Dynamite defense destr bring on ... does not break "gF ALL THE GREAT RIVALRIES in football, I don't think there is one - on any level - that has the charisma of the Michigan-Ohio State game." - Bo Schembechler True, the Michigan-Ohio State game is one of football's classics and yesterday's game will go down as another one of those "classic" games. It had all the trademarks of a Michigan-OSU game... scalping galore outside the stadium ... fans on the field before the game even started ... an intense, capacity crowd ... Buckeyes running out underthe M club's "Go Blue" banner ... a hard fought game ... a bitter loss .. a great win ... ... But most typical, Woody Hayes pulled another in his "classic" stunts to add to his repertoire ... But when this classic is remembered in years to come, it will be the Michigan defense who gets the credit for the game's outstanding per- formance. Thatis the same defense, remember, that everyone wondered about at the beginning of the year. Senior linebacker John Anderson, who made the biggest play of the game, remembered those doubts. "When I was asked at the beginning of the year if the defense was going to be the weakest part of the team," he said, "I said, 'Don't tell me that - you'll have to prove it to me first.' I think we've held our own this year." Yesterday, the defense did more than "hold their own." Even Wayne' Woodrow had to agree with that. "Their (the Michigan) defense should receive great, great credit - they stopped us when we were in scoring position," he lauded. "We played most of the game with our offense," he continued. "but we never scored a touchdown. The Michigan defense should receive great credit for that." In fact, the Buckeyes have been unable to get into the end-zone against the Wolverines in three of the last four games. "The defense was terrific. They came up with the big plays when we had to have them," Schembechler agreed. The defense played like a big rubber band against what Schembechler called a "very potent offense." Everytime the Buckeyes tried to stretch it too far, the Blue defense went twanggg!, jarring the OSU offense. "There is an old saying that sums up this game," Jerry Meter said. " 'It doesn't matter what a team does in the middle of the field, it's around the ten (that is important).' Our defense just didn't stop." In the first half, Ohio State got into Michigan territory three times. It scored once, and missed two 40-yard-plus field goals. One of those times, the Buckeyes had second down at the eight, but ended up with fourth down on the 25. In the second half, Ohio State never punted in six possessions. The Buckeyes did kick one 44-yard field goal (after they had taken the ball down to the 11) and tried for a second after recovering a Roosevelt Smith fumble, but the Michigan defense forced them to cough up the ball twice and held on two fourth down situations. In all, Ohio State got inside the Michigan 11 five times, and still could not score more than six points. "They were down there (deep in Michigan territory) around six times," co-captain Dwight Hicks said, "but someone always came up with the big play." One of those players who "rose" to the occasion was tackle Curtis Greer. "You know it's do or die around there," he said. "I think it was our aggres- siveness - coming off the line quick - that did it for us. "We were quick, but they were strong. I don't want to take anything away from them ... but we felt that as long as we moved quickly, we would hold them from scoring." But it took more than quickness for this defensive team who only retur- ned four starters from last season to perform as it did yesterday. "We stay together and play together as a unit," Greer felt. "We know this team is only as strong as its weakest link, so we have to be together. We feel if we stay together and play with pride, we can be in any ball game." But sometimes, it takes even more than team play to come out on top in the scorinig column when it isn't on top in the stats, Anderson put his faith in something higher. Talking about his punting in comparison to'last year, he said, "You have a game like last year and you don't just forget it. So, I went out there with faith in the Lord and asked for help, and He came through." Now, if only He does Rose Bowls. the W (Continued from Page 1) "I am not surprised that we won the game," Schembechler added, "but I am surprised at how we did it. I thought we would generate more offense." Indeed, the