ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Saturday had a situation you don’t see every day. Michigan football edge rusher TJ Guy, who had his first collegiate start against Minnesota, managed to get a pivotal sack. But that wasn’t the weird part.
The interesting thing was how he got it.
Guy was bursting through the line, but the offensive lineman he was going up against got his hands up near Guy’s helmet and eventually tore it off. Despite suddenly being without protection, Guy motored on and managed to get through his block to bring down Gophers QB Max Brosmer.
In the aftermath, Guy had no idea that he actually got credited with the sack. Considering that he finished the play without a helmet, he was sure that the refs weren’t going to let the play stand.
“Bro, I thought they weren’t going to count it!” Guy said. “I was about to be so sick, bro. I was going to be so mad. But no, I never did that. It was cool, that was cool.”
Guy is serious. He really thought the play didn’t count. And thus, when he was forced to sit out the next play, he wasn’t in a celebratory mood.
“I wasn’t celebrating, I thought they didn’t count it,” Guy said. “I was mad! But no, definitely good or bad play, you flush it and go on to the next one.”
The play did, in fact, count, and there was no penalty. Though, as Guy tells it, there should have been.
On the Minnesota lineman.
But eventually, regardless of the missed call, Guy realized he got Brosmer down and was able to relish his success on the play.
“He grabbed my face mask and actually took my helmet off my head,” Guy said. “I said, ‘Wow.’ But, yeah, no — I mean, his hand placement obviously wasn’t good. He grabbed my face mask, and I was kind of caught off guard mid-move. But I just finished the play. I had to finish the play. Saw the quarterback, had to tackle him.
“It felt good. My guy, (Chris Bryant) on the sideline was like, ‘Yeah, boy!’ He was like, ‘Yeah, boy!’ He was turning me up a little bit. And I was like, ‘Bro, did they count it?’ He said, yeah, so I got happy after that.”