ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 - Weekly Summer Edition
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
UMich medical students walk out of white coat ceremony in protest of antiabortion keynote speaker SAMANTHA RICH Summer News Editor
What’s on the ballot: Ann Arbor Aug. 2 primary elections
Design by Jennie Vang
IRENA LI
Summer News Editor
The state of Michigan’s Aug. 2 primary elections will see Ann Arbor voters decide general election candidates for mayor and city council, as well as vote on a millage proposal to fund expansions for the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (TheRide). Voters will also choose candidates for governor, U.S. representative, state senator, state representative, county commissioner and delegate to the Democratic Party’s Washtenaw County convention. Ballots will contain one column with candidates for the Democratic Party and another for the Republican Party. Voters must choose one of the two columns to fill out. To see your polling location and what your ballot will look like on election day, check the Michigan Voter Information Center. Because Ann Arbor leans heavily Democratic, with the mayorship and all 10 City Council seats currently being held by Democrats, those who win the Democratic primary nominations are all but guaranteed
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
to win in the November general election. Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA) Expansion Proposal The millage proposal on the Aug. 2 ballot seeks to levy a property tax to maintain and expand the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. If approved, the millage rate would increase from 0.7 to 2.38 mills ($2.38 for every $1000 in taxable property value) over a five-year period from 2024 to 2028. The collected revenue would fund a number of expansions to TheRide, the bus system serving the greater Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area. The proposal details a number of improvements it seeks to make to the transit system, including the expansion of late-night, weekend and holiday services, the introduction of an express route between downtown Ann Arbor and downtown Ypsilanti and funding for projects such as zero-emission buses. Mayor Democratic voters in Ann Arbor will decide between Anne Bannister and Christopher Taylor for mayor. There are no Republican candidates Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
on the ballot for mayor of Ann Arbor. Taylor, having served since 2014, is seeking his second reelection bid. Taylor’s tenure has been defined by his pushes for high-density housing and more city services for residents. In 2020, five progressive challengers endorsed by Taylor swept the city council elections, leaving the mayor with a council majority. When announcing his candidacy for reelection, Taylor said he wants to tackle the city’s housing crisis by developing affordable housing and continue introducing an unarmed response team for the city. Bannister served one term on the City Council, from 2017 to 2020, and was ousted after Lisa Disch won the seat for Ward 1 over her. She has expressed support for the A2Zero campaign, which seeks a transition to carbon neutrality in Ann Arbor by 2030. During her time as a councilmember, Bannister voted against several new affordable housing developments in the city. She has, however, sponsored plans to evaluate and develop proposals for additional affordable housing while on the council.
Read more at michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
Incoming University of Michigan medical students walked out of Sunday’s white coat ceremony at the start of the keynote address to protest the selection of Dr. Kristin Collier as the speaker. Collier, a Michigan Medicine physician, has publicly expressed anti-abortion views in interviews and on social media. A video showing students leaving their seats and exiting the Hill Auditorium has gone viral on Twitter, having received over 16 million views since being posted Sunday evening. The
white coat ceremony is an annual event in which new medical students are welcomed to the University of Michigan Medical School. The walkout follows the circulation of a petition to remove Collier as speaker that received over 400 total signatures, 348 of which were from incoming or current medical students. “We demand that (the University) stands in solidarity with us and selects a speaker whose values align with institutional policies, students, and the broader medical community,” the petition read.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Campus reacts to Santa Ono’s appointment as 15th UMich President ANNA FIFELSKI & NIRALI PATEL Summer News Editors
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide and attempts of suicide, mentions of sexual assault and mentions of police violence. “It’s official: Santa is coming to town,” “I’m okay with our new president being a Sagittarius” and “Santa’s meme game is fire” are only a few of the memes circulating on Instagram and Twitter following the appointment of Dr. Santa Ono as the University of Michigan’s 15th President at a special Board of Regents meeting July 13. Ono’s appointment as the 15th President of the University comes after a four-month search by the Presidential Search Committee, led by co-chairs Regents Sarah Hubbard
INDEX
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 88 ©2022 The Michigan Daily
(R) and Denise Ilitch (D). In an interview with President-elect Ono, Hubbard and Ilitch emphasized the impact the community listening sessions had on the presidential search. Hubbard also said Ono was in one of the first pools of candidates that the committee began considering in March. Zackariah Farah, U-M alum and Research Assistant at Michigan Medicine, said he is impressed by how Ono interacts with the students at the universities he has led, the University of British Columbia and the Univerisity of Cincinnati. “I’ve heard that he is very accessible and that he loves talking to students, and in my four years at U-M, I only saw Mark Schlissel in person once, which is pretty crazy,” Farah said.
Read more at michigandaily.com
NEWS...................1 ARTS...................2 MIC........................3
S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 OPINION................6 SPORTS..............7
Arts ‘Ms. Marvel’ is Marvel’s highest rated project — here’s why
2 — Wednesday, August 3, 2022
SARAH RAHMAN Daily Arts Writer
Everyone loves an everyman. Sure, we love when superheroes are geniuses and possess super strength that can parallel the monstrosities in our world — but nothing quite beats those moments that show us how superheroes, bona fide gods among men, are just like us. Like that moment in “Captain America: Civil War” where SpiderMan (Tom Holland, “Uncharted”) says, “I can’t go to Germany!” and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., “Avengers: Endgame”) asks, “Why?” and Spiderman replies, “I got … homework!” Scenes like these remind us why we should care about the epic flashes of light and earth-shattering shows of power that have become the bread and butter of the Marvel franchise; superheroes are like us, which means we can be like them. Now to the latest Marvel news: “Ms. Marvel,” the latest entry within Marvel’s Phase 4 releases, is the MCU’s highest rated production, with a 98% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But what about the series has made it worthy of breaking critical records? Marvel’s Phase 4 has been packed with swings and misses, perhaps not coincidentally alongside stories of their VFX producers
quitting amid poor work conditions. Marvel has released nearly double the amount of content it did during Phase 3 in the same amount of time, and audiences have become privy to what such a quantity of releases in a short amount of time can mean for the quality of production. And yet, “Ms. Marvel” pulled through as an
the mass of superhuman content we’ve become accustomed to. Maybe you think we already had a good, relatable teenager story through Marvel’s reboot of Spider-Man or perhaps Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld, “Pitch Perfect 3”) in “Hawkeye.” Kamala (Iman Vellani, “The Marvels”), or
This image is from the official trailer for “Ms. Marvel” distributed by Marvel Entertainment.
