DotComp: Something famliar is afoot
Jim Comparoni | Publisher
EAST LANSING - For guys like Chris Frey, Demetrious Cooper and Jake Hartbarger, it was like old times.
For guys like Brian Lewerke and Joe Bachie, it was like new times.
For guys like Felton Davis and Matt Sokol, it was like good times.
Michigan State’s 17-10 victory over Iowa on Saturday wasn’t a perfect game for the Spartans, but it might have been a perfect step toward re-harnessing the brand of football that enabled Mark Dantonio to win a Big Ten divisional or conference championship four times since 2010.
Michigan State’s flow chart for success on Saturday against the Hawkeyes went like this: excellent defense, no mistakes on offense, strong punting game, try to beat us.
It was a formula Frey, Hartbarger and Cooper knew well as regulars on the 2015 Big Ten Championship team. Cooper had five sacks that year as part of the nickel defense, but struggled last year with no sacks as a starter when his responsibility increased but his productivity dipped.
Cooper got back on the sack board against the Hawkeyes with one sack, and a QB pressure that led directly to a muffled, mistaken throw which Bachie intercepted.
Michigan State's pass rush was good against Iowa, perhaps surprisingly good. Cooper closed the show with a sack on the game's final play, killing the Hawkeyes deep in their own territory after MSU confidently, brazenly, was willing to run the ball, run clock, burn Iowa time outs, and punt it back to Iowa and invite them to try to go 84 yards in :45 seconds on a day in which they mustered only 11 first downs. They didn't come close. Cooper helped see to it. It was just like old times.
Bachie helped get the defense set against Iowa’s tight end motions, and the Hawkeyes’ trademark outside zone run game. He benefitted from stellar play in front of him by defensive tackles Raequan Williams and Mike Panasiuk.
The d-linemen put a dent in Iowa blockers, and Bachie was often able to scrape and pursue on straight, aggressive treks. Bachie arrived forceful tackles. He, and his defensive linemen, were the major players in holding Iowa to just 19 net yards rushing. That figure should raise eyebrows around the Big Ten.
Wins are wins. Big offensive numbers are big offensive numbers. But when a team with Michigan State’s recent past and pedigree holds Iowa to 19 yards rushing, that’s a red flag for the rest of the conference. Sparty is getting back in shape.
Bachie wasn’t around for any of the championships, but he is on track to become as good as any middle linebacker Dantonio has had, possibly better.
Lewerke redshirted during the Big Ten Championship season of 2015. He watched Connor Cook close out a career that helped the Spartans go 38-6 over the course of his last 43 games at Michigan State.
Now, Lewerke is a sophomore. He has a quick release, a good arm, a good mind and he’s usually accurate.
Against Iowa, Lewerke sizzled through an opening-series touchdown drive. The economics major cooled off in the second half, and finished 18-of-28 for 212 yards with two touchdowns, no interceptions, and four quarters of credit toward a double-major in game management.
Lewerke will become a game-changer some day, maybe soon. But for now, in this two-week introduction to the Big Ten season against a pair of manly defenses in Iowa and Michigan, Spartan coaches need him to be a game manager. But they still expect wins.
“Connor went 13-1 as a sophomore,” Dantonio said. “So that’s the standard.”
No pressure, Brian.
Dantonio realized the unintentional weight of his statement. He watered it down by pointing out that Michigan State went 6-6 during the regular season (6-7 overall) during Kirk Cousins’ sophomore year - a season in which the Spartans probably sacrificed some wins in order to figure out whether Cousins was a better choice than Keith Nichol at quarterback.
There’s nothing to figure out at quarterback this year for the Spartans - other than Lewerke’s quest to avoid over-aggressive mistakes. He’s better right now than Cook or Cousins were during September of their sophomore seasons.
But, as was the case with his predecessors when they were sophomores, Lewerke is immersed in a required course of risk aversion.
On Saturday, Lewerke was effective in pumping the brakes and steering clear of trouble, eschewing the temptation to try to push every play to its max. Sometimes it’s wise to choke things down. That's what he did a better job of in this game.
Two Examples:
1. On third-and-eight during Michigan State’s second drive of the game, Lewerke dropped back to pass, surveyed both sides of the field, had a chance to force a pass to Felton Davis and try to move the chains, but instead attempted to escape the pocket for a scramble. Iowa sacked him.
