative. “It seemed like we were a lot

more confident in the way the game went last week, in terms of just positivity,” Winovich said, “And just, I don’t know — I don’t want to say that we were like, ‘Gee, oh my god, this is amazing.’ But we were definitely more optimistic, just the way things had gone. “... This week, it just felt like we had a lot mistakes and stuff that we need to address. And that was kind of the attitude. Especially in our minds, now shifted to Nebraska, Big Ten play. There’s both of those coming into play. We’re not getting too high on this win.” The sentiment comes as a reckoning for the Wolverines as the Big Ten slate commences. The rosecolored glasses are off on Michigan’s strongest unit, impermeable to Jim Harbaugh’s coachspeak. The Wolverines didn’t look like a team that took a uniform step forward yesterday. But it just depends who you believe, the offense or the defense. Wolfe can be reached at eewolfe@umich.edu or on Twitter @ethanewolfe.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich was a part of a defense that received 13 penalties Saturday afternoon.

Monday, September 17, 2018 — 3B

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Youth gets first action at the Spartan Invitational ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

John Tatter was supposed to run his first collegiate crosscountry race close to home. The Winston-Salem, N.C. native — along with the rest of the Michigan men’s cross country team — was originally slated to compete in a meet hosted by North Carolina State. It would have been the perfect start to a career, the chance to show off his stuff to family and friends while getting acclimated to the world of college cross country. But sometimes, things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to, and for Tatter and the rest of the team, there was a change of plans. Because of Hurricane Florence, Michigan coach Kevin Sullivan decided he didn’t want to risk the safety of his team by traveling to North Carolina. Soon after that, the meet was cancelled and the Wolverines were forced to find a contingency plan. So instead of competing at North Carolina State, Michigan sent its young runners to the Auto Owners’ Spartan Invitational, featuring No. 24 Michigan State and several local teams — many of which compete in Division II or the NAIA — while its regular top four stayed home to train. The Wolverines placed second as a team — behind the Spartans — with a total of 58 points. Tatter placed sixth with a time of 25:21.4 and finished as Michigan’s top-ranked individual. It seemed like an uninspiring performance for a team that last year won the Big Ten Championships. But in some meets, the total focus is on winning while others are more for development, and this was one of the latter.

“We decided that we would leave our top four runners at home to train (because) they’d get better benefit from training through this week than racing here at Michigan State,” Sullivan said. “ … A lot of it was about gaining experience. For a lot of these guys, it was their first time running 8K and it’s a little bit different from what they deal with in high school.” Still, Tatter’s performance flashed potential. Used to running the 5000-meter race, Tatter held his own at the longer distance and made his case for cracking the Wolverines’ lineup later in the season. Redshirt sophomore Joost Plaetnick also impressed, finishing ninth with a time of 25:28.2. “(He) had probably his best competition for us in uniform,” Sullivan said. And despite the lack of top finishers, five Michigan runners placed in the top 20 — Tatter, Plaetnick, redshirt sophomore Jacob Branch, freshman Gabe Mudel and redshirt junior Kevin Hall. With the Wolverines’ change in plans came a change in expectations. Michigan’s mindset shifted from that of the reigning Big Ten champions to a young team looking to get early-season experience. And in that light, while a secondplace finish and the 29th-best score in the country leaves a lot of room for improvement, it also demonstrates the Wolverines’ future potential. “We all need to make a little move forward,” Sullivan said. “But the guys that are here this year are making a nice move towards that. So we have depth, we’re really young, so there’s definitely a big foundation that we’re building for the future.”

‘D’ backs Michigan in Wolverines beat Irish to remain undefeated weekend sweep of ND VOLLEYBALL

TIEN LE

Daily Sports Writer

JAKE KARALEXIS Daily Sports Writer

The score was 17-17 in the first set. After falling behind, 11-4, early to Notre Dame at home, the No. 19 Michigan volleyball team (110) fought all the way back to tie the set. Still struggling to find any real momentum to pull away from the Fighting Irishww, the defense saved four spikes before finishing the point off with a kill to take a lead that they would never surrender, en route to yet another straight set victory. The play in the first set continued the trend of dominant defense that has been the catalyst behind the scorching start to the season for the Wolverines. Led by junior setter Mackenzi Welsh, redshirt junior middle blocker Cori Crocker up front and senior libero Jenna Lerg patrolling the back, Michigan has dominated the opposition with commanding play at all levels. “We were able to come up with some big defensive plays in that first set,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “Senior outside hitter (Carly Skjodt) came up with a couple of big digs, (Welsh) made a couple of digs and next thing you know we’re on a roll.” The digs did play an integral part in the Wolverines’ victory. Lerg, Welsh, Crocker and freshman outside hitter Paige Jones all finished with double-digit digs in