original, thoughtfully crafted series. The strengths of the show are hard to miss: Its vibrant use of hand-drawn effects, which director Adil El Arbi describes as an attempt to translate “the comic book feel,” its relatable teenage superhero and, of course, its South Asian representation presented by South Asian creators. It’s a series that rings with authenticity and subtle charm, differentiating itself from
Ms. Marvel, is different because even as the fantasy elements of her powers take off, she is never whisked away from her life before powers. Her high school friends, namely her best friend Bruno (Matt Lintz, “Pixels”), help her discover the source of her powers and are there even when things get dicey — like during an attack at her brother’s wedding. Many pivotal moments occur at locations Kamala
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
frequented regularly even before she discovered her powers, like her mosque and her high school. While Spider-Man and Kate Bishop leave their families and normal lives behind to exhibit their heroism, Kamala’s superhero journey actually makes her delve deeper into her family history and personal relationships because unlike SpiderMan, her powers are ancestral. She even flies to Karachi, Pakistan to meet with her grandmother and uncover the extent of her powers. The show depicts Karachi without the exoticism of other Marvel productions, like “Doctor Strange”; instead, Karachi is portrayed as a second home, different from what Kamala’s used to but not strange. Magical elements do come into play, as this is a Marvel series after all, but Karachi is a setting like any other: a powerful showcase of representation without mockery. Karachi’s unique representation is likely a result of the directing and production work of people from the South Asian and Muslim communities, including PakistaniAmerican Sana Amanat, the executive producer and co-creator. In her TedTalk, Amanat said, “The big idea behind ‘wMs. Marvel’ was very much about minority representation, the bigger idea was about finding your authentic self.”
Read more at michigandaily.com
‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ has all the moves to be your new favorite indie darling SERENA IRANI Daily Arts Writer
It’s an indie tale as old as time: A young guy, feeling lost and confused about his path in life, unrequitedly falls in love with an older woman. She’s effortlessly cool — a walking, talking enigma with perfect hair and ambiguous feelings towards our protagonist. Is she leading him on? Or does she actually love him? Enough to leave her cold, rich, detached husband? You know what happens next. “Cha Cha Real Smooth” follows Andrew (Cooper Raiff, “Shithouse”), a 22-year-old fresh out of college and living at home as he navigates the post-college limbo. While working as
a party starter for local bar mitzvahs, he meets a young mom named Domino (Dakota Johnson, “The Lost Daughter”) and her autistic daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt, debut). Written, directed by and starring 25-year-old Raiff, “Cha Cha Real Smooth” works under the distinct synchronicity of a writer, director and actor all in one. It speaks to his ability to wholly exist within a scene and objectively direct outside of it, to project an idea to the screen and conduct the act of projection itself. His thematic vision is consistent throughout, with closely knit parallels between characters experiencing periods of change at their respective ages of 12, 22 and 32. For Andrew’s younger brother David (Evan Assante, “Dinosaur
World”), it’s the bar mitzvah phase of transitioning from a boy to a young man. For Andrew, it’s finding a job after college and reckoning with the heartbreak of not every love being your one soulmate, but rather, one of many. For Domino, it’s moving on to the adult relationship of your life, to a level of commitment that your 20s can’t always afford. From the get-go it’s easy to tell where Andrew’s trajectory is headed, as he quickly and inevitably falls in love with Domino. Predictable as it may be, their relationship holds its own, mainly because they’re both well-written, interesting and engaging characters. As a protagonist, Andrew is given the standard lead treatment: We understand his motivations and thought processes,
and the heart that he so earnestly wears on his sleeve. Yet, the same goes for Domino, as she is able to voice her opinion and explain the reasoning behind her actions in a way the traditional female love interest is so rarely afforded. Everyone’s favorite “manic pixie dream girl” is a tired trope at best, but its features slip into over-romanticized female characters so often that the bar is practically six feet under. The character of Domino is refreshing solely because she exists outside of being a means to an end for Andrew’s character arc. Her agency ensures that while Andrew’s infatuation with her may blur his own perspective, it never skews the viewer’s.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
ANGIE YU
VANESSA KIEFER
Business Manager business@michigandaily.com
Editor-in-Chief eic@michigandaily.com
CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom
Office hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. 734-763-2459 opt.3
News Tips news@michigandaily.com Corrections corrections@michigandaily.com Letters to the Editor tothedaily@michigandaily.com or visit michigandaily.com/letters
Photo Department
photo@michigandaily.com
Arts Section
arts@michigandaily.com
Editorial Page
opinion@michigandaily.com
Sports Section Magazine
sports@michigandaily.com statement@michigandaily.com
Advertising Department
Phone: 734-418-4115 dailydisplay@gmail.com
EDITORIAL STAFF Brandon Cowit
Managing Editor
cowitb@michigandaily.com
Tess Crowley
Digital Managing Editor
crowlete@michigandaily.com
Eli Friedman and Riley Hodder
Managing News Editors
news@michigandaily.com
Quin Zapoli
Editorial Page Editor
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Lindsay Budin and Connor Earegood
Managing Sports Editors
sports@michigandaily.com
Emilia Ferrante
Managing Arts Editor
arts@michigandaily.com
Serena Shen and Lys Goldman
Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
Sarah Boeke and Julianne Yoon
Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
Julia Verklan Maloney
Managing Statement Editor
statement@michigandaily.com
Abbie Gaies and Lizzie MacAdam
Managing Copy Editors
copydesk@michigandaily.com
Matthew Bilik
Managing Online Editor
webteam@michigandaily.com
Nithisha Kumar
Managing Video Editor
video@michigandaily.com
Anchal Malh and Andy Nakamura
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Mishal Charania and Martina Zacker Audience Engagement Managing Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com
Akshara Koottala and Lola Yang Chair of Culture, Training, and Inclusion accessandinclusion@michigandaily.com
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2022 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buythis-edition to place your order.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 — 3
Greener on the other side ASHVIN PAI Mic Columnist
Warning: The following story contains descriptions of violence against people and animals. While based on true events, this piece is a work of fiction, and no people or animals were harmed. The grass had grown and grown and grown until, one day, my father declared that it was unacceptable. He went out to the hardware store and returned an hour later with a lawnmower. E-Go, Self Propelled! the packaging proclaimed. “Electric,” my father said, proudly. “It’s the newest model, nobody else on the street has one.” Yes, I agreed. The slogan on the packaging was certainly apt for both product and consumer, though I knew better than to say that last part aloud. The task then fell on me to use the machine to tame our wild yard. The mower turned out to be pretty easy to use. Just pop the battery in, pull the bail bar and, every once in a while, steer around the odd piece of shit, courtesy of the neighbor’s dog. No messing around with gas or oil or starter cords that threatened to dislocate your shoulder if you pulled them at the wrong angle. I started at the front of the house, near the mailbox. Things were easy enough until I reached the box’s post, at which point I had to violently jerk
YASH APRAMEYA/MiC
the mower in order to get it around the small rectangular base. The same thing happened every time I reached the trunk of a tree or an oddly shaped corner which the mower would not fit into. Such was the difficulty of navigating these irregular spaces that by the time I was halfway through the backyard, I had riled myself up into a great anger and was cursing profusely, even during the easy open areas. Soon, images of destruction were on the forefront of my mind. I imagined the blades of the mower decimating entire ecosystems. I imagined a grasshopper getting swept up by the vacuum and torn into shreds. I imagined families of worms struggling vainly to burrow into the ground only to become engulfed in a hellstorm.
Insects then progressed to small critters, rabbits and dogs and the like, which eventually led to humans. Violence turned towards self, and I could feel my legs being drawn into the blades, emerging in a shredded mess of bones and tendons. I wondered what the neighbors would say if they found my mangled body underneath the mower. Look at this boy. This is what happens when those people come here, they don’t know how to do anything. Let the grass grow so much, then ran over himself. This neighborhood really is going to shit. And now I was cursing this white man’s machine because, after all, this whole lawn thing was a fucking colonial construct anyways, right? “I’m against colonialism because it makes people mow lawns,” I
announced to no one in particular. As if on cue, a white neighbor surfaced from his newly constructed pool. “You missed a spot over there,” Neighbor One said while toweling himself off. Neighbor Two from a couple houses down concurred. “Also, my pool is better than yours,” added Neighbor Two, glaring at Neighbor One before disappearing back into their house. (Neighbor Two started building their pool once they found out that Neighbor One wanted a pool. Due to a combination of bad luck with contractors, and Neighbor One’s general inability to follow through on home improvement projects, Neighbor Two managed to finish their pool first and would spend the evenings floating contently with a glass of lemonade, while looking over at Neighbor One’s muddy ditch. But now that Neighbor One’s pool was no longer a muddy ditch and was, in fact, an actual pool, Neighbor Two was in a bad mood because the only reason they built their pool was so they could gloat over the fact that Neighbor One did not have one.) This can’t be real, I thought to myself. But I went over to the spot that the Neighbors had pointed out and mowed over it again just to be safe. By now, I was no longer angry because it seemed that having a pool was a much bigger nuisance than
having a lawn. I hope all this mowing gives me some muscles, I thought to myself, because I was sweating a lot now. When I got around to the front of the house again, Neighbor Three from across the street had also started mowing. When I caught his eye, he raised his hand and gave a slight nod of his head. I was excited because, in his free time, Neighbor Three worked with cars and gears and various lubricating products, so his acknowledgement meant I was a manly man. After I was done mowing, I sat on the front porch and admired my work while scratching the numerous rashes I had developed from touching so much grass. On the other side of the world, my grandfather was riding his bicycle when he had a stroke and fell into a ditch. This particular ditch didn’t have any grass (or other soft vegetation, for that matter) because eighty years ago, the British had razed all the plant life in the area in order to create an irrigation system to help water the governor’s English garden. So there was nothing to cushion my grandfather’s fall, and he broke a few of his bones when he hit the ground. But, of course, that didn’t really matter seeing as his brain had decided to stop working.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Why are you interested in writing and sharing stories? MEGHAN DODABALLAPUR MiC Columnist
When I wrote my application for Michigan in Color my freshman year, I was asked why I was interested in writing and sharing stories. This question lingers in the back of my mind, even though I am no longer a columnist at The Michigan Daily. On the surface, I have multiple answers. RITA SAYEGH/MiC
The simple answer is that writing has been my safe place since I could pick up a pencil. A different answer is that I want to write because even though I’m not the best at it, I understand that I don’t always have to be the best at something to want to do it. Another option is that I want to write because I love to read works that I wish I could write, and Michigan in Color columnists never fail to remind me that I wish I could write like them.
After nearly four months of no longer writing bi-weekly columns for Michigan in Color, I’ve realized that my writing has slowed down to the point where I am starting to wonder why I really wanted to write. Why did I want to write badly enough to share the thoughts that were only meant for my journal? I re-read my MiC application in an attempt to figure out why freshman me wanted to write, but my application revealed nothing. I lied about the real reason I wanted to write. I lied because if I really wrote down why I wanted to write, I didn’t know if Michigan in Color would have wanted me. I didn’t know if they would have wanted someone so insecure in their identity as a woman of Color. I didn’t know if they would want someone to write for them when the reason they wanted to write was to prove to other people that they weren’t whitewashed — that they were a “good person of Color.” *** I was born and raised in Rochester
Hills, Michigan, which is a predominantly white area. Growing up, I never cared too much about constantly being immersed in white culture. This was my norm. This was all I had ever known. I had been best friends with three of my neighbors, all of whom were white, since I was around 3 years old. As the years went by, we went from playing with Barbies to adventuring in the mall to lying to our parents so we could go to parties. We were so inseparable that my sister would have to drag me out of their homes when Amma didn’t want me to sleep over. For so long, I thought this little bubble of a life in Rochester was nearly perfect. I say “nearly” because I knew I was a little different from my neighbors. I knew that I didn’t want them to see me eat with my hands when we had dinner at my house. I knew that their grandparents didn’t wear the same kinds of clothes
that my grandparents did when they came to visit. I knew that some things were different between us, but I chose to ignore them, thinking that these differences weren’t significant enough for me to be the odd one out. However, in high school, my seemingly perfect bubble “popped.” But “popped” feels like an understatement. My bubble was shattered at the hands of one of my friends’ dad. My friend’s dad was the one person who would constantly let me know that I wasn’t quite like the rest of my friends. He would mask his racial microaggressions as curiosity. He casually asked me at the dinner table, in front of all of my friends, whether I would be getting an arranged marriage. I was only 13 years old and had never even thought about getting married. I bet he doesn’t even remember how embarrassed I was when I told him no.