Sacks aren’t ideal. But with a 7-0 lead, and the Spartan defense off to a good start, the ball near mid-field, and no one open, a sack is better than a risk at that point in the game - especially after a week of heavy emphasis on ball security, especially against an Iowa defense with a penchant for takeaways.
Michigan State punted from its 41-yard line, with rising weapon Jake Hartbarger banging a 50-yarder to the Iowa 9-yard line.
Three plays later, Iowa punted back to Michigan State, with the Spartans receiving and returning to the Iowa 42.
Michigan State gained 17 yards on that punt exchange. The Spartans dominated the punt exchanges in this defensive struggle all day. That’s something Lewerke can begin logging in the back of his game-management mind.
“It was huge,” Dantonio said of Hartbarger’s impact on the game.
The junior from Waterville, Ohio redshirted during the Cotton Bowl year of 2014. He averaged 42.7 yards per punt as a freshman in 2015 for Michigan State’s College Football Playoff team. He is in his third year as a starter, and Dantonio feels Hartbarger is entering a new realm of mastery.
“He has tremendous talent,” Dantonio said, “but I’ve been waiting for a couple years for him to start punting like he's going to the fair.”
Going to the fair?
“When you go the fair and everything is going well for you, you have a lot of confidence that you can shoot the hoops, you go over and pitch a penny,” Dantonio said. “You can do all these different things and you can just enjoy going out there.”
They probably don’t have a punting booth at most small-town Ohio fairs, but we understand the analogy.
“That's where he's at right now,” Dantonio said. “He can punt very, very well and he knows that. He's in rhythm.”
And Michigan State is getting into rhythm too. Like old times.
LEWERKE LEARNING QUICKLY
For Lewerke, the lessons of the Notre Dame loss danced in his head all week. He threw a pick-six on Michigan State’s first possession last week, forcing a pass against Notre Dame’s zone defense. He threw to the left (the man-to-man route side of the field for that play) when the coverage read should have led him to throw to his right where the coaches had dialed up a route combination for a zone defense, if ND happened to be in zone on that play.
Notre Dame didn’t disguise its coverage on that play. The Irish showed a two-high zone at pre-snap, at the snap and after the snap. But for reasons that he still can’t explain, Lewerke was baited into throwing the short out route.
Lewerke will throw more interceptions in his career at Michigan State. But he’ll never throw another one like that, making the decision to force the ball into the man-to-man side of the field when the defense was obviously in zone.
“He knows that he made some bad decisions last week, and he emphasized it this week,” said co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner.
2. With 3:30 left, and Michigan State up 17-10, Lewerke made another terrific decision.
On third-and-12 at the Spartan 46, Lewerke had three receivers to his right.
The two inside receivers ran a pair of layered post routes.
The outside receiver ran a shallow crossing route, cutting beneath them.
The Hawkeyes played man-to-man defense on third down, as we said they would in the Pre-Snap Read. And Lewerke’s legs made Iowa pay in a key third-down situation, as we said they would in the Pre-Snap Read.
Lewerke expected man-to-man on third down. But what kind of man-to-man would the Hawkeyes play?
Iowa opted for a two-high man-to-man, meaning two safeties stayed deep.
With two safeties deep, and everyone else in man-to-man underneath, that meant the linebackers and corners would have their backs to the QB. And it meant the safeties would be too deep to react to him quickly.
“When they are in two high safeties and in man-to-man,” Lewerke said, “they don’t have anyone accounting for the quarterback.”
He could have forced a throw somewhere. But the QB scramble was the better decision.
He tucked and ran. He has a quick first step, and quick acceleration into his second and third gear. He might not have the fourth gear of a sprinter, but those first three gears are good.
He easily, quickly ate up 10 yards. But then the play-side safety, Amani Hooker, started toward Lewerke like a heat-seeking missile.
Hooker is the best hitter/tackle at the defensive back position that I’ve seen in the Big Ten all year. Lewerke sprinted toward Hooker, knowing if he slid safely, he wouldn’t pick up first down yardage. Lewerke went full-tilt headfirst anyway, somehow avoided a big hit from Hooker, and picked up the first down with a gain of 15 yards, the longest rushing play of the day for either team.
When Dantonio said this game was a gut win, he was talking about plays like this. Lewerke risked himself to get that first down.
Michigan State’s chances of holding on and winning this game increased dramatically after that quarterback scramble.
