Winovich on His Hair, Being Relentless and What Makes Him Most Proud
11/1/2018 7:28:00 PM | Football, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Chase Winovich's shoulder-length blond hair has become part of his football persona. The University of Michigan defensive end's long locks flap on his shoulder pads as he hunts down tailbacks and crushes quarterbacks, and that adds to the eye-catching image of a dominating player.
He also just happened to start growing it out as his college career began taking off.
"It was between my sophomore year and going into my junior season," recalled Winovich. "I tried it when I first got to school, but I could ever find a style that worked. I couldn't stand it at the awkward stage. I tried slicking it back. I kept the top longer and shaved the sides."
That got him through the "awkward" time between the "regular haircut" phase and the flowing hair that he admired on Green Bay Packers sack-master Clay Matthews and former Wolverine teammate Jake Ryan, the inside linebacker drafted by the Packers in 2015. Ryan cut his hair that year to donate it.
"I was inspired by Jake Ryan for sure," said Winovich. "And Clay's the background on my phone. Definitely, both those guys inspired me. And Jake was one of the biggest reasons I came to Michigan.
"So, it grew out and I liked it. I became attached to it. Then, once I started having more success, it just became my identity and I clung to it."
Is there a Samson-like quality now for him with the hair? The biblical Samson was given super-human strength connected to a vow he made to never cut the hair, and was able to slay a lion with his bare hands and massacre an army of Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey. However, Samson lost the strength when his hair was cut while he slept.
Winovich nodded to affirm that the hair gives him a mental "boost" on the field.
"Once I take the hair out of a bun, which is how I wear it sometimes at practice, I can feel the hair on my shoulder pads and neck," said Winovich. "It gives me a little extra strength boost and a speed boost."
Prior to last year's Outback Bowl, Winovich dyed his hair orange, which was the favorite color of Chad Carr, the grandson of Michigan Hall of Fame coach Lloyd Carr, to help raise over $350,000 for the Chad Tough Foundation. #ChadTough donates to research for a cure to the pediatric cancer which claimed Chad, only 5 years old, in 2015. Defensive coordinator Don Brown dyed his classic mustache orange and other teammates followed suit.
Winovich had it dyed blond again two days afterward.
"I love my long hair," said Winovich. "One day, who knows? I might go bald or something. While I've got it, I'm enjoying it."
Winovich grew out his hair after moving to defensive end in preparation for the Citrus Bowl during the 2015 season. He'd previously played fullback, tight end and linebacker.
Ever since finding a home, Winovich, a 6-foot-3, 255-pound bundle of unbridled energy and passion, has gone about establishing himself as one of the finest to play the position at Michigan.
Winovich recently passed a player he very much mirrors – 1992 All-America end Chris Hutchinson – for 14th place on the career tackles-for-loss list with 38.5. Two more TFLs would move him into 10th place, and if he continues at his pace of 1.4 per game, Winovich could crack the top five depending on how many postseason games Michigan plays.
He has 16 career sacks, and is tied for 14th there, too, needing two more to crack the top 10.
Winovich has 43 tackles -- ranking third on the team this season behind middle linebacker Devin Bush (49) and free safety Tyree Kinnel (44) -- with a team-high 11 for lost yardage and three sacks.
The Associated Press named Winovich a Midseason All-American first teamer and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
"He sure has been having an impressive season," said Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh. "All ways a defensive end can affect the game, 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 inspired the team's comeback victory from a 17-0 deficit at Northwestern with nine tackles, three tackles for lost yardage and one sack.
Defensive end Rashan Gary, who had been challenging to give the Wolverines bookend All-Americans, was injured in that Northwestern game. The majority of double-teaming has fallen to Winovich since, and he's still wreaked havoc. Two Michigan State blockers locked onto him on a play going around his end and Winovich pushed back on both as if they were a human blocking sled. The runner came directly into the trio and his progress ended near the line of scrimmage.
"It doesn't make a difference to me," Winovich said of the double-teams. "I usually tell them that they've got to bring some more friends. I don't know how they take that. But I haven't been on the wrong side of a double-team where I get crushed and they ended up running for a huge gain. I usually hold my own to the point where the play is stopped.
