I Sports Monday Trivia When was the last time a team scored more than 50 points * against the Wolverines, and what team was it? (For the answer, turn to the bottom of page 2) Inside:SportsMonda 'M'Sports Calendar 2 AP Top 25 Results 2 'M' Athelete of the Week 2 Q&A 3 Sheran My Thoughts 3 Football Coverage 4-5 Cross Country 6 Field Hockey 6 Griddes 7 4fir Ws! The Michinan Da~ily - Snorts Mondav September30, 1991 nw r r 44T - - No. 1 FSU leaves 6 M' Blue Fluid Seminole offense burns Wolverines, 51-31 by Phil Green Daily Football Writer Usually a 40-yard touchdown in- tcrception return will be considered a football game's big play. And when the interception occurs on the second play from scrimmage, every- body remembers it vividly. Espe- cially the winning coach. However, following Florida State's 51-31 victory over Michigan Saturday, Seminole coach Bobby Bowden had difficulty recalling Terrell Buckley's interception off Elvis Grbac's first pass. It's no wonder Bowden was a little confused about that "big play." The battle for No. 1, as it had been billed, had enough turning points to make even the best novel- ist jealous. The first half provided an enire game's worth of excite- ment, as the teams exploded for seven touchdowns in drives that didn't last much longer than the blink of an eye, and J.D. Carlson added a field goal that ricocheted off the cross bar through the up- rights. "It was fun at first," Wolverine tailback Ricky Powers said. "The shoot-out felt good." The Seminoles' second touch- down, a four-yard shovel-pass off a fake field goal, was set up by an ear- lier reception by quarterback Casey Weldon. He originally lateralled the ball to reserve quarterback Charlie Ward, who had lined up as a wide receiver. After looking down- field, Ward fired the ball back across to Weldon for a 29-yard screen. Michigan displayed some fire- power of its own in the opening half. As in his two previous games, split end Desmond Howard ignited the charge, this time with two daz- zling touchdown grabs of 13 and 42 yards. The half ended with Grbac's sec- ond interception of the afternoon, by linebacker Howard Dinkins in the endzone. The Wolverines' in- ability to capitalize from inside the five-yard line foreshadowed what was to come after the intermission. "It really hurt us," Michigan coach Gary Moeller said. "We shouldn't have let it get inter- cepted; we probably should have just thrown it away. But the re- ceiver (Tony McGee), too, has to keep that from happening." In the second half, Florida State took control. The Seminoles proved worthy of their No. 1. ranking, capi- talizing on almost every Wolverine miscue. "We took momentum, they took it back, then we took it back and never lost it," Bowden said. See SEMINOLES, Page 5 Florida State fullback Edgar Bennett (22) wards off Michigan lineman Erick Anderson as he plows through the Wolverine defense. Michigan gets death penalty for poor execution "Hey, I want to talk to all of you," Florida State defensive lineman James Chaney shouted to the media standing behind the Seminole bench waiting for the clock to run out. "I am the starting noseguard, and guess what? I'm still standing. "I was not big enough Theodore before the game, but I'm big Cox enough now," he boasted. Three feet away from him, quarterback Casey Weldon pulled a piece of embedded sod from his helmet, held it up to the cameras and said: "This is going back to Tallahassee." True to the predictions,> Michigan used its power to apply numerous licks to the ll Seminoles. Weldon ate the £ . - turf all afternoon. Yet hit after hit, he and his teammates kept popping back up. And while the Wolverines were busy nailing people into the ground, the Seminoles worried more about execution. It seemed every time a Wolverine defender was about to nail Weldon for a sack, he would throw a screen to an area of the field devoid of defenders. Amp Lee, for instance, would then turn a short catch into a huge gain. "The most alarming part was our fundamen- tals," Michigan linebacker Erick Anderson said. "We didn't tackle very well, and we gave up some big plays." The two biggest plays came on Florida State's first drive of the game. On first down in Michigan territory, the Seminoles ran something coach Bobby Bowdon called the 'crocodile' play. Weldon dropped back to throw and lateralled the ball across field to Charlie Ward, who then threw back to Weldon. At the same time, the entire offensive line positioned itself in front of Weldon, enabling the quarterback to run for 29 yards. That set up a touchdown on a fake field goal. "Trick plays," you think, "that's why they scored." But the Wolverines know better. Trick plays only work if you can execute properly. "When your base stuff is working, then the trick plays become even more effective," Moeller said. "We weren't just going to sit back and try to stop trick