Page Ten
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, October 26, 1975
Smith dazzles opponents
By MARCIA MERKER
Jim Smith. The name sounds very com-
mon. How can a football player go far
with a last name like Smith if his first
name isn't something extraordinary like
Bubba or Otto?
At Michigan there is a Smith - Jim,
a 6-3, 198 pound junior from Blue Island,
Illinois - whom all the opposing players
and coaches have heard about. Midway
through his third year, he ranks eighth
in Michigan career yards gained via the
air, with 37 receptions for 714 yards.
Considering Schembechler's emphasis
on the ground attack, Smith has amassed
a sizeable statistic in pass receiving. This
year alone, the wingback has caught four-
teen for 294 yards. Two of those were long
touchdown passes of 20 and 48 yards. Last
year, Smith scored 24 points on 44, 52, 29
and 22 yard passes.
BESIDES being impressive as a receiv-
er, the junior runs the 40 yard dash in 4.6.
Schembechler switched Smith from split
end to wingback this year to combine his
speed and pass catching ability.
"He made some big plays today, didn't
he?" quirked Schembechler yesterday in
the press room. "Smith's a dangerous
football player. Blocker, catcher, punt
returner, runner - you name it, Smith
can do it. He is very, very versatile."
The statistics from yesterday's game
illustrate this point. In the opening min-
utes of the first quarter, Smith scurried
77 yards for a touchdown on a counter-
reverse. This ranks as the sixth longest
run from scrimmage in Michigan football
history. Smith also caught three passes
for 42 yards and returned three punts for
69 - one a 50 yard jaunt.
ASKED about his performance, the
wingback said, "It was my best game. I
had a pretty good one against Stanford,
too, but we didn't win that one and we
did win today."
IN THAT second game .of the season,
Smith rushed 54 yards on a counter-re-
verse and scored a touchdown as the
clock ran out in the second quarter on a
22 yard pass from Rick Leach.
Last week is looked as though he would
have another great day when he returned,
a punt 75 yards. It was called back, how-
ever ,on a clipping penalty.
All told, Jim Smith appears to be happy
just playing football.
When questioned about his position
change this year, he said, "I like to play
both (split end and wingback). I like to
catch the ball.
"I appreciate the line this year more
than last. I have to perceive them differ-
ently in blocking."
Playing on the punt return squad,
Smith attributes his yardage to his co-
horts. "I've been kinda successful. The
guys that run down the field in front of
me do a helluva job. I can't say enough
about them."
SO FAR this season, the wingback has
run back 17 punts averaging 9.5 per carry
with his longest coming in the third quar-
ter yesterday. And Indiana had only one
defender between Smith and the goalline
when be was brought down.
Over his three years with the Maize
and Blue, Smith has worked with quarter-
backs Dennis Franklin, Mark Elzinga and
Leach. He claims that he doesn't prefer
one over another and that if the pass is
not thrown properly, they'll just have to
improve the next time.
"I KNEW Franklin better than the
other two, but I have great confidence in
all three." Smith said.
"You have to learn to take things in
strhle. If the quiarterback doesn't give it
t,, mP now. he can give it to me later. It
~mt antter when we're winning if I
(r * the h-1]l bt I like to get it.
Jim Smith is Michigan's number one
receiver and fifth leading rusher and his
natural ability has taken him a long way.
If only he'd pick up a nickname.
Doily Photo by SCOTT ECCKER
INDIANA BACK Modock White closes in on Michigan wingback Jim Smith near the conclusion of Smith's 50-yard punt return
yesterday. Smith got his hands on the ball five times, on a run, three passes, and a punt return, and accounted for 169 Mich-
igan yards.
Some must be
Spectators
ati'd:4:~uv;:%:.l.. :::.".. ..yo..:. .:'Fv::": ..*.. ....'. .::. . r. ... ". FFn
Whatever happened .. .
...to the BigTen?'
WHAT EVER happened to the Big Ten? Wasn't there a time
when more than two teams competed for the conference
championship?
Only twice since 1967 has a Big Ten team besides Ohio State
or Michigan finished above third in the conference. Northwes-
tern, of all schools, finished second in 1970 and tied for second
in 1971.
Other than that, Big Ten football has been totally domi-
nated by Michigan and Ohio State for eight years.
This year, once again, the race is all but over with four
weeks left in the season. The title will be decided November 22
when the Buckeyes come to Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines, after bombing Indiana 55-7, and the Buck-
eyes, after belitting Purdue 35-6, yesterday, are both 4-0 in the
/conference. Only Illinois, 3-1 after upsetting Michigan State yes-
terday, poses a possible threat to the top two. All of the remain-
ing Big Ten teams have lost at least twice.
This was going to be the year - the year that the "Little
Eight" was to challenge the two bullies. "I felt this was the year
they'd get us;" confided Michigan coach Bo Schembechler early
last week.
Instead, the "Big Two", Ohio State and Michigan, have
decimated conference foes with greater ease than ever, collec-l
tively outscoring Big Ten opponents 289-25.
Many of those points came against Wisconsin and Michi-
gan State, the two teams considered in the pre-season the1
most likely to topple the favorites.1
The imbalance can only hturt Big Ten football. When Bo
Schembechler has to reach down into the second and third strings
early in the game just to keep the score down, the value of
the sport is lost.
There is no meaning to the onslaughts that Northwestern
and Indiana have suffered at Michigan. The Wolverines can
only gain marginal improvement against such hopelessly out-
manned teams, and the Hoosiers and Wildcats gained nothing
but insult.
Inevitably, with the loss of pride for Indiana and North-
western comes the loss of attendance, the weakening of rival-
ries, and diminished recruiting influence. With less money
and prestige to back recruiting efforts the quality of the team
suffers and the routs continue.
Indiana's Lee Corso talked after yesterday's game about
some of the frustrations of building a football program at Indi-
ana. "We've got to make a team out of those guys," said the
third year coach about his squad. "That's all we've got. I'm
proud of them.
"The Michigan tradition is built on time. It will take time
at Indiana. I'm in a very difficult situation. No one said it would
be easy. I've been trying to build the impossible dream and it's
been difficult."
Even at the expense of Michigan's winning record in the
coming years, the conference would benefit from greater bal-
ance. Hopefully the levelling process will be aided by the new
Big Ten ruling which provides bowl opportunities to more than
just one conference team.,
In the past any conference team without a solid chance
to win the Big Ten title could not recruit players interested in
playing in a bowl game. For example, a player in Iowa would
naturally prefer the Big Eight's Iowa State to the Big Ten's
Iowa because even if Iowa State had a so-so record the school
had a reasonable chance to go to a bowl.
This has to have tremendously helped the Big Eight, a
conference, though dominated by Oklahoma and Nebraska,
that has consistently had more teams ranked in the top
twenty than the Big Ten.
DEFENSE AIDS IN TRIUMPH:
Ground gains spark Blue
win
Nolo contend(ere
MICH.
First downs 30
Rushing (att/yds) 70-490
Passing
(att/comp/int) 9-5-0
Passing yards 86
Punts (no/ave) 3-38
Fumbles (no/lost) 0-0
Penalties (no/yds) 3-35
RUSHING
MICHIGAN
att yd
Lytle 22 147
G. Bell 14 117
Leach 8 52
R. Davis 9 37
J. Smith 1 77
Corbin 3 18
M. Richardson 4 15
Elzinga 4 16
F. Bell 2 8
K. King 3
IND.
13
44-120
18-6-1
76
8-37
1-1
4-27
avg
6.7
8.4
6.5
4.1
77.0
6.0
3.8
4.0
4.0
1.0
Snyder
Enis
Burnett
Calvin
T. Jones
Leach
Elzinga
T. Jones
Grossman
J. Smith
INDIANA
18 f
9 4
8
2
7
PASSING
MICHIGAN
att com
6 3,
3 2
INDIANA
16 6
2 0
RECEIVING
MICHIGAN
no
3
6
4
-
3 3.5
1 4.6
37 4.6
3 1.5
24 -3.4
int yds
0 42
0 44
1 76
0 0
yds ip
42 16
16 16
28 28
30 12
46 20
4
Is
7
2
.7
5
6
8
3
K. Johnson 1
M Richardson I
INDIANA
Calvin 3
Smock 3
Illinois
u'
(Continued from Page 1) the middle - nobody can on
LYTLE'S MOST impressive Michigan."
effort came late in the second
quarter. Almost singlehandedly, THE WOLVERINE'S stingy
he led the Wolverines from their defense missed its second shut-
own 30 to the Indiana 16 on out of the season when the
carries of 12, 9, and 19 yards. Hoosiers engineered their only
From there, he took a Rick! penetrating drive into Michigan
Leach pitchout, f o I I o w e d a territory early in the final
crunching Russell Davis block period.
and skirted left end for 15. On Hoosier flanker Keith Calvin,
the next play he dove over from gathered in a John Anderson
the one. punt-only Michigan's third of
Flamboyant I n d i a n a head the afternoon-at his own 17 and
coach Lee Corso, an ex-room- sped through -a crowd of Maize
mate and football teammate of and Blue tacklers for 43 yards.
actor Burt Reynolds at Florida With fullback Ric Enis and
State, said, "They were too fast Courtney- Snyder carrying the
for us. We had them in certain ball, Indiana moved to Mich-
situations when we just couldn't igan's goalline in seven plays.1
tackle them. We had them three But it took three attempts from
or four times in their own back- the three yard line before quar-
field and let them off the hook. terback Terry Jones finally
"We knew we couldn't run up pushed it over.
