The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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62 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW the pains of working hard than the pain of regret." Those words carried him throughout Michigan's winter workouts. They echoed in his head during the Wolverines' spring practices, in which Isaac, Wheatley assured, performed at a high level. They urged him on when he wasn't operating at 100 percent physically. They whispered the firm, clear message to keep pushing. "Anybody after the fourth or fifth prac- tice is banged up," Isaac assured. "It's mind over matter. Sure, you can tap out any time you want. I just had to remind myself: you have these goals, and you say you really want them. At some point, you'll have some things that you don't necessarily like or want to do, but they're necessary." Insight through discomfort — it's a hall- mark of the game of football, learned over and over again and applied to a number of life situations. Isaac's efforts led to a bright spotlight on him in Michigan's spring game. Senior tailback De'Veon Smith did not participate, presumably due to healing up from the wear and tear of the spring. That threw the door wide open for Isaac to shine, and he did. He led U-M rushers with 78 yards on 10 carries, including a pair of breakaway runs. He also understands what Michigan's of- fense is trying to do now, far better than he did a year ago. The missed time hurt him, and once he fell behind, he scrambled to catch up. Now, a better grasp on everything injects a level of quickness to this game he couldn't tap into before. "Once you learn a system, once you ac- tually know something so that you can sit down and teach it to somebody or thoroughly explain it, you can play so much faster and you don't have to think," explained Isaac. "You can just play. That's made a huge dif- ference." That said, he also knows Smith is the man to beat for the starting tailback job. Wheat- ley said so in the spring, due to Smith's all-around game. Harbaugh often praises Smith's "contact courage," willingness to run through a would-be tackler, etc. Isaac insists he feels no animosity toward his teammate. Just the opposite, in fact. The redshirt junior does plan to make it tough for Michigan's coaches to keep him off the field this season, and that means compet- ing like a man in quicksand grabbing for a hanging vine. "Those are my best friends on the team in that room," Isaac explained. "Me and De'Veon hang out all the time, but we get on that field and … we all have that kind of relationship. I want to see him do well, just like he wants to see me do well, but I'm not going to get any better if he's not pushing me, and he's not going to get any better if I'm not pushing him. "You sit down and watch film, you're go- ing to see who is playing the best. I don't see where there's any animosity that can come. If somebody is playing better than the next person, don't get mad at them. Play better than them." Isaac knows precisely what getting on the field more is going to require. "The biggest thing with them is trust," he Isaac led all Wolverines with 78 rushing yards on 10 attempts in the spring game April 1. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL