Page 6 - The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - October 12, 1992 I C H I G A N 3 5 'C, Rushing Player Att Yds Avg La Wheatley 28 172 6.1 23 Johnson 17 72 4.2 13 Smith 1 26 26.0 26 Legette 4 16 4.0 6 Fdster 2 11 5.5 6 Alexander 2 5 2.5 5 Davis 1 2 2.0 2 Grbac 1 -10 -10.0 0 Total 56 294 5.2 26 Passing Player C-A Yds TD Int Grbac 11-19 111 0 2 Receiving Player No Yds Avg TD Alexander 2 34 17.0 0 McGee 2 25 12.5 0 Smith 2 16 8.0 0 Wheatley 2 9 4.5 0 Malveaux 1 20 20.0 0 Toomer 1 6 6.0 0 Legette 1 1 1.0 0 Totals 11 111 10.0 0 Punting Player No Yds Ava La Stapleton 3 119 39.7 42 Punt Returns Player No Yds Avg La Alexander 4 108 27.0 80 Tempers flare in battle for state supremacy by Jeni Durst Daily Football Writer There was a lot of trash talking, dirty tricks, pushing, shoving, and a few fights going on Saturday. And in the middle of it all, they played a football game. The matchup between Michigan and Michigan State erupted into a war of words, some skirmishes and cheap shots, and a lot of bumping and grinding, The Spartans showed some atti- tude early as they chased the Wol- verines onto the field and knocked down the traditional "'M' Go Blue" sign. From there it was all downhill. "We hate each other's guts," Michigan quarterback Elvis Grbac said. "We just wanted to go out there and beat each other up." The actual beating didn't begin until the second half, but plenty of repartee, among other things, went on long before the clashing turned physical. "There was a lot more (talking) going on than usual, but it's almost expected in this game," Michigan center Steve Everitt said. "After the first quarter, their talking was getting old so we started talking back, which we probably shouldn't'have. But all you had to say was 'Central Michi- gan' and it shut them up for a few minutes." Michigan State players seemed to take offense to some of the Wolveri- nes' comments and turned to other methods of harrassment, according to the Michigan team, Early in the second quarter, Michigan found it- self inches from the goal line on first down, and a Wolverine went off- sides. A five-yard illegal procedure penalty was issued and Michigan found itself at second-and-six. According to the Wolverine squad, someone on State's side of the line had called Michigan's ca- dence, causing the player to jump early. "That shouldn't be part of the game," Michigan wide receiver Der- rick Alexander said. "(Calling the cadence) was a cheap trick. I mean it worked, but it was cheap." Talking and tricks culminated into physical confrontation in the second half, starting with subtle pushing and bumping. "A couple of (State) guys were pinching me and (offensive tackle Doug) Skene said guys were trying to poke his eyes out," Everitt said. Yet tempers didn't explode into a major skirmish until early in the fourth quarter. Following a Grbac incompletion into the end zone for Alexander, the Wolverines and the Spartans came to blows on the goal line. From the bottom of the pile ap- peared Michigan tight end Tony McGee. "I was getting grabbed by the face mask and I tried to get loose," McGee said. "Then I was on the ground surrounded by white jerseys. My instincts took over and I went after (State outside linebacker Matt Christensen) ... It was an emotional contest; things like that happen. Unfortunately it happened today and unfortunately I had to be involved." At first, Michigan received one personal foul and one ejection for McGee, while State recorded one personal foul call following the clash. McGee's suspension was changed to only a personal foul a few minutes later after Michigan coach Gary Moeller had a few words with the officials. On the next play, Grbac at: tempted to connect with wide re ceiver Amani Toomer, but the pass fell into the hands of Spartan corner- back Myron Bell. Bell was forced out of bounds at the Michigan side- line and some shoving commenced once again. That was all it took for the Wolverine fans to get involved. Chants of "State sucks" and "CMU" echoed through the stadium while trash began to litter the Michigan end zone. "In a big game like this, you have a lot of pushing and shoving on ei- ther side and a lot of emotion on ei- ther side," Michigan running back Tyrone Wheatley said. "If you get those emotions clashing, they're going to flare." The remainder of the contest seemed to pass without conflict until the final horn when all of the players took