0 Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - October 19, 1992 ICHIGA 31 I D ANA 3 " He's Too Sweet Tailback Wheatley impresses for third straight week by Josh Dubow Daily Football Writer BLOOMINGTON - For the third straight week, Michigan trounced a Big Ten opponent. And for the third straight week, Tyrone Wheatley showed why he is one of the best running backs in the con- ference as well as the country. Wheatley carried the ball 18 times for 134 yards, including an electrifying 54- yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Wheatley also scored on a 26-yard screen pass earlier that quarter. In the last three games, Wheatley has run for 530 yards and has scored seven touchdowns. For the season, he is averag- ing two touchdowns and over 120 yards rushing per game. Wheatley did not start off well Saturday. On his first six carries of the game, Wheatley gained only three yards. He picked it up from that point, averaging nearly 13 yards per carry thereafter. Wheatley ran over, around and through the Indiana defense. On his touchdown run, Wheatley broke through a huge hole in the middle and sprinted into the Hoosier secondary. There, he encountered Indiana strong safety Chris Dyer. Wheatley froze Dyer in his tracks and sprinted toward the right sideline, leaving Dyer to eat some of Memorial Stadium's AstroTurf. Wheatley had one man left to beat - free safety Damon Watts. Watts had an angle on Wheatley momentarily, but then Wheatley put on the afterburners and sprinted into the end zone. "I wanted to make sure he didn't cut back, so I didn't commit," Watts said. "But he showed a lot more speed than I anticipated." Watts wasn't only impressed with Wheatley's speed. "Wheatley is an excellent back," Watts said. "He has good weight, good size, good moves and speed. Those are all the things you need to be a great back. And also a great offensive line." That line, led by seniors Steve Everitt, Joe Cocozzo, Rob Doherty, Doug Skene and freshman Trezelle Jenkins, has opened up gaping holes for the Wolverine running attack the last three weeks. "They dominated us off the ball," Indiana coach Bill Mallory said. "They opened holes and then Wheatley just killed us. But they have three or four good backs." Many of the Il vere saying that Wheatley was as go- is in the country. "Wheatley is the package," Indiana linebacker L ina ;d. "He ran the ball extremely w otowv s a good back. He's one of the best ve seen this year. He's about the best I've ever seen." Mallory said Wheatley's biggest strength is his combination of size and speed. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound sopho- more gained about 20 pounds since last season without losing his speed. "Wheatley is an outstanding back," Mallory said. "I haven't seen anyone bet- ter yet. He's 225 pounds with track speed. And now he's developed some niftiness. He really hurt us with that screen pass and running ability." Tyrone Wheatley receives congratulations from flanker Walter Smith after his 54-yard scoring run. The second-quarter touchdown put the Wolverines up 21-3. In n nn nn AAAAAAn Bg Ten standing FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK- Desmond who?. by Josh Dubow and Albert Lin Daily Football Writers BLOOMINGTON - Michigan receiver Derrick Alexander is making Michigan fans forget about ol' Desmond whatshisname. Alexander scored two touchdowns in Saturday's game, including one on a punt return for the second consecutive week. After holding Michigan on an initial punt, Indiana coach Bill Mallory decided to kick again following a Michigan penalty. Alexander took that kick back 70 yards for the score. "The punt return by Alexander was a big play," Mallory said. "Afterward, I knew it was a bad decision. We've been pretty good on coverage and I thought we could get the ball down deeper. It blew up in our face. I didn't expect that to happen." Alexander also opened the scoring for the Wolverines. On Michigan's first drive, quarterback Elvis Grbac hit Alexander on an 8- yard touchdown pass. The Detroit native also had a touchdown reception called back in the second half because of a penalty. For the game, Alexander had 122 total yards. "Derrick is really getting a feel for things," Michigan coach Gary Moeller said. "He's starting to play with a lot more confidence." SACKED!: The Michigan defense constantly applied pressure on Hoosier quarterback Trent Green. The Wolverines sacked Green nine times for 61 yards. "We didn't expect their defense to be that good," Green said. "They stopped the run and didn't let us pass. Every time I went back to pass, it seemed like I had no time. You can't move the ball if you can't run or pass. The leader of the defensive charge for Michigan was outside linebacker Chris Hutchinson, who had three sacks for 31 yards. "Hutchinson taught our guys a lesson all day," Green said. "He's an outstanding guy against the run and the pass. Hutchinson proved today why he is one of the top linemen in the country." Six other Wolverines recorded one sack each - Tony Henderson, Matt Dyson, Marcus Walker, Trent Zenkewicz, Gannon Dudlar and Jason Horn. BOOTED!: Even though Moeller hates to do it, he may now feel more comfortable with the man he has out there punting. Chris Stapleton solidified his job Saturday with a near-flawless performance, booting five balls for an average of 45.8 yards a kick. He was extremely consistent, hitting all his punts for at least 40 yards, and also tagged two for over 50. INJURIES: Cornerback Alfie Burch left the game midway through the second quarter with a twisted foot. Moeller likened the injury to one suffered by Hutchinson against Oklahoma State. Tailback Ricky Powers did not play because his twisted ankle has not sufficiently healed. Moeller held fullback Burnie Legette out because he did not practice enough during the week. OVER THE HUMP: Michigan tailback Jesse Johnson ran for 88 yards Saturday. Johnson has now crossed the 1,000-yard plateau in his career with 1,057 yards. ' v v Team Michigan Wisconsin Iowa Michigan St. Ohio St. Illinois Indiana Purdue Minnesota Northwestern w 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pct. 1.000 .667 .667 .667 .333 .333 .333 .333 .333 .333 THIS