the match, as Michigan outdug Notre Dame 63 to 46. This was the first time since 2016 the Wolverines had four players record doubledigit digs in the same match. “Jenna is a stud at libero. She pretty much can pick up any ball, which is so awesome playing next to her,” Skjodt said. “Our block has done a great job, which makes it easier for our floor defense at the back to read around it and pick up balls that we wouldn’t have been able to pick up otherwise. The digs offer arguably the biggest evidence towards the dominance from Michigan this season. It has 497 digs on the season compared to 385 from its opponents. That averages out to 16.6 digs per set, compared to 12.8 from its opponents. “Digging 3-4 consecutive plays in a row, it’s great. It really gets the crowd going which gets us going,” Lerg said. “It really tires out the other team because it’s exhausting when they keep swinging and keep swinging and don’t get anything in return. I think it really puts the other team at a disadvantage and then once we can finish the point, it’s really a momentum swing.” The defense has kept them in control of their matches time and time again this season. With Big Ten conference play starting, that continued dominance could be the key for the Wolverines to continue to climb the national rankings and raise the ceiling for what this team can accomplish this year.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Senior libero Jenna Lerg has backed a stalwart Michigan defense this season.

For a game with many unexpected turns, there was one constant in the No. 19 Michigan volleyball team’s matchup against Notre Dame. For Michigan, it has been the same story all season long. The Wolverines have had a perfect season, winning nine straight games in sweeps before beating the Fighting Irish on Friday in three straight sets — 25-22, 25-17 and 25-18 — to add another to the streak. The set streak finally came to an end on Sunday, but the winning streak stayed alive. Friday’s match, though it appeared otherwise, did not come easily for Michigan. In fact, to start the match, Notre Dame went on a 11-4 run to push the Wolverines into a calling a timeout in an attempt to shift the momentum. It was evident Michigan was out of sync and sloppy, a moment of lapse the Fighting Irish took advantage of and played to its fullest potential. “(Notre Dame) touch everything with (its) block. They served really aggressively, and they’re digging,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “Our outside hitters hit rockets in the first couple sets that got dug, and we’re just not used to that. So I think a little of that put us on our heels, and we had to figure that out.” And just as Michigan was figuring out adjustments, Notre Dame found a way to match the Wolverines’ efforts. The Fighting Irish also grew negligent. Careless play came from both sides, with Michigan seeing the better end of many rallies. Two Notre Dame service errors, a floater from senior outside hitter Carly Skjodt and a Skjodt service ace later, momentum shifted in favor of the Wolverines to bring them within four. As the dust settled, it became clear who had the better of whom. The pressure then started mounting for both teams, as they battled the remainder of the set, tooth and nail. Just when Notre Dame reclaimed the lead at 21-20, however, errors began to plague the Fighting Irish just as they had

earlier to cost them at the most inopportune time — though part of it was the Michigan stepping up its defensive intensity. A service and two attack errors gave the Wolverines the chance to put the set away, and freshman outside hitter Paige Jones did just that. Jones had a clear view of court as she hit a line drive straight into the center of court, ending the set with two quick kills. Jones, as she has with every game, answered with the composure and patience most veterans learn through experience. She ended with a game-high 13 kills, adding 10 digs for her first career double-double. The patience and cohesiveness that pushed Michigan over the edge at the end of the first set carried over into the second as the Wolverines took the second set in a similar fashion, but with much less of a scare. Instead of being down a large deficit. In part, it was due to the adjustments made by junior setter Mackenzi Welsh. Hesitant to do so in the first set, Welsh started back-row setting in the second that opened the offense to more options previously blocked off by the Fighting Irish front line. By just opening more of the offense to becoming a scoring

threat, the efficiency of the team’s attack increased. While it only had a slight impact in the second, the third benefitted far more from the potent threat of the balanced offense — Michigan’s calling card. “We need balance,” Rosen said. “For us, that’s our style of our game. And (the Fighting Irish are) a team that tries to take your balance away, because they serve really tough, so if your pass isn’t great, and your setter is on the run, she now has one option to set so that’s what they’re trying to do is make you unbalanced. And we’re trying to stay balanced, so that’s kind of like the battle within the battle.” Just look at the numbers. The first set saw a .119 attack average. Well below average initially, thanks to Welsh’s previous expansion of the offense, there was a slight increase to .139 the second set before. the third saw a significant jump to a .441. The only jump more significant would be Paige Jones’ after she cut to the front center and ended the game on an emphatic spike. What made the game tricky for the Wolverines wasn’t just the talent of their opponents — though it was definitely a factor. It

