Saturday, September 14, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
NO. ONE ALL THE WAY
Bucks can't be stopped
By CLARKE COGSDILL
Woody Hayes can be a charm-
log, impish gnome, especially
when his teams are winnin'g.
Silver-haired and beatific, he
finds nice things to say about
the opposition, praises his bench-
warmers, blasts everyone in the
media who doesn't live within
five miles of the Olentangy
horseshoe, and does it all in a
voice so mild and Milquetoastish
that it's sometimes hard to be-
lieve he really means the things
he sounds like he's saying.
Naturally, this has given rise
to unfounded rumors that the
aged football genius has gone
soft in his dotage. Don't believe
it. His teams still stomp their
foes by ludicrous scores, and
barring typhoons or unrestricted
amnesty for draft evaders, the
Buckeyes will do more of the
same this year.
THE BUCKS' schedule isn't
even worth talking about. Ohio
State should have absolutely no
trouble turning its first ten op-
ponents into reasonable fac-
similes of day-old Malt-O-Meal.
Only the proud representatives
of the Dope Capital of the Mid-
West have any reasonable
chance to stop the Bucks short
of Pasadena, and since this
year's Game of the Century will
be played in Columbus, those
odds are very long, indeed.
Hayes' recovery from his
heart attack last June was no
doubt helped along by visions
of running backs Archie Griffin
and Pete Johnson running amok
through a Maize and Blue sec-
ondary. Griffin, the best college
runner in the country, will prob-
ably do better than last year,
when he averaged 6.4 yards for
247 carries, and gained 100 yards
in all 11 games, spending many
of the second halves on the
bench.
Johnson, who showed his first
burst of brilliance by dragging
an assortment of Wolverines
five yards into the endzone last
November, may become the
best fullback Hayes has ever
had. Should anything happen to
Johnson, Woody can always call
Buck shot
S. 14 at Minnesota
S. 21 Oregon State
S. 28 Southern Methodist
0. 5 at Washington State
0. 12 Wisconsin
0. 19 Indiana
0. 26 at Northwestern
N. 2 Illinois
N. 9 at Michigan State
N. 16 at Iowa
N. 23 MICHIGAN
on Champ Henson, who merely
led the nation in scoring two
years ago.
A FORMIDABLE array of
blockers will ensure that Grif-
fin et al will have every chance
to show their stuff. John Hicks,
the All-America has graduated,
and won't be missed that much.
Kurt Schumacher, the other
tackle, was almost as good as
Hicks last year, and he's back,
along with center Steve Myers
and guard Dick Mack, both
strong All-America candidates.
All of which makes things
rather simple for Cornelius
Greene, a bland imitation of
Dennis Franklin, but still the
second-best quarterback in the
Big Ten. Despite his 5.7 yards/
carry average, he's not in
Franklin's class as a runner,
nor does he throw or handle the
ball especially well. He doesn't
have to.
Don't let his Rose Bowl per-
formance fool you. Last year,
against better defenders than
Southern Cal's, Ohio State aver-
aged 8 passes a game, including
four incompletions and an inter-
ception. Even sycophant Paul
Horning can't explain those
figures away. Nor does he try.
MOVING OVER to defense,
where most of the serious work
in football is done, Woody has
only his three linebackers to
replace. The other destroyers-
Van DeCree at end, tackle Pete
Cusick, quick Arnie Jones, the
brilliant safety Neil Colzie and
his friends-all return for an-
other season of fun, games, and
controlled sadism.
Linebacking, though, might
pose the Buckeyes more prob-
lems than they expect. Jones,
of course, figures to be out-
standing, but his running mates
will probably be Ken Kuhn-a
seasoned three-minute a game
veteran from last year - and
Bruce Elia, who spent 1973
slogging away (not very well,
either) at fullback.
This poses some interesting
theoretical situations. If the new
linebackers don't come close to
the standard set last year by
Randy Gradishar and Rick
Middleton (both of whom were
first-round NFL picks) that
should mean that the linemen
won't be able to gamble so much
on penetrating into the back-
field, and that the secondary
won't be able to drop quite as
far back to protect against the
"bomb" as they'd like. Unfor-
tunately, Ohio State plays only
one team good enough to put
this theory to a serious test.