Read more at michigandaily.com
4 — Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Design by Jennie Vang
It’s a beautiful day in Jonathan Wright’s neighborhood By Emily Blumberg, Statement Correspondent
It’s always a beautiful day in the neighborhood; that is, if you’re willing to crouch down in a variety of public places across Ann Arbor. In the late winter of 2020, the city felt relatively bleak. With almost the entire freshman class (including myself) being kicked out of the dorms, any potential for normalcy on campus and in Ann Arbor diminished to a faint, distant loss. With most students my year either completing the semester entirely online or from inconveniently located off-campus housing, the true community we had signed up for was, for the time being, a figment of the imagination. That desolation hit the city of Ann Arbor hard, elevating the already present economic struggle of local, well-loved businesses. Places that were once city staples were boarded up, replaced by national chains at best and left indefinitely empty at worst. College looked different than we had anticipated. Ann Arbor looked different
than it ever had before. It was, or at least, a “fairy door.” A puzzling, delightful suggestion that there was more to the it felt, hopeless. Until, on one unsurprising yet world than what it looked like in this depressingly dark afternoon, a red door, desolate moment. My fascination with the miniature and then a smaller replica of that same red door, entered my line of vision. That door at Red Shoes led me to Googling door was located on 332 S. Ashley Street, “tiny doors Ann Arbor,” which eventually the now-empty home of Red Shoes, a got me to the wonderful, early-2000s beloved gift shop that closed upon the rabbit hole that is urban-fairies.com. The website, run by Ann Arbor’s very owner’s unfortunate passing in 2021, was my first discovery. Besides the fact that it own “certified fairyologist,” Jonathan faces a parking lot on a street few people think to walk on, it’s a hard structure to miss. A bright blue house with a bright red door, inviting curious eyes to wonder what’s going on inside. Standing at about seven inches, built into the store’s blue shutters as if it had been there all along, was what I would Photo courtesy of Jonathan Wright come to know as
Wright, details every fairy door that has “appeared” around the city since 1993. It also houses information about Urban Fairies Operation, LLC, Wright’s way of extending Ann Arbor’s magic into the larger fabric of folklore and fairytales. What the website won’t tell you is that these fairy doors are the result of decades of research and architectural work from Wright. Though the doors are undeniably magical, the man behind their creation and lore may be even more so. Since graduating from the University of Michigan in 1983, Jonathan Wright’s personal and professional life have been woven by magic. The first fairy door “appeared” in his home a decade later, to the delight of his two thenyoung children. In the almost three
decades since, doors have been spotted in the storefronts of local businesses, a classroom at a local elementary school (where his wife, Kathleen, teaches kindergarten) and even in the lobby of Mott’s Children’s Hospital. They seem to be everywhere, and yet, they can be hard to find. As Ann Arbor changes, the fairy doors often follow suit, disappearing and reappearing as the city adapts to a stagnant cycle of social and economic change. One of the first locations to house Wright’s fairies was The Peaceable Kingdom, a gift shop that operated at 210 S. Main Street until 2017. Other locations, like Red Shoes, Voilà and Selo/ Shevel Gallery have also closed since the entrance of the fairies, though some of their doors are still intact. In my now-daily pursuit to find every fairy door within walking distance of my apartment, it was easy to feel disappointed at the number of boardedup windows and closed doors (both miniature and regular) on every street.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Frank O’Hara, from Michigan How Phillis to New York Engelbert’s community 5 — Wednesday, August 3, 2022 // The Statement
By Taylor Schott, Statement Deputy Editor
impact extends beyond kitchen doors JULIANNE YOON/Daily
By Shannon Stocking, Statement Contributor Nestled in between Catherine Street and Detroit Street, a sliver of a building sits — the eclectic and magnificent Detroit Street Filling Station. Surrounded by a moat of picnic tables and potted plants, a tributary of jazz, blues and boogie pours a cocktail of heart, soul and song into the summer streets of Ann Arbor. Inside, the music grows louder as you enter the wall-less patio adorned with upside-down umbrellas and vibrant plants floating from the ceiling. Captivated by the decor, it will probably take a bit before the familiar smell of comfort food wafts into your nose, encouraging you to sit down and stay a while. This dynamic and eclectic restaurant keeps up its lively posture by enthralling its customers with an experiential and delightful meal surrounded by a magical atmosphere. The charisma is masterfully run by a team of passionate people with a level of customer service any manager would be envious of. At the front of it all, founder and owner Phillis Engelbert stands attentively, engaging with each customer and employee. As the night picks up and the colorful lanterns light up the night, the pace increases and the music gets louder, dancing across the block. Despite tumultuous times in the community and in the country, Detroit Street Filling Station remains a shining beacon of positivity and humanity, providing a small retreat for anyone who needs it. The entire space is meant to remind the customers and employees of the spirited potential of
life and happiness, Engelbert affirmed as we sat down on a balmy summer afternoon inside her restaurant. “Everything feels vibrant and sort of bursting with life and culture,” Engelbert said. “And so the colors, the sounds, the music, the plants, the outdoors, all contribute to having a feeling of being alive and being joyful.” Named after the 1925 Staebler Family Oil Company, Detroit Street Filling Station expanded into the historic building in 2017. However, Ann Arbor’s first entirely plantbased restaurant didn’t start in the triangular building, or even in a restaurant at all. “My next-door neighbor and I are both vegan and love to throw dinner parties, and so we had a joint backyard, and we have our friends over and cook,” Engelbert said. “And one thing led to another, and we started doing some pop-up meals at the invitation of a friend who had an event space.” After many backyard meals and “pop-up dining events at local retail establishments,” Engelbert and her neighbor, Joel Panozzo, responded to an ad in the Ann Arbor Observer asking for applicants for food cart vendors at Ann Arbor’s “Mark’s Carts.” Their food cart, “The Lunch Room,” ran for the 2011 and 2012 summer seasons, and as their second year concluded, they decided it was time to break ground with their first physical location.
