Michigan veteran Quinten Johnson speaks on 'week of reflection'
The Michigan Wolverines are into a bye week coming off of a loss to Washington that has some in the program looking in the mirror.
Quinten Johnson returned for a sixth season this year not only to stabilize the safety position within the program, but also to be a veteran voice that head coach Sherrone Moore could lean on.
The relatively young Wolverines needed a veteran presence heading into its first bye week of th season, especially in a secondary that has not lived up to the hype to this point. Through six games, U-M ranks 114th in passing yards per game, 133rd in passing yards per completion and 107th in total first downs allowed.
The 27-17 loss to Washington and the long plane ride home gave Michigan an extended pause to ruminate on the first six weeks.
“It was a moment of reflection, and it led into a week of reflection,” Johnson said on Oct. 8. “And it’s all about how we can go about taking that loss, that adversity, and getting better from it. So it wasn’t a moment where we all had to sit back and weep or overthink what was going on, but it was just something that we took the idea, we took it all in, and after 24 hours, we flushed it, and we got better from it.”
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The message inside the building is fairly simple. Will the early setbacks to Texas and Washington define or fuel the Wolverines? That is at the core of what Johnson is urging players to decide.
“Bounce back,” Johnson said. “Are you a fighter or are you not? The only way is forward, so the only way to really go is forward. So at the end of the day, I could give you a lot of ‘what if?’ scenarios, or how you respond to this and that. You check who you are as a person. You look in the mirror and see what can you do to get better.”
The Wolverines have been through adversity before whether or not it necessarily reflected itself on the field. Johnson thinks that’s something the program can pull from as it navigates through an up-and-down first half.
“The only difference is this year there’s more adversity,” Johnson said. “I mean, all our goals are still in front of us, and we gotta make sure we don’t lose sight of that. At the end of the day, everything we want is still attainable, and adversity is something that, as a man, you shouldn’t crave, but when it happens, how you respond to it is gonna define you. So we don’t run from it, and we appreciate it. We have an opportunity to show the world what we can do.”
Michigan is back in action on Oct. 19 against Illinois at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
