Volleyball at Rice-Baden Showcase Tournament Friday and Saturday Houston The MichiganDaily SPORTS Tuesday, September 10, 1991 Football vs. Notre Dame Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Michigan Stadium Page 10 Moeller hopes warmup game will help Blue stop losing streak: 'M' counting on improvement I by Matt Rennie Daily Football Writer Frustration, both past and pre- sent, was the theme at yesterday's Michigan football press luncheon. It started with offensive guard Matt Elliott talking about leaving his home in Indiana to come to Michigan and then losing to Notre Dame for four straight years. It continued with Lance Dottin remembering playing on the kickoff coverage team that allowed Raghib Ismail consecutive touchdown re- turns in the Wolverines' 24-19 loss to the Fighting Irish. Wolverine coach Gary Moeller had to grope for excuses to crack a smile. "I only have two reasons to feel good today," Moeller said. "No. 1: I'm alive; No. 2: I'm 1-0. Other than that, there's not much else. --Obviously we didn't have the kind of game I wanted on Saturday." However, despite the Wolver- ines' lackluster performance in their 3513 victory over Boston College, they did have a chance to work out some of the bugs before their annual clash with Notre Dame this Satur- day "The greatest improvement in a team is between the first and second games of the season," Moeller said. While the warm-up game with Boston College may improve the Wolverines' chances against the Fighting Irish, the victory may have been taken for granted by Michigan. 'You would think that game would help," Elliott said, "but it always made two-a-days go by a lot quicker knowing Notre Dame was there." However, no one would like to see a change in the result of the Notre Dame game more than El- liott. The fifth-year senior has suf- fered through each loss on Michi- gan's current four-game skid against the Irish. "I think the fifth-year seniors feel this is our last shot," Elliott said. "It's something we haven't done yet. It's really frustrating." More frustrating for Moeller was watching his team struggle against the same team that lost its season opener to Rutgers. Boston College quarterback Glenn Foley, 9 for 29 against Rutgers, picked apart the Wolverines, throwing for 280 yards on 22 for 47 passing. While the popular excuse for this porous defense was Michigan's young sec- ondary, Moeller felt that the prob- lem was more widespread. . "We have got to get pressure on the passer," he said. "If you look at their touchdown, (Foley) had a lot of time to throw the ball." The Eagles' only touchdown came the play after Wolverine cor- nerback Dottin had his interception called back because Michigan was offsides. "That touchdown pass was in an area I would have expected (Dottin) to cover," Moeller said. "But after that long return (on the intercep- tion), he was probably worn out." The Wolverines need to remedy some problems on the other side of the ball also. The highly-touted of- fensive line failed to dominate the Eagles as anticipated, particularly early in the game when BC stopped tailback Ricky Powers on consecu- tive third and fourth down plays. "We weren't communicating with one another," Elliott said. "On that first-down stand, I missed my assignment because I couldn't hear what was going on. We just lost our concentration." EXCLUSIVE COMPANY: Dot- tin's interception return for a touchdown capped the scoring for the Wolverines and made Dottin only the second player in Michigan history to return two interceptions for scores. Howard's three touchdown out- put was also a rare Wolverine feat. Ron Kramer pulled it off first in 1955 against Missouri, and Greg McMurtry did it again against Minnesota in 1989. INJURY UPDATE: Wide re- ceiver Derrick Alexander under- went further examination yesterday for the knee injury he suffered in the third quarter against Boston Col- lege. Moeller said Alexander's sta- tus is day-to-day. Moeller said middle guard Buster Stanley (ankle), tight end Dave Diebolt (toe), and defensive tackle Mike Evans (ankle) were all bothered by nagging injuries throughout the BC game. PUNTING ROTATION: After Moeller alternated the punting du- ties between Eddie Azcona and Chris Stapleton, Azcona appeared to have the edge, with a 48.7 to 30.5 edge in yards per punt. However, Moeller said he would continue with the current rotating system. I MICHIGAN, ,M . ~ i , -1 Howard's return earns him national attention from staff