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Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 11, 1986
Bo's
top concern: ditch
the Gophers
By MARK BOROWSKY
Despite the numerous
distractions this week, Bo
Schembechler keeps his thoughts
singular. Becoming the winningest
coach in Michigan history, looking
ahead to Ohio State, or national
championship aspirations would
concern most coaches, but not
Schembechler.
Minnesota does.
The Michigan head coach will
become the all-time leader in wins
at Michigan with a victory against
the Golden Gophers Saturday, and
the Wolverines, at 9-0, are only one
of three unbeaten and untied teams
in the country. But what seems to
be on Schembechler's mind the
most is the Big Ten race and
beating Minnesota.
HE ISN'T worried that his
team will be caught off-guard for
the Gophers.
"First of all, Minnesota is too
strong," Schembechler said
yesterday at his weekly press
luncheon. "Second of all, it's the
last home game. There's a fairly
large group of seniors bowing out."
Schembechler expressed concern
with Minnesota's strong running
attack, which leads the Big Ten
with 235 yards a game.
"Offensively, they have a great
back like (Darrel) Thompson," he
said. "Their rushing game is strong.
It's the best rushing game in the
league."
WHILE Michigan will have its
hands full trying to stop Thompson
and Gopher quarterback Rickey
Foggie, it will likely have
problems of its own trying tofield
a full offensive line. Guard Dave
Chester, who played against Purdue
on Michigan's injury-plagued
offensive front, was hurt against the
Boilermakers.
He is not likely to play, while
starters Mike Husar and John Elliot
still are not fully recovered from a
knee and neck injury, respectively.
When faced with the prospect of all
three missing the Minnesota game,
Schembechler wasn't thrilled with
the idea.
"We aren't playing that way,"
Schembechler said. "One of those is
playing if I have to carry them out
there."
HIS perspective of a national
championship or a national playoff
doesn't make Schembchler ecstatic,
either. Top-ranked Miami (number
one in both wire-service polls) and
second-ranked Penn State are also 9-
0 and are headed for a possible
showdown in the Fiesta Bowl.
However, Penn State barely got
by an average Maryland squad
Saturday, 17-15, by gift of the
Terps missing two two-point
conversions. There is the
possibility of Michigan moving up
from third to second in this week's
polls, but don't count on it. A
more-likely scenario is Notre Dame
beating the Nittany Lions this
weekend, Michigan beating
Minnesota, and the Wolverines thus
moving up to number two.
Schembechler has never been a
fan of a team being named national
3"61
coach shrugs off
4
milestone, rankings
champion, since, in his estimation,
the Big Ten provides enough
challenges.
"There ain't no way you can be
in the conference and avoid people,"
he said. "Eight times you'll go to
war.Our goal always has been and
always will be the conference
championship."
Blue Banter
"Schembechler apparently is
revelling in Michigan's new image
of throwing the ball. He got a call
from Brigham Young coach LaVell
Edwards in the wake of the
Cougars' 10-3 victory over Hawaii
last week. BYU apparently
abandoned its wide open passing
attack and didn't complete a pass in
the second half. Edwards told
Schembechler, "I just held on to the
ball." Schembechler replied, "I can't
play that way."
-Quarterback Jim Harbaugh set
the Michigan career completions
record last week against Purdue, and
this week he needs only 13 yards to
break his own single season yardage
record of 1976, set last year. He
also only needs 176 yards to pass
Steve Smith as the leading passer
in Michigan history.
-Harbaugh still manages to get
on the bad side of Schembechler.
After Harbaugh scrambled around
and was sacked for a loss of 20
yards, Schembechler told his
quarterback, "I thought we're not
doing that anymore, Jim."
Harbaugh said, "Sorry Bo, I
thought we weren't, either."
-The 184 yards the Michgan
defense allowed Purdue was the
fewest number of yards allowed by
the Wolverines all season. The
game was the third straight that
Michigan has allowed less than 250
yards in total offense and less than
-150 yards passing.
-Michigan continued its
dominance of the third quarter by
shutting out Purdue 7-0 in that
quarter. For the season, Michigan
has outscored its opponents 89-9 in
the third period, and hasn't been
-scored upon in the third quarter
since Michigan State.
-Possesion time has been a
strength this season. Michigan has
held the ball 306:44 to 233:13 this
year, or more than 73 minutes
longer than'the opposition. In other
words, the defense has played a
game-and-a-quarter less than it's
opposition.
I
4
Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
With a win on Saturday against Minnesota, Bo Schembechier would
become the all-time winningest coach in Michigan history, breaking
Fielding Yost's record of 165.
GRIDDE PICKS
In Griddes last week, everyone
was hurt by the Michigan State and
Iowa losses, and most were hurt by
the Alabama and UCLA losses.
Bill Kopas won with the poorest
winning record of the season, 16-4
- good enough to win a pizza, but
not good enough to get him into
our new Hall of Fame.
New inductees into, the Griddes
Hall of Fame include:
John Hoffman: After weeks
of sitting idly by watching his
classmates play Griddes, Hoffman
decided that the new Hall of Fame
was incentive enough to play for
the first time. Hoffman said his
friends in class averaged about 16-4.
Too bad he only went 13-7.
Mr. Rene Bergero: Seems
we misidentified Bergero's gender
last week. Our apologies.
Turn in your picks by midnight
Friday to win a free pizza from
Pizza Bob's.
1. Minnesota at MICHIGAN
(pick total pdints)
2. Michigan State at
Northwestern
3. Illinois at Indiana
4. Purdue at Iowa
5. Ohio State at Wisconsin
6. Penn State at Notre Dame
7. Rutgers at Pitt
8. Syracuse at Boston
College
9. Clemson vs. Maryland at
Baltimore
10. Virginia at North
Carolina
11. Georgia at Auburn
12. LSU vs. Mississippi
State at Jackson
13. Kansas State at Iowa
State
14. SMU at Texas Tech
15. Oklahoma at Colorado
16. UCLA at Washington
17. California at USC
18. Oregon State at Brigham
Young
19. Michigan Tech vs.
Northern State, S.D. at
Minneapolis
20. Fogged in at DAILY
LIBELS q
'' Spikers
drop pair
(Continued from Page 7)
errored ourselves out of this
weekend," she said. "We lacked
execution and mental toughness.
We didn't control our side of the
net."
Some of their misfortune can be
attributed to inexperience. The
team includes eight freshmen and at
least three are on the court at one
time.
"Some of our players are not
used to this level of play and they'll
have to get used to it," said Davis.
"But we have some very gifted
athletes who will get better with
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