Wolverines got off to a slow start, holding the ball for just 2:08 in the first quarter and running only five plays from scrimmage for a total of five yards. "We had no momentum in the first quarter," Schembechler said. "We were out there just hanging in there." Ohio State, on the other hand, moved the ball well at the outset but could not take it into the end zone. After return- ing the opening kickoff ,o their own 23- yard line, the Buckeyes, under the di- rection of quarterback Rod Gerald, moved 65 yards in 15 plays to the Michigan 12. Then, Macedonian kicker Vlade Janakievski booted a 29-yard, field goal attempt to put OSU ahead, 3- 0. Moments later, another Buckeye drive was thwarted when Janakievski's 42-yard attempt sailed wide to the right with less than a minute remaining in the quarter. "We moved the ball very well, enough to win a lot of games," said Buckeye coach Woody Hayes. "This is by far the best game we ever played and lost. "THEIR DEFENSE should receive great, great credit," said Hayes, "for they stopped us when we were in scor- ing position." After the defense held the fort, Rich Leach and company came to life in a Michigan-dominated second quarter. Michigan marched 50 yards in a drive highlighted by a Leach-to-Ralph Clay- ton 25-yard pass play. The Buckeyes then held Michigan to no gain on four successive plays. A 42-yard field goal attempt by Michigan's Gregg Willner Test was very low and very short. Moments later, Michigan hit pay dirt. Taking over on the Buckeye 46-yard ,line, Michigan earned a first down on short gains by fullback Russell Davis and tailback Roosevelt Smith, who replaced Harlan Huckleby. Three plays later Leach connected with Smith for a 22-yard pass play that put the Wolverines into scoring position at the Ohio State eight. IT WAS SMITH who capped off the drive three plays later on a one-yard plunge for the touchdown. A Willner extra .point put Michigan ahead for good at 7-3. Neither team turned the ball over in the first half, but both fumbled in the third quarter. The crucial differ- ence was that Michigan capitalized on the break with a Leach touch- down, while Ohio State was forced to kick. Linebacker Ron Simpkins' fumble recovery set uF touchdown. Ohi Springs was hi Steve Graves a air. Simpkins4 Michigan at the An eleven-yar Michigan the b nine. Three play goal from the around left en Ohio State defen ball across the was brought dow Willner's extr Michigan scori tage. OHIO STATE and moved the b Michigan 11. T Curtis Greer c two-yard loss, Jeff Logan for Simpkins sacke Coai The Michigan Daily-Sunday, November 20, 1977-Page 9 ";f st kids! p the final Michigan 13 yards behind the line of scrim": io State tailback Ron mage. On fourth down and 28 it by middle guard Janakievski kicked a 44-yard field nd fumbled into the goal, his longest of the' season. Z caught the ball for Ohio State came close to scorin%, Z Ohio State20. several times but was stopped by th- rd Leach keeper gave Michigan defense, keyed by Greer, " ball on the Buckeye Graves, Simpkins and John Ander- 4w ys later, on third-and- son. First, they punished fullback two, Leach rolled Paul Campbell at' fourth and one-. d, muscled past two inside the Michigan 10-yard line. nders, and pushed the On its next possession, Ohio State goal line just as he mounted its longest - and most v wn. threatening - drive of the day. With p a point completed the the score 14-6 and less than eight ng at a 14-3 advan- minutes to go, a Buckeye touchdown: and two-point conversion would haveI bounced right back tied the game with little time left for. , ball from its 15 to the a Michigan comeback, hen defensive tackle Gerald took over on the Ohio State f aught Gerald for a lo.yard line and proved he meant Mike Jolly stopped business. Largely on the strength of r another loss and . quick passes to Springs and wing-- d Gerald a whopping back James Harrell, Ohio State moved to its own 49. Gerald again Sd dropped back to pass but saw ...... daylight straight ahead and ran for ...... 16 50 3.1 16. Bucks pre-sweetene MICHIGAN OHIO STATE tierai.. First Downs......... Rushes-yards...... Passing yards....... Passes.............. Punts ................. Return yards......... Fumbles-lost....... Penalties-lost ..... Rose Bowl Invitations .. 10 48/141 55 9/3/0 2/i9 2/19 1/1 1/5 i 23 61/208 144 16/13/0 3/18 3/18 4/2 1/5 0 7 0 3 6 "oga .............. Logan ............... Campbell.................. I PASSING MICHIGAN Att. to 17 Com./Int. Leach.................. 