Read more at michigandaily.com
I once had a professor who began a class by asking if we could name five poets — the caveat being that they had to be living — and none of us could do it. I could only cough up Louise Glück and Mary Oliver, both Pulitzer Prize winners; I looked them up afterward to check and found that I was wrong about Mary Oliver, she had died a year prior. And I hadn’t even thought to name Rupi Kaur, a lapse that speaks more to my incredibly mixed feelings about her contributions to poetry than to my recall abilities. And yet I called myself an admirer of the arts? I was flooded with guilt and made a mental note to read more living poets, although I always felt that there was so much more romance involved in reading the dead ones: Emily Dickinson, Arthur Rimbaud, Walt Whitman, Sara Teasdale, W.B. Yeats, Pierre Reverdy, William Carlos Williams, Frank O’Hara — the less recently dead to the more recently dead, respectively. In the months that followed, I burrowed into the internal promise,
combing through library catalogs and hunting for “The Collected Works of” in the bookstores scattered throughout Ann Arbor. Probing one afternoon through a nearlytoppling pile of paperbacks in the Dawn Treader Bookshop, I carefully withdrew an intriguingly designed, fraying copy of “Lunch Poems” by Frank O’Hara — the playfully contrasted blue and orange cover had caught my attention, and I had heard of O’Hara, but had yet to read him in any dedicated, sustained fashion. O’Hara was dead, I knew, and buying the book would contradict my mission to read living poets — but the first few poems of his that I leafed through while crouching on the floor were witty, and I had never promised to only buy the living poets — so I folded and made my way to the register, “Lunch Poems” tucked protectively under my arm. I breezed through “Lunch Poems” in one sitting and, neglecting my Literati-bought copies of Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limón’s poetry in its wake, instantly bought more
of O’Hara’s: “Meditations in an Emergency,” “The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara” and “The Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara,” alongside Brad Gooch’s acclaimed (but also “gossipy,” according to other biographers) biography, “City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara.” Flitting back and forth from poem to biography to memoir to audio recording, I gathered that O’Hara, with a personality nearly as large as his body of work, had captivated the artistic community of 1950s New York and served, many biographers and friends say, as its veritable center. I found, too, that he had graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s in English after attending Harvard on the G.I. Bill, winning a Hopwood Award in the process. For those unfamiliar with the University of Michigan’s literary prowess, O’Hara’s decision to attend a university in the Midwest might seem an odd choice.
Read more at michigandaily.com
nailhed.com: Honoring our state’s abandoned “eyesores”
By Saarthak Johri, Statement Correspondent
This story starts how many of my most reflective pieces do — with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation trapped us inside, and for many of us, deep into our own heads. Here’s my deal, though: I’ve been struggling with a digestive autoimmune disorder for the past four years, one that intensified the need for me to be isolated. The class of 2020’s virtual graduation story doesn’t need to be repeated here — you’ve either lived a version of it, are close to someone who has or have read about it countless times. What I need you to understand is that for me and many immunocompromised people like me, this constant decay we feel in our bodies and minds, the one we try to cover up and return to regularity from, was drummed up in full force during the pandemic. We all slowly found our own ways to deal with it, though I took a less-thanconventional approach. At first, I was content with forests. The woods surrounding my neighborhood’s houses had always been intriguing to me, but I never had enough time to explore them like I wanted in high school. It was something I was used to doing in my old neighborhood in elementary
school, stomping through shrubbery that the real estate company in charge of our subdivision hadn’t accrued enough money to develop. I spent the months of spring wandering these woods, hoping that they wouldn’t be cleared for a while, checking in each day as bare trees sprouted buds and restored themselves. Maybe I envied them. It’s an odd contradiction to be a human in nature, returning to the spaces that our species separated itself from. Walking through, I could tell I wasn’t the first to return as I stepped through the litter of explorers past. However, there was only so much green that I could explore before I had to move on. I couldn’t count it as exploring if I’d already mentally mapped every part. As summer approached, I tossed my bike in my car and drove off to see what else I could find. I remember the first bike ride I embarked on during the summer of 2020; it flipped a switch in me. As it became warmer, people began to be more lax with COVID-19 restrictions so as to “save their summers.” I biked through a neighborhood near my own because that was what I was used to — before school swallowed my schedule, my childhood bike rides were all
confined to the old neighborhood, ending at the main road and the undeveloped plots. As I took in the suburban scenery, I was hit by a sense of multiplying and senseless sonder — the conscious awareness that every life is as complex as one’s own. Every house had a family of some kind, all living out individual existences dictated by their own choices and personal chaos, and each of these layered over each other in a tapestry so dense with narrative weight that it began to slow my pedaling. But I pushed myself and my pedals, searching for scenery that wouldn’t inflict this sonder on me, and didn’t stop until I reached a local salon, presumably closed for months due to the pandemic. It was a lovely, slightly yellow building with withered plants hanging from its balconies and dense weeds growing through the unmaintained cracks of its concrete drive. It was a place where the narrative had ended, if only for a moment, before it would hopefully reopen its doors. It was a place I could breathe — like in the woods, left alone by the vast majority of humanity.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Opinion
6 — Wednesday, August 3, 2022
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Jim Harbaugh doesn’t speak for me
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
PHILIP EIL
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
VANESSA KIEFER Editor in Chief
QUIN ZAPOLI
Editorial Page Editor
U-M Alum
BRANDON COWIT Managing Editor
From The Daily: For the January 6th Committee, truth and transparency are their own victory THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUMMER EDITORIAL BOARD *A previous version of this article claimed that Richard Donoghue, the former acting Deputy Attorney General, was “persuaded” to claim that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent. He was only encouraged to claim that, not persuaded. The statement has since been edited for clarity. or the past five weeks, the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has been conducting hearings to investigate and explain to the public the exact events that took place at the Capitol on that fateful day. Formed last summer, the Select Committee has only just begun its proper deliberations, as its leaders have been focused on collecting the dozens of witness statements and documents required to craft the best possible case for its position on the attack. A primary goal of the Select Committee is to hone in on former President Donald Trump and his role in the insurrection — whether it be marring his image as an executive or prosecuting him for his involvement, the Select Committee hopes to make it known that Trump played an integral role in the plot. By utilizing key witness testimony and creating a precise timeline of events, often down to the minute, the committee is determined to inform the American public and prove that the riots were premeditated, and even encouraged, by certain politicians. In the most transparent way possible, the Select Committee aims to prove that the events that took place on January 6 posed a direct threat to American democracy, and that from that day forward, the sanctity of a democratic government would forever be held in jeopardy. As additional evidence surfaces, more testimonies are collected and the hearings continue,
F
