SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1966 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE SEVEN SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8,1986 TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE SEVEN a I.-- -- T- , I 3 Pride, Power Clash as Wolverines Due lMSU A Football Game ... The game is today. THE game is today YOU'LL have to excuse that. It usually takes me the better part of five and a third seconds to get fully fired up for it. But that's only because I tend to be slow at cortisone mobilization. It's Michigan vs. Michigan State, and step right up. It's Snob State against Moo U., the Blue taking on the Green. It's a one-of- a-kind sort of thing, a rivalry in the true sense of the word only since World War II. Yet the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy has become one of the nation's three recognized super-duels. And no one within three miles of a good Wolverine fan any- where in the country even knows about the other two. THE game is something else. It's a sudden surge of popularity for blue and gold clothes on the Diag and in the Fishbowl. It's the appear- ance of rah-rah on a less-than-scintillating campus, chucking home- work and night labs for a non-celluloid pep rally. It's painting Sparty Blue ... and Ann Arbor grass Green. It's your dullest prof finally breaking stride, giving your writing hand some time to recover, to get in his funny about "the Harvard of Horticulture to the North," inadvertently dubbing the famous Spar- tan Fund (a high powered sink fund for football players and players- to-be, which the NCAA found time to take issue with) "The Trough," and getting a laugh from everybody in the first three rows of Audi- torium A. What is it? What is this annual fit of insanity which grips two campuses and changes 70,000 people whose normal indifference could not even be characterized as more than mild, into militant activists whose advocacy of "violence" is on a scale without parallel? How can they take sides to defend the honor of school and not care to commit themselves over the "honor of a nation" or of a people? What does Pasadena's Rose Bowl have that the Mekong River's Rice Bowl lacks? Well, for one thing, it makes more sense. V Absurd, you say. Sports are not a life or death thing, you say. It is trivia, you-say. It's irrelevant. It's . .. whatever. "Trivia," you say. But I admit that I am naive. And I might as well put it this way. Man has been struggling for all these years-struggling against na- The Margin or Eror Gil Samberg ture, against his rivals, against himself-and what has he to show for it? Sure, in those millennia past, everything that the individual did had some life or death significance. The game they played then was "Survival." It was tough and it was for keeps. Well how far have we really come? The whole idea of beating nature-of protecting against the weather, of accumulating surplus food, of getting by the- neighborhood carnivore-was to reach the era where man wouldn't have to slug it out every step of the way to keep breathing. He wanted to get to the point where he could indulge him- self in things . . ."other" things. Where the "trivia"-and isn't art and literature and higher communication a sort of trivia in the the same sense-would be, could be, the big things in life. Today man plays many games, quite complex games. Very few of the "non-trivial" ones are not games of survival, and more, games where the object isn't to "destroy" the next guy physically or mentally. Sports make up a part of the few. Football is violent, all right. And the bodies fly out there. But the object of this game is to get by your opponent, not to stomp him into the ground. The object of concern is a ball, not a bayonet. And, if I've a choice, I'd rather fire up for the Michigan State game than for the Battle of the Week. What I'm trying to say is that, if anything, sports should really be more relevant to today than the "non-trivia" that we so quickly and profoundly proclaim to be the subjects of greatest concern. In truth, they are fifty years out of date. Sports-the grandchild of abundance, direct offspring of leisure-is for today and tomorrow. Oh, the world is a cold, cold place, Martha. And there aren't many lands like ours. But for the first time we have the tools to make it so. #. We have the knowledge and the technique to allow our kind to enjoy nobility. For if America and the West have become Man's vanguard in progressing to a greater era, they certainly are not detached from those behind them. How simple it all seems. Or maybe, how simple I seem. Just as, when you know where your next meal is coming from, you can see a fourth-and-three situation as a crisis, I want to be able to be more concerned today about the fate of the Blue than the future of my country. Isn't that our real goal-to take our biggest pride in how we make our peace? To be able to say that there are only "trivial" games left. And sports--football-is one of them. Let's make the fight for dear old Michigan the big one of the year for every player and spectator. And let a loss be the biggest heartbreak. Stand up and cheer like hell for the Blue now, and maybe someday they'll realize how important it is . . . and so will you. Trivia, you say. More like an ideal, I think. Man should have been able to take his "trivia" more seriously long ago. A Long Tradition .. . ... And a Meaning BUMP: "HATE STATE" Sipp Phillips Hanna Dayton Bailey Hribal Clancy Vidmer Detwiler Ward Fisher LE LT LG C RG RT RE QB LH RH FB By JIM TINDALL Associate Sports Editor Special To The Daily EAST LANSING -It's all been chewed over and spit up 58 times. This is the granddaddy of them all . .. biggest of the year . . . not just a rivalry . . . not just another sellout . . . not just another trophy . not just a Big Ten opener-. not just anything you can think of. It is Michigan versus Michigan State, and that has a meaning all of its own. Every year it rolls around in October, and every year it~s the same. 