enwds M 1 U7
his career total to 4,730 yards. scamper with 4:09 left in the
The old record of 4,715, by Ed third quarter as the Badgers
Marinaro at Cornell, fell mid- overcame a 14-10 halftime def-
way through the fourth quar- icit.
ter when Griffin took a handoff The stumpy senior tailback
from quarterback Cornelius became the 30th runner in col-
Greene and burst 23 yards up legiate football history to ex-
the middle. ceed 3,000 yards as he brought
Purdue, the first Big Ten team his total to 3,161.
to score on Ohio State this sea-
son-had the ball twice as much Gophers romp
in the first half, and made four
more first downs than the Buck- IOWA CITY - Tony Dungy
eyes, but the visitors took quick tossed two touchdown passes
advantage of their opportunities. and Jim Perkins ran for a hair
-- *e of touchdowns Saturday to lift
Minnesota to a 31-7 Big Ten
Badgers edge victory over sluggish Iowa.
MADISON - Billy Marek top- Iowa, a six-point favorite,
ped the 3,000-yard career rush- scored on its first possession,
ing mark with 198 yards and driving 47 yards, but thereafter
two touchdowns in 36 carries, the Hawkeyes managed only two
l powering Wisconsin to a 17-14 first downs.
OTHER THAN that the de-
fense was near perfect, holding
Indiana to 120 yards on the
ground and 76 through the air.
In addition, defensive end Dan.
Jilek pounced-on a Snyder fum-
ble on Indiana's first possession
of the game and reserve defen-
sive back Kurt Kampe .inter-
cepted a Terry Jones pass late
in the fial quarter.
"We just k e e p improving
every week," said middle guard
Tim Davis. "I think we im-
proved in several areas: indi-
vidual techniques, blocking, tac-
kling and just playing a team
defense. We're working towards
perfection."
"We hated to give up the
ehtnlt1 a -ii / d f n-ix
pitch to Bell) near the sidelines
and I; damn near caught it my-
self. I don't like that."
Michigan's kicker Bob Wood
committed the only other mis-
cue of the day when his extra
point attempt following Lytle's
second touchdown sailed wide to
the left with 6:21 left in the
second period.
The Wolverines, probably at
a season low injury-wise, missed
the services of defense tackle
Jeff Perlinger, tailback Harlan
Huckleby, tight e n d George
Przygodski, and offensive tackle
Steve King (who should return
next week). Both Dufeks, strong
tackle Bill and Wolfman Don,
nirsed injuries but did play.
snutout," exciaAmea e eensUve With second stringer Huckle-
tackle Greg "Mo" Morton. "I by on the sidelines, with a swol-
hated to see that touchdown but len thigh, Schembechler decided
the number one thing is to win to give Lytle some playing time
and improve at the same time." at tailback.
SCHEMBECHLER, who prom- "I was glad we had an oppor-
ised Michigan fans that his team tiuinity to give Ltyle and Bell a
would minimize mistakes, ex- little more work. Lytle only car-
pressed concern over a wild -raied eight times against North-
pitchout that Leach threw to western and Bell only played
Bell in the first quarter. in the first quarter. They both
"Our goal for this game was needed the work."
to have no 'more than one turn- Freshman fullback R u s s e 11
over and I think we accomplish- Davis also logged alot of play-
ed this. One thing I didn't 'like ing time, scoring two touch-
vas a couple of - pitchouts. One downs on two and three yard
of them hit seven guys (the runs in the third period.
Big Ten Standings
By The Associated Press
EAST LANSING - Quarter-
back Kurt Steger threw three
second-half touchdowns, the first
off a faked field goal play, as
Illinois came from behind yes-
terday to upset 16th-ranked
Michigan State 21-19.
Steger's aerial display gave
the Illini a 21-13 lead before the
Spartans roared back in the
final minutes to score. But they,
failed to convert a two-point
extra-point attempt.
Illinois was .shut out in a
lackluster first half as the
Spartans opened up a 13-0 lead
on a touchdown by quarter-
back Charlie Baggett and two
field goals by Hans Nielsen.
After Nielsen's second kick,
Steger hit tight end Joe Smalzer
for a 22-yard gain and split end
Mike Sullivan for 11 more.
The MSU defense rose up to
stop the drive but Steger yanked
the ball from in front of the
foot of placekicker Dan Beaver
and fired it to Phil Vierneisel in
the corner of the end zone from
22 yards out to make it 13-7.
Moments later, MSU tailback
Rich Baes fumbled at his own
30 and Bruce Thornton recov-
ered for Illinois. Steger shortly
tossed a scoring strike to a
diving Smalzer in the end zone.
