age Two,, THE MICHIGAN DAILY, Sunday, December 7, 1915 age Two> THE MICHIGAN DAILY< Sunday, December 7, 1 91~ Bo Sch embechier lets. hair down EDITORS' NOTE: Sports editors Bri- an Deming and Leba Hertz interview- ed Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler. November 25 in his office. The follow- ing is the transcribed and edited ac- count of the interview. Q. Despite losing to Ohio State, you must be grateful that your team has the opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl. Actually, nothing will soften the hurt F losing a game of that nature because te played well enough to win and should ave won. We didn't. But I think .it took a auch shorter period of time to brood over lie loss because we have so much work to o in order to prepare for the, Orange lowl to meet Oklahoma., From that standpoint, I think it's good at we have a bowl. I think it's also good ince we had some great teams here in ae past that have been denied an oppor- Lnity to play in bowl games. , Finally the first Big Ten team that has. n opportunity to go to another bowl is Iichigan. To- me that's the way it should ave been. Q. Is this the first time two Big Ten teams are going to a bowl game in the same year? L I think it is. Of course, I don't know hat happened way back then. But at east in modern times, and since I've been oaching this is the first time, that I can ecall, that two Big Ten teams are playing' a a Bowl game. Q. Have you had a chance to look at Oklahoma? . No, I haven't. I have talked to Coach witzer of Oklahoma. We've decided to xchange all our films. I have not seen 4em play this year, but I have had an opportunity in the past years to see them play. They're a tremendous football team and Barry (Switzer) himself has indicated that he does have great talent on this team. So it could be, and I wouldn't doubt it in a minute, that we're playing he strongest team in the country. Q. You weren't terribly surprised then that Oklahoma beat Nebraska. A. Not at all. Of course the game was played in Norman. I think Nebraska has a great football team-I really do. But I think the mistakes made by Nebraska surely did them in. They gave Oklahoma field position on the short side of the fifty on several occasions. But I'm not surprised. Oklahoma has tremendous talent, and of course, they were the pre-season favorites to win the national championship on the basis of hav- ing most of their national championship team beck from 1974. Q Oklahoma has a wishbone attack. Has Michigan ever seen the wishbone? A. We played against the wishbone with UCLA. I believe that was in 1972. We play- ed a wishbone against Michigan State I believe that Texas A&M played us with a wishbone. But you can't look at those teams in terms of having the defensive strategy with the likes of an Oklahoma. This is the most refined and perhaps ex- plosive wishbone offense in the country. Having run it for several years, they know all the ramifications of it and cer- tainly know how to adjust to the various types of defenses. Basically it is a one formation offense. You can only defense the formation in so many different ways, and I think they have seen them all. Oklahoma knows how to adjust to them, knows how to read them and we've got an awful lot of research to do in that area. We have to come up with what we think we can do best for our type of defense to adjust to the wishbone attack. Q. Is the wishbone basically a running attack? A. It's almost exclusively running, al- though Oklahoma has a great receiver in Tinker Owens and they have on occasion, particularly last year, won some games with the long passes. Although they threw only three times against Nebraska, you can't come out and say they won't hti you with the pass, because I'm sure if you put everyone up there to stop their running that's what they'll do. Q. What are the advantages of a wish- bone formation? A. First of all, it is primarily an option at- tack. The fullback being the key, starting out with the fullback diving into the guard tackle seam. Then you have a trailback and a quarterback. The fullback, trailback or the quarterback can run the ball. De- pending how the quarterback reads it and the reaction of the defense they can do any one of perhaps three things. Now the other thing that they have is mat perhaps one of your defensive people who is assigned to one of those three men could be blocked by the lead back. Now if he gets blocked, you're in trouble again. So the wishbone can give you a lead back principle that the dead T' can give you,- but you have much more option attack with the wishbone. I Therefore, to me, there is no compari. son with the strength of the two forma- tions. The regular 'T' is sort of limited to quarterback fullback setup whereas now in the wishbone you have four backs who are now in position to both run and block.; Q. What do you know about Okla- homa's defense? A. They tell me they have three super players-the Selmon brothers and one other defensive end that are just abso- lutely outstanding. Defensively they're a big team with great, great speed. As I understand it, nobody in their secondary runs over ten seconds in the hundred. You're talking about a great defensive football team. The combination of a ball control offense and great defense is very- difficult to beat. Q. What kinds of things do you do dif- ferently to prepare for a bowl game than in the regular season? A. First of all, the biggest problem you face at Michigan in going to a bowl is weather. The