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