The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 24, 1990 - Page 15 FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK- p fM e a S 'Mo's first victory gets him game ball by Mike Gill and Eric Lemont Daily Football Writers Last week, Gary Moeller's eyes were a little misty due to the tough loss his team had just experienced. After Saturday's game, they were misty again, but in celebration of his first win as Michigan coach. The team presented its coach with the game ball. "He almost got teary eyed on us," offensive lineman Greg Skrepenak. "It was a great thing for me to end with a legend and try to start one up. Hopefully, we'll get coach Moeller another one of those game balls." Moeller only won six games in three years as Illinois coach in the late 1970's. Now, Moeller is faced with living in the shadow of Bo Schembechler. "It really hit me hard because I really wanted this game for him," Jon Vaughn said about the team presenting the ball to Moeller. "I thought we should.have won against Notre Dame and he's under a lot of pressure with people asking 'can he replace Bo.' It was really important to win and in front of our home fans, it's special." Vaughn said Moeller kissed the ball and said, "This is great." Does it feel better to have the monkey off one's back? "That was important," Moeller said. "It feels a little better, a load off my shoulder. It's a great feeling and the kids gave me the game ball. That's a great feeling." Special team blues: Last Monday, Moeller fretted about how his team lost to Notre Dame despite beating them in the special teams, an aspect on which Moeller placed strong emphasis. This week's special team's performance was nothing of note. "What did we do, kickoff seven or eight times to start the second half," Moeller joked. J.D. Carlson kicked off four times to start the second half. The first three went out-of-bounds. In the second quarter, another kickoff took two chances to find perfection. In addition, Carlson missed a 57-yard attempt on a field goal due to a muffed hold. Carlson's boot never saw air, staying on the ground the entire time. Eddie Azcona had a longpunt of 47 yards, and averaged 37.5 yards per kick. SOUR GRAPES?: UCLA coach Terry Donahue felt his team was the victim of some biased officiating. He was especially irate at a holding call against UCLA late in the game when the Bruins were inside Michigan's 10 yard line. Lance Dottin intercepted UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox's pass on the next play. "I think Michigan was the superior team. Period. New sentence. But I thought that holding call was inappropriate. It was an all Big Ten crew and that holding call with 4 minutes left, (actually 11 minutes were left) that was bullcrap. It was a lousy call." MEGA-YARDAGE: Michigan's offense gained 595 yards of total offense. The last time the Wolverines amassed more than 500 yards was on November 18, 1989, when they gained 522 yards against Minnesota. The last time a Michigan team gained at least 600 yards of offense was Oct. 1, 1988 when the Wolverines devoured the Badgers for 628 yards at Wisconsin. The Wolverines and Bruins combined for 992 yards of total offense. (595 for Michigan and 397 for UCLA). It is second, in total yardage in a Michigan game, only to the 1139 yards generated in a 1981 battle against Illinois. Michigan won that game, 70-21. SIMPLY SENSATIONAL How can I make this review sound as though I was not paid off by the band and pledge hundreds of dollars to PBS in their name? Simply put, Saturday's performance was the best I have ever seen the Michigan Marching Band in the last four years. No, they didn't high step much during their halftime show, but hey, for the selection and choreography they put on the field, who's going to complain? More in the future would be nice though. Start with the Sousa march. That's what bands are supposed to play. The salute to various 'M' coaches was good. Then comes the real good stuff. The band played tribute to football legend Tom Harmon, who passed away earlier this year, with the song "Mr. Touchdown." Great idea. But then, to top it off, the band writes "01 98." Simply sensational. Good enough right? Time to come off the field. Gary Lewis then brings down the house by playing the theme to Patton and the band salutes Bo Schembechler by writing his name, in an intriguing style. But not to become saddled with the past, they switch the 'B' to a 'M' and welcome new coach Gary Moeller. Not bad, even by Bo's standards. Super job. Another plus was the band did not play the fight song in the stands so many times that it became annoying. In past years, they played it seemingly every time Michigan got a first down. This year, it was used in moderation. A welcome improvement. As a post script, while speaking of bands, keep an eye out for The Attic, which played at a post game gig at -Sigma Phi Epsilon. Their keyboard player, Jeff Hoekman is going places. Never seen such talent on the boards in Ann Arbor before. As far as bands go though, Jerry and the Juveniles is still tops. American Pie lives. And the Michigan Marching Band has looked better than it has in a long time. -MIKE GIL L SECRET TO SUCCESS RUSHING Player ATT YDS AVG. TD LNG Alexander 1 7 7.0 0 7 Powers 6 29 4.8 0 15 Grbac 2 6 3.0 0 3 Vaughn 32 288 9.0 3 63 Jefferson 6 28 4.7 1 11 Bunch 13 76 5.8 0 20 Legette 6 22 3.7 1 6 PASSING Player ATT COM INT YDS LNG Sollom 2 1 0 19 19 Grbac 15 9 1 120 55 Outside linebacker Martin Davis chrges UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox in Saturday's 38-15 Wolverine victory. Interceptions give first aid to 'M D' by Ryan Schreiber Daily Football Writer Two pivotal plays in Michigan's 38-15 win over UCLA on Saturday were overshadowed by the performance of tailback Jon Vaughn. Linebacker Erick Anderson and cornerback Lance Dottin each snared passes from UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox, snuffing out two Bruin drives that could have cut the Wolverine lead to less than a touchdown. In the third quarter, UCLA attempted to capitalize on an Elvis Grbac fumble, starting at the 50 yard line. After reaching the Michigan eight, a holding call bumped the Bruins back to second and 16, and into a definite passing situation. "I saw the receiver coming across and then there was another receiver doing a different route, so I had to play back," said Dottin. "But then when the ball was thrown, I broke up on the ball and Tripp (Welborne) tipped it and I went down just to grab the ball." Dottin snagged the errant pass, returning the ball to Michigan at its own two yard line, but, more importantly, ending the UCLA chance to chip into the slim halftime lead. "We got to stop them when we were up by only 13 points and if they would have scored they probably would have gone for two," Dottin said. "I think it was a good momentum change even though our offense had the ball down inside our own five. We got the stop and our offense got to go back on the field and they started to rev it up." On the second play of the fourth quarter, UCLA slipped into a no-back offense, with both running backs moving into the tight end positions. According to Anderson, the move only made things easier to read for the Wolverine defense. "It just told us that it was going to be a pass," Anderson said. "When they released, it was easy to get back faster, and it was easy to read his eyes." With UCLA driving to the Michigan 28 yard line, Anderson's interception loomed too large for the Bruins to recounter with only 14:44 remaining in the contest. "It was tough because my receiver released also, but I saw (Maddox) looking front side and I started drifting over," Anderson said. "He pumped, which stopped John (Milligan) and I for a second, and then Hutch (Chris Hutchinson) drove his tackle into the quarterback as he was throwing the ball." Final: 'M' 38 UCLA 15 m IL