plays," Anderson said. "They may hurt you on a trick play, but a trick play isn't going to win the game." Florida State didn't need to run the trick plays. When Lee can break outside, cut back past Anderson, and outrun defenders for a 44-yard touchdown, why get fancy? "I don't understand how we let Lee run around the end like that," Moeller said. "You've got to keep him bottled up." Admittedly, the Seminoles had much more speed than Michigan. But that shouldn't prevent the Wolverines from containing receivers and running backs, who racked up 460 yards. And the yardage came easy. Just look at how much time the Seminoles' scoring drives took: 2:29, 1:01, :53, 2:12, 1:45, and finally 4:29. The only reason the last drive took over four minutes was that Florida State was killing the clock. See COX, Page 8 Michigan split end Desmond Howard watches an Elvis Grbac pass sail over his head in the Wolverine endzone. Honeymoon's over; Gophers spike 'M' by Josh Dubow Daily Hockey WriterA ,-% z- by Ken Davidoff Daily Sports Writer Since the dawn of time, histori- cal tragic figures like Napoleon, Gerry Cooney, and the Reverend Jim Bakker have proven that it's often best to quit while you're ahead. The Michigan women's volley- ball team felt this way after being swept by Minnesota yesterday, 15-7, 15-13 and 15-3, to fall to 1-1 for the weekend. The Wolverines (1-1 in the Big Ten, 9-3 overall) swept Iowa 15-7, 15-8 and 15-1 Friday night. "The kids are taking it pretty tough," Wolverine coach Peggy Bradley-Doppes said. "I was disap- pointed with the overall execution today. We need to be focused every game." Bradley-Doppes knew her play- ers would need an impressive offen- sive effort against the Golden Go- phers; they couldn't come through against the intimidating Minnesota defense. They compiled 32 kills to Minnesota's 52, and the Gophers' 47 Whatever you do, always keep your head r The silver lining from the cloud that loomed over Minneapolis was the Wolverines' solid effort against Iowa. Fiona Davidson's 10 kills and Tarnisha Thompson's 31 assists paved the way for an easy victory. "We played with reckless aban- don," Bradley-Doppes said. "We were tentative for the first 10 min- utes, but then we started with good transitional play. We played our style of volleyball." Michigan's .524 hitting percent- age vs. the Hawkeyes set a team record for both overall and confer- ence play. It was the seventh-best single-game performance ever in a Big Ten match. In comparison to last year's per- formance, the Wolverines have ex- celled. They didn't win their first Big Ten match until November, winning two Big Ten contests the entire season. Yet Bradley-Doppes said she and her players were not satisfied with the weekend's out- UP. Anton Fiodorov's hockey coach told him this when he played in the Soviet Union. Though he now plays in the United States, Fiodorov still heeds it, both on and off the ice. Fiodorov is a 19-year-old first-year student from St. Petersburg and a member of the Michigan hockey team. Since June, Fiodorov has faced and overcome adversity. His knowledge of the English language has grown from "four or five words" to an ability to understand most of his classes and have conversations with anyone he encounters. Back in February, Fiodorov's Soviet squad - the USSR Junior Red Army team, based in, as he calls his hometown, Leningrad - came to play against Ann Arbor's Pioneer and Huron high schools as part of an American tour. Each Soviet player was placed in the home of an American counterpart; Fiodorov stayed the week with the Wilkins family. Tom Wilkins, a senior hockey captain at Pioneer, became friends with Fiodorov instantly. brin( taler to America the first one on our list." It was not difficult for Berenson to n Fio d r lro v convince Fiodorov to come to Michigan. "I was very excited to get the chance to gh ocke vstudy here," Fiodorov said. "American education is the best education, and Michigan 1 / is a very prestigious school. When Coach TS tO Berenson said, 'You can play and study here,' that was important to me, because I am a student. Now I have one problem, and that is English." Fiodorov overcame his language difficulties while spending the summer with the Wilkins family. He studied English for eight hours a day. But before he could come to Michigan, Fiodorov had to take either the SAT or ACT, or receive a waiver from the NCAA exempting him from the tests. However, Berenson knew there would be no difficulties in receiving the waiver. "If the test isn't offered where the student is, it is not fair to make him take it," Berenson said. "It was a pretty clear-cut decision." But once Fiodorov arrived at Michigan, he realized that there was a major difference 3\ ~between the emphasis on academics here and in the Soviet Union. When I wa's on junior team, our coaches did not care about study," Fiodorov said. : I