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.