Page Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday, September 14, 1974

New Hawks' coach hopeful

:::X ..... By JOHN KAULER
Once again, Iowa has a new
Coach. Smiling Bob Commings
left Massilon High School to at-
e' tempt to pump some water from
the dry hole in Iowa City.
"..yCommigs, who while at Mas
sin bcoached Dennis Franklin,
. g. among others, has one thing
beoong for him in his inaugural
season as Hawkeye coach. Coi-
og off an 0-11 season, t he
. sgawkeyes can hardly get any
ofortsnately, that is about
all Cummings has going for
him He does have 45 return-
S ing lettermen, bot retorning
Eettermen are not an import
. ............ant statistic when they re-
turn from an 0-ti team. Major
reconstrocion moss be under-
taken on the defense, which
gave no an awesome 401
points last year, and at quar-
terback.
XA nd if that wasn't enough, the
Hawks are saddled with a bru-
tatearly seaso schedule. After
Michigan finishes with them,
they must play, in succession,
IN UCLA, Penn State, and South-
ern Cal. Wen that quartet gets
~, ~, ,,..,.,.,,through with them, the Hawk-
eyes should resemble a beer can
tossed in the eastbound lane of
i*:5X::K M...........So the immediate prospects
look bleak in tbe Graveyard of
Coaches. But Commings re-
mains optimistic that a winner
can be built at tows, if not this
- year, then sometime in the fu-
"Ican't tell you where we'll
finish, but we'll play the damn-
ed game honestly," he promised
I before practice began.
B efore any playing can be
done, a quarterback must be*
. ......found. This has proven to be
11MMRS! : ONi:: ! R:a singularly difficult chore at
towa this year. Hutch Cald-
EARL DOUTHITT, who set an NCAA record tor kickoff returns yardage last season, is frighten- bw ell onwas ctedbet otelot,
ed by the camera's evil eye and attempts to shield himself. But not in time. i and will be lost for the
season. Hobby Ousley and

Doug Reichardt were next in
line, but both have proven to
be ineffective in practice te
date.
So the job has fallen by de-
fault to Rob Fick, a senior who
did not play any football of any
sort last year. In desperation,
Commings has mentioned re-
turning to the single wing.
Once one gets past quarter-
bck, however, the Iowa offen-
sive situation improves greatly.
Rod Wellint on, Jim Jensen,
and Mark Fetter, all juniors,
are capable running backs, and
the line of Rod Walters a n d
Hawk harvest
5. 14 AT MSCHISGAN
S. 21 UCLA
5. 28 Penn State
0. at Southern Cal
0. 12 Northwestern
0. t9 at Minnesota
0. 26 Illinois
N. 2 at Purdue
N. 9 Wisconsin
N. 16 Ohio State
N. 23 at Michigan State
Warren Peiffer at tackle, Joe
Devlin and Dan M Carney at
guard, and Jock Michelosen at
center has experience.
In keeping with the quarter-
back situation, Iowa's ends are
unsettled. Both Dave Schultz,
the regular split end, and
Brandt Yocom, the regular tight
end, are injured and their re-
placements, Jim MctNdulty at
split end and John Speaker at
tight end, are both inexperienc-
ed.
All told, the Hlawkeye offense
has the potential to be a goed,,
if not great, unit if Commings
can dredge up a quarterback.
But no amount of offensive im-
provement will be of any use
if the defense does not right it-
self.
Iowa could not stop any
running attack last year, and
the prinary villains played
on the defensive line. The line
still resembles a Chinese Fire
Drill, but things are improv-
ing.
Lynn Heel and Dave Wagner
man the ends, and Hell is a
good one. Lester Washington
and Steve Wojan are the tack-
les, with Tyrone Dye pressing
for service somewhere. Larry
Boish and Dave Bryant are bat-
tling it out at noseguard. All
these people must come through
if tows is to have any hope of
a decent season.
The rest of the Hawkeye
defense is solid. If healthy,
Andre Jackson and Dan La-
Fleur are a good set of line-
backers, and the secondary
of Earl Douthift, Bob Elliot,

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Smiling Bob
Rick Penney, and Shanty
Burks is the strength of the
team.
Douthitt, in particular, is an
excellent athlete who set an
NCAA record for kickoff return
yardage last year. His irtercep-
tion of a Franklin pass was the
only score towa managed o f f
Michigan last year. If he can do
it again this year, Smili g Bob
Commings will have something
to smile about. The way things
are shaping up,'he may have
year.
little else to cheer him this