8 t 3/0 OHIO STATE MICHIGAN .................0 7 7 Ohio State ...................3 03 SCORING OSU-Janakievski, 29-yd. field goal MICH.-R.Smith, 1-yd. run,wiliner kick MICH.-Leach, 2-yd. run, wilner kick OSU-Janakievski, 44-yd. field goal RUSHING MICHIGAN Att. Yd 14 6 Gerald...............1 RECEIVING MICHIGAN No. Clayton ............... 1 R. Smith ..............1 Marsh.................1i OHIO STATE Springs................ 8 Harrell...............3 Jones............... i Jaco ....... ..... 13/0 1.7 A HUSH FELL over the crowd as yd,. the scoring threat grew. Springs took ss a pitchout for a nine-yard gain to the Michigan 26. Two plays later he took 14 a pitch and broke away for what seemed a sure touchdown, but was play forced out of bounds at the, eight by 25 substitute .linebacker Mel Owens. 22 On first and goal to go from the 8 eight, Gerald was hit hard by 14 Anderson as he was about to pitch out 32 to Springs. The ensuing fumble was 14 recovered by Michigan's Derek How- 14 ard, and the crowd went wild. Yds. 25 22 8 Long; 58 58 14 14 is. R.Davis.................17 R. Smith.................11 Leach................... 11 Iluckleby .................. 9 ' OHIO STATE Springs.................... 14 56 46 23 Avg. 3.3 4.2 2.1 16 1.8 89 6.4 Doily Photo by ALAN BILINSKY Good-bye Woody Woody 'large person' Hayes seen here in pre-game action underneath the M Go Blue banner. Sorry Woody, we never promised you a Rose Bowl. Hope you enjoy New Orleans. - -~a- ,1. cREAiCTIO0 N 7 ,S By Scott Lewvis Take this Bckees iny'o'face L' WOODY HAYES might be a good coach, but he can never win the big ones. It wasn't too long ago that there was talk about an Ohio State jinx around n Arbor but that seems ever so far away right now. There's no doubt about it- Wolverines now control the Michigan-OSU rivalry and all I can say is: it's about time. Those tortuous years of the early seventies have given way to utter delight in the present. Year after year Michigan would outplay Ohio State on paper, only to be denied by those little things that deny victories. But it's a different story now. Without a doubt, the Buckeye offense out. dueled Michigan's. It ran more effectively, passed better and controlled the ball for most of the game. Had the Ohio State runners not fumbled so often, the Buckeyes could very well have won this one. But who cares? It's so nice to have the breaks go Michigan's way for a change. It gi' you faith in the old adage that the breaks will even out in the long run. Now it's the Buckeye fans who must mutter about their team's ugly mis- fortunes. They'll be the ones to remember that although Ohio State marched into Wolverine territory five times in the second half, only three points appeared on the scoreboard. They can envision In their minds the fourth-and-one-foot play on the Michigan 10 in the fourth quarter, when fullback Paul Campbell met a wall comprised of John Anderson, Mel Owens and Curtis Greer, and fell for no gain. They'll never forget when Buckeye tailback Ron Springs stepped out of bounds a little later inside the Michigan 10, which was followed on the next play by Rod Gerald's fumble-the play which practically clinched the victory for Michigan. Yes, just like the Michigan followers before them, the Buckeye fans must rip their minds to shreds thinking about "what might have happened if.." But do we really feel sorry for them? No way. The Michigan fans know that it's "California here we come," and what happened out there was just part of the game. All that's important is that the final score was Michigan 14, Ohid State 6. Say it again. Michigan 14, Ohio State 6. And isn't it indeed sorrowful that Woody Hayes won't be west of the Mis- sissippi on New Year's Day? For too many years the Fat Man reaped the bene of Rose Bowldom, but now he must take his lumps in the Sugar Bowl. As a Michigan fan who has suffered through Hayes' promposity forma years, it wasn't difficult to smile inside when he somberly answered the reporte questions after the game. Meticulously clad in a blue sport coat juxtaposed against his scarlet t Woody spoke very low-keyed throughout much of the conference. He answer4 the reporters' delicately-worded questions straightforwardly and sincerely. Could this be the terror I have looked forward to seeing.for so long? F a few sacreligious moments I almost felt sorry for the poor man. But just when my eyes started to water, a reporter asked Hayes about incident when he punched