'M' and 13 The bookies have made the Spartans 13-point favorites, but that will mean less than nothing on the field. Certainly, Michigan State is a formidable ballclub, but Illinois proved last week that the Spartans can be slowed up and maybe even tripped up. North Carolina con- clusively proved that Michigan can be beaten. The Spar'tan strength so far this year has been a brutal defense that is, at least on paper, performing better than last year. Going into today's game Bubba Smith and his playground pals have given up .98 yards per running play. That is defense. Weakness in Secondary However, things aren't quite so Rosy behind them-while the line has been holding runners to 30 per cent less than they gainer last year, the secondary has been al- lowing 50 per cent more passing yardage. This, hopefully, is the Unwashed Heel of the Spartans. fense in practice this week the same way that we do every week." Translation: Michigan might have a few new plays and/or strategies under their white jer- seys for the occasion. Michigan will have to resort to the air to win, while using draws, delays, and traps to keep the smashing Spar- tans honest. Some of those new plays or patterns will most likely involve Jim Detwiler who is get- ting his starting slot back again for the first time since Last year's MSU game. "Jim is fit and ready." From Michigan State's Duffy Daugherty: "In a big game like this, you don't win by being un- orthodox. You win by better e ecu tion. Michigan knows what kind of plays we run Jones on, and they know when we run Apisa. These things are basic. You can't change these plays overnight - you need blocking angles to start with, and the ones that we have now are sound, or they wouldn't hav got- ten us where we are today." (That's number one in the coun- try for the uninitiated.) How does this translate? Watch for Apisa and Jones to slam off tackle most of the day while Gene Washington runs threatening pat- terns downfield. Duffy Says Commenting on Michigan's de- fense Daugherty pronounced: "Up front they have some boys that are physically real strong." Two of those guys, Dick Williamson and Dave Porter, have been the concern of Michigan coach Dennis Fitzgerald for much of the week in an effort to ready them for the gargantuan task they have in stopping fast and powerful run- ning attack that has been clipping off an even five yards per crack. Williamson and Porter, as well as the rest of the defensive align- ment, has been scrutinizing the Illini defensive tactics that held State's superrunners, Jones and Apisa, to an amazing 23 and 16 yards respectively last weekend. Can't Stop Jack As for the Michigan passing of- ly made his presence felt last year in Michigan Stadium and is likely to repeat as a problem today.' Thornhill put on a tremendous t show at Illinois last week, and was named the UPI lineman of the week. Duh! Thornhill's philosophy of the game is quoted in the Michigan States News as follows: "Hitting is the best part of the game," said Thornhill. "It's fun, and I think football is a fun game. It's not all DUFFY: 'MASH MICH." fun, but without it, I think foot- DUFFY:"MASHball is boring. . .. I decided to try fense, Daugherty explains, I linebacker (after being switched' really is impossible to completely from fullback) and found out that stop someone like Jack Clancy. We I really enjoyed hitting. I know, know that he is going to catch I'mplaying the right position some passes against us, we just now." . . (Dwight) Lee said, "I hope that we can contain himhte to scrimmagetigaidhi better than some other teams have he hits hard every time, and he's Michigan has a nice blend of pass- in on every tackle." ing and running too, which will While Duffy is apparently satis- keep us from ganging up on them fied with his smaller version of last in the backfield." year's defense (averaging 208 in- The guys in green shirts that stead of 245) he is not so jovial will be wandering around in the about his attack. The MSU mentor Michigan backfield as well as the claims that the Spartans stopped Spartan secondary will be George themselves on too many occasions Webster and Charlie Thornhill. last week with incomplete passes Webster, ace "roverback," certain- and penalties. "The threat of the pass is just as important as the pass itself," Duffy said on the phone yester- day. "Raye has carried the ball 34 times, and most of those have actually started out as pass pat- terns, but if he sees an opening, he goes for it. When that call goes in the air, about five things can happen to it, and only one of them is good. I like passes, just like any- one else, but only when they are complete." Among those suffering from the emphasis on the ground attack is flashy end Washington who has only been able tonpick off six passes in three games, and who is yet to have one of those "big" days; however, the ones he has caught have been long flips as evidenced by his average yardage of 35.1 per reception. So that's what you look for. At least that is what you look for on paper. What really does happen in a few hours will only be what has happened 58 times before-Mich- igan versus Michigan State. That has a meaning all of its own. SPORTS NIGHT EDITOR: RICK STERN Blue Versus Green r--- FB RH LH QB RE RT RG C LG LT Apisa Jones Lee Raye Washington Przybycki Techlin Smith Conti West LE Brenner So what do you look for in to- day's game? From the Michigan sideline: The W eather: Offensive backfield coach Bank Fonde said yesterday, "What do Warm and clear in East Lans- you want me to do, give you our ing today, with a high of about 80 scouting report on Michigan State and southwest winds at 12 miles an so they'll read it and know what hour. we're going to do? (pause) We emphasized all parts of our of- Nicholson M/C Sales 224 S. First St. Hours: 9 to 9 Monday thru Friday and 9 to 6 Saturday i_' i A Year Ago Today..,. MSU'S ALL-AMERICA HALFBACK CANDIDATE Clinton Jones is brought down by Michigan tack- lers George Knapp (53) and Terry Salmi (89) in the fourth quarter of last year's Michigan Stadium battle. The Spartans, with Jones bulling his way for a key touchdown, stomped the Wolverines 24-7 but Michigan is looking to even the score this afternoon. ME ..ii I I YES! Tickets will be sold at the door from 11 A.M. for the U of M-MSU TELECAST I RUMMAGE SALE books, clothes, furniture for the Children's Community School SATURDAY, October 8, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.- SUNDAY, October 9,noorn-6 p.m. 206-8 N. Fourth Ave. University of Michigan Bands Presents The Third Arnual BAND-O-RAMA Featuring the Symphony, Concert, Marching, and Jazz Bands YOU'RE MORE THAN JUST A NUMBER AT THE MICHIGAN DAILY Welcome to the Big "U," 3874642. You've now been numbered, punched and stored on an IBM card. Click. Hum. Lights flash, and you're swallowed into this multi- versity. 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