“That was a big play, to give us another copule of minutes off the clock, which I thought was huge,” Dantonio said. “They used their time outs. It took the clock away.”
As big, tough and fast as Cook was, Warner could never get him to tuck and scramble for the chains as often as the offense needed it. The coaches don’t have that problem with Lewerke.
After the game, Warner came down from the press box, and went straight to Lewerke.
“I told him after the game that I think he took a big step forward today as far as being the quarterback that we need him to be,” Warner said. “We just need him to keep going in that direction.”
But they don’t want Lewerke to go rogue like he did on third-and-one at the Iowa 20-yard line, early in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State had had a miserable time gaining anything in short yardage situations up to that point in the game.
This time, facing third-and-short, the Spartans opted against their usual heavy package of a fullback and tight ends. Instead, Michigan State spread out three wide receivers.
The Spartans looked like they wanted to try running the ball against a less densely-packed defensive front, using the receivers to pull defenders out of the box. But instead, Lewerke saw Davis in a favorable cornerback matchup. Lewerke audibled to throw a deep fade to his tall receiver, who had been the dominant player on the field in the first half.
Lewerke didn’t put enough loft on the pass. Davis never had much of a chance to catch it. Geniuses like myself in the press box chalked it up as a terrible play call. We didn’t know Lewerke had pulled an executive decision, and a poor one.
“Can’t audible on third-and-one,” Dantonio said after the game, “and get your coach upset.”
He was upset enough to mention it three times during the post-game press conference, yet able to smile about it, because of the victory.
Lewerke wasn’t perfect. But he won. He scared his coaches while doing it. Like Cook used to do. Like old times. But they’re also new times. Cook was one of the faces of the program. But it’s common knowledge that he wasn’t the most lovable leader in the locker room. Lewerke is different. He’s a benevolent general. He’s putting his own brand on things. And he’ll have another 30-plus games to craft that brand. Like new times.
And he’ll do it this year, and next, with Davis and Sokol as major pieces in his platoon.
Sokol had two catches for 24 yards. But he also fumbled inside the 5-yard line on a rare opportunity to carry the ball on an end sweep, with Michigan State leading 7-0 in the first quarter.
The way MSU’s season had gone up to that point, no one would have been surprised if Sokol’s fumble had been scooped up by Iowa and returned 95 yards for a touchdown and a sudden 7-7 tie after the Spartans had dominated the first quarter.
But this day was different. Sokol managed to recover the fumble. Lewerke hooked up with Davis on a fade route in the end zone for a touchdown on the next play, to put Michigan State up 14-0.
Catastrophe averted.
Good times.
MONSTER TARGETS
Sokol and Davis were reserves on the 2015 team, and last year’s 3-9 team. They had a few moments of contributions, but stayed mostly in the background.
Sokol has emerged as a reliable, sizable, athletic target over the middle. And he has more to give on vertical routes down the seam. His game will continue to expand.
Davis, at 6-4, 195, is developing into a monster receiver. He is a big target with a large catch radius. He’s becoming a weapon. On Saturday, he fired more loudly than ever.
Davis had nine catches for 114 yards with two touchdowns.
The biggest difference between Michigan State and Iowa on this day was that the Spartans had Felton Davis and Iowa had nothing of the sort.
Davis rarely played as a true freshman in 2015, but rose abruptly at the end of that season to post catches of 28 and 22 yards in the two biggest games of the year - against Ohio State and Alabama in the postseason.
But then he was bothered by injuries last year and had only 12 catches.
“I know my first two years didn't really go as how I wanted them to,” Davis said. “I learned from Burb (Aaron Burbidge) and RJ (Shelton), and I sat there with them and I watched them make plays. And I know I have the same ability that they have to make plays. So, I have confidence in myself."
And he also has that extra Spartan element that has served the program well under Dantonio.
“Coming to Michigan State, we pride ourselves on chips on our shoulders,” Davis said. “So I feel like every time we step on the field as a whole, we have something to prove."
They'll take that chip to Ann Arbor next Saturday, with a growing level of confidence and a more proven version of Davis.
Did Davis think he was going to have a career day in this game against Iowa?
“I think that every day,” Davis said.
His comment drew laughter at the press conference, with Lewerke having the biggest, happiest chuckle.
The press conference had become fun.
This whole thing … was fun.
Again.
The new times were like old times. Good times.
