The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/262939
6-5 and 300 pounds and you haven't grown into your body yet. All of a sudden, you're doing bear crawls and running laps, and you're like, 'What the heck? Why did I get myself into this?'" As a matter of fact, Bushell-Beatty didn't earn a starting spot in that first year of running smack-dab into the brutal differences between 94 feet of wood and 100 yards of turf. After that freshman campaign, the head coach felt compelled to sit the big kid down and engage in a heart-to- heart talk. "I said, 'What are your goals here, Juwann? What do you want to do?'" Partridge recounted. "He looked me straight in the eye and he said, 'I want to get a Division I scholarship and I want to go to the NFL.' I said, 'Well, Juwann, you are going to have to work harder than anyone around here.'" That's precisely what Bushell- Beatty did. When the team hit the weight room, the scholarship hope- ful stayed for an extra hour, lifting, jumping on the treadmill, grabbing coaches to ask for help with foot- work. He continued getting better and better through sheer force of will, Partridge noted. "By the time his junior year came, he'd completely molded his body," Partridge assured. "He'd picked his foot speed up. He was bending really well. He's just taken off. The sky's the limit. He's going to keep getting better and better." Bushell-Beatty improved on the field as well. He gave up a sack in the second game of his junior year, representing the only one he'd sur- render in two seasons of starting at left tackle. His other skills also sharpened through the battles, according to his head coach. "The first couple of games, he was good, but he wasn't anything great," Partridge said. "But then we saw him just punching people into the ground on blocks, driving people across the field, not giving up sacks — ever. "He got better and better, and he started understanding the game more. His junior year, he didn't make too many line calls. He was just wor- ried about performing himself. Then his senior year, he started making the calls and understanding fronts he was going against, really under- standing the game. His mental aspect has gotten a lot better, and it will continue as well." Toughness will not be a concern, nor will team-mindedness, the Para- mus coach promised. The school is big enough and so amply fitted out in football that nobody in the front seven plays both ways. So Bushell- Beatty kept strictly to the offense. Even through some typical foot- ball nicks as a senior, Bushell-Beatty never took any time off — not from working with the first-team linemen. Not even from giving looks with the demonstration squad, so the Para- mus defense could stay sharp. That work ethic goes with him to Michigan, according to someone who has watched the young man develop in every way. It's what will carry him to success, Partridge insists. — John Borton