the officials behind the Select Committee continue to demonstrate their commitment to protecting democracy and exposing those who have endangered it. With the goal of defending democracy in mind, the Select Committee is making strides to prove that the claims of election fraud in 2020 were not only baseless but also a coordinated misinformation attack. Richard Donoghue, the former acting Deputy Attorney General and a key witness, stated that he was encouraged in December 2020 by then President Trump to claim that the results of the election were fraudulent, after which he explained to Trump that there was no credible evidence of election fraud. Since the 2020 election, Trump and his allies have spread falsehoods about election workers and mechanisms, which in turn has defiled the trust that many Americans had previously held in the integrity of U.S. democracy. In a recent hearing, the intricacies of a December meeting in the Oval Office were discussed, where Trump and his personal lawyers expressed their idealized chain of election events. When other officials present did not subscribe to the same beliefs, the Select Committee claims that Trump lashed out, and hours later sent out the infamous tweet that requested crowds of his “be there” to defend his so-claimed victory. As the Select Committee has shown, that lie — that Trump defeated Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election — fueled the series of events leading up to January 6. And that lie, in turn, was propagated by months of misinformation about election officials, voting machines and mail-in voting. If the public takes one thing away from the hearings, it should be the importance of rejecting misinformation wherever it may be found. While the Select Committee continues to bring the truth about the January 6 attack to light, it is important to keep in mind how propaganda and
misinformation has historically been used to bring about substantive policy changes. One of the best examples of this is how American media and the United States government have perpetuated lies surrounding Cuba for decades in order to prop up aggressive anti-Cuban policies. Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández, creator of “The War on Cuba” docuseries on Youtube, analyzes the disconnect between reality in Cuba and the way the United States reports Cuban news. Though Cuba recently experienced its largest anti-government protest since the Cuban Revolution, Fernández — who was at the protest herself — shows numerous American media outlets that hugely exaggerated both the violence committed during the protests and the duration of the protests, with some media outlets falsely reporting that the protests went on for weeks. In turn, Americans who were misled by United States media sources called on Biden to further economically suffocate Cuba, to which Biden hastily responded with new sanctions on Cuba. This is just one example of disinformation — at times perpetuated by our very own government — swaying policymaking. Yet another example of falsehoods shifting public opinion and influencing policy proposals occurred in 2013 with the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Following 9/11, xenophobic and Islamaphobic rhetoric circulated and spread quickly in response to widespread public fear of global terror. This, too, was largely fueled by misinformation and fear-mongering practices. Despite the obvious fact that anti-immigrant perspectives lacked merit, the Senate swiftly and bipartisanly passed the bill, which would have wreaked havoc on immigrants seeking citizenship in the United States had the House considered it and enacted the bill into law.
Read more at michigandaily.com
f there were any doubts about the size of the megaphone University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh wields in his highly visible, $7-milliondollars-per-year position, coverage of his recent appearance at a local pro-life event should put them to rest. His comments were picked up by a number of national news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Inside Higher Ed and Sports Illustrated. And, in the process, they made their way to me, a U-M alum living 800 miles away in Rhode Island. In case you missed it: On July 17, Harbaugh was a keynote speaker, alongside an ordained priest, at a Plymouth Right to Life event about 20 miles outside of Ann Arbor. As reported in Detroit Catholic, the sold-out event was a fundraiser for “pro-life initiatives in the area.” Items for auction included U-M football memorabilia and the chance to catch a football tossed
I
across the event space by Harbaugh himself, a privilege that apparently sold for $2,300. During his remarks, Harbaugh, a Catholic, said that though he generally believes that one person’s moral stance shouldn’t dictate society’s laws, abortion falls in a different category. “I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born,” he said. “I love life. I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death. My faith and my science are what drive these beliefs in me.” At one point in his remarks, he quoted from the Book of Jeremiah. At another, he said, “In God’s plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love … I have living proof in my family, my children and the many thousands that I’ve coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place.” There are a number of reasons why these comments were so disturbing. Foremost was the timing of Harbaugh’s appearance.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Pro-choice, but prodemocracy MOLLY FESSLER
U-M Medical Student
*This article represents the views of the author alone, not the Gold Humanism Honor Society nor the University of Michigan Medical School. s a fourth-year medical student and member of the University of Michigan Medical School’s Gold Humanism Honor Society, I write today to share that I, a pro-choice future healthcare provider, voted for Dr. Kristin Collier to speak at the incoming first-year students’ White Coat Ceremony. Collier’s nomination, as readers may recall, was not without controversy, given her pro-life beliefs. While the University stood by Collier as the speaker, many incoming first-year medical students walked out before her remarks began at the White Coat Ceremony on July 24. In the preceding coverage of this event, students have been quoted anonymously voicing their opposition.
A
I wanted to offer an alternative view: a defense of my vote and a defense of democracy. I am glad that my new classmates had a chance to voice their opposition. I am also grateful that Collier retained her platform to speak. I initially voted, months ago, for Collier because she upholds the tenets of humanism and compassion that inspire me to be a physician. This is the purpose of the White Coat Ceremony — to welcome new medical students to medicine and remind them of the profundity of their induction and future service as a physician. Collier has been a mentor to me for the past two years; she is encouraging and selfless in her support. She is tremendously supportive of many students in multiple facets of undergraduate and graduate medical education. She runs a spirituality program at the University that regularly encourages open, collaborative dialogue with speakers from numerous, often opposing ideologies and backgrounds.
Read more at michigandaily.com
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ICE HOCKEY
Sports
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 — 7
For Seamus Casey, the defensive process is key
JOHN TONDORA Daily Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH, Mich. — Seamus Casey’s offensive prowess and untapped upside are undeniable. The focal points of his game, Casey’s use of those abilities during his journey through the National Team Development Program was nothing short of exceptional. Yet as scouts analyzed his aptitude, one shortcoming remained — defensive deficiencies. But before he joins the Michigan hockey team, Casey wants to address those struggles right away. “(My defense) is something that I always need to improve on,” Casey said at USA Hockey’s National Junior Evaluation Camp on Tuesday. “Especially going into Michigan this year. I want to keep making strides there.” Before he takes the ice for Michigan though, Casey has already begun honing a defensive ability that will be crucial for jump to the NCAA level. Although Seamus finished with a plus-32 rating in his final year with the U.S. National Team this
VOLLEYBALL
past season, questions abound thus far surrounding his defense. With 33 points (10 goals, 23 assists) in 48 games, Casey’s offensive ability stands out, yet he often struggles with over-aggression leading to defensive lapses. However, throughout evaluation camp this week, 2023 Team USA coach Rand Pecknold and his coaching staff have made an outsized effort to influence his play. “It’s an unusual thing,” Pecknold said on Tuesday. “These kids are all
thrown in and it’s a trial (to make the team), but at the same time, we’re trying to put in some structure so that we’re organized.” Structure will be key for Casey as Pecknold, the head coach for the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team, provides an early glimpse at what NCAA coaching looks like. As both player and coach are well aware, making the jump from the NTDP to the NCAA is a tricky process. The game will be faster, the players will be stronger and the competition will be
SARAH BOEKE/Daily The Michigan hockey team’s incoming freshman defenseman Seamus Casey got a chance to hone his defense at USA Hockey’s National Junior Evaluation Camp.
