I 2-D - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1983 Gridders geared for another title I run Schembechier shoots for 11Ith in 15- years By RON POLLACK Ho hum, another Big Ten champion- ship for Bo Schembechler and his Michigan football team this past season. That makes 10 conference titles that the Wolverines have either shared or won outright in Schembechler's 14 years as Michigan's head coach. If Big Ten championship number 11 is going to be won in 1983, however, some awfully talented players are going to have to be replaced. Gone from last year's Rose Bowl squad are 11 starters, including a three-time All-America, a 1,000-yard rusher and three-quarters of the secondary. Burn that midnight oil Bo, you've got a lot of work to do. A GREAT deal of that work will be directed toward the secondary, an area Schembechler calls his "biggest worry." Starting defensive backs Keith Bostic, Jerry Burgei and Marion Body have all departed, but some experience does return. Senior free safety Evan Cooper started in all 12 Wolverine games last season, while senior John Lott and sophomore Tony Gant started in four and one games respectively at corner- back. Other defensive backs fighting for starting time will be Jeff Cohen, Dieter Heren, Greg Randall and Rich Hewlett. Wide receivers Ivan Hicks and Steve Johnson have both been moved to the secondary, although Schembechler has not yet-decided which position to play Johnson. At the end of spring ball, only Cooper and Lott could be considered "sure starters" according to assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Gary Moeller. Following spring ball, the secondary was still a question mark because Lott, Cooper, Gant and Cohen all were hampered by injuries and missed numerous practices. "THAT HURTS" said Schembechler. "We had so many guys out that we couldn't get any cohesiveness in the secondary at all and that to me is the biggest problem." If the secondary is to improve over last year, when it gave up a hefty 254.8 yards per game through the air, so too must the defensive line when it comes to rushing the passer. "The pass risk was lacking last season, but we're working on it," said starting defensive tackle Kevin Brooks. "We worked all spring on emphasizing the pass rush." SAID STARING inside linebacker Mike Boren, "the only thing that hurt us last season was letting the quarterback out of the contain. If we rush the quar- terback, we'll be solid." Winfred Carraway is the only starter gone from the defensive line. Junior Al Sincich started every game at middle guard last year, while senior Dave Meredith and junior Mike Hammer- stein saw starting time at the defensive tackle spot opposite Carraway when Brooks was injured during the middle of the season. Seniors Vince DeFelice, Nate Rodgers and Mike Wilson, juniors Jim Scarcelli, Joe Gray and sophomore Mike Krauss will also battle for playing time. "The returning experience in the defensive line helps a lot," said Schem- bechler. "You can tell the difference in all of them. In the spring we em- phasized the pass rush. Not a lot of blit- zing, although we do blitz a lot, just the pass rush out of the down linemen. I think we're improved." DEFENSIVE LINE coach Jerry Meter said that a few new stunts have been added to the playbook to help the pass rush. "What you want to do is create some problems for the opposing offensive line," he said. "So we do some! cnangeups. It's not anything extraor- dinarily new to football, just a little new to our program." The Wolverines' linebacking corps return two starters, seniors Boren and Carlton Rose. Boren has led Michigan in tackling the last two seasons, in- cluding 171 last season, second highest ever in a season at Michigan behind Ron Simpkins' 174 in 1977 "Boren will be one of the better linebackers in the league," said Schembechler. Fighting for the other two starting linebacker spots will be seniors Tom Hassel, who started one game last year, Rodney Lyles and Tim Anderson, juniors Jeff Akers, Phil Lewandowski and Mike Mallory and sophomores An- dy Moeller and Mike Reinhold. "I think our linebacking will be okay and if it is we'll be better up front," said Schembechler who excitedly added, "I'm convinced we'll be better up front." BOREN SAID that the graduation1 losses of starters Robert Thompson and Paul Girgash can be overcome. "I think we have some good guys to fill in the holes. People think the losses are big, but I don't because we've got some good people