And they’re eager for more.
Jim Comparoni | Publisher
EAST LANSING - For guys like Chris Frey, Demetrious Cooper and Jake Hartbarger, it was like old times.
For guys like Brian Lewerke and Joe Bachie, it was like new times.
For guys like Felton Davis and Matt Sokol, it was like good times.
Michigan State’s 17-10 victory over Iowa on Saturday wasn’t a perfect game for the Spartans, but it might have been a perfect step toward re-harnessing the brand of football that enabled Mark Dantonio to win a Big Ten divisional or conference championship four times since 2010.
Michigan State’s flow chart for success on Saturday against the Hawkeyes went like this: excellent defense, no mistakes on offense, strong punting game, try to beat us.
It was a formula Frey, Hartbarger and Cooper knew well as regulars on the 2015 Big Ten Championship team. Cooper had five sacks that year as part of the nickel defense, but struggled last year with no sacks as a starter when his responsibility increased but his productivity dipped.
Cooper got back on the sack board against the Hawkeyes with one sack, and a QB pressure that led directly to a muffled, mistaken throw which Bachie intercepted.
Michigan State's pass rush was good against Iowa, perhaps surprisingly good. Cooper closed the show with a sack on the game's final play, killing the Hawkeyes deep in their own territory after MSU confidently, brazenly, was willing to run the ball, run clock, burn Iowa time outs, and punt it back to Iowa and invite them to try to go 84 yards in :45 seconds on a day in which they mustered only 11 first downs. They didn't come close. Cooper helped see to it. It was just like old times.
Bachie helped get the defense set against Iowa’s tight end motions, and the Hawkeyes’ trademark outside zone run game. He benefitted from stellar play in front of him by defensive tackles Raequan Williams and Mike Panasiuk.
The d-linemen put a dent in Iowa blockers, and Bachie was often able to scrape and pursue on straight, aggressive treks. Bachie arrived forceful tackles. He, and his defensive linemen, were the major players in holding Iowa to just 19 net yards rushing. That figure should raise eyebrows around the Big Ten.
Wins are wins. Big offensive numbers are big offensive numbers. But when a team with Michigan State’s recent past and pedigree holds Iowa to 19 yards rushing, that’s a red flag for the rest of the conference. Sparty is getting back in shape.
Bachie wasn’t around for any of the championships, but he is on track to become as good as any middle linebacker Dantonio has had, possibly better.
Lewerke redshirted during the Big Ten Championship season of 2015. He watched Connor Cook close out a career that helped the Spartans go 38-6 over the course of his last 43 games at Michigan State.
Now, Lewerke is a sophomore. He has a quick release, a good arm, a good mind and he’s usually accurate.
Against Iowa, Lewerke sizzled through an opening-series touchdown drive. The economics major cooled off in the second half, and finished 18-of-28 for 212 yards with two touchdowns, no interceptions, and four quarters of credit toward a double-major in game management.
Lewerke will become a game-changer some day, maybe soon. But for now, in this two-week introduction to the Big Ten season against a pair of manly defenses in Iowa and Michigan, Spartan coaches need him to be a game manager. But they still expect wins.
“Connor went 13-1 as a sophomore,” Dantonio said. “So that’s the standard.”
No pressure, Brian.
Dantonio realized the unintentional weight of his statement. He watered it down by pointing out that Michigan State went 6-6 during the regular season (6-7 overall) during Kirk Cousins’ sophomore year - a season in which the Spartans probably sacrificed some wins in order to figure out whether Cousins was a better choice than Keith Nichol at quarterback.
There’s nothing to figure out at quarterback this year for the Spartans - other than Lewerke’s quest to avoid over-aggressive mistakes. He’s better right now than Cook or Cousins were during September of their sophomore seasons.
But, as was the case with his predecessors when they were sophomores, Lewerke is immersed in a required course of risk aversion.
On Saturday, Lewerke was effective in pumping the brakes and steering clear of trouble, eschewing the temptation to try to push every play to its max. Sometimes it’s wise to choke things down. That's what he did a better job of in this game.
Two Examples:
1. On third-and-eight during Michigan State’s second drive of the game, Lewerke dropped back to pass, surveyed both sides of the field, had a chance to force a pass to Felton Davis and try to move the chains, but instead attempted to escape the pocket for a scramble. Iowa sacked him.
