e10--Sunday, September 18, 1977-The Michigan Daily
Leach's
two
TD's
spark Blue
(Continued from Page1)
Rick Leach mixed handoffs to
Russell Davis with passes to Gene
Johnson and Huckleby to advance
the ball to the Blue Devil 28. On the
next play, Leach hit Huckleby over
the middle for 12 yards but a holding
penalty moved Michigan back to the
Duke 49-yard line.
The Wolverines regained momen-
tum on the next play when Ralph
Clayton hauled in a 30-yard Leach
aerial at the Duke 19. Five plays
later, Leach rolled right and scamp-
ered into the end zone.
Duke barely had a chance to touch
the football again before Anderson
jarred the ball loose from Dunn in the
backfield and Ron Simpkins, who led
the Wolverines with ten tackles,
pounced on the ball at the Duke 25.
It only took Michigan three plays to
hit paydirt again with the short drive
culminating in Davis' four-yard
touchdown jaunt.
The Wolverines threatened again
at the end of the half but Gregg
Willner's 45-yard field goal attempt
was blocked by defensive end Jeff
Green.
The powerful Davis churned for 82
yards in the first half and the Blue
Devils never crossed into Blue terri-
tory in the second quarter.
"Duke leaned towards ball con-
trol," Schembechler said. "They
didn't have the ball much in the first
half."
An inspired Duke team came out
after the band show and virtually
controlled the third quarter. The
Blue Devils took the second half
kickoff and progressed to the Michi-
gan 47 before Dunn was stacked up in
a fourth and one situation.
Michigan took over and went, no-
where. Anderson punted and Duke
took over on its own 23-yard line. All
of a sudden the Blue Devils started to
get their offense in gear. After
picking up two first downs on the
ground Dunn completed a 22-yard
pass to split end Tom Hall on the
Michigan 30-yard line.
Two plays later, the Dunn to Hall
com'lbination clicked for ten more
yards to the Michigan 15. Then Dunn
abandoned the pass. From the Blue
three-yard line Dunn wheeled into
the end zone to finish off a 77-yard
scoring march in 16 plays. The Blue
Devils failed on the conversion when
Curtis Greer and Mike Jolly pounced
on holder Dale Ostdyk after a bad
snap.
"Our offensive line has more abil-
ity than they have been given credit
for," said McGee. "I thought that
was the key to our moving the foot-
ball in the third quarter. The reason
we didn't pass more early is because
we wanted to control the ball as much
as possible.'
The underdog Blue Devils began to
smell an upset when tackle Lyman
Smith jolted Huckleby forcing a fum-
ble. George Gawdun recovered and
Duke was sitting pretty on the Wol-
verine 38.
Again the defense rose to the occa-
sion when on third down Greer
pinned Mike Adessa with as six-yard
loss after' the tailback hauled in a
flare pass from Dunn.
Wolcott cut the Michigan lead to
five, 14-9, with a 43-yard field goal
with 12:19 remaining in the contest.
"After that field goal, we knew we
had to get down there and get some
type of score," Leach said.i "It was a
must situation for us."
Michigan went to work from its
own 20 and put together a typical
time-consuming scoring drive. The
Wolverines marched out to midfield
but were faced with a crucial fourth
and two situation on the Duke 46.
Leach faked to Davis and pitched to
Huckleby who galloped for seven
yards and a key first down.
"At that point we wanted to main-
tain ball control," Schembechler
said. "We never felt we had the game
in the bag."
After securing the first down to
keep the drive alive, Michigan stayed
on the ground to kill the clock and the
fading Duke hopes. With 5:52 to play
Leach plowed over from the one and
a Willner conversion gave Michigan
a 21-9 lead.
* Duke refused to play dead and
came out throwing. The strategy
backfired when Anderson intercept-
ed a Dunn aerial at the Duke 22.
Michigan moved to the 14 and on
fourth and two decided to go for
broke again. Just as on the previous
drive, Huckleby took a pitch from
Leach but this time he was stopped
for no gain.
The Blue Devils, now 0-2, regained
possession and moved down to the
Michigan six-yard line with 15 sec-
onds to play. Dunn pitched to
tailback Mike Barney, who was
dragged down by Mike Harden on the
one-yard line as the clock ran out.
Leach finished the game with 98
yards rushing and 76 in ]the air to
become only the eighth player in
Michigan history to eclipse the
3,000-yard mark in total offense.