coming back." On offense, of course, the most noteworthy loss is three-time All- America flanker Anthony Carter whose name is splashed all over the Michigan record books. Schembechler is the first to admit that his roster contains no one who can make off the magnificent feats accomplished by Carter these past four years, but the Wolverine coach promised that he has no intention of putting the passing game into hiber- nation. "What we're going to do is mix the ball around a little bit, going to the backs more, going to the tight end more, going to the split end more," said Schembechler. "I think the offense will be a little bit different than it was with Carter because Carter if they gave us a chance to get the ball to him we'd do it. But now we're gonna get the ball to other people until the flanker is not so overloaded. Now they're not gonna be out there with two-and-a-half men on the flanker like they did on Anthony. THE WOLVERINES' top returning receiver is split end Vince Bean who caught 19 passes for 321 yards last season, his second as a starter. "I guess I have to be more of a big play guy rather than someone who just goes for a first down," said Bean. "I .have to take Anthony's place. I'm definitely looking forward to it. The pat- terns I've had to run in the past were for first downs. I'd catch the ball and either go out of bounds or get hit immediately. Now I'll get to run with it. I haven't been able to do that in a long time." The leading candidates to take Car- ter's spot opposite Bean are sophomores Gilvanni Johnson and Steve Johnson. THE TIGHT end spot is also up for grabs because of the graduation of Craig Dunaway, Michigan's second leading receiver last year behind Car- ter. The frontrunners for Dunaway's job are senior Milt Carthens and juniors Sim Nelson and Eric Kattus. The job of getting the ball to this assortment of flankers, split ends and tight ends belongs to senior quarter- back Steve Smith. Despite the fact that Smith is entering his third year as the Wolverines' starter, he is still a bit of question mark going into the season because of a shoulder injury sustained in Michigan's 24-14 Rose Bowl loss to UCLA. During the Wolverines' intrasquad spring game, Smith said he could only throw the ball 15 to 20 yards. Nonetheless, he expects a complete recovery for Michigan's season opener against Washington State on September 10. "It should be 100 percent by the start of the season," said Smith. "I took, some shots to the shoulder in the spring game and it didn't bother me. An injury like this, once it heals, it's all right again." THE MATTER of his injury dispen- sed with, Smith, who will be backed up by sophomore Jim Harbaugh and senior Dave Hall, spoke of how his role changes now that Carter has moved on to the United States Football League. "We'll still throw the ball," said Smith who completed 118 of 227 passes for 1,735 yards last year. "It doesn't matter who's there. Now it's on the quarterback's shoulders to move the ball down field rather than expect the big play." Not only doesn't Smith have Carter to throw to any more, he no longer has tailback Lawrence Ricks to hand it off to either. Ricks was the workhorse of the ground game last year when he gained 1,388 yards on 266 carries. The second highest total was 368 yards by Kerry Smith. Smith, a senior, will fight juniors Rick Rogers (285 yards) and Brian Mercer (143 yards) for Ricks' job. Sophomore Ben Logue is a darkhorse candidate, while speedy sophomore Thomas Wilcher tries to recover from a knee injury. The fullback position is another area where a number of players are conten- ding for the starting duties. Sophomore Dan Rice started in nine of Michigan's last 10 games and led all fullbacks with 152 yards, but he missed most of spring ball because of a non-operable knee in- jury. Senior Greg Armstrong started the first two games of the year, while sophomore Eddie Garrett was the star- ter in the Northwestern contest. Fur- thermore, senior Jerald Ingram, who entered the 1982 campaign as the star- ting fullback only to miss the entire season with assorted injuries, is back. "We're strong and deep at the run- ning back positions," said Steve Smith. "We'll be as good there as we've ever been." See CAN, Page 3 -- 1 q 1982 Big Ten . Football Standings_ MICHIGAN . Ohio State .... Iowa ......... Illinois ....... Wisconsin .... Indiana ...... Purdue ..... Northwestern Michigan State Minnesota .... Conf. W L 8 1 7 1 6 2 6 3 5 4 4 5 3 