WEEK'S RESULTS Michigan 31, Indiana 3 Michigan St. 20, Minnesota 15 Ohio St. 31, Northwestern 7 Wisconsin 19, Purdue 16 Iowa 24, Illinois 14 NEXT WEEK'S GAMES Minnesota at Michigan (1 p.m.) Northwestern at Illinois Ohio St. at Michigan State Purdue at Iowa Wisconsin at Indiana Penalties still too big a part of team's play by Albert Lin Daily Football Writer BLOOMINGTON - Michigan entered Saturday's game as the sec- ond-most penalized team in the Big Ten. The Wolverines did nothing against Indiana to change that claim.1 Ten times Michigan was flagged, over the weekend, setting the squad1 back a total of 124 yards. And that doesn't even begin to account for the lost scoring opportunities. Penalties brought back two Michigan touchdowns - one in the second quarter when the game was still somewhat in doubt, and another at the end of the third quarter. This has been an area of concern 'for Michigan coach Gary Moeller, and it is still near the top of his priority list. "In the second half we did the same thing I thought we'd elimi- nated in the first half - three major penalties to stop drives in the second half," he said. "In fact, we had one in the first half. You can't self-de- struct that way, and we have to make sure we iron that out and address that." With under three minutes left in the half, Jesse Johnson culminated a personal scoring crusade - he had earlier runs of 19, five and 12 yards - by taking a swing pass from Elvis Grbac on the left side and sneaking just inside the left pylon. But it was not to be. Rather than tallying six points, Michigan was docked 15 yards for illegal participation. The Wolverines had to settle for a field goal. Just about a quarter later, it was d6j, vu all over again. On third down from the Indiana 16, Alexander beat his defender to the right corner and made an over-the- shoulder grab on a perfectly thrown ball. Once more, close but no cigar. An illegal block brought the ball back to the 32; and Pete Elezovic missed his attempt two plays later. "I think we got some overanxious penalties there," Moeller said. "They were stacking inside good, they were playing good hard defense, and you had to break a couple of plays. But we're gonna be confronted with that all year long. We still gotta be able to run and throw the ball. But you throw a touchdown pass, you get it called back on a penalty. You break a run, you get another penalty. You can't do those things." Conversely, while penalties kept Michigan from the end zone a few times, they played a big part in Indiana's only score. On the Hoosiers' first play from scrimmage, a personal foul tacked 15 yards to an 18-yard completion. Two consecu- tive offsides calls later gave Indiana a first down, and Scott Bonnell kicked a 3- -yard field goal for the Hoosiers' sole points. "We had a lot of penalties, three or four e that first drive," said middle guard Tony Henderson, al- most incredulously, when asked how Michigan was able to hold the Hoosiers in check. "We stopped that eventually, but they had like 40 yards _n penalties that first drive." MOLLY STEVENS/Daily Mark Burkholder opens a hole for tailback Jesse Johnson. In Saturday's game, Johnson surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards. DUBOW Continued from page 1 different game. It was costly as heck. Back up a minute, Bill. That fumble was the difference in a 28- point game. The fact that Michigan's offensive line cleared holes as big as the Grand Canyon for backs Tyrone Wheatley, Jesse Johnson and Ed Davis apparently didn't make a dif- ference. But Indiana tailback Brett Law was not extremely impressed with the Wolverine triumvirate of backs or Michigan as a whole. "They aren't more talented than us," Law said. "They just executed better than we did. Michigan isn't more talented than Indiana? This said by a man who would probably be the fifth-string running back on the Wolverines. If the only difference in the game was execution, than execution must in- clude size, speed, strength, depth and ability. While it appears that Indiana won't close the talent gap in the near future, Mallory thinks his young of- fense will match up well with Michigan's defense next season. "Michigan is a pretty seasoned ball club," Mallory said. "They are a veteran, senior club. Their defense is all seniors except two juniors. They're a veteran ball club defen- sively. Things will be different next year." Hold it there, Bill. Two juniors, nine seniors? Eight of Michigan's starting 11 defenders are under- classmen. That means that those players are not seniors. They will be back in 1993. The only difference next year is that the game will be played in Ann Arbor. S C IDDERS Continued from page 1 pass to Alexander in the left corner of the end zone to take the lead, 7-3. "They came out playing with a lot of emotion, and they stopped us for a little bit," Alexander said. "We just had to come in here and settle down a bit. I think we were a little anxious to put a lot of points on the board and get into the end zone. Once we know we can score, we just keep getting in there." Confidence in hand, the Wolverines played perhaps their best foo~thall of the seasnin the second ble and returned it 24 yards to the Wolverine 46. One play later, Wheatley struck again, streaking 54 yards for his sec- ond touchdown. He froze free safety Chris Dyer just beyond the line of scrimmage and outraced a final de- fender to the end zone. "I can't really remember it," Wheatley said afterward. "But No. 16 (Dyer) was approaching me, and I guess he thought I was gonna cut back up field, and I just made the move to the outside and ran away." And the real excitement was still to come. Another fumble led to a 33- defenders and cutting up field into daylight. He galloped into the end zone 70 yards later with Michigan's final score. "I was real surprised. I didn't know what had happened (with the penalty)," Alexander said. "We came back out there for another punt return, and I was just excited to be back out there." The second half was a defensive struggle of sorts, as neither team was able to score. The first five posses- sions of the third quarter ended with a punt after three plays. Michigan came the closest when Elezovic 6 INAf am - f