Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - November 6, 1989
Scrambled legs
Hunter steamrolls Blue
defense in record effort
by Steve Blonder
Daily Football Writer
At 12:59 p.m. Saturday, Eric Hunter was not a household name. But a
few hours later, the Purdue frosh had made believers of many of the 105,128
inside Michigan Stadium.
All Hunter did was become the first quarterback in Michigan football
history to hit four touchdown passes against the Wolverine defense. Hunter
also completed 27-42 passes for 344 yards.
But what people will remember is Hunter scrambling around in order to
buy extra time.
"I think he's wild. He's quite an athlete," Michigan coach Bo
Schembechler said. "He's unconventional and he dances around. And when
he does, more often than not, something good happens."
More than a few good things have happened since Hunter assumed his
position under center. He led the Boilermakers to three touchdowns in the
last six minutes of Purdue's 28-21 loss to Michigan State, and four more
Saturday.
"They hadn't been able to score until they put this guy in there and
turned him loose," Schembechler said. "Now they've scored seven
touchdowns.
"He's got a good arm. He's got a gun."
Purdue coach Fred Akers likes what he has seen so far from his frosh.
"He might be beginning to serve notice that he is a potential star," Akers
said. "There is no way we could have predicted what he has done so far. He
has executed excellently and has shown great field vision."
Michigan defensive back Tripp Welborne, who spent part of his
afternoon chasing Hunter around the field, was impressed with Hunter.
"He's going to be a great quarterback, he made some big plays on us,'
Welborne said.
Linebacker Erick Anderson added that Hunter's scrambling caused the
Michigan defenders to "focus on him and lose sight.of where their receivers
were."
Hunter's scrambling caused Michigan's defensive line to miss several
sacks. But Hunter was non-committal about whether he prefers to scramble
or stay in the pocket.
"Personally, it doesn't matter to me," he said. "But today I didn't have to
scramble that much."
Tell that to the Michigan defenders.
The Michigan defensive unit celebrates after tackling Purdue running back Earl Coleman. Purdue had only 45 yards on the ground. The Michigan
defense held its opponents to less than 100 yards rushing for the past six games.
FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
by Steve Blonder and Richard Eisen
Daily Football Writers
Tony Boles' kick-off return for a touchdown was the first return for a
touchdown by a Wolverine since Gil Chapman brought one back in 1972
against Illinois.
- For the sixth straight game, the Wolverines held their opponent to less
thank100 yards rushing.
- Michigan's 42 points marked their highest output for the season, while
the 27 points they gave up was also a season high.
- Purdue has not won at Michigan Stadium since 1966, and the
Wolverines now lead the series 29-10.
- Representatives from the Orange, Citrus and Hall of Fame bowls were
in attendance Saturday. ,
- Safety Vada Murray now leads the team with four interceptions, and
tackle Mike Evans, who suffered a slightly sprained ankle, upped his team-
leading sack total to six. The Wolverines now have 33 sacks for the season.
- The Boilermakers' two blocked punts marked the sixth time this year
Michigan has had a kick blocked.
" Senior flanker Greg McMurtry has now caught a pass in his last six
games, and 16 of his last 17.
" With Saturday's victory, Michigan coach Bo Schembechler has now
moved to within seven victories of former mentor Woody Hayes, who ranks
fourth on the all-time win list with 238 career victories. Schembechler's Big
Ten record is now 140-24-3.
- Schembechler discussing his "conference" with the officials late in the
fourth quarter after they called the Wolverines for illegal procedure: "You
guys all say you should be nice and say nice things about them, and all
that.. What the hell?... That was the dumbest call I think I've ever seen.
"I told him exactly what I thought. I don't have any reservations about
that."
- Schembechler on Taylor's foot injury: "He hurt his foot. I can't tell
you anything more than that. It's not an ankle, not a knee, it 's a foot. I
don't know what that entails."
" Linebacker J.J. Grant, injured during the end of the Michigan State
game, is expected to begin practicing this week and should be ready for
Illinois.
BLONDER
continued from page 1
"I apologize Fielding."
For what Bo?
Perhaps allowing a frosh quarterback to run around as
if scrambling was the object of the game.
Or maybe watching the Michigan offense being
unable to sustain long drives, running up most of their
45 points on big plays and quick strikes.
Better yet, the kicking game. It's not always that a
Michigan punter has two kicks blocked in one game, and
three in his last two.
Bo certainly couldn't be referring to throwing his
headset and haranguing the officials because those remain
ingredients of the Michigan tradition.
Schembechler adeptly summed up his thoughts after
the game.
"We did not do a good job on offense, we did not do a
good job on defense, and we did not do a good job on the
kicking game... The best thing about that game is it's
over."
But win number 700 should not be something you,
try and forget. Earlier in the week, Schembechler said
the victory total "just points to the great winning
tradition of Michigan football."
Most Michigan players were unaware of the victory
plateau, and were somewhat downtrodden when told of
the milestone.
"I had no idea. That's a great accomplishment," said
inside linebacker Erick Anderson. "It's too bad it had to
happen in a game like this with a lot of breakdowns."
Defensive back Tripp Welborne, who broke tradition
and became the first North Carolina native to dona
Wolverine uniform, looked at the situation somewhat
differently.
"Tradition was. We have to live for the present,"
Welborne said. "A 700th win has to come on a win.
When we look back on it, we won."
But looking back should show more than a "W." We
already had 699 other ones.