Only at some specialty posi-
tions do the Buckeyes look vul-
nerable. Tom Skladany punted
for only a 35 yard average last
year, mitigated somewhat be-
cause excellent punt coverage
held return yardage to a mini-
mum. Junior Tom Klaban will
replace Blair Conway as the
placekicker, and he won't have
to do much to improve the posi-
tion.
COLZIE, who returns the
punts, can compensate for all
that. Averaging 17 yards for
4t} returns last year, he showed
himself to be a daring, quick-
witted slasher who needs only
a minor flaw in the coverage to
break away for huge gains.
So, it looks like the same old
boring story this year in Colum-
bus. Sometime during today's
game at Minnesota, Archie Grif-
fin will get the 99 yards he
needs to pass Hopalong Cassady
and Jim Otis and become the
leading rusher in history. Many
times, Hayes will be guilty of
piling up outrageous margins
by leaving his third-stringers in
when his fourth-stringers could
use some work. It says some-
thing about Columbus to point
out that the inhabitants find this
all interesting.
As for Michigan, it can enter
that last game of the season
with the cold comfort of know-
ing they've outscored the Bucks
64-63 over the last five years.
The Wolverines surely will go in
as underdogs.
The sad truth is that this
year, Fat Woody won't need the
Athletic Directors to give him
his trip to Disneyland for Christ-
mas. His players are good
enough to do it on their own.
So if you're saving up your
pennies to spend in Pasadena,
you might as well be warned
that you'll probably have to use
them elsewhere.
Anderson's aerials ...
Wildcats'salvation
By JEFF SCHILLER leaders, the Wildcats return
The combination of thirty-six enough talented players to pro-
vide formidable opposition for
returning lettermen and an In- almost every opponent they will
conference schedule w h i c h face,
avoids powerhouse Michigan is All this assumes of course
a primary reason for installing that coach John Pont's gridders
the Northwestern Wildcats as a can avoid feeling shell shocked
serious contender for the covet- by the time they undertake the
ed position of champions of bulk of their conference sched-
the "Little Eight" (or, third in ule. After opening on the road
the Big Ten behind Michigan against Michigan State, the
and Ohio State for the uninitiat- Wildcats must play the national
ed). Though clearly several champions, Notre Dame, and
notches below the conference Orange Bowl title holder Ne-
braska on successive Satur-
days. Actually however, these
contests may prove to be a
blessing in disguise as the ex-
pected lopsided margins will
enable coach Pont to experi-
ment in an effort to find a win-
ning defensi-e combination.
Offensively the Wildcats
are talented and dangerous.
Leading the attack is the Big
Cat claws
S. 14 at Michigan State
S. 21 Notre Dame
S. 28 at Nebraska
0. 5 Oregon
0. 12 at Iowa
O. 19 Purdue
0. 26 Ohio State
N. 2 at Minnesota
N. 9 Indiana
N. 16 Wisconsin
N. 23 at Illinois
Ten's top passer a season
ago, quarterback Mitch An-
derson whom Pont labels "the
best in the country." He is
augmented by returning pass
(Contiiiii from Page 5)
receivers Billy Stevens and
Wayne Frederickson who
canght twenty-six passes be-
tween them, and ranked sixth
and tenth in conference re-
ceiv statistics a year ago.
See N'RT)IWESTERN, P:ge 14
Daily Pnoto VbySTE sAeu
MICHIGAN LINEBACKER Carl Russ (33, dark jersey) puts his shoulder into Ohio State running back Pete Johnson to no avail.
The bull-like Johnson bowled Russ over and drove into lhe end zone on the play, scoring the only Buckeye touchdown of the day
in the famous 10-10 tie at Michigan Stadium last year. Also una ble to stem the OSU tide are Wolverines Don Coleman (39) and
Don Warner (54), both since graduated. Russ and Johnson will meet again in Columbus this November 23.
Mitch Anderson