Taylor Lewan has played many roles at Michigan, from class clown to serious leader to All American.
Now, though, he's taking on something that no one expected him to even consider -- senior.
When Michigan lost to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl, there seemed little doubt that Lewan had played his final college game. He was considered the best offensive tackle in college football, and the top of the NFL Draft was loaded with teams who badly needed a tackle. When Lewan and Brady Hoke consulted the NFL's Draft Advisory Board to find out if those expectations were accurate, they were given an emphatic "Yes" -- he would probably be a top-5 pick, and could possibly even go No. 1 overall.
It seemed like a simple decision, and it was clear that he would go pro with the thanks and complete blessing of the Michigan coaching staff, just like Trey Burke did a few months later. The only disappointing thing would be that the lasting image of his career would be something that wasn't his fault - Jadeveon Clowney's helmet-removing destruction of Vincent Smith in the bowl game. The replay appears to show Lewan ignoring Clowney and getting his running back crushed, but the truth was that Lewan was supposed to block someone else on the play. The player assigned to Clowney simply didn't get over in time to stop the trainwreck.
That all changed in early January, when Lewan made his announcement before a Michigan basketball game. Lewan talked about everything he had achieved as a Wolverine, and how much he had enjoyed his career, and then came the sentence that changed everything.
"I spent a lot of time on this decision, and at the end of it, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to return to the University of Michigan," he said, causing a lot of sportswriters to delete stories they had already written.
Lewan said at Sunday's media day that it wasn't actually a hard choice to make.
"The goal of every football player at the University of Michigan is to win a Big Ten championship, and I haven't done that," he said. "By coming back, I have a chance to do it. It was simple as that."
Lewan has always danced to his own drummer, but in this case, he has tradition on his side. Michigan offensive lineman have a sense of pride in staying all four years, with Jake Long having done it shortly before Lewan.
"I talked to Jake and other guys who played on the line here, and they told me that they never regretted staying," he said. "You never get another chance to play football for the University of Michigan. You'll have other chances to do other things."
Given the circumstances, it would have been easy for Lewan to find something better to do than watch the draft in April. After all, two offensive tackles, Central Michigan's Eric Fisher and Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel, went 1-2, and Lane Johnson (Oklahoma) was the fourth pick.
"I watched every minute of the first round, and a lot of the rest," he said. "I thought it was great to see those guys get to achieve a dream that we all have -- getting drafted like that and moving into the NFL. I was really happy for all of them."
Still, Lewan is only human, so there had to be some second-guessing of himself when the draft turned into a massive payday for anyone who could play the position he dominated. After all, he had been rated higher than all of them before taking his name out of consideration, so he know that Fisher's four-year, $22.2 million contract could have been his.
According to Lewan, the thought never crossed his mind.
"When I decided to come back to Michigan, I was 100 percent sure of my decision, so I've been 100 percent committed to being a Michigan football player," he said. "I watched the draft, and enjoyed seeing those guys get picked, but I play at Michigan right now, so the draft wasn't anything about me. I'm sure I'll get that chance someday, and I'll be just as thrilled as they were, but that wasn't my time."
On paper, that all sounds like a string of say-the-right-thing cliches straight out of Kevin Costner's lecture to Tim Robbins in "Bull Durham", but in person, he's convincing. Like Hoke, he is entirely focused on bringing that elusive conference championship back to Ann Arbor.
"We haven't won the Big Ten championship since 2004, and we need to take care of that," he said. "We've got the potential to do it, and we might have the chance to do something that no Michigan team has ever done, beat Ohio twice in a row. That's the reason I'm here. Everything else can wait."