His Duke counterpart at quarter-
back, Dunn, had a fine day for him-
self, completing 12 of 16 tosses for 118
yards.
The Wolverines amassed 81 yards
in penalties on the day in addition to a
pair of turnovedrs.
"We're not playing real good ball
now Schembechler said. "We will go
back to work Monday and see what
we can do."
I
I
Daiy ro b y JOHN KNOX
OR DEFENSIVE END John Anderson (86) trips up Duke tailback Ned Gonet (48) in the home opener yesterday.
rson had a fine day for himself securing six tackles and nabbing one interception in the 21-9 non-conference victory.
ame marked the tenth straight time Michigan has played before a crowd of more than 100,000.l
A
Poor Devils
D,.
MICH. DUKE
First downs...................18 16
R EC T O Rushing. (att/yds)............. 51/259 48/141
Passing (att/comint)....,.....11161 16/12/2
Passing yds ................76 118
Punts (no/yds)................ 3/38 2/23
B S ot.Fumbles (no/lost) ............ 1/1 2/1
By Scott Lewivis Penalties (no/yds).............8/71 2/10
SCORING PLAYS
MICH.-Leach 7-yd. run (Willner kick)
2 rov e'y"! en t7 / y C la( L iMICH- -R Davis 4.-yd. run (Winer kick)
/prove ien t w as lack ig . . . H""DUKE-Dunn3-yd. run kick failed)
DUKE-Wolcott 43-yd. FG
lots oahead MICH-Leach 1-yd. run (Whiner kick)
"'wrJ RUSHING
MICHIGAN
IF MICHIGAN WANTED -to create its own challenges on the A tt yds avg
liron yesterday, it did a fine job. LeDavis.............".....2 95 4.7
From the opening kickoff, when Harlan Huckleby downed the ball Huckseby.................17 68 4.0
' - -,. ,,. ,,1 .,, CL...,..----------------------2 2 2.0
Weak sisters no more
id
on his team s own one-yard line, to the final plays of tne game, where
only the clock prevented Duke from making the score a better
indication of how close the game really was, Michigan's failure to
execute like a well-polished, top-ranked team sent more than 104,000
fans home very disillusioned.
Although an occasional flat performance is normal for any team, no
matter what its national ranking, the Wolverines' performance yes-
terday must not be cast aside as just "another one of those games."
After Bo termed Michigan's performance at Illinois as not "playing
as well as we were capable of playing," the coaching staff geared their
'efforts this week toward making a substantial improvement.
"It's very important for a team to show significant improvement
between its first and second games of the season.That's a crucial
portion of the season for us," said defensive coordinator Bill McCartney
earlier this week.
But some of the steps in the," pathway from a poor initial
performance against Illinois to a substantial improvement yesterday
were obstructed.
"I told you then [after Illinois] we were not that good, and we are
still not that good a team," lamented Schembechler. "Unfortunately, I
don't think we improved and when you don't get better, you get worse."
Whenever the causes of Michigan's failure to evolve into a power-
house thus far this season, there are some significant facets of its
performance yesterday that warrant further examination.
Huckleby, awarded "Big Ten player of the week" honors last week,
returned to mediocrity yesterday. 68 yards rushing in 17 carries and two
fumbles rarely win any Heisman Trophy votes.
"He fumbled the ball last week and he fumbled the ball this week,"
said Schembechler.-"I've seen him play better than that."
Not that Huck deserves the entire blame, though. The wet field hurt
his ability to make the cuts necessary to break away for a large gain.
Duke's respect for Huckleby's ability allowed Michigan's offense to
exploit its many other talents. Russell Davis powered through the Duke
front line for 95 yards, and Rick Leach practically took the team
downfield all by himself on the final Blue touchdown drive of the game.
"They didn't want Harlan to get the ball out wide, so they just
forced me to cut inside a lot," said Leach.
But the inside game that should have opened up as a result never
materialized. Only twice did the Wolverines gain more than ten yards
on straight ahead runs, those going for 12 and 13 yards by Davis. And
both of those were draw plays when Duke expected Michigan to pass.
"It all boils-down to line blocking on offense," said Bo. "My good
players on the offensive line just aren't playing that well. We've got a lot
of.work to do."
The existence of more mental mistakes that one would normally
find on a Schembechler team also creeped into Michigan's repertoire
yesterday: Besides the fumble, and an interception on a pass which
never should have been thrown, the referees whistled Michigan for eight
penalties, including three for delay of game.