6 2 7 2 7 1 8 Overall W L 8 3 8 3 7 4 7 4 6 5 5 6 3 8 3 8 2 9 3 8 Sept. Sept. Sept. Oct. Oct. Oct. Oct. Oct. Nov. Nov. Nov. 1983 Football Schedule 10 WASHINGTON ST. 17 Washington 24 Wisconsin 1 INDIANA 8 Michigan State 15 NORTHWESTERN 22 IOWA 29 Illinois 5 PURDUE 12 Minnesota 19 OHIO STATE ----_ 1 S.. . worried about secondary MEOW 1982 Football Statistics Tackling Team Statistics Total First Downs. Rushing ......... Passing ......... Penalty ......... Total Net Yards .. Total Plays.. Avg. Per Play ... Avg. Per Game.. Net Rushing Yards - Total Attempts .. Avg. Per Play ... Avg. Per Game.., Net Passing Yards. Att/Comp/Int ... Avg. Per Attempt Avg. Per Comp.. Avg. Per Game.. Punts/Yds/Avg ... Punt Ret/Yds/Av.. KO Ret/Yds/Avg.. Int/Yds/Avg... Fumblei/Lost..... Peualties/Yards ... Scoring Total Pts/Avg... Touchdowns. Rushing ... Passing ....... M 259 155 85 19 4749 845 5.6 395.8 2801 578 4.8 233.4 1948 267/138/16 7.3 14.1 162.3 49/1923/39.2 28/383/13.7 27/555/20.6 12/176/14.7 21/12 43/331 Opp. 266 103 152 11 4401 931 4.7 366.8 1344 452 3.0 112.0 3057 479/295/12 6.4 10.4 254.8 66/2535/38.4 17/49/2.9 35/580/16.6 16/152/9.5 30/16 64/655 Returns ....... PAT's/At....... 2-Pt. Conv./Att .. Field Goals/Att .. Third Down Conv/Att Success Pct...... 2 41/42 1/2 12/15 71/155 .458 1 22/23 1/2 10/12 80/188 .426 Passing S. SMITH......... HALL ............... Carter ............... PA 227 38 2 PC 118 20 0 Int 13 3 0 Yds 1735 213 0 TD 14 3 0 Individual Statistics .iRushing Ricks ............... K. SMITH ........... S. SMITH.......... ROGERS............ RICE ............... MERCER ........... Carter ............... GARRETT.......... ARMSTRONG ..... S. JOHNSON... TEAM.......... Hall............. Att 266 45 96 65 40 33 10 9 8 1 1 4 Yds 1388 368 345 285 152 143 61 42 26 3 -2 -10 Avg 5.2 8.2 3.6 4.4 3.8 4.3 6.1 4.7 3.3 3.0 -2.0 -2.5 TD 8 2 9 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 LP 52 29 37 22 13 18 15 14 7 3 -2 11 MICHIGAN ......... 267 138 16 Opponents........... 479 295 12 Receiving No. Yds Avg. Carter.............. 43 844 19.6 Dunaway.............35 488 13.9 BEAN ............... 19 321 16.9 RICE................14 74 5.3 Ricks ............... 9 56 6.2 ROGERS ............ 5 57 11.4 GARRETT .......... 4 24 6.0 NELSON............ 3 23 7.7 S. JOHNSON ........ 2 31 15.5 ARMSTRONG....... 2 22 11.0 KATTUS ............ 1 12 12.0 MERCER ...........1 -4 -4.0 1948 17 3057 9 TD 8 3 t 2 0 I 1 0 0 I 0 0 LP 62 42 38 11 24 39 8 11, 16 17 12 -4 BOREN ................... Girgash ................... Burgei .................... Bostic ..................... Thompson ................. Carraway............. HASSEL .............. ROSEs................ SINCICH.............. BROOKS.................. COOPER.............. Body................. ANDERSON.............. LoT ....... ............. MEREDITH............ GANT ................. MALLORY ................ Herrmann................. Cohen..................... HEWLETT ............ RODGERS ................ LYLES............... BURGESS ................ HAMMERSTEIN .......... Cochran ................... Lemirande ................ RANDALL................ DeFELICE . ........... . GRAY................... TKLS 111 108 58 59 43 32 31 33 34 25 18 20 10, 13 12 13 9 11 10. 9 8 8 6 3 5 3 3 1 0 ASSTS TOTAL 60 171 49 157 29 87 19 78 26 69 22 54 19 50 16 49~ 13 47 19 44 14 32 10 30 14 24 8 21 8 20 3 16 6 15 3 14 2 12 3 12 1 9 1 9 2 8 4 7 1 6 3 6 2 5 2 3 1 1 Daily Photo by BRIAN MASCK line in a game last year Michigan's Rick Rogers dives for the goal versus Wisconsin. MICHIGAN ......... 138 Opponents............295 1948 14.1 17 3057 10.4 " 9 62 46 345/28.8 44 25 17 204/17.0 25 15 9 MICHIGAN.........578 2801 4.8 25 52 Opponents..........452 1344 3.0 15 37 Scoring ------------------- THE FULL-SERVICE PHOTO LAB Brochure Available - Call 971-9100 111 V.A Haji-Sheikh ......... Carter ............ S. SMITH.......... Ricks ............. ROGERS.......... Dunaway......... RICE ............. GARRETT....... K. SMITH......... ARMSTRONG. BEAN........... Bostic............ TEAM'........... TDr TDp TDo 8 1 9 8 4 1 1 2 1 3 2 1 1 1 FG TP 12-15 77 56 54 48 30 18 18 12 12 6 6 6 2 RETURNING PLAYERS IN CAPS THE DAILY CLASSIFIEDS ARE A GREAT WAY TO GET FAST RESULTS CALL 764-0557 1 MICHIGAN .........25 17 2 12-15 345 Opponents........... 15 9 1 10-12 204 PECKIRD M6RKET and bright, clean, coin laundry 740 Packard (near S. State) 665-4911 1 Gallon Homogenized Milk . $1.89 1 Gallon Low Fat Milk ...... $1.69 4 eS~ 0 I. L- U, ATi E I