The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/544673
within a program for years to come. "It's great for the future of the team," Whitten said. "Having a young leader on the team spurs on the guys who have been here longer than him. We have five or six guys we can really count on, and Kyle is one of those guys. That has me really excited for the upcoming year." Mueller moves forward with his sights set high, which has his coach thinking the team has the potential to do some things that haven't been done regularly at U-M. "The way we are tracking, the team should have really high expec- tations both on the Big Ten level and at the national level," Whitten said. "We are very capable. We have some senior and junior leadership now that we haven't had in the past cou- ple years, in terms of their perfor- mance on the course and the sheer number of players in those classes. But we have to go out and do it. We haven't done it yet, and we need to establish a track record of expecting to play well and winning in tight situations. "Kyle can really help us with those goals, but he is going to be in exactly the same boat for his own individual game. The more players we have in position to win tournaments indi- vidually will set us up for what we want to do as a team." Mueller achieved a lot, but still doesn't feel like he or his squad are where he wants them to be yet. The rising-sophomore knows that all eyes will be on him after such an encouraging debut. He's aware that his responsibilities have increased, but he wouldn't want it any other way. "I definitely feel a little pressure," he said. "That comes with being a leader. I've gotten to know [rising- senior] Chris O'Neill really well, and he's taught me how to handle that. When he leaves I'm going to have to help lead this team. There is some pressure there, but I think it's a good sort of pressure. It's going to make me better and it's going to make the players around me better, and that's what we are all trying to do." ❏ Michigan's Other Top Male Rookies 1. Jake Bivens, baseball — Named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Biv- ens was also recognized as a Freshman All-American first-teamer by Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association, Louisville Slug- ger and D1Baseball.com, while Perfect Game listed him on their second-team among rookies. The shortstop is U-M's first Freshman of the Year honoree since 1996 after batting .319 with 68 hits and an on-base percentage of .435, good for sixth in the league. 2. Dylan Larkin, ice hockey — Larkin led all Big Ten freshmen with 47 points (15 goals, 32 assists) en route to being named a second-team All-American. He was also a member of the All-Big Ten first-team. The forward finished second in the nation for freshman scoring while tallying the most points by a Michigan