ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On Saturday at Nebraska, it appeared that an unusual amount of passes from Husker quarterback Heinrich Haarberg were batted at the line of scrimmage.
Of course, the most popular one was on the first drive for Nebraska, when defensive end Braiden McGregor got his hand on the ball which went flying into the air for defensive tackle Kenneth Grant to snag for his first career interception. But others got into the mix, as well.
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Michigan was credited with five passes broken up in the game total, but the stats don’t make it clear on who made the play. But one player for sure got his hand on the ball in edge rusher Derrick Moore, who says that’s been a point of emphasis for the defense.
“We work on it every day so we’re working on mirror hands — we call them your hands,” Moore said. “If you can’t get to the quarterback, that’s a hang-up. So work that every day. And it shows up in the game. We call it tips on overthrows. So tips on overthrows, we’ve got to get those so he tipped the ball up, somebody gotta be there to get it and (Kenneth Grant) was there to get it.”
But why were the Wolverines so successful? Part of it was the work that went into practice, but the other part was knowing the quarterback’s tendencies. Being aware that Haarberg had a low release was key for the Michigan defense.
“We kind of knew that the quarterback, he winded back and then all his throws was like real low,” Moore said. “So that was like a big thing that we kind of like study. And we already knew if we got our hand up, somebody was going to get a tip.”
While part of the success came due to Haarberg’s throwing angles, Moore said the bigger part was the defense’s willingness to work on it every single day. Because it’s been drilled into them that they have to get their hands up, when it came to game time, if the rushers couldn’t get to the quarterback, they at least did the next best thing to disrupt the offense: keep the ball from getting to the target.
“Putting the work in every day in practice, and seeing it every day,” Moore said. “And then you see it in a game and then you’re able to do it in a game. So, it’s all from practice.”