4 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. 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