tougher — making growth a necessity for Casey. And at the start of camp, Casey’s rough edges began to show. During practice drills for transition play, Casey’s nose for the puck periodically came on too strong, allowing forwards to puncture past the defensive blue line for what would have been prime scoring chances. Though these mistakes end in a whistle during practice, in the NCAA, they end in costly goals. Yet Casey never shies from these lapses. He listens to coaches during the drills and actively seeks out lessons from assistants once practice concludes. It is a level of maturity that garnered both understanding and praise from the staff. “We’re trying to put something new in the neutral zone that he’s never done before,” Pecknold said on Tuesday. “I want him to hold the blue line. He knows that he’ll do it. He just made a few mistakes and (hasn’t had) enough reps yet. We’re only in the fourth practice. He’s been really good.” And as camp progressed, Pecknold’s influence began to show. “There was a couple things on the rush,” Casey said. “Pretty technical
stuff, like hand placement, which is something I’ve heard from (Nick Fohr) my coach at NTDP. But, I was getting it back from different coaches too.” For good reason too, as the rush is one situation where Casey can truly shine. His ability to harness lateral movement — already excellent for the NCAA level — flashed as he grew to control the blue line through superior skating. After minor tweaks over the course of the week, where forwards originally saw daylight, they found dusk as Casey shifted back and forth across his defensive positioning. Though there is much more work to do, this week of practice provides a hopeful glimpse into Casey’s development process that will continue at Michigan. Regardless of where his game currently stands, his maturity, and commitment to the process will take him far. For now though, Casey and Pecknold understand that building on a defensive skill set takes time. And with each passing practice, skills compound and lessons evolve into habit. Casey has yet to reach the finish line, but with Pecknold’s help, he has continued making strides.
Michigan readies for ‘normal’ season
CONNOR EAREGOOD
Summer Managing Sports Editor
CHICAGO — As players and coaches sat in front of microphones speaking to reporters, the inaugural Big Ten Volleyball Media Days felt like a far cry from the pandemicinduced restrictions of just a few short months ago. And as the Michigan volleyball team nears the start of the season, that change is a welcome relief. “This group, honestly, hasn’t seen a normal year yet,” Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. “That’s what I’m super excited about. … I was thinking about it on the way here today. This is the first year for these guys to know we’re just going in ready to play volleyball.” That excitement could prove vital for the Wolverines’ elevated goals after Michigan lost to MACchampion Ball State in last season’s NCAA Tournament. In a season mired in uncertainty against a stacked Big Ten field, the Wolverines still managed to find their way into
the tournament. If Michigan could find its way into the postseason during an uncertain era, the removal of looming doubts — that players will be available, that games will be played, that COVID-19 won’t shut down society at any moment — could make the difference for a team determined to make a deeper run in the NCAA Tournament. “It’s nice just to be focused on volleyball and being able to get after it, and I think this group’s really ready,” Rosen said. “For these guys I’m excited for them to see what it’s like to not have to worry about all the other stuff that we’ve had to deal with.” But those environmental stressors disappeared for other schools too. The Wolverines should enjoy a season returned to normalcy, but Wisconsin, Nebraska and Minnesota — all teams they need to beat if they want a chance at a Big Ten title — will reap the same benefits of a normal season. And although the Big Ten is stacked, contending for a conference title is well within their reach. Spring
game performances built on their optimism as they faced off against skilled opponents to prepare for the upcoming season — including tournament teams in Ohio State and NCAA Tournament semifinalist Pitt. “I would definitely say that last year’s freshmen have made a huge improvement,” junior outside hitter Jess Mruzik said. “It’s incredible to see how they’ve matured over the course of one year. I’m really excited for this year’s sophomores.”
As those sophomores come in with a season under their belts on a veteran team compared to the last few seasons, Michigan hopes it can compound a return to normalcy with the lessons it learned during its last chaotic season. With more control over their own season, the Wolverines hope to push deeper into the NCAA Tournament. “I think everyone knows the seriousness of it, we all know what it takes,” senior middle blocker Jess
Robinson said. “We all know how much we have to give, how much we have to put in every single day for the next four or five months, and I think we’re all ready for that and we’re definitely all old enough that we’ve been through it once. “And this year especially with it being my last year, we’re not going down without a fight.” After fighting external battles last season, Michigan can now focus on battling its opponents.
