Michigan's conditioning improving heading into Northwestern game
CHICAGO (AP) -- Chad Henne might have been mistaken for a coach wearing a cap and headset on the sideline last week, had it not been for that protective sleeve covering his right knee.
How he'll be dressed when Michigan visits Northwestern on Saturday remains to be seen. Henne has medical clearance to play, but getting it from Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr is another issue.
"We really are encouraged by where he is," Carr said. "But we just have to look at him and see."
While the quarterback's pain appears to be fading, so does the program's. Suddenly, a season that seemed dead has some life.
The scars from that bone-jarring 34-32 loss to Appalachian State and the 39-7 pummeling by Oregon the following week are fading. The Wolverines (2-2, 1-0 Big Ten) took a small step toward redemption by beating lowly Notre Dame 38-0 and a giant leap with last week's 14-9 victory over then-No. 10 Penn State. Now, they hit the road for the first time.
"I think you always have to take the good and the bad from the game," said saftey Jamar Adams, who broke up five passes against the Nittany Lions. "And that's definitely one thing we can take, good from the game. It was a physical game. We came out. We played tough. That's one thing we kind of pride ourselves on. We want to be able to go out there and physically be able to match up with people if they're running the football or whatever. We just did a good job. We felt confident in the game plan as well, so it was a good game for us."
They'll try to keep the good feelings going against a Northwestern team that that saw star running back Tyrell Sutton suffer an ankle injury three weeks ago, then got stunned at home by Duke and blown out by Ohio State. A 1,000-yard rusher each of his first two seasons, Sutton was injured during the second quarter of a 36-31 victory over Nevada on Sept. 8 and is expected to miss his third game.
Without him, Northwestern (2-2, 0-1) fell 20-14 to a Duke team that had lost 22 straight and got flattened by Ohio State last week, 58-7.
While Sutton heals, Michigan's Mike Hart will try to set his school's all-time rushing record.
The nation's leader with 655 yards, he's 138 shy of Anthony Thomas' mark (4,472) and could take the top spot on Saturday. He carried a career-high 44 times for 153 yards against Penn State and has run for at least 127 in each game.
"Mike's a great leader, and all he cares about is going out there and working his butt off every time," center Justin Boren said. "He's one heck of a worker, and he's never going to give up. It's a pleasure blocking for a guy like him. He's got so much heart, and he does a great job."
No one needed to remind Northwestern linebacker Adam Kadela.
"We're going to have to be a lot more physical tackling against them, he's a great running back," he said. "He runs hard, and if you try to arm tackle, he'll be laughing as he's running past you."
Who will hand off to Mike Hart was not clear.
While Henne closes in on a return from the injury he suffered against Oregon, freshman Ryan Mallett continues to grow into the role.
After the routing Notre Dame, Michigan gave him more of its complex offense for the Penn State game, and he continued to show the skills that made him one of the Wolverines' top recruits. Ryan Mallett converted a pair of third-down passes late in the Penn State game to take 4 1/2 minutes off the clock and was 16-of-29 for 170 yards. He threw an interception but scored the game's first touchdown on a 10-yard run.
Although Carr said Ryan Mallett made more mistakes than he did against Notre Dame, the coach attributed that to the added load.
"I think Ryan Mallett will continue to improve," Carr said. "That's why at practice and those games, opportunities where he gets a chance, every snap he gets he should learn from. I do expect that he's going to get better."
See more
at www.sportingnews.com
| 
