ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It appeared that the rout was even more on than anticipated when Michigan football looked to have its second interception of the day on Saturday.
In tight coverage, new Michigan cornerback Josh Wallace turned on a dime to face the quarterback, and as the ball hit off of the wide receiver’s hands, Wallace corralled it for what looked like an impressive pick. However, as the Wolverine offense took the field, it was stalled by an officials’ time out before they headed back to the sideline. The play was waived off and the East Carolina offense remained on the field.
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So what happened? Why was it deemed an incomplete pass? Acting head coach Jesse Minter shared more about what the officials’ line of thinking was in that moment.
“Yeah, so the receiver made contact with the ball while he was out of bounds first, before Josh really had control of it,” Minter said. “So because he was touching out of bounds and the ball — Josh was actually in bounds, but it was deemed out of bounds because the receiver was touching it while he was out of bounds.”
The asinine rules aside, the play that wasn’t was a solid one by the former UMass player who transferred in late this offseason.
With Will Johnson out with an injury, Wallace was primed as the No. 1 cornerback for the Wolverines on Saturday. Along with former walk-on Keshaun Harris who started in the opposite position, Minter feels like the duo did a good job in Week 1.
“I thought Josh did a great job,” Minter said. “I was confident in him. And he stepped up to the challenge. I thought he and Keshaun Harris, both, like just steady, consistent, pretty sticky coverage. Overall, I thought Mike (Sainristil) set the tone early with a great interception, something that we want to try to get more of. And so I felt Mike led the group and I thought the rest of the guys really just fell in line and played capable of the way we needed them to play.”
Overall, Michigan’s secondary gave up 132 yards passing, but 66 of those yards came in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided. It was an impressive debut from the entire defensive unit, which will get more work next week when the Wolverines host UNLV in Week 2.