Sacks aren’t ideal. But with a 7-0 lead, and the Spartan defense off to a good start, the ball near mid-field, and no one open, a sack is better than a risk at that point in the game - especially after a week of heavy emphasis on ball security, especially against an Iowa defense with a penchant for takeaways.
Michigan State punted from its 41-yard line, with rising weapon Jake Hartbarger banging a 50-yarder to the Iowa 9-yard line.
Three plays later, Iowa punted back to Michigan State, with the Spartans receiving and returning to the Iowa 42.
Michigan State gained 17 yards on that punt exchange. The Spartans dominated the punt exchanges in this defensive struggle all day. That’s something Lewerke can begin logging in the back of his game-management mind.
“It was huge,” Dantonio said of Hartbarger’s impact on the game.
The junior from Waterville, Ohio redshirted during the Cotton Bowl year of 2014. He averaged 42.7 yards per punt as a freshman in 2015 for Michigan State’s College Football Playoff team. He is in his third year as a starter, and Dantonio feels Hartbarger is entering a new realm of mastery.
“He has tremendous talent,” Dantonio said, “but I’ve been waiting for a couple years for him to start punting like he's going to the fair.”
Going to the fair?
“When you go the fair and everything is going well for you, you have a lot of confidence that you can shoot the hoops, you go over and pitch a penny,” Dantonio said. “You can do all these different things and you can just enjoy going out there.”
They probably don’t have a punting booth at most small-town Ohio fairs, but we understand the analogy.
“That's where he's at right now,” Dantonio said. “He can punt very, very well and he knows that. He's in rhythm.”
And Michigan State is getting into rhythm too. Like old times.
LEWERKE LEARNING QUICKLY
For Lewerke, the lessons of the Notre Dame loss danced in his head all week. He threw a pick-six on Michigan State’s first possession last week, forcing a pass against Notre Dame’s zone defense. He threw to the left (the man-to-man route side of the field for that play) when the coverage read should have led him to throw to his right where the coaches had dialed up a route combination for a zone defense, if ND happened to be in zone on that play.
Notre Dame didn’t disguise its coverage on that play. The Irish showed a two-high zone at pre-snap, at the snap and after the snap. But for reasons that he still can’t explain, Lewerke was baited into throwing the short out route.
Lewerke will throw more interceptions in his career at Michigan State. But he’ll never throw another one like that, making the decision to force the ball into the man-to-man side of the field when the defense was obviously in zone.
“He knows that he made some bad decisions last week, and he emphasized it this week,” said co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner.
2. With 3:30 left, and Michigan State up 17-10, Lewerke made another terrific decision.
On third-and-12 at the Spartan 46, Lewerke had three receivers to his right.
The two inside receivers ran a pair of layered post routes.
The outside receiver ran a shallow crossing route, cutting beneath them.
The Hawkeyes played man-to-man defense on third down, as we said they would in the Pre-Snap Read. And Lewerke’s legs made Iowa pay in a key third-down situation, as we said they would in the Pre-Snap Read.
Lewerke expected man-to-man on third down. But what kind of man-to-man would the Hawkeyes play?
Iowa opted for a two-high man-to-man, meaning two safeties stayed deep.
With two safeties deep, and everyone else in man-to-man underneath, that meant the linebackers and corners would have their backs to the QB. And it meant the safeties would be too deep to react to him quickly.
“When they are in two high safeties and in man-to-man,” Lewerke said, “they don’t have anyone accounting for the quarterback.”
He could have forced a throw somewhere. But the QB scramble was the better decision.
He tucked and ran. He has a quick first step, and quick acceleration into his second and third gear. He might not have the fourth gear of a sprinter, but those first three gears are good.
He easily, quickly ate up 10 yards. But then the play-side safety, Amani Hooker, started toward Lewerke like a heat-seeking missile.
Hooker is the best hitter/tackle at the defensive back position that I’ve seen in the Big Ten all year. Lewerke sprinted toward Hooker, knowing if he slid safely, he wouldn’t pick up first down yardage. Lewerke went full-tilt headfirst anyway, somehow avoided a big hit from Hooker, and picked up the first down with a gain of 15 yards, the longest rushing play of the day for either team.
When Dantonio said this game was a gut win, he was talking about plays like this. Lewerke risked himself to get that first down.
Michigan State’s chances of holding on and winning this game increased dramatically after that quarterback scramble.