chances of getting a lot of good good practice time is not very good. The second problem that we face-that Oklahoma will not have-is that we go into final examinations just before we depart for Miami. So you are limited in terms of what you can get done practice-wise be- fore you leave. We'll have to do more work in Miami than Oklahoma will./ Oklahoma will prob- ably have ten or twelve practice sessions more than we will outside before they leave for the Bowl. Q. Are there any limitations on the amount of players you can take? A. As a matter of fact, in talking to Coach Switzer, they'll take more than a hundred players to Miami. The purpose for that is in their practice organization-their dem- onstration teams and things like that. We'll be there for several days longer and probably have somewhere around 80-85 players on our squad. Q. You ended the season with eight win, two ties and one, loss. Looking back, would you have done anything differently against Stanford and Bay- lor? A. No, because of circumstances, it's dif- ficult for me to look back on those games and find out what we would have done differently. I think we were just a tre- mendously young offensive team. We had a lot of growing up to do. I think as the season went along we got a little better and we got some experience that we need- ed. But basically, there's not much that you can say. Sure, every game that you tie or lose, you figure there's a way you should have won it, especially if they are close games. Q. Was that game against Ohio State about the most frustrating loss you've had here? A. I think it is, because we had done so well. We dominated them so well defen- sively and offensively. Although we had too many bad plays, offensively, we did play well enough, I thought, to score and to win the game. We had good field posi- tion, and with them back in there, I just did not think they could move like they did. They hit two or three passes that really hurt us. But there were some things that we should have done differently. But all in all we had a great chance to win that game-and should have won it. But, un- fortunately, that's the way it goes. Q. What position would you put Michi- gan among the other teams? A. I think we can play anyone. I don't think there is any question about that. It's a matter that on any given Saturday, we're going to win quite a few, and like what happened against Ohio State, we're going to be outscored. But I think we can play anyone. Q. How is this Michigan team differ- ent than the other teams you've coach- ed? How would you characterize them? A. First of all, because of the youth of it, we have a much more heterogeneous group class-wise. We've got freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Most of our teams in the past have been junior- senior dominated. This team is a little bit younger. It's a fantastic group of seniors. Just a tremendous group. It's just been a good group. We've really enjoyed this season. I can tell you this honestly. They are real- ly looking forward to playing again. At the end of a season you always feel wrung out and a little bit down because you put so much effort into the season and all of a sudden it's over. It takes a little while to bounce back. But I think we're bouncing back real quickly and looking forward to the game against Oklahoma. Q. After losing a game to Ohio State and the nature of the loss, do you think you will have any trouble motivating your team for another game? A. On the basis of what I know of this team, I think we will be highly motivated in the Orange Bowl. No matter how the score turned out, I think we feel that we did not lose any confidence at all in ou ability to win the big game. You know, it would have been very easy for us to come out of the game 14-14. That would not have been hard to do. But to do that we probably wouldn't have, felt any worse than we do now, losing 21-14, because then we would have second guessed ourselves and wondered maybe we should have gambbled and threw caution to the wind --which is exactly what we did. Q. Do you think the Orange Bowl is the best bowl team-wise this year? A. I think match-wise, team-wise, it is. Oklahoma is convincing. You have to un- lerstand that Oklahoma beat Nebraska in a much more convincing fashion than, for example, Ohio State was able to beat us. I think if you look at the match-up-the first Big Ten team to be playing one of these great post-season classics against a team like Oklahoma-this is the most at- tractive one. I JACk'S MEN'S WEARj COMPLETE SELECTION OF BALLS FLARES JEANS JACKETS For GUYS and GALS 118 E. WASH INGTON ANN ARBOR __< i i i i fl, ::«:.; < e^ A 4Ff N ; n' S 3.y y::: t Sc: 1U" S:: j '1 : >y a ;G h i)3 f %r i!v S , , ,ht obi r ,.x / i Table of Contents Interview with So Schembechier........ Biq Ten season in review ............................ Scouting report on Oklahoma ......................... Interview with Tom Slade ....... .... . .......... Michigan's defense ......................... ...... Michigan's offense ................................ Michiqan'Bowl history.......................... Photo page.................................... Orange Bowl history.............................. Other Bowl games............................... Planned festivities............................... Daily Libel season in review ........................ PHOTO STAFF-Scott Eccker, Ken Be careful with fire: There are babes inthe woods. Fink, Pauline Lubens Try Daily Cl assifieds page 2 Pagel2 page 3 page 3 pape 4 poe 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 7 page 7 pa0e $ Orange Bowl Advance .............................page 9 Michigan season in review ........................... page 9 SUPPLEMENT EDITOR-Leba Hertz CONTRIBUTING EDITORS-Brien Deminq, Al Hrapsky, Marcia Mer- ker, Michael Wilson STAFF-Rick Bonino, Paul Campbell, Andy Glazer, Kathy Henneghan, Rich Lerner, Jeff Liebster, Scott Lewis, Rick Maddock, Bill Sties Big Ten season marks repeat By RICK BONINO i When the Ohio State Buckeyes visited the Michigan Wolverines to decide the Big Ten title at, season's end, more than a few prognosticators watched w i t h red faces.1 . This season, you see, wasn'tt supposed to follow the Big Two° -Little Eight pattern so fa-F miliar in recent. years , Both Michigan State and Wisconsin were touted as legitimate title challengers. When OSU took on the Spar- tans and Michigan the Badgers on the opening weekend of con- ference play, the Big Ten racel was expected to shape up quickly. SHAPE UP it did. OSU rolled: past Michigan State, 21-0. Mich-l igan easily handled Wisconsin, 23-6, and the Big Two had once again made the Big Ten title. scramble their own private war. The Buckeyes followed an easy path to the final showdown. Led by record-setting senior run- ners Archie Griffin and Pete Johnson, Ohio State paced the Big Ten in scoring en route to a perfect season. Heisman Trophy winner Girf- fin stretched his string of 100- yard games to 31 before suffer- ing a shutdown by Michigan. Johnson led the nation in scor- ing and set a Big Ten record with 24 touchdowns. The Buckeyes also made head. lines during college football's most prolific placekicking year. Tom Skladany, the nation's lead{. ing punter, also managed to boot a 56-yard field goal to break the conference record of 55 yards set earlier in the sea- son by Illinois' Dan Beaver. FOR BOTH the Badgers and the Spartans, the opening losses were indicators of hard times to come. After sweeping a tough three g a m e non - conference slate, MSU returned to conference p 1 a y and promptly dropped three of its first four games. The Spartans salvaged some re- spectability by sweeping their last three games to finish tied for third in the Big Ten. The Spartan surge was spark- ed as much by sophomore quar- terback Marshall Lawson as by wo and Little Eight senior signal-caller Charlie Bag- gett, the self-proclaimed pre- season Heismart candidate who faltered badly. Wisconsin, hampered by a leaky defense, suffered through some embarrassments on its way to- a 3-4-1 mark. The Badgers fell to OSU, 56-0, early in the season and tied lowly Indiana and lost to Minnesota, 24-3, at season's end. Wisconsin's consolation came in the form of senior talback Billy Marek. The balding Badger broke Tom Harmon's career Big Ten scoring record and set a new Wisconsin career rushing mark. 'WHILE THE expected con- tenders faltered, some of the conference cast's less-heralded members provided occasional excitement. The Fighting Illini, featuring an improved offense and a weakened defense, ended up with their second consecutive .500 conference finish. Illinois' surprise came when it gave Michigan a tight 21-15 battle the week before The Showdown. Purdue, another team expect- ed to perform above pushover level, rounded out the Big Ten's third-place trio. Led by quarter- back Mark Vitali and running backs Scott Dierking andMike Pruitt, the Boilermakers =played a balanced season en route to their balanced record. Northwestern created s o m e early waves, winning its first two Big Ten games and leading the conference in total offense. Then the Wildcats ran into Michigan, lost 69-0, and never won again. MINNESOTA and Iowa took turns providing later tremors. The offense - oriented Gophers, paced by conference passing leader Tony Dungy, rolled up some impressive point totals while winning three of their last five games. Both late failures were against the Big Two, although the 28-21 loss to Michigan marked the most points scored on the Wol- verines since 1969. vIowa also produced some of- fensive spurts, led by tailback Jim Jensen. The Hawkeyes scored 45 points against Wiscon- sin on the end of their first back-to-back wins in six years. A much-maligned I n d i a n a Hoosier team brought up the year at 1-6-1. The lone moment of glory in an otherwise dismal season came when the Hoosiers held mighty OSU to a mere 24-14 win. munnew .~ .c ~ - .r ..ro w$ . Big Ten Standings FINAL Conference Ad i!ewbdfU b Ohio State ................:..... 8 M ICHIGAN ..................... 7 Michigan State ................. 4 Illinois .....................4 Purdue .....................4 Wisconsin ....................... 3 Minnesota ....................... 3 Iowa ............................ 3 Northwestern................2 Indiana ..... ...............1 0 1 4 4 4 4 S S 6 6 0 0. 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Overall 11 0 0 8 1 2 7 4 0 5 6 0 4 7 0 4 6 1 6 5 0 3 8 0 3 8 0 2 8 1 I 1 EUlNGIFUb ELOWERSk I V 9' / '11 I I ad idas'- THE ATHLETE'S SHOP -featuring- i I The Superwash Shetland Sweater from ROBERT BRUCE For combined luxury and case of care, you can't beat the Superwash crew, the 100% v i r g i n shetland wool crewneck sweater that's completely machine washable and dryable. Fully fashioned construction. In solid and heather tones. Sizes, S, M, L, XL. 0 These beautiful metal flowers by Ted Arnold will last a lifetime! Choose from a variety of styles. 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