One would think that the blame for these miscues rest with the
coaches, who should delete fundamental errors in a hurry. The fact that
Michigan has been relatively mistake-free in the past is a credit to
Schembechler,
And Bo isn't going to be so quick to shoulder the blame for those
penalties.
"The ACC officials tried to help their team and the Big Ten officials
stood around like goons," complained Schembechler. "After we
completed our first pass, I knew they'd call us for holding. And I cer-
tainly question those delay of game calls. What's the last time you've
seen Michigan with a delay of game call."
In addition, a couple aspects of Michigan football, ones which could
stand improvement, also crept in against Duke. The secondary
continued to yield to the short and middle-length passes, and the passing
game mysteriously disappeared in the second half.
In the first half, Leach completed passes in many key situations
during Michigan's first touchdown drive. But even when Michigan
D)UKE
By JOHN NIEMEYER
Everything is as it should be in Ann Arbor.
Michigan's number one rated football team remains un-
defeated after beating Duke yesterday, 21-9. All is blissful.
But wait a minute. The mighty Wolverines only won by 12
,points ..: and against Duke, no less.
Who is Duke anyway? Don't they come from the ACC
where basketball is king? They don't really play "big
time" football down there, do they?
Barney....................3
Broadie....................
Gonet ...................
Rhett .........................
Dunn .. . ........... -.....
PASSING
MICHIGAN-
12
13
5
6
12
75
45
25
14
-18
6.2
3.5
5.0
2.3
-1.5
att comp/int
Leach ...............,......... 11 6/1
DUKE"
Dunn ............. ........ 16 12/2
RECEIVING
MICHIGAN
no
Huckleby................ 3
Clayton.................... I
G. Johnson ..................I3
R. Davis....................1
DUKE
Hai ......................... 4
Rhett ........................ 3
Gonet.......................'3
Corer.....................
Addessa ..............,........ 3
yds
31
;0
53
35
26
16
-6
yds THE ANSWER, as Michigan came dangerously close to
76 learning the hard way yesterday, is yes. Duke and the other
teams in the ACC can play big time football.
its Pregame sentiment around Ann Arbor was that Duke
was just another weak sister typically enlisted for the non-
conference weekend slaughter. Everyone nodded politely
13 at Friday night's pregame press party when Duke Athletic
30 Director Tom Butters spoke of Duke's impending victory
on Saturday. But, all present took much more heed of
Wolverine sports personality, Wally Weber's warning that
22 the Wolverines would have to be prepared for "that Texas
23 team coming to town in a few weeks."
is Certainly if Duke was to be any threat at all, that threat
-6 would come from bad breaks, long plays, or an out and out
fluke.
But we were all wrong.
THE BLUE DEVILS from Durham came and fought
tooth and nail with Michigan at their own game. Down 14-0
l at halftime. Duke came out in the third quarter and stuffed
0 0 the ball right down Michigan's throat, on the ground.
0 0 Michigan got off only five plays in the period while wat-
0 0 ching the Duke offense blow the Blue defensive line off the
0 0 ball and eat up the clock.
1 0 Again in the fourth quarter the Wolverine offense sat on
1 0 the bench in the waning seconds of the game and watched
1 0 the Devils pass down the field and nearly score again.
1 0 So much for the weak sister image.
1 0 But what happened? Isn't Michigan the top team in the
1 0 nation? Duke is still Duke, isn't it?
PART OF THE PROBLEM could indeed have been that
Michigan was caught looking ahead. Bo Schembechler was
expecting a dog fight, but then Bo is always the perennial
pessimist. About his team's attitude he said, "I'd like to say
that they are smarter than that, but I apparently didn't get
it across to them (that Duke couldn't be taken lightly)."
Most of the credit has to go to Duke, however. They are a
fine football team with good coaching, talent, execution and
attitude. As Schembechler put it, "the quarterback is good,
the backs are good,"it's a strong team with nice big kids."
Blue Devil quarterback Mike Dunn typifies the-team's at-
titude, saying, "We came into the game thinking that we
had as good a chance to win as they did.
"WE HAVE A LOT of confidence in ourselves. We have
worked hard and made many sacrifices and we were not
gonna bow down to the number one team in the country."
And probably no one else will these days either. The
reason being that some semblence of equality may be
coming in college football due largely to the new scholar-
ship limitations imposed by the NCAA.