was also the unique playstyle, one that Rosen could only describe as “unorthodox.” “(The Fighting Irish’s) tempo is different,” Rosen said. “Trash balls, kinda like junk balls, it’s very unorthodox, and it can be frustrating for blockers because there are a lot of balls that you can’t block. You do everything right and they just junk it over the top, and they make your front row, opposite front row players play a lot of balls, who stand in transition, it’s hard for them to hit. They clog up your system a lot with what they do.” But the most Notre Dame managed was to stagger — not stop — Michigan’s balanced offense. Key players such as Jones, Skjodt and junior outside hitter Sydney Wetterstrom couldn’t be stopped once they got into a rhythm. The team totalled three hitters with double-digit kills and four with double-digit digs. Welsh, Jones and Skjodt posted double-doubles. “They threw a lot of things at us that we’ve never seen before, just kind of got us off balance a bit,” said senior libero Jenna Lerg. “So being all over the floor just calms us a little bit knowing that they can throw things at us but we’re just going to retaliate.”

EVAN AARON/Daily

Freshman outside hitter Paige Jones finished Friday’s match against Notre Dame with 10 digs and 13 kills, a career-high.

Sports

4B — Monday, September 17, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The arrival of Donovan Peoples-Jones MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Editor

Fairly or not, much as has been expected of Donovan PeoplesJones in his short time with the Michigan football team. The sophomore wide receiver came to Ann Arbor nearly two years ago as a five-star prospect and the highest-ranked member of the Wolverines’ 2017 recruiting class. Despite ample playing opportunity, however, PeoplesJones hadn’t played like it. He was Michigan’s fourth-leading receiver last season and averaged just 6.9 yards-per-catch to start 2018. Though it’s nothing to balk at, those numbers don’t exactly jump off the page. But Peoples-Jones’ performance Saturday did: He made four catches for 90 yards and found the endzone on all three of the Wolverines’ passing touchdowns. “He’s always been a super athletic guy, a freak athlete,” said redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry. “Credit to him taking the next step to learning the playbook inside and out and perfecting his craft coming out of breaks and running his routes. He looks comfortable, and he’s doing a good job.” Peoples-Jones joined Jehu Chesson, Braylon Edwards, Devin Funchess, Jeremy Gallon, Mario Manningham and David Terrell as the only Michigan players with three or more touchdown receptions in a game since 2000. His first touchdown was a gift of the perfect play call. The Wolverines went double-play action — first faking to sophomore Ambry Thomas on a jet sweep, then to junior running back Tru Wilson — before Patterson saw that SMU had blown its coverage. Running a post route, PeoplesJones was wide open and made no mistake finishing the play, racing to find the pylon for a 35-yard score. “The post that Donovan ran

from the slot (was) a terrific route,” Harbaugh said. “About as much separation you can get, really good (throw) by Shea right on the money, good protection on that one. Just like you drew it up.” Though he was a decoy, Thomas was instrumental in the play’s development. After receiving his first career carry in the opening quarter, Michigan ran the same jet sweep action to get the Mustangs’ defense moving opposite People-Jones. “(We ran) at least two maybe three runs earlier in the game to set that play up,” Harbaugh said. “It was a well-designed play and well executed.” Peoples-Jones’ second touchdown, meanwhile, required much more skill. From the Mustangs’ seven yard-line, Patterson lofted an arching fade to Peoples-Jones, who adjusted in textbook fashion to corral the back-shoulder pass. “That was a beautiful route, great catch and terrific throw,” Harbaugh said. It’s the type of play that shows just how talented Patterson is.

