George Jewett was the first Black football player in the Big Ten, playing for both the Michigan Wolverines and the Northwestern Wildcats in the 1890's. In Ann Arbor, he was a fullback that was viewed as one of the stars of the nascent Wolverine football program, and in Evanston he continued to have an impact both on and off the field as he finished a medical degree.
A and an . Introducing the George Jewett Trophy. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/f2CJUjTwdv
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) October 23, 2021
Dr. Jewett's story is a fascinating and important one, and he is the perfect person for Michigan and Northwestern to honor for their rivalry. There is a lot that you should read to learn about this legendary figure, but in all sincerity: this is a fantastic idea and I'm glad that George Jewett is being recognized in this way.
"This is a historic moment in major college football history," said Warde Manuel, U-M's Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics. "We are proud to partner with our peer institution, Northwestern, to recognize and honor an African American pioneer in George Jewett. George achieved at a high level as an athlete and doctor. His hard work and effort led to success not only for himself, but for those who would follow a similar path after him."
Plus, the trophy itself kicks ass, carrying on the fine tradition of the Big Ten having by far the best trophy games in college football. The George Jewett Trophy is almost 100 pounds of solid brass, or approximately the average weight of your typical co-ed in the late 19th century. Congrats to his family (some of whom were in attendance on Saturday) and good on Northwestern and Michigan for putting this together.
THE OFFENSE
The Cade McNamara experience can probably be summed up in a short sequence with about six minutes left in the first quarter. After having successfully thrown a handful of little out routes to the flat, McNamara hucked a 1st and 10 pass into double coverage 50 yards downfield, badly underthrowing Mike Sainristil. On the next play, he blindly launched a bomb to Cornelius Johnson, who had to play defense to prevent an interception. On 3rd and 10 he completed a pass for six yards and Michigan punted.
And that's Cade McNamara. He isn't a bad quarterback; he's good at doing exactly what is asked of him and not one iota more than that. McNamara is ranked 95th in the country in yards per game, 55th in completion percentage, 69th in quarterback rating, and 61st in yards per attempt. Were there some offensive line injuries? Sure. But that 20/29 passing for 129 yards seems to be just who McNamara is didn't matter in a 33-7 win against the Wildcats, and Harbaugh and company are hoping that it won't matter against Michigan State, or Penn State, or Ohio State.
It's hard for any Michigan fan to complain about 300 yards of rushing, however. Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum can do some gamebreaking things from time to time, and eventually the Northwestern defense (which is actually kind of terrible!) wilted under the pressure of the Wolverine run game.
THE DEFENSE
It should probably be pointed out that even though this game was 10-7 at halftime, there was never any real doubt that Michigan would win. Northwestern couldn't get anything going offensively, except the one time that they did.
The reason for those seven halftime points was a 75 yard run from Northwestern's Evan Hull, a guy who averaged 1.2 yards per carry on his other five times toting the rock. Point being, sometimes it is incumbent on Michigan's defense to play perfectly, because if they don't, their offense might not always be there to pick up the slack.
That happened this time! The Wolverine pass rush harassed Northwestern quarterback Ryan Hilinski all game and the Wildcats had just 233 yards of total offense. Everything is great for them forever.
CLOVERFIELD (2008)
Cloverfield is kind of a "meh" disaster movie with a cinéma vérité hook, but what I think makes it significant isn't the film itself, it's the insane amount of fan engagement and viral marketing in the leadup to its release. Every character had a Myspace page (remember, 2008), there were sites made for fictional products that appeared in the movie, and if you snooped around them enough you might even find a phone number that gave out cryptic prerecorded information. Even the name of the movie felt like an obtuse clue. It felt new and exciting and people ate it up, sharing ideas and theories and terrible image edits on their LiveJournal accounts. It all ended up being more fun than the actual movie.
Yes, I'm still salty that the monster wasn't that cool whale-looking guy. God!
THREAT LEVEL
Here we go! Michigan is about to play a somebody to counter all the nobodies that have populated their schedule so far. What Michigan State should reveal is if Harbaugh's formula of leaning on an extremely competent defense to bolster a consistent but predictably limited offense is a viable one for the meat of the season. The Wolverines have opened as four point favorites, which seems about right.
The Threat Level is ELEVATED.
