What was Bo Schembechler's
first Rose Bowl victory.
(For answer, see page 4)
Bowl Griddes 4
Napoeleon Kaufman feature 5
Matchups 6
Stats 7
No Pun Intended 7
Season in Review 10
Weekend Etc. List 11
The Michigan Daily - Rose Bowl Preview December 10, 1992 Page 1
M VS.
Tradition
makes
Rose Bowl
special
On this day, my family rose
early and broke out all the maize
and blue (a lot of maize and
blue). Decked out in a worn-out
"100 Years of Michigan Foot-
Washington,
take
two
Jeni Durst
. :
- -
ball" t-shirt, I
waved my
blue and
yellow
pompoms in
anticipation.
If you
drove around
my small
southwestern
Michigan
town -
probably any
small
southwestern
Michigan
town - you would see a myriad
of flags flying high, emblazoned
with golden M's.
Around the state, Wolverine
fans everywhere settled down in .
front of the television in anticipa-
tion of kickoff. A little like
waiting for that big dinner on
Thanksgiving or Christmas.
It was Rose Bowl day.-
And all the excitement wasn't
perpetuated by the chance of a
national championship or a even
powerhouse matchup. It was just
the Rose Bowl.
- Somewhere along the line The
Granddaddy of Them All has lost
that mystique.
Now, everyone only seems to
care about one thing - everyone
wants a national championship.
The Rose Bowl is only second
best.
Crackerjacks minus the prize.
It used to mean enough to be
the best of the Big Ten, to
represent the conference in this
annual tradition.
Now, the league no longer
holds the dominance and prestige
that it used to, and the best does
not possess the honor it used to.
Someone informed me the
other day that he canceled his trip
to Pasadena because it didn't
matter anymore. It doesn't mean
anything now.
Doesn't mean anything?
Granted, this year's game is
not going to be a showdown for
the national championship - it's
not No. 1 vs. No. 2. But a trip to
the Rose Bowl still means
something.
What that something is may
be somewhat elusive. It's like
morality - you can't really
express what it is in a word or a
sentence, but you know it's there.
Maybe it's the tradition of the
whole thing. Maybe it's the
feeling of pride connected with it.
Some special feeling. Something.
Of course, it means something
more when you win. They say
winning isn't everything (I think
Bo Schembechler invented that
saying), but, let's face it, to many
it is.
Maybe that's why the Rose
Bowl has lost its meaning.
We never win.
Michigan's been to the Rose
Bowl 10 times in my lifetime,
capturing only two of them. And
those are the two that definitely
stand out.
1981. With Butch Woolfolk in
the backfield, Anthony Carter
making incredible catches, Ali
Haji-Sheikh nailing field goals. It
was Bo's first victory in six
attempts and it was against the
Washington Huskies. The
Wolverines recorded their first
outright Big Ten title in 10 years.
And in '89, the victory was
Blue looks to
avenge last
year's 34-14
trouncingz
by Josh Dubow
Daily Football Writer
Halloween day, 1992. The Wash-
ington Huskies thrash Stanford and
move to No. 1 in the nation. Michigan
narrowly escapes at Purdue but re-
mains undefeated. It looks like the
Rose Bowl may finally host the na-
tional championship game.
However, the Huskies' and Wol-
verines' rides to Pasadena took a de-
tour as the clock struck midnight in
November and their respective car-
riages turned into pumpkins.
Instead of serving as the site of the
national championship, the Rose
Bowl must settle for No. 7 Michigan
(8-0-3 overall) vs. No. 9 Washington
(9-2), while Alabama and Miami
(Fla.) dance for all the marbles in
New Orleans.
But despite lacking the national
significance of the Sugar Bowl, the
Rose Bowl still holds great meaning
for its two combatants. Washington
wants to become the first team ever to
win three straight Rose Bowls. The
Huskies beat Iowa, 46-34, in 1991
and knocked off Michigan, 34-14,
last season.
The Wolverines will be out to
avenge-that loss. All season long, the
players and coaches have pointed to
that game as the motivation for this
season.
"Actually, I've thought about it
all summer, I can't lie," defensive co-
captain Corwin Brown said before
the season started. "I've set one of my
goals - to get back out to the Rose
Bowl, to play Washington. I mean,
we could have done a lot better ...
"I think 17 points, at best, is what
they should've scored. But I think
we'll go back out there, the offense
will get another shot at them and
we'll do a lot better this time."
Michigan even changed its style
of play in order to compete with
Washington. Michigan coach Gary
Moeller studied films of Washington
to find new wrinkles for his team.
Last season, the Wolverines tried to
match size.for speed against Wash-
ington and Florida State and failed
See ROSE BOWL, Page 6
The Washington Huskies celebrate after last year's 34-14 trouncing of the Wolverines in the Rose Bowl. Michigan looks for revenge, Jan. 1 in Pasadena.
Center
of
Attention
by John Niyo
Daily Football Writer
He watches his hands intently while be talks. He
looks up now and then, makes eye contact. He's not shy
by any means. But always it's quickly back to the
hands. An artist's eyes can never stray too far away
from his hands. His tools.
He slouches a lot when he sits - not that most
college students display great posture - but, for him, it
seems more the natural thing to do. Bend the knees,
bend at the hips. Lean forward. Concentrate on the
hands. Concentrate on the tools.
Steve Everitt has been doing that for some time now.
Drawing and sketching with those bare hands in his free
time. And carrying the Michigan football team with
those same bare hands when he puts on the pads. It is
his routine. One, then the other.
He is the cornerstone of the Michigan offensive line.
An artist by hobby, but a center by trade, Everitt is the
"strange, but true" leader of an undefeated team that
won its (and his) fifth straight Big Ten championship
this season and is headed out to Pasadena, Calif., to play
in the Rose Bowl Jan. 1.
The 6-foot-5, 275-pounder is at the center of it all.
The straw that stirs Michigan's drink,
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Michigan's success
rests in Everitt's hands
Southridge High School senior, had a tough choice to
make. He knew a lot of people - a lot of teammates
and a lot of other local players - who all were going to
attend Miami. Others were going to Florida State. More,
still, were going to go to Florida.
Steve, though, decided to head north. For the
academics, and for the tradition.
"That's where we go," he says, explaining his final
decision to become a Wolverine. "Linebackers go to
Penn State. Linemen go to Michigan."
So it was all mapped out. Except for one thing.
"I finally made my decision to come here and I
called up and talked to Bo (Schembechler) and he told
me they didn't have any more scholarships left," Everitt
says. "And I just about had a heart attack. I had told
everybody else that I was going to Michigan, you know,
not thinking...
"It was the deadline, the last day, so I called up and
they're like, "Sorry," and I was just like, 'Oh, Jesus.'
While Everitt's father, Michael, worked on trying to
figure out if there was a way that the family could find
the money to pay for a first year - in the hopes that
Steve could walk-on and then get a scholarship - Steve
worked on stringing Miami along. The charade lasted a
few days until Miami got the full story. But luckily, the
clouds in Ann Arbor broke.
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