Though he wasn’t as sharp as last week — he threw a pick at the goal line and should have been intercepted earlier in the first half — he again made high-level throws consistently, finishing 14-of-18 for 237 yards. The longest of those attempts naturally went to Peoples-Jones. From the Mustangs’ 43-yard line, Peoples-Jones ran a go-route and simply burned SMU’s safety over the top to catch a perfect deep ball from Patterson. “(Donovan’s) a freak athlete,” Patterson said. “He’s very smart, very fast, great football size to him. I know if I throw it up, there’s a lot of trust in him (to make the catch).” Developing chemistry in the passing game is the epitome of a welcome sign for the Wolverines. Their receivers combined for just three touchdowns all last season — the mark Peoples-Jones met Saturday. Last week, sophomore Nico Collins broke Michigan’s 364-day stretch without a wide receiver touchdown before Peoples-Jones caught his first-career score. And

with Gentry — who made four catches for 95 yards Saturday — as well as sophomore Oliver Martin and fifth-year senior Grant Perry also contributing, the Wolverines’ passing attack is continuing to take shape. “(Our rapport with Patterson) has grown a lot,” Gentry said. “It feels good to just spread the ball around, make plays in the passing game and have some statistics there. It’s improved every week since camp started.” Peoples-Jones was nonetheless the clear redzone priority Saturday. He hasn’t lived up to his high school hype just yet, but Saturday was a reminder of Peoples-Jones’ talent and the time he still has to realize his potential. “People forget he’s young,” Gentry said. “I remember coming in as a freshman, and there’s just no way (you can be really good). It’s just a whirlwind. I think him being so young, you see a big leap from the first year to the second year and so on. “Three touchdowns in a day isn’t too bad.”

Daily Sports Writer

Josh Metellus has had more than a fair share of ups and down already in the 2018 season. Less than six minutes into the season opener against Notre Dame, the junior safety was ejected for a targeting call. His replacement, Brad Hawkins, allowed a touchdown on the same drive. But against Western Michigan the following week, Metellus quietly led the defense with seven tackles and 1.5 tackles-for-loss. If history had a say, Metellus was poised for a dip in Saturday’s game against Southern Methodist. And for a moment, with the Wolverines leading just 14-7, it looked to be the case. On the Mustangs’ final drive of the second quarter, wide receiver James Proche — who finished with 11 catches for 166 yard and two scores — ran past the Michigan defense, Metellus included, for 32 yards to the Wolverines’ 24-yard line. Two plays later, with his back turned away from the quarterback, Metellus was called for an ill-

There’s room to improve F

ootball players and coaches love to remind people that there’s always room for improvement. The Michigan football team is no different, and Saturday’s game was not an MIKE exception. PERSAK “Really look forward to a great week of practice for the football team,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the Wolverines beat SMU, 45-20, on Saturday. “We’re getting closer to being good, really good, but we’re still not quite there yet. See improvements can be made. And really looking forward to a great week this week in preparation.” In most cases, the sentiment of Harbaugh’s quote is simply coach speak, because of course every team can always improve. It still probably qualifies as coach speak here, given that the question Harbaugh was asked was whether or not he expects running backs Karan Higdon and Chris Evans to play next week against Nebraska. But even despite that, and despite the Wolverines’ lopsided victory, there were mistakes, sometimes glaring ones, on which Michigan will have to improve. Take, for example, the Mustangs’ first touchdown of the game. Wolverines safety Brad Hawkins and cornerback David Long had some kind of miscommunication, and, whatever it was, it left SMU receiver James Proche running wide open up the sideline. Proche caught the pass from quarterback Ben Hicks and scampered 50 yards to the house. Just like that, a game Michigan should have run away with was tied, 7-7. And based on the final score, you could argue Michigan did run away with it. But it was still a game that saw the Wolverines commit 13 penalties for 137 yards, including a targeting call on junior VIPER Khaleke Hudson which will hold him out of the first half of next week’s game against Nebraska. “You address each of them,” Harbaugh said. “… And penalties are hurting us. That’s something we have to clean up

and get better at. We address each one — technique, what we’re using, the discipline that we have. Get them corrected, get them coached, get improved. Don’t want 13 penalties in a game. Don’t think anybody does.” And of course, there were some mistakes along the offensive line throughout the night, but hashing through those feels like overkill at this point. The thing about all of this is that the mistakes, this time, didn’t matter, because the Wolverines ultimately played well enough to win comfortably. Junior safety Josh Metellus prevented the Mustangs from scoring before half and f lipped the whole feel of the game on its head with his 73-yard interception return for a touchdown. Junior quarterback Shea Patterson continued to show exactly why his arrival was so coveted this offseason, and sophomore wideout Donovan PeoplesJones proved he belongs on this stage with his three touchdowns. The talent on Michigan’s roster is eye-popping, especially against the SMUs of the world. Perhaps that’s what makes the Wolverines’ mental mistakes so mind-boggling. Michigan has time to fix many of these errors before it gets to the meaty part of its schedule, and if it wants to reach its preseason goals, it needs to. Wisconsin, even with its loss to BYU is still a team that will gladly make them pay for 137 penalty yards and blown assignments. Michigan State and Penn State will too. Heck, if Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez returns next week, the Cornhuskers aren’t a team to play around with. The point is this: the Wolverines got by on Saturday with some mistakes because they were always going to beat the Mustangs. The talent gap was far too wide. But there are teams coming soon against whom that kind of thing won’t f ly, and, since those games are the ones that will define the Wolverines’ season, ignoring the gaffes would be disingenuous. Maybe it feels like nitpicking, but in this case, it’s about more than just room to improve.

