The Chase is On: Winovich Having MVP-Caliber Season
11/20/2018 11:35:00 AM | Football, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan defensive end Chase Winovich has the perfect first name for someone who spends games chasing down quarterbacks, running backs and anyone else who might be carrying the football.
"My parents joke with me now and say they randomly picked my name out of a book and that this was destiny," said Winovich. "But they just say that. What happened was they came across Chase and it sounded 'successful.'
"But they said it came down to the names Chase and Hunter."
Hunter would've worked, too, with the way he plays defense.
Winovich was one of two Big Ten semifinalists for the Bednarik Award given to the nation's top defender, and he was named the Associated Press Midseason Defensive Player of the Year. He has 58 tackles, including a team-high 13.5 for lost yardage and four sacks this season, and is sure to get strong consideration for All-American teams.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said of his play this season: "It's been at a Most Valuable Player level. He's had a great year."
Harbaugh said Winovich had the "best possible outcome" from X-rays and tests taken after an injury in last week's win over Indiana, adding that he will "continue to evaluate" his status for Saturday's (Nov. 24) showdown at Ohio State.
Winovich has risen to No. 10 in Michigan career tackles for lost yardage with 41.5, just behind Shawn Crable (43 from 2004-07) and Larry Foote (44 from 1998-2001), who was the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year and an All-American in 2001.
There are many adjectives to attach to Winovich, but relentless is perfect. He ends up making downfield tackles nearly every game because he simply refuses to ever give up on a play.
One of the best examples of that insatiable desire came, ironically, on one of the few long plays Michigan has allowed this season. Rutgers tailback Isaih Pacheco scored an 80-yard touchdown by barely holding off four Wolverine secondary members along with Winovich, a defensive end who ran like a defensive back but to no avail.
What is the source of that relentlessness?
"I say it's genetic," said Winovich. "Honestly, I'd say it pales in comparison to what my parents and grandparents and my great-grandparents and my siblings bring to the table. But it's still, nonetheless, a reflection of it. And most of the time it's not a conscious decision to do it. It's just the way I am if you watch me in the weight room or running and conditioning-wise. It's something I'm built for.
"I'm a workhorse is the way I view myself. It's like Seabiscuit in a sense. I see him run (in the 2003 movie) and I feed off it. I feel that crowd and that Big House energy."
Winovich (15), Dwumfour (50) and Paye (19) are among the many stalwarts on Coach Mattison's defensive line.
His parents, Nina and Peter, work together as property managers in the Pittsburgh area, and he said his mother rises earlier in mornings that anyone he knows "and is the hardest-working person in America" in a field demanding hustle and multitasking.
"If I'm a workhorse," said Winovich, "she's a thoroughbred. And Dad is right up there with her, but she's a machine."
Winovich's Seabiscuit nature also comes through in watching videotape in excess and even studying opponents from their social media accounts.
"I know at the end of the day that I am going to know a whole lot more about them than they will about me," said Winovich. "I browse their Instagram just to see how they think. I mess with several of the players, mentioning some stuff that might be personal, but it's all in good fun. It's nothing personal, but I just try to be more creative than most people."
"(On video) I try to break down what they look like on pass, and there are lots of telltale signs of what teams like to do that I look for."
The rewards for all of that study and practice are the big plays, and Winovich says he's had two favorites this season.
"It's either the sack against Northwestern or the sack against Penn State," said Winovich. "The Northwestern sack wasn't really necessarily the hardest. We just had a max blitz. But I remember being fired up on the sideline because we'd given up 17 points, and that sack ended up being a pivotal play in the game."
The Wildcats were moving the chains on their first drive of the second half, but on third-and-three at the Northwestern 49-yard line, Winovich brought down quarterback Clayton Thorson for an eight-yard loss. Michigan blanked the Wildcats in the second half, beginning the defensive brilliance of this season and coming back to win on the road, 20-17.
That also is his favorite game so far in 2018.
"We had a game very similar to Northwestern in 2016, when we were at Iowa," said Winovich. "That was a game on the road where we should've beaten them but didn't. I think the win at Northwestern showed our team's maturity and willingness to fight. A lot of championship teams have those types of games."
Winovich's sack of quarterback Trace McSorley on Penn State's first drive set the tone in Michigan's 42-7 victory in Ann Arbor. Winovich also recovered a McSorley fumble in the first half, when the usually high-powered Nittany Lion offense was held to 77 yards.
"I'm from Pennsylvania and had dozens and dozens of people there to watch me," said Winovich. "To do that, and to feel the crowd, was just something so special to me."
Winovich's sack at Northwestern was one of his eight solo tackles in the comeback win.
It was a sack that displayed his power, speed and undeniability. He jolted 6-foot-6, 306-pound right tackle Will Fries with his hands before going past him with a quick inside move.
