Page 12 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 27, 1986
'Mr
By MARK BOROWSKY
Special to the Daily
BLOOMINGTON - No last-
second field goals. No running up
end down on Michigan's defense.
No offensive ineptitude. No
emotional letdown.
No, the only thing shocking
about Michigan's win over Indiana
Saturday was the ease with which it
came. The Wolverines (7-0) cranked
out 588 yards against a reputedly
tough Indiana squad en route to a
3:8-14 victory over the Hoosiers in
Bloomington before 36,964 rain-
drenched fans.
"We anticipated a dogfight for
four quarters," said defensive tackle
Mark Messner, but the battle never
came.
THE RAINY mist at
Memorial Stadium was appropriate.
As a cynical sportwriter once said,
it always rains at executions. And
after Michigan raced out to a 35-0
first-half lead, Indiana's hopes were
shot.
"We just took ourselves out of
the game in the first half," said
Indiana tailback Damon Sweazy.
But we came back in the second
half and didn't get totally
embarrassed."
"We got beat by a real good
football team," said Indiana head
coach Bill Mallory, whose squad
fell to 4-3, 1-3 in the Big Ten.
"The first half they played really
well and we didn't."
FOLLOWING a dismal first
half against Iowa last week,
Michigan wanted to score early and
big against Indiana. "Our objective
was to get away fast because we
fooled around last week and didn't
play a good first half," said
everybody's favorite perfectionist,
Michigan head coach Bo
Schembechier. "But we didn't play
a good second half."
K The second half might have
resembled a pick-up game from
Schembechler's perspective, but
after the initial 30 minutes, such
was immaterial. The Wolverines
.put on a clinical demonstration of
balanced offense and stifling defense
in the first half. Apparently after
olls
to
easy
38-
14
win
over IU
t
6
Y
B
A
last week's poor first-half
performance against Iowa, the team
had a clue to come out firing.
"The key was getting off to a
fast start," said nose tackle Billy
Harris. "That was our motto all
week in practice."
COMING from Schembechler,
the motto had pronounced effects,
no doubt. Michigan had 351 yards
in the first half, to Indiana's 95. Of
those yards, 178 came in the air,
173 on the ground. "We knew we
needed good balance because Indiana
is a sound team on defense," said
Michgan quarterback Jim Harbaugh,
who passed for an even 300 yards.
"You just have to go out and beat
them."
After the first quarter, it appeared
that Michigan wouldn't need any of
those passing yards. The
Wolverines ran all over Indiana in
the first quarter in posting a 14-0
lead. Harbaugh only threw once in
Michigan's first two touchdown
drives.
But he still made his presence
felt. The senior signal caller scored
Michigan's first touchdown on a
three-yard quarterback sneak (yes, a
three-yard quarterback sneak) and
pitched to Gerald White on the one-
yard line after running for 12 yards
for the second score.
AFTER A Garland Rivers
interception gave Michigan the
ball at the Indiana 46, Michigan
scored on seven plays, the last
being a Bob Perryman eight-yard
touchdown run, punctuated by a
dive over the top at the goal line.
Perryman repeated his Walter
Payton imitation from the one-yard
line four minutes later to cap an
80-yard drive with 4:45 left in the
half to make the score 28-0.
While Harbaugh didn't generate
much offense through the air in the
first quarter, he displayed some
vintage scrambling and passing in
the second. No scramble was more
dramatic or effective than his 51-
yard touchdown pass to Ken
Higgins to cap a 30-second, four-
play, 82-yard drive late in the
second quarter that put Michigan up
I
I
q
A
Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
during Saturday's 38-14 victory. Perryman led the Wolverine offense with
Michigan fullback Bob Perryman pulls away from an Indiana defender
101 yards on 11 carries and also scored two touchdowns.
35-0 and put Indiana away for
good.
"We made some big plays," said
Schembechler. "Jim made some big
plays."
Jim did good indeed, but
Indiana's offense couldn't seem to
do the same. The Hoosiers had been
averaging 221.5 yards a game
rushing entering the contest;
Saturday they had 109.
Surprisingly, Indiana came out
throwing. Of the Hoosier's 18
plays from scrimmage in the first
quarter, 11 were passes. Once
Michigan got an early lead, Indiana
could never get into its ball-control
offense.
"I thought initially we'd get a
little bit more running, ball control
stuff," said defensive coordinator
Gary Moeller. "I think the idea was
they probably wanted to loosen us
up and then start running the ball.
But I was a little bit surprised."
"I think that (passing the ball)
was probably their changeup,"
concurred Messner. "We had been
geared for a running attack all weeka
and and they tried to offset that with
some passing."
It didn't offset much. Between
the three Hoosier quarterbacks,
Indiana only had 129 yards on 13-
for-27 passing.
A
HOUDINI HARBAUGH KEEPS IT EXCITING:
QB runs everyone in circles
By ADAM MARTIN
Special to the Daily
BLOOMINGTON - Jim
Harbaugh is giving himself a
reputation. Only he may not want
the attention.
In Saturday's 38-14 romp over
the Indiana Hoosiers, Harbaugh
manufactured some of Michigan's
offense simply by making
something out of nothing.