DA~VDLUBILIINER
Purdue left defensive end Frank Kmet tries to block Eivis Grbac's fourth quarter pass.
Grbac completed 5 of 10 passes for 67 yards and one TD after replacing Michael Taylor in
the third quarter.
Big Ten
Standi ngs
Minnesota 24, Wisconsin 22
MINNEAPOLIS - Gopher
tailback Darrell Thompson broke
his team's record for most career
points with a 1-yard touchdown
run, giving him 256 total points,
two more than kicker Chip
Lohmiller tallied from 1984-87.
Thompson rushed for 143 yards on
32 carries to help Minnesota (5-3
overall, 3-2 in the Big Ten) turn
back a Wisconsin (2-6, 1-4) rally.
The comeback was finally thwarted
when defensive back Ron Goetz
returned an errant Badger pass 73
yards for the final score.
Illinois 31, Iowa 7
IOWA CITY - Illinois
quarterback Jeff George completed
28 of 44 passes for 302 yards, and
running back Wagner Lester rushed
for two touchdowns as Illinois (7-1,
5-0) remained tied with Michigan
atop the Big Ten. George drove
Illinois 95 yards for its first score, a
Howard Griffith 1-yard touchdown
run.
However, it was Spartan
tailback Blake Ezor who racked up
203 yards on 29 carries and four
touchdowns to lead Michigan State
(4-4, 3-2) past Indiana. The
Hoosiers (4-4, 2-3), who fell
behind, 45-13 by the end of the
third quarter, handed the ball to
Thompson 28 times, but he could
muster only 82 yards.
Ezor recorded the Spartan's
longest run from scrimmage, a 79
yard touchdown gallop in the
second quarter, since 1973.
Quarterback Dan Enos completed
12 of 15 attempts for 205 yards and
two touchdowns. He also rushed for
a score.
Ohio State 52, Northwestern 27
EVANSTON - First-year
tailback Dante Lee rushed for 157
yards and three touchdowns, and
teammates Scottie Graham (102)
and Carlos Snow (100) also notched
100 ground yards or more to
become Ohio State's first trio to
each reach that mark in the same
rtm nrnn 1 1'*7A . __. T.. W V
I C'iII L
Illinois
Michigan
Ohio St.
Minnesota
Michigan St.
Indiana
Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Purdue
5
5
4
3
3
2
2
1
0
0
0
1
2
2
3
3
4
5
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
FOOTBALL
continued from page 1
started to collapse, he just went outside."
Despite all his waterbug-like manuevers, Hunter
couldn't save his team from losing to Michigan, 42-27.
But Hunter did make a boring game quite interesting as
well as making the Michigan record books; Hunter
became the first quarterback to ever throw four
touchdown passes against the Wolverines.
"Wild game, wasn't it? Not a whole lot I can say
but, wild game," Schembechler said.
Even though Hunter did make Schembechler
speechless at that moment, the fifth winningest coach
of all time did find some words to assess his team's
performance against the Big Ten's worst.
"We didn't do a good job offensively, we didn't do a
good job defensively, we didn't do a good job on the
kicking game," Schembechler said. "And, so, there's the
game."
Well.
Expecting a scrambling quarterback to run all over
the place, the Michigan defense became susceptible to
the run. And right off the bat, Hunter handed the ball off
successfully to his runners Jerome Sparkman and Tony
Vinson.
"The thing that they do with their offense is spread
you out and make the fullback a threat," Michigan
defensive coordinator Llyod Carr said. "We did not want
to let them start to run the ball on us with draws. To
me it's not yardage that we gave up, what we're not
happy with is the (number of) points."
Most of these Purdue points came long after
everyone left the freezing Michigan Stadium. After
-- ._
as he scrambled around every inch of the Stadium. Afte.
completing a 37-yard quick pass to Robert Oglesby, 4
senior from Detroit, Hunter took a snap from the
Michigan three-yard line.
Hunter faded back and immediately began to run
around with reckless abandon, determined defenders in
tow. He then changed direction and scrambled backwards
even further. Earlier in the game, in the same position,
Hunter fumbled. This time, however, he found Cal
Williams open in the end zone to bring his team closer,
42-21.
"He's a lot like a Randall Cunningham," Michigan
cornerback Lance Dottin said. "I think he is going to be
a good quarterback. As a matter of fact, I think he is
going to be a great quarterback in a couple of years.
Today, he did a lot of things that caught us off-guard."
Hunter added another touchdown pass to his stat
sheet before the game ended, something that both
worried and angered Michigan players.
"We shouldn't have let them come back like that,"
safety Vada Murray said. "It was something like Miami
(last year). We are an experienced ball club and we
shouldn't have let that happen."
"(Bo) was angry," said linebacker Alex Marshall.
"Because we didn't play well offensively and
defensively, not as well as we wanted to play. We have
to just comeback and work that much harder to get ready
for Illinois."
For the second straight week, the offensive bright
spot for Michigan was tailback Tony Boles. On
Michigan's first possession, Boles seemed possessed,
running for a 21-yard gain and a 39-yard touchdown
scamner to o-ive Michig-n the lead-
Saturday's games:
Michigan at Illinois
Northwestern at Purdue
Minnesota at Michigan St.
Iowa at Ohio St.
Indiana at Wisconsin
Last Saturday's results:
Michigan 42, Purdue 27
Minnesota 24, Wisconsin 22
Illinois 31, Iowa 7
Michigan St. 51, Indiana 20
Ohio St. 52, Northwestern 27
Games of November 18:
Michigan at Minnesota