"I don't care how big you are, how many of you there are, I have a vision of what needs to be done on the play and you have to kill me to stop me." Â
Winovich, who played quarterback and linebacker at Thomas Jefferson High in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, has a score to settle with Penn State on Saturday (Nov. 3) at Michigan Stadium.
Last year, the Nittany Lions beat Michigan, 42-13, in State College.
"It lingers with us every day," Winovich said.
It's the third of four games on the "Revenge Tour" Winovich booked with last year's conference losses in mind. Defeats in 2017 to Wisconsin and MSU have already been avenged.
"People were kind of bullying us last year," said Winovich. "I'd say just beating up on us last year. They kind of took advantage that we were in kind of an in-between year. Something about that year left a bad taste in my mouth, and I knew, me, personally, I wanted my lunch money back, and I wanted them to pay interest."
Asked how he collects that interest on stolen "lunch money," Winovich said, "Just play hard, just play the game. That's all I'm going to say. I feel like that's a baited question. So, I can't give that to Penn State. So, we'll just have to see."
Winovich added that you have to be "accountable" for your actions, and that he "plans to correct any wrongs" from that defeat.
What I wondered as Winovich revealed the "lunch money" quotes at a large media gathering Monday (Oct. 29) was whether anyone had ever been able to bully him.
"I dealt with some bullying issues for sure," Winovich said Tuesday night after practice. "I went through an awkward stage, like a lot of kids do in middle school, and bleached my hair in sixth grade. But it was too short and it ended up looking like polka dots. I looked like a leopard. And I had Osgood-Schlatter disease in my right knee."
The disease causes a painful, bony bump on the shinbone below knees and usually occurs in adolescents experiencing growth spurts while also participating in sports that involve running, jumping and swift changes in direction, according to the Mayo Clinic web site.
"So," continued Winovich, "my leg was in an immobilizer and I was in such pain. I couldn't play sports and put on pounds, and kids took advantage of that. They can be pretty cruel. But I like to think I got the last laugh."
Indeed he has. Winovich is one of two Big Ten semifinalists for the Bednarik Award and also is on the watch list for another defensive player of the year honor, the Nagurski Award.
The switch he made to defensive end nearly three years ago has paid off. He also began at that same time his fascination and eventual communication and friendship with fighting superstar Conor McGregor, a plumber in his native Ireland before embarking on his current career.
"It goes back to when I was making the transition from tight end to D-end," said Winovich. "I first saw on ESPN a special on him, and how he was a plumber going to work one day, and he said, 'Screw this. I'm going to go pursue my dreams.' That kind of coincided with my transition … and it's about the utmost belief in oneself, and he has fun doing it.
"He just lives his best life, and I try to resonate with that. Whatever happens, I just try to go out and have fun. You only get one shot at this thing and it's a short ride. So, he's an inspiring guy. He's like a big brother to me."
And when Winovich takes the field for the first play of the game on a unit that leads the nation in total defense and pass defense, he feels all "eyes" on him.
"It's go time," said Winovich. "The eyes in the skies -- whether it's the fans, (NFL) scouts or your family -- everyone's watching at that time. Even if you don't know if they're specifically watching you, it makes no difference, you feel their eyes, you feel their energy.
"And I feed off it. I don't even know if I need that external motivation, but it fuels me."
His relentlessness -- which he credits to "genetics" and notes "pales in comparison" to that of his siblings, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents -- is a way of life, really.
"I'm a workhorse is the way I view myself," said Winovich. "It's like Seabiscuit in a sense. I see him run (in the 2003 movie) and I feed off it."
No. 5 Michigan is 7-1 overall and the only undefeated team in the Big Ten at 5-0. There's much to be proud of, and I asked Winovich what makes him proudest.
"It's beyond a personal thing at this point," he said. "I've achieved far beyond where I started and my early trajectory was. If you'd have told me I was going to be a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate, I would've told you that you were crazy.
"But I dug deep and found belief in myself. But what I take the most pride in is where Michigan is at from a success standpoint. That success I don't feel is temporary. I feel it's an actual learned, grounded foundation. It's not a whim. The people we've brought together -- the coaches and the personnel and the players -- I feel I'm on the ground floor at the foundation of the new era of Michigan football.
"And that is the greatest part for me -- the coolest and most rewarding part. Because that's what I came to Michigan to do. If I get no awards or get hurt, I was a part of that. And that is the ultimate compliment, participating in something greater than yourself."
