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, M. imrw, PV.r mar, ,it her thanh IHe mat it 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. 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