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