reports Desmond Howard, a junior wide, receiver for the University of Michigan, has been named as a win- ner of Touchdown Illustrated's AT&T Long Distance Award, a weekly program that recognizes the nation's best "long distance" play- ers with up to $40,000 in scholar- ship donations. Howard registered a 93-yard kickoff return, college football's longest kick return this week, earn- ing a scholarship donation in his name to Michigan's general scholar- ship fund. This new award, introduced in conjunction with Touchdown Illus- trated, the official gameday maga- zine for over 185 colleges and uni- versities across the country, salutes Division 1-A's best long distance players in six key offensive cate- gories. Each week, AT&T will rec- ognize the college football players that register the week's longest pass play, longest run, longest punt re- turn, longest kickoff return, longest punts, and longest field goal. AT&T contributes $400 in their name to their school's general scholarship; fund. At the close of the season, the players with best yards per game av- erage in passing, receiving, and rush-,: ing, as well as the statistical leaders in punt returns, kickoff returns, and:: punting will be named the 1991i O AT&T Long Distance Players of th* Year. Each winner will be awarded ak trophy, along with a $1,000 scholar- ship donation by AT&T to their re- " spective schools. Howard, a native of Clevelandy, returned the opening kickoff of thei second half 93 yards for a touch,. down as Michigan downed Boston College, 35-13. An honorable men-' tion all-America last season Howard led Michigan with a school-record 504 yards in kickoff' returns. In honor of the Long Dis. tance prowess, AT&T will make a. $400 donation to Michigan's gen- eral scholarship fund in Howard's,- name. . Tennessee figured prominently, among other winners this week, with wide receiver Carl Pickens capturing two honors. Cornerback Lance Dottin returns an interception for a touchdown against Boston College. Dottin's TD return was the second of his career. Field hockey takes two in East coast swing by Ryan Herrington Daily Sports Writer -Michigan athletics had a busy weekend in the New England area. While the Wolverine football team opened its season at Boston College, the field hockey team commenced its 1991 campaign at Springfield College in Massachusetts with vic- tories over BC and Springfield be- fore being defeated by New Hamp- shire. In the season opener Saturday, Michigan (12-7-2 last year) relied on a trio of sophomores in its 3-0 shutout of the Eagles (4-15). Twin sisters Kalli and Lelli Hose each scored goals against an inexperi- enced BC squad trying to improve upon a disappointing 1990 season. Forwar'd Shey Perry finished the scoring with her first goal as a Wolverine. Michigan's winning ways con- tinued when it posted a 3-1 victory over host Springfield on Sunday. The Maroons (16-5-2) entered the game with a 13-game home unbeaten streak. However, they were stymied by Wolverine goalkeeper Nicole Hoover. Hoover, a sophomore, re- jected 11 of 12 Springfield shots. Junior defender Keely Libby scored twice for Michigan, including the game winner. Yesterday, Michigan's dreams of a sweep vanished as they succumbed to a strong New Hampshire team, 6- Becca Provost lead the Wildcats, who were ranked 15th in last year's final NCAA coaches poll. She scored three goals and added an assist as New Hampshire scored twice in a two-minute span in the first half and pulled away with four more unanswered goals in the second. Blue captures Big Ten players-of-week from staff reports Co-captain Erick Anderson and wide receiver Desmond Howard were named Big Ten football play- ers-of-the-week for their perfor- mances in Michigan's season-open- ing 35-13 victory Saturday at Boston College. Howard was named offensive player-of-the-week as he scored four of Michigan's five touchdowns, in- cluding a 93-yard kickoff return to open the second half. Howard tied a school record with three touchdown receptions and became the first Wolverine to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in a career. Howard has two of the four longest TD-returns at Michi- gan with his 95-yarder vs. Michigan State in 1990 and Saturday's 93- yarder. The record is 99 yards set by Dennis Fitzgerald in 1960. "Desmond is a kid who has to have a great year for us and I think he had that on Saturday," head coach Gary Moeller said. 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