“Don’t want thirteen penalties in a game.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones made four catches for 90 yards on Saturday afternoon against SMU.

Metellus finds redemption in pick six ETHAN WOLFE

FOOTBALL

advised pass interference. SMU’s drive had the makings of a potential game-tying score with 17 seconds left on the clock. “I don’t think I held them or pass interference or whatever they called,” Metellus said. “... I was mad for like two seconds because I feel like I didn’t do pass interference. I just knew I had to brush that play off and play the next play.” And in the blink of an eye, Metellus’ penalty — one of 13 on the day for Michigan — was forgotten the next play. Metellus said he recognized the formation from a play run earlier on the drive, so he anticipated his coverage. Metellus blanketed his man along the left sideline, and telegraphed quarterback Ben Hicks’ throw, catching it right on the numbers. Memories of Metellus’ Florida high school football days — times he shared with then-teammates Devin Bush and Devin Gil — emerged. “Me, Bush and Gil — we all had picks and we all blocked for each other,” Metellus said. “Seeing (Gil) right in front of me when I caught the ball brought back a memory of me catching the pick

and him blocking for me. I see him and he’s like ‘come on’ and he turned, and I was like ‘I’ve gotta score.’ I knew there was no time left on the clock because before the play I looked up, and it said 17 seconds. I knew had to put some points on the board.” Metellus had nothing but green and those four blockers in front of him. But a straight-line sprint looked more like a rabbit chase. Hicks’ legs were twisted in his downhill pursuit, and with Mustang running back Xavier Jones catching up, Metellus changed course and cut to the middle. As he slowed down, Metellus made a second inside cut past two Mustangs and finally lunged towards the end zone just before being taken down. “I liked the route that I took,” Metellus said through a smile. “I just tried to get in the end zone in any way possible.” Instead of a one-possession game against a subpar SMU team, Michigan headed to the locker room with a twopossession cushion and every ounce of momentum as it headed towards a 45-20 victory. “Our strength coach is big on boxing,” Proche said. “He says if

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Junior safety Josh Metellus returned a tide-turning pick six seconds after being called for pass interference on Saturday.

you take punches in the mouth, you bounce right back. We got punched and didn’t bounce back.” Metellus’ interception — alongside his five tackles — was a bright spot on an otherwise unimpressive defensive performance. The defense collected seven penalties for 72 yards — 37 of which came on one drive that ended in an SMU touchdown. It was both a testament to the errors the defense still must eradicate as well as how well the Wolverines respond to mistakes. Metellus is less an exception and more of a figurehead to that testament. The nature of Don Brown’s defense often leaves Metellus in isolation, leaving it up to him to win one-on-one coverage or to spy on a potential run or short throw. Some may call the role thankless, but it’s a give-and-take that Metellus acknowledges. “I feel like I could play at a higher level,” Metellus said. “I’ve made some good plays so far throughout the season. I’ve had some plays that I wish I could have back. So far, I feel like I could take another step to help the team out more. Not that I’m playing bad, I just feel like I’ve got more in me that I could help the team win.” The score was lopsided against the Mustangs, but even the 20 points Michigan allowed seemed excessive. The indifference in Metellus’ words — “not that I’m playing bad” — is recognition of the room for improvement. One defensive touchdown can’t erase the seven defensive penalties. “You address each of them,” said coach Jim Harbaugh. “I know some of them were penalties. Penalties are hurting us, we have to clean up and get better at it. … I don’t want 13 penalties in a game.” If you’re Metellus, you recognize the need to change, but admire his unit’s short-term memory and resiliency. It’s something the junior safety has refined each season, and his pick six is living proof of that.

“Get them corrected, get them coached, get improved.”

Persak can be reached at mdpers@umich.edu or on Twitter @MikeDPersak or Venmo @Mike-Persak

EVAN AARON/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson threw for three touchdowns on Saturday.