Many coaches and Athletic Directors have said it before
and Bo chose yesterday to say it again. "If you are looking
for super powers in college football you're not going to find
them. Because of the 95 grant limit we have an equalization
of talent.
"You are not going to see many of those big scores. And
it's going to be more and more like that in the future. It's
probably good for football but bad for Michigan people who
expect to win by four of five touchdowns all the time," he
added.
IT MAY ALL BE rationalization for a poor performance
against a team that io one expected to make rhuch of a
showing, but when you consider that Alabama, Missouri
and Notre Dame lost yesterday you have to wonder if it
isn't partially true.
At any rate, prospects are on the upswing for more ex-
citement in Michigan Stadium on coming Saturdays.
Duke has always proved it can play with the "big boys.'
Bring on Navy.
BIG TEN
STANDINGS
Conference
MICHIGAN
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Michigan St.
Purdue
Indiana
Illinois
Minnesota
Northwestern
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
0
At
! i
0 1 0
HA WKE YES UPSET IOWA ST.
Ole Miss shocks
Irish, 20-1 3
JACKSON, Miss. Reserve quarter-
back Tim Ellis hit fullback James
Storey with a deflected 10-yard pass
Saturday to give Mississippi's fired-
up Rebels a 20-13 upset over Notre
Dame, the nation's No. 3 ranked col-
lege football team.
Ellis, relegated to the third team
after a mediocre season last year,
came off the bench with four minutes
left and drove the Rebels 80 yards in
five plays, including three passes for
75 yards.
THE KEY was a 47-yard pass from
end L.Q. Smith, who wormed his way
to the sidelines, waited for his block-
ing to develop and sprinted to the
Notre Dame 23.
The Rebels, capitalizipg on a fum-
ble recovered by linebacker Brian
Moreland at the Irish 14, added a
27-yard field goal by Hoppy Langley
two minutes later to put the game out
of reach.
Ole Miss, which held a 10-7 half-
time lead, blew two scoring chances
Alabama in a turnover plagued
college football game yesterday.
DEFENSIVE BACK Jim Pillen
intercepted two passes in the final
4:14 of the game to ice the Corn-
husker win over the Crimson Tide.
The score was tied at 24-24 in the
fourth quarter when the Huskers
launched the 15-play, 80-yard drive
that ended in Berns' tally, ending the
Crimson Tide's hopes.
* * *
Cyclones recycled
IOWA CITY - Third-string tail-
back Dennis Mosley raced 77 yards
for a touchdown and Iowa bunched
all its offense in the first quarter to
beat Iowa State 12-10 yesterday.
It was the renewal of an emotional
intrastate rivalry that had been dor-
mant for 43 years.
THE HAWKEYE DEFENSE was
superb, allowing Iowa State just 72
Gophers grounded
COLUMBUS - Quarterback Ron
Gerald's running and passing ac-
counted for one touchdown and set up
10 other points Saturday, leading
sixth-ranked Ohio State to a 38-7 Big
Ten romp over Minnesota.
Bobby Weber returned a kickoff
100 yards for the only touchdown for
the Golphers, 1-1.
GERALD, a lithe junior from Dal-
las, passed 29 yards to Herman Jones
for the 2-0 Buckeyes' first touchdown.
Gerald passed 35 yards to Jones
and the Ohio State flanker stumbled
at the Minnesota 12. Two plays later
Ron Springs bolted eight yards to
provide Ohio State a 24-7 lead mid-
way through the fourth quarter.
Illinois shows em
CHAMPAIGN - Freshman kick-
er David Finzer booted a 22-yard
field goal and then hung- a pair of
second half punts inside the Missouri
five-yard line Saturday to lead
Illinois to an 11-7 intersectional foot-
ball victory.
Finzer also booted Illinois out of
trouble with a 67-yard punt late in the
fourth quarter.
THE HARD-EARNED victory was
the first for Illini Coach Gary
Moeller.
Illinois took an 8-0 lead late in the
first quarter when quarterback Kurt
Steger carried. across from the
three-yard line. Illinois then faked a
kick conversion with Charlie Weber'
going across for two extra points.
ISCORES
Harvard 21, Columbia 7
N. Carolina St. 38, Syracuse 0
- PennSt .31.Houston 14
MICHIGAN 21, Duke 9
2- . . - -i IT