“That was a big play, to give us another copule of minutes off the clock, which I thought was huge,” Dantonio said. “They used their time outs. It took the clock away.”
As big, tough and fast as Cook was, Warner could never get him to tuck and scramble for the chains as often as the offense needed it. The coaches don’t have that problem with Lewerke.
After the game, Warner came down from the press box, and went straight to Lewerke.
“I told him after the game that I think he took a big step forward today as far as being the quarterback that we need him to be,” Warner said. “We just need him to keep going in that direction.”
But they don’t want Lewerke to go rogue like he did on third-and-one at the Iowa 20-yard line, early in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State had had a miserable time gaining anything in short yardage situations up to that point in the game.
This time, facing third-and-short, the Spartans opted against their usual heavy package of a fullback and tight ends. Instead, Michigan State spread out three wide receivers.
The Spartans looked like they wanted to try running the ball against a less densely-packed defensive front, using the receivers to pull defenders out of the box. But instead, Lewerke saw Davis in a favorable cornerback matchup. Lewerke audibled to throw a deep fade to his tall receiver, who had been the dominant player on the field in the first half.
Lewerke didn’t put enough loft on the pass. Davis never had much of a chance to catch it. Geniuses like myself in the press box chalked it up as a terrible play call. We didn’t know Lewerke had pulled an executive decision, and a poor one.
“Can’t audible on third-and-one,” Dantonio said after the game, “and get your coach upset.”
He was upset enough to mention it three times during the post-game press conference, yet able to smile about it, because of the victory.
Lewerke wasn’t perfect. But he won. He scared his coaches while doing it. Like Cook used to do. Like old times. But they’re also new times. Cook was one of the faces of the program. But it’s common knowledge that he wasn’t the most lovable leader in the locker room. Lewerke is different. He’s a benevolent general. He’s putting his own brand on things. And he’ll have another 30-plus games to craft that brand. Like new times.
And he’ll do it this year, and next, with Davis and Sokol as major pieces in his platoon.
Sokol had two catches for 24 yards. But he also fumbled inside the 5-yard line on a rare opportunity to carry the ball on an end sweep, with Michigan State leading 7-0 in the first quarter.
The way MSU’s season had gone up to that point, no one would have been surprised if Sokol’s fumble had been scooped up by Iowa and returned 95 yards for a touchdown and a sudden 7-7 tie after the Spartans had dominated the first quarter.
But this day was different. Sokol managed to recover the fumble. Lewerke hooked up with Davis on a fade route in the end zone for a touchdown on the next play, to put Michigan State up 14-0.
Catastrophe averted.
Good times.
MONSTER TARGETS
Sokol and Davis were reserves on the 2015 team, and last year’s 3-9 team. They had a few moments of contributions, but stayed mostly in the background.
Sokol has emerged as a reliable, sizable, athletic target over the middle. And he has more to give on vertical routes down the seam. His game will continue to expand.
Davis, at 6-4, 195, is developing into a monster receiver. He is a big target with a large catch radius. He’s becoming a weapon. On Saturday, he fired more loudly than ever.
Davis had nine catches for 114 yards with two touchdowns.
The biggest difference between Michigan State and Iowa on this day was that the Spartans had Felton Davis and Iowa had nothing of the sort.
Davis rarely played as a true freshman in 2015, but rose abruptly at the end of that season to post catches of 28 and 22 yards in the two biggest games of the year - against Ohio State and Alabama in the postseason.
But then he was bothered by injuries last year and had only 12 catches.
“I know my first two years didn't really go as how I wanted them to,” Davis said. “I learned from Burb (Aaron Burbidge) and RJ (Shelton), and I sat there with them and I watched them make plays. And I know I have the same ability that they have to make plays. So, I have confidence in myself."
And he also has that extra Spartan element that has served the program well under Dantonio.
“Coming to Michigan State, we pride ourselves on chips on our shoulders,” Davis said. “So I feel like every time we step on the field as a whole, we have something to prove."
They'll take that chip to Ann Arbor next Saturday, with a growing level of confidence and a more proven version of Davis.
Did Davis think he was going to have a career day in this game against Iowa?
“I think that every day,” Davis said.
His comment drew laughter at the press conference, with Lewerke having the biggest, happiest chuckle.
The press conference had become fun.
This whole thing … was fun.
Again.
The new times were like old times. Good times.
And they’re eager for more.