"That was actually supposed to be an outside rush," said Winovich. "But I was looking inside and just caught a glimpse. I don't know why my eyes shifted there, but it was like my eyes saw the perfect hole, and the linebackers called a check right as I did that. That was like a green light, like I was playing Mario Kart or something.
"They snapped the football, and I knew he wasn't going to be expecting that inside. I usually line up more inside to come inside, but I was just in my normal stance, took a step in, beat him with my hands and caught him off-balance. I was able to use leverage and acceleration to beat the guard off the edge, and I saw the quarterback and knew I wasn't going to let him slip from me."
Michigan does blitz. After all, defensive coordinator Don Brown is nicknamed "Dr. Blitz." But it no longer has to blitz to get the quarterback. The four-man front -- which also starts end Rashan Gary and tackles Carlo Kemp and Bryan Mone and gets team sack leader Josh Uche off the bench along with tackles Lawrence Marshall, Aubrey Solomon and Michael Dwumfour and end Kwity Paye -- is deep in exceptional talent.
"Coach (Greg) Mattison always emphasized the importance of being able to rush just a select number of guys -- like four people," said Winovich, a first team All-Big Ten selection in 2017. "It really opens up everything in the back end (of the defense)."
Winovich says that puts pressure on the front four because only four gaps can be filled with their rush. Four gaps exist between the offensive tackles, but the areas outside those tackles also provide avenues for ball carriers.
"It's a challenge," said Winovich, "but if your defense can do it -- which I think we've been able to do with some of our rush packages -- it helps make your defense special."
Michigan leads the nation in total defense, pass defense and pass efficiency defense.
Chase leads the chase, and the end result for Michigan in 10 consecutive games has been the first three letters in his last name.
"I'm Serbian," said Winovich. "I'm eastern European. It's Slovak, Serbian. And then I'm Irish and English. That's my other half.
"I usually listen to some Irish folk music before games. It helps things come full circle and back to my roots and hard-working nature. There's a song, 'Rocky Road to Dublin,' that I listen to. The underdog, the grittiness, the intelligent, outsmart your opponents, there's a lot to the song that I find a connection to."
Winovich also has developed a friendship with fighting superstar Conor McGregor, the one-time plumber from Dublin who decided to chase his dreams and made good on them. Winovich said his fascination with McGregor began when he moved to his current position.
It was three years ago during preparations for the Citrus Bowl win over Florida that Winovich, now 6-foot-3, 255 pounds, switched to defensive end.
"I didn't see a direct path to being the best tight end in college football," said Winovich, who was behind future Mackey Award winner Jake Butt at that position. "Why? It was just a feeling inside my heart. It was kind of an intuition that you get."
Winovich affects the game "all ways a defensive end can," according to Harbaugh.
Playing on the D-Line put Winovich under the tutelage of Greg Mattison, one of the best in the business.
"There are few people in the world that believed in me as much as he has," said Winovich. "From day one, the man has invested so much in me. He's always given me the benefit of the doubt, which is not always the case with people. You have to earn that. But Coach Mattison's given me that benefit of doubt and helped me grow into the best football player that I can be.
"I wouldn't be a quarter of the football player I am if he wasn't as persistent in making me great as he was. So, I owe a lot of credit to him."
He comes hard, fast and smart through the line of scrimmage.
"All ways a defensive end can affect the game," said Harbaugh, "he's found ways to do that, whether it's getting pressure on a quarterback, tackling, playing from the back side to the front side, hustle to plays constantly, tipped balls. Sideline to sideline. Every way a defensive end can affect the game.
"He is definitely a great example and always has been. He does everything at such an intense level, hard-working level, and he's gung-ho, too, as he's doing it, which seems to be a rarer trait in individuals these days. Sometimes you see younger people thinking it's more cool to have an approach that they're too cool for school as opposed to gung-ho. Chase is a definitely throwback in my mind in the area of attacking each day with enthusiasm unknown to mankind, which I have great respect for."
Winovich felt moved to match the opportunity he was given.
"What have you given back to the program that has given so much to you?" asked Winovich. "I think it's been a pretty mutual relationship. Michigan has done a lot for me and given me a world of opportunities. But at the same time a lot of people who watch Michigan football take joy and inspiration from the stuff we do. So, I've given it back."
Winovich created the "Revenge Tour" mission for this team, which has already avenged three of the four conference losses from 2017 with victories over Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State.
"He means a lot," said safety and captain Tyree Kinnel. "It was hard to see him go down in that game Saturday, but it's good to have him here with us this week, and he means a lot. He's the outspoken leader on this team.
"He's going to say what he's going to say, and he's going to do what he's going to do. And we love having him around. So, I'm glad, I'm very thankful for Chase."
And that's the name of the game.