JULIANNE YOON/Daily
Sports
8 — Wednesday, August 3, 2022
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FOOTBALL
‘We don’t want to take any steps back’: Michigan looks to build off last season
No one took Harbaugh seriously, and who could blame them? Managing Sports Editor Fast forward 12 months and things are, well, different. The calculus A year ago, Jim Harbaugh sat at a has changed. Michigan, as is wellpodium on the turf inside Lucas Oil documented by now, climbed the Stadium and waxed about climbing a mountain. Ohio State may still be the mountain — the mountain, of course, odds-on favorites to win the Big Ten, being a metaphor for defeating Ohio but the championship trophy remains in the Wolverines’ possession until State. Harbaugh’s comparison, along further notice. And as if anyone ever thought with the confidence that he exuded, evoked both smirks and sideways otherwise, they want to keep it that glances. At the time, Harbaugh had way. “Even though we saw success yet to beat the Buckeyes in five tries. last season, we don’t want to take any steps back,” senior quarterback Cade McNamara told reporters in Indianapolis at Big Ten media days on Tuesday. This annual gathering in Indianapolis KATE HUA/Daily comprises At Big Ten Media Days, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh spoke about an unofficial how the Wolverines can build on last season’s success. JARED GREENSPAN
benchmark. In many ways, it can be seen as the page-turner from the old season to the new one. But the Wolverines, in line with their disdain for complacency, turned that page long ago. “Our guys, from literally days after our final game last year, have been at work, attacking everything they do,” Harbaugh said. “There’s been zero entitlement the entire offseason, and now, and none really in the foreseeable future. So life is good.” Life is good — Harbaugh has made that clear since spring ball, when he touted the “scary good” nature of his team. But there remain noticeable holes. When Harbaugh evoked his mountain analogy last July, he noted a shared gene among a number of players — Aidan Hutchinson, Josh Ross and Hassan Haskins. The trio accompanied Harbaugh to Indianapolis as the program’s token spokesmen. Now, they are all gone. But that doesn’t mean their impact is gone, too. Last year, players like Hutchinson had to visualize success. Hutchinson spoke profusely of
his “manifestations.” That isn’t necessary this go-around. These players experienced those dreams in December; they’ve lived it and breathed it. “They saw other players on the team — guys like Aidan Hutchinson, Hassan Haskins, David Ojabo — who put in that work, got that work in, and how much it paid off for them,” Harbaugh said. “Using your head, using your noodle, pretty easy to think, ‘Yeah, I want to do it just like they did. I want to be where they are now.’ “It’s been a continuation of that this entire offseason. … They know what it was like, that good feeling of taking care of your business and having that success and being rewarded for it.” That’s a strange feeling for this program, at least in recent history. Last year, Michigan captured hearts and stirred imaginations as an underdog. This year? The Wolverines will have no such benefit of being a feel-good story, especially since they return such a strong nucleus of talent. With last year’s success comes an opportunity. Success in college football, perhaps even more so than in other sports, is fleeting. Only a select
few programs — Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, perhaps Clemson — have managed to buy a home in the sport’s upper-echelon. Michigan has at last rented one. But can it stay there? “We’re just going to continue to attack,” Harbaugh said when asked for the key to building off last year. “That’s what I really love about this team. They really, literally attack everything that’s put in front of them.” Harbaugh, of course, nearly wasn’t back to lead them. Tuesday, he justified his month-long dalliance with NFL head coaching vacancies by his failure to win a Super Bowl. It gnawed at him. Ultimately, he returned, reasoning that not being able to coach this Michigan team would be like “losing a body part.” Harbaugh laid out his four goals for the upcoming season rather succinctly: beat Michigan State, beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten Championship, win the National Championship. After last season, there is finally a plausible template to work toward. “We’ll chase the national championship,” Harbaugh said. “See if we can win that.”
FOOTBALL
Harbaugh remains mum on QB situation at Big Ten Media Days JOSH TAUBMAN Daily Sports Editor
In 2012, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh — then at the helm for the San Francisco 49ers — had a decision looming. With his team in the midst of a playoff push, he had to choose between veteran QB Alex Smith, who at the time led the league in completion percentage and was 19-5-1 as a starter under Harbaugh, or Colin Kaepernick, a second-year player who was considered more mobile and dynamic but less proven. Smith began the year as the starter but got injured in Week 10, opening the door for Kaepernick. Kaepernick impressed in Week 11, and the following week, with Smith clear to play but Kaepernick coming off of an impressive performance, Harbaugh officially had a quarterback controversy on his hands. Whichever way Harbaugh was leaning, he refused to tip his hand to the media. “I usually tend to go with the guy who’s got the hot hand,” Harbaugh
said back then. “And we’ve got two quarterbacks that have got a hot hand.” Now, 10 years later, Harbaugh finds himself overseeing a QB conundrum with the Wolverines — this time between senior Cade McNamara and sophomore J.J. McCarthy. And, at least for Big Ten Media Days, the head coach’s approach for handling questions about it appears eerily similar to a decade ago with the 49ers. “Both had phenomenal seasons,” Harbaugh said in his opening press conference on Tuesday. “J.J. in his true freshman year, Cade in his junior year. Both played outstanding winning football every time they went out there… The best player is going to play. We’re going to know who the best player is by who plays the best. “Cade McNamara is going to be really tough to beat out for the starting quarterback job. J.J. McCarthy is going to be really tough to beat out for the starting quarterback job.” Harbaugh refused to play favorites, and perhaps, he’s truly torn because nothing in the offseason has provided clear separation between the two so far.
McCarthy is a former five-star prospect who flashed an elite skill set when he had opportunities to play last season. He threw for 516 yards and five touchdowns in spot moments. He also served as a changeof-pace playmaker, subbing in on plays as a rushing threat and racking up 166 yards and two touchdowns over 27 attempts. All McNamara did, though, was guide Michigan to its best season in 25 years. While his passing numbers weren’t overwhelming, he rarely made mistakes, throwing just three interceptions in the regular season. McNamara is the safer, proven option. McCarthy is more high risk, high reward. Throughout the summer, neither has been named the starter — or maybe both have? In the afternoon’s hour-long media session, as questions continued to pour in on his stance on the quarterback situation, Harbaugh remained coy. “Cade’s the starting quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “When we line up for the first practice, he’ll be with the first team. Now, eventually, over the training camp, J.J. will get the same opportunity that Cade will. They’re
both going to get a ton of reps. There will be time to have that competition, determine who the starting quarterback is for the first game.” Every time he brought up the strength of one quarterback as the starter, he quickly mentioned the other’s impressive attributes as well. It’s possible that Harbaugh knows exactly who he wants under center and doesn’t want to tip off opposing teams. But, most likely, it remains an open competition — which is an uncertainty Harbaugh is more than okay with. “It’s a great word, competitive — not combative,” Harbaugh said. “That’s what we strive for. And that’s exactly what we had last year. And both guys are great guys — both
team guys, and they’re both driven. They’re both dreaming of being that guy. They’re both putting in the work the entire offseason to make that happen. So, that’s what we’ll be shooting for again — competitive, and not combative.” Back with San Francisco, Harbaugh rolled with “the hot hand,” keeping Kaepernick as the starter, and the 49ers went to the Super Bowl. Michigan has aspirations to return to the playoffs — and figuring out which quarterback gives it the best shot to do so is the million-dollar question coming out of Ann Arbor. But with Harbaugh content giving out nothing but vague responses, what plays out on the field will ultimately be what gives the definitive answer.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily It remains unclear whether Cade McNamara or J.J. McCarthy will be the starting QB for Harbaugh.