IN PREVIOUS games
Harbaugh's scrambling ability has
been an asset to the
Wolverines....that is, when he's
moved the ball forward. But against
Indiana Harbaugh's running every
which way in the Michigan
backfield was both a boon and a
bust.
The Wolverines' signal caller
struck gold on Michigan's last drive
of the first half when, after a wild
scramble, he hit split end Ken
Higgins on a 51-yard touchdown
toss that lifted Michigan to a 35-0
lead. Then in the third quarter with
a first and goal at the Indiana five
yard line, Harbaugh tried to restage
his second-quarter heroics, but after
scurrying all over the backfield, he
was trampled for 23-yard loss.
Michigan coach Bo
Schembechler made sure Harbaugh
knew about the mistake. And
Saturday wasn't the first time the
18-year Michigan coach harangued
his quarterback.
TWO WEEKS ago against
Michigan State, Schembechler, the
winningest active coach in college
football, chewed out his quarterback
for unsuccessfully forcing the ball
into the endzone instead of running
for the easy first down.
Still, despite such mental lapses,
Harbaugh's scrambling ability has
added a dangerous weapon to
Michigan's run-oriented offense.
And Schembechler can live with the
nation's second-ranked passer; even
if he is sometimes a double-edged
sword.
Phillingit Up
By Phil Nussel
Workingman Perryman..
...Bo's kind of guy
BLOOMINGTON
Perryman up the middle for one.
Perryman up the middle for two.
Perryman up the middle for three.
Perryman up the middle for... wait a minute... 47 yards? What's
going on here? Looking at the stats after Michigan's 38-14 thrashing
of helpless Indiana, the following numbers appear after Bob Perryman's
name: 101 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns and two catches.
Those are not Perryman-like numbers.
Just to refresh the memory, Perryman is the guy Bo Schembechler
uses to get those important two or three yards. He's the guy
Schembechler would have loved to have on the team during the "three
yards and a cloud of dust" days of the 1970s. He's the epitome of a
Schembechler runningback.
Just imagine the coach saying to
himself, "If I had it my way, I'd run
Perryman up the middle every time,
heh, heh, heh!"
"Me and Bo... well, we're cool,"
Perryman said Saturday. "He jokes
around with me and I joke around
with him."
Schembechler didn't say much
about his fullback after the game. He
just said, "Yeah, Perryman's a good
athlete." He usually holds the
comments about individuals until
"after I see the films." That's the way
the nation's winningest active coach
operates - it's the team, the team,
the team.
But Schembechler loves the hard-working type, and Perryman fits
the mold. "I show him a lot of respect and he shows me a lot of
respect in turn," Perryman said.
Perryman, a senior, is a 6-1, 226-pound fireplug of a fullback. He's
been around for four years. The only other time he ran for 100 yards
was against Brigham Young in the 1984 Holiday Bowl when he
rushed for 110. Afterwards, he developed slowly as Michigan's short-
yardage back.
This year, that's all he's done, until Saturday. In an offense with so
many superstars, this "workingman's player" finally got a piece of
the action.
Chances are, unfortunately, it won't happen again since this offense
has so many other stars. The Buzzard's Bay, Mass. native will go back
to blocking for Gerald White and Jamie Morris, and of course, he will
always be there for those third and one plays. That's okay with "The
Big B.P.," as the players call him.
"Sure, I'd like to get the ball more, but as long as we're winning and
I
Doily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
Against Indiana, Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh (4) threw for 300 yards for the second time this season.
Leading his team is Harbaugh's
job. But the senior from
Kalamazoo would rather talk about
team effort, especially when
Michigan runs its broken play
offense.
"Sometimes it looks like a fire
drill out there," said Harbaugh.
"Everybody's trying to pull
something out of the hat. It's like
'Here goes Jimmy doing something
crazy,' and I think the receivers are
getting used to it. They're really
making me look good."
AND MAKING opponents
look bad.
Harbaugh threw for 300 yards
against an Indiana team that just
could not contain him, marking
Blue
- Come tomorrow, Michigan
should move up at least one spot,
and maybe two, in the national
rankings. The third-ranked
Nebraska Cornhuskers, the team the
Wolverines beat 27-23 in the 1986
Sunkist Fiesta Bowl, lost 20-10 to
Colorado Saturday. Michigan
should replace Nebraska at No. 3.
" Bo Schembechler has never lost
to Indiana in his 18 season at
Michigan. Saturday's win upped
his. record to 15-0 against the
Hoosiers.
" Jim Harbaugh's 16-24 passing
performance against Indiana marks
only the second time a Wolverine
Banter
28 games ago. Meanwhile, since
this season began, Michigan has
outscored opponents 158-15 in that
quarter.
- Indiana basketball coach Bob
Knight was on hand in the press
box during the game and no, he
hasn't changed a bit. He threw a
cup filled with ice (no empty
chairs were available) at one of his
not-so-favorite local reporters. The
air was blue, no pun intended.
Surprisingly, nobody seemed to
notice the incident.
Big Ten Standings