ABC cameraman Mike Freedman right after Geral fumble. Hayes' face quickly turned scarlet as he approached an innocent newsman front. "Someone was going to bring that up. I knew it," he bellowed as he rais4 both his fists up to the reporter's face. "How would you like to have a camzj stuck in your face like that? Go ahead. Write about that." Like a five-year-old being sent to his room, he abruptly exited, grunti; "Oh f-f-f-..." My life is now complete. Ironically this is the same Woody Hayes who boisterously posed in frontj many cameras before the game as he led the Buckeye fans' cheers. Did some SLOW START.. .BIG FINISH Holy Moses-two years of Roses By DON MacLACHLAN For the second consecutive year Michigan will represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl. Yesterday's 14-6 win over Ohio State gave Michigan a share of the conference title for the seventh time in the last nine years. Michigan has never made back-to-back trips to Pasadena in its history and coach Bo Schembechler couldn't be more pleased. 5"I'm just happy to be going again," Schembechler said. "I'm tired of worrying about the psyche of the Rose Bowl. We'll do everything we can to get out to the Rose Bowl and represent the conference well. We will be jacked up. "No matter how you add it up, we won the championship again," he ad- ded. "This team deserves everything they got. They earned it." IN ADDITION to praise for his team Schembechler lauded the performance of Buckeye quarterback Rod Gerald. rhe 6-1 junior eluded tackles all after- noon giving Michigan headaches until a turnover or the Blue defense shut the loor. Gerald weaseled out of tight >queezes much like Cornelius Greene lid two years ago. 41r,~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ...11: ... n.ae« ®r~inw problem, Gerald needled the Blue defenders, connecting on 13 of 16 passes for 144 yards. "I WANTED our ends to corner him more," Schembechler said. "You can't give a guy with that much speed that much rope. If we let him stand back there he can hit the passes. If we rush hard and he steps inside the rush he can run for more yardage than he could pass for. "He's got to be one of the quickest quarterbacks that ever lived," said outside linebacker John Anderson. "We tried to force him to pitch the ball-that was our game plan. The quarterbacks we had running his position during the week weren't as quick as he was. So we just did the best we could and let the chips fall where they were." The chips and costly turnovers fell in Michigan's favor and the Wolverines capitalized. Also, the Blue offensive line played a big part in earning the Wolverines a return trip out west. Rick Leach was sacked only one time the en- tire afternoon. In the second quarter Leach had plenty of time to throw but the Buckeye pass coverage was ex- cellent and Byron Cato sacked him. f41 TITIn IV hie r u oA.. n...:. e .. ....n great .job leading either Roosevelt Smith or Harlan Huckleby through the gaps in the Buckeye defense. "Our line was good," Leach said. "We had to make a few adjustments at the half but then things went smoothly." "WE HAD TO get our adjustments down," said tackle Mike Kenn. "At the start of the game we had a basic idea of what they would do from studying the films. Once the game started we felt out just what they were doing. We knew we could move on them." The Wolverines moved on the Buckeyes just enough. They only ac- cumulated ten first downs on the after- noon but managed to put more points on the scoreboard. In years past, Michigan won the statistics game but Ohio State won the game. Now, the Michigan players can savor the victory and look forward to another appearance in the Rose Bowl. "No words can describe it," said An- derson, who had a fine day punting the ball. "It's just a culmination of a lot of hard work and effort." "I thought last year's win at Ohio State was the best of my career, but winning in Michigan Stadium against them in my senior year is the greatest feeling I've ever had," said Kenn. "We wanted this game so much," said co-captain Walt Downing. "I would like to see us play UCLA in the Rose Bowl. They've got some ex-Michigan coaches out there. We've come a long way this season. We are such a close team-we sure don't want to go out there and lose." Defeat can turn sweet - Sugar Bowl grabs OSU Although the only football game on the minds of most Ann Arbor residents Liberty Bowl, Dec. 19 while Pittsburgh will meet Clemson in the Gator owl.