advantage of their last chance to get their thoughts and feelings about the oppostion out in the open. But the teams were hurried into the tunnel before major scuffles came about.' "I was surprised (with the fight- ing)," Moeller said. "I don't ever ex- pect our team to act like that. WheW something happens you can't retaW ate, because that hurts the team.:'I' never like to see a team wrestling' out there like they're going to fight."' I(ickoff Returns Player No Yds Ava La C.: Foster 1 -2 -2.0 0 Defense PI yer Tac Ast Tot WpIker 9 3 12 Mprrison 5 5 10 Brown 5 1 6 Hptchinson 5 0 5 Wallace 5 0 5 Burch 4 1 5 Dyson 3 1 4 Henderson 2 2 4 Ware 3 0 3 D Johnson 2 0 2 Law 2 0 2 Aghakhan 1 0 1 Elaiot 1 0 1 Hpldren 1 0 1 Peoples 1 0 1- B: Powers 1 0 1 Zenkewicz 1 0 1 Blankenship 0 1 1 Charles 0 1 1 Maloney 0 1 1 MICHELLE GUY/Daily Michigan coach Gary Moeller wasn't happy with the extra-curricular activity in Saturday's game. MICHIGAN Continued from page 1 all), rushing for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Wheatley has rushed for over 400 yards in the last two games. "Wheatley is a great running back," Michigan State coach George Perles said. "He can see the holes up front, -and then he makes holes for himself in the secondary. He'll be everyone's all-American, and is cer- tainly quite deserving. He's a big, strong running back, and the credit goes to him." Wheatley started and ended the scoring for the Wolverines. Michi- gan started its second possession on State's 44-yard line. Moeller called Wheatley's number four consecutive plays, and the sophomore responded with runs of 15, 17, 2 and 10 yards, respectively, the last of which was a sweep around the right end for the score. Wheatley iced the game with a 23-yard run up the middle for the game's final score with 23 seconds remaining. "The last touchdown meant a lot to me," Wheatley said. "We capped it off. Coach Moeller was trying to run out the clock. But to me, it capped the game off." Wheatley felt he had to earn all of his 172 yards against a tough State defense. The Spartans were able to concentrate more on the run because Michigan quarterback Elvis Grbac was ineffective throwing the ball. Grbac, in his second game back from an ankle injury, completed 11 of 19 passes for 111 and had two passes intercepted. "I wasn't too good, but I didn't have to pass a lot because the offen- sive line did a helluva job," Grbac said. "A lot of the situations where we passed today were first and long after a penalty, second and long and third and long. They were able to drop back in their zones and did a good job." Moeller did not call for many passes in the second half. This con- servative play-calling created more tough yardage situations against a Spartan line stacked to stop the run. "I didn't want to risk anything and give them a quick score," Moeller said. "Once they know you are going to run, they can shut you down." The Wolverines had little trouble stopping State's running game. The front seven bottled up tailback Tico Duckett and applied heavy pressure on quarterback Jim Miller. By hold- ing the Spartans to 60 rushing yards, Michigan held its fourth straight op- ponent under 100 yards on the ground. "Our main goal was to stop the running game," said inside linebacker Marcus Walker, who had 12 tackles. "They have a good run- ning game, but we stopped them. We didn't do much differently; we just played straight defense." The Wolverines sacked Miller four times. Moeller moved defensive tackle Chris Hutchinson to outside linebacker in the base defense to add more size and rushing ability. The switch paid off as Hutchinson had two sacks on the day. Team Michigan Illinois Indiana Wisconsin Purdue w 2 1 Iowa Michigan State Minnesota Northwestern Ohio State 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 T 0' 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pct. 1.000 .500 .500 .500 .500 .500 .500 .500 .500 THIS WEEK'S RESULTS Michigan 35, Michigan St. 10 Illinois 18, Ohio St. 16 Indiana 28, Northwestern 3 Purdue 24, Minnesota 20 Iowa 23, Wisconsin 22 NEXT WEEK'S GAMES Michigan at Indiana, 3:30 p.m. Michigan St. at Minnesota Iowa at Illinois Purdue at Wisconsin Northwestern at Ohio St. 2 0 .000 U I DEPARTMENT OF RECREATIONAL SPORTS 01 Tailback Tyrone Wheatley gained 172 yards on 28 carries against MSU. INTRAMURAL SPORTS PROGRAM FLAG FOOTBALL Entries Taken Tuesday 10/ 13 0 Entries Taken: Tuesday 10/13