Behind, Baggett went to the
air, only to be intercepted by
Illinois' Rick Williams. Ste-
ger found Smallzer in the end
zone from 12 yards out for the
final Illini TD.
The desperate Spartans charg-
ed 63 yards in seven plays in
the waning minutes for a touch-
down, the key plays a Baggett-
to-Eugene Byrd pass for 27
yards and a 29-yard sideline
dash by Baggett to the six.
Buckeyes rush
WEST LAFAYETTE - Archie
Griffin set an all-time college
rushing record and Pete Johnsor
moved two steps closer to a
Big Ten touchdown record yes-
terday as top-ranked Ohio State
knocked off pesky Purdue, 35-6.
Griffin, held to 36 yards in
the first half, finished with 130
yards on 20 carries to push
CONFERENCE
W L T
4 0 0
4 0 0
MICHIGAN
Ohio State
Illinois
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Michigan State
Minnesota
Indiana
Purdue
Iowa
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
0
01
01
01
01
01
ALL GAMES
W L T
} 5 0 2
7 0 0
4 3 0
3 4 0'
r 3 4 -0
4 3 0
4 3 0
2 5 0
l 1 6 0
I 1 6 0
n1
Big Ten victory over North-
western.
Marek gained 139 of his
yards in the second half and
scored the go-ahead touch-
down on a 34-yard cutback
Micigan
kickers
deadlock
By MARYBETH DILLON
The Michigan soccer team
tied Michigan-Dearborn on the
Tartan Turf last night 1-1, with
both teams failing to score in
two 10-minute overtimes. Their
record now stands at 1-5-2.
"We really controlled the
ball tonight," s a i d Coach
Steve Berman. "I was afraid
we might be a little flat com-
ing into the game after our
loss at Michigan State, but
the team really came to-
gether."
The kickers dropped one to
MSU in East Lansing Friday,
6-1.
Van Dimitri, Michigan-Dear-
born coach said, "Playing on
the turf was a distinct disad-
vantage for us. The ball picks
up a lot of speed and that
.j
I
I
Deker intrasquad show
ends in
Maize, 9-2 rout
By DAVE WIHAK of vengeance for the Whites, goals, with Zimmerman being
when he blasted a drive over the unfortunate banker.
Dan Farrell opened up shop the right shoulder of goalie HUGHES, Johnson and Mo-
last night at Yost Ice Arena, Rick Palmer to shorten the gap retto ended up with two goal
but he wasn't selling ice Cream. to 3-2. games, and the Moretto-Cor-
The product was Michigan But from that point on, the mier-Hughes line came up with
hockey, and in the annual intra- Maize rout was on its way. the biggest offensive perform-
squad game, the Maize team Freshman Mike Coffman slipped ance of the game.
foreshadsilent t t d of a nice pass from Bill Thayer "The play of the Moretto line
moeat ientcr200o approxi- into the twine, and less than a really boosted my confidend,"
mately 200 spectatorsn minute later Pat Hughes made said Coach Farrell after the
The gamnwithbotteams sh u the second period score 5-2,1 game. "They were really strug-
inote, sigbothreashowpt- awhen he unleashed a blinding aling up to this point, but to-
ing signs of pre-season inepti- slapshot. . night they were flying."
tade. The Maize team came out fly- All in all, Farrell expressed
BILL THAYER opened the ing in the third period, exhibit- concern about his team, in
scoring for the Maize team, ing a fast, aggressive attack. preparation for the big series
as he picked up his own re- And the results were profitable with the U.S. Nationals next Fri-
bound and fired the puck past -Rob Palmer, Moretto, Johnson day: "we ve still got a lot of
a surprised Frank Zimmerman. and Hughes all cashed in for work to do."
Less than two minutes later, :..:::...k:.::::...... ......:::.::;.<;. ;.:::............. _.......: ..:
the Whites tied it up on a pic-
ture-play goal by Russ Blanzy. S C R E S
Blanzy slapped a quick wrist
shot into the net after Doug
Lindskog decoyed both defense- I HCOLLEGE FOOTBALL Western Illinois 17,
mnRbPle an goleMICHIGAN 55, Indiana 7 Eastern Michigan 14
men Rob Palmer and goalie Illinois 21, Michigan State 19 Auburn 17, Florida State 14
Robbie Moore out of the play. iinnesota 31, Iowa 7 Missouri 35, Kansas State 3
Lindskog then made a perfect Wisconsin 17, Northwestern 14 Oklahoma 39, Iowa State 7
drop pass to Blanzy and it was Ohio state 35, Purdue 6 Alabama 45, TCU 0
:: r - : .........
.. ........ .r
:: .:::r.:...... .... .......:::.. ,. ..:...r ...:...:
I.