The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday-- April 12, 1993-- Page 7

FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
Rushing assault echoes
old times in spnng fling
by Adam Miller
Daily Football Writer
Like the U.S.S. Nimitz in "The Final Countdown," the Michigan football
team's offense appeared to enter a time warp to the past several times during
Saturday afternoon's Blue-White scrimmage, won by the White, 21-20.
Especially when the White squad had the ball, the running game
harkened back to the glory days of one Glenn E. "Bo" Schembechler, or
perhaps the Charles White-era at USC. The "student-body left and right"
ground attack (the pride of Troy) returned to Michigan Stadium, and later
the two teams settled down into old-fashioned off-tackle running (a Bo
delight).
On the White team's first play from scrimmage, senior tailback Ricky
Powers took the handoff from junior quarterback Todd Collins and
followed his line left up the field for five yards. The next play brought the
same call, this time for three yards. Two plays later it happened again.
Then the coaches got creative. Facing a 2nd-and-7 from the Blue 12 yard
line, Powers took the handoff, and followed the line right for two yards.
"Yeah, (the old student-body play) was what was going on out there,"
Powers said. "Freshmen gotta start out that way. Eventually, you try to run
inside."
Powers' comments reflected the fact that Michigan's offensive line was
decimated by graduation last year, and is still being pieced together from
relative newcomers.
As this strategy did not seal a successful conquest for the White team -
Ed Davis fumbled at the one yard line, and it was recovered by the Blue -
the vintage Michigan running game nearly did. With the White trailing the
Blue, 20-18, with under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter,
Powers once again received the call. He carried four straight times -
handling the ball five times in a row, if you include a set-up swing pass
from Collins - leading the White to the Blue five yard line with under a
minute remaining.
However, the "Powers Football" streak ended when sophomore tackle
Trent Zenkiewicz spun Powers down for a loss at the Blue 14 with 20
seconds left. The White was forced attempt a field goal, which it converted
as time expired for the victory.
TOUGH START: Don't be rough on Sanneh Pap, a walk-on kicker in
his first year with the team. While his kickoff attempt traveled only 20
yards, Michigan coach Gary Moeller said he is still learning the position.
"The first time he put on pads was the beginning of this spring," Moeller
said. "He had never played football in his life; he was a soccer player."
So be nice -- he's trying.
NOW WHAT WOULD BO SAY? Michigan has traditionally been a
running team in a running conference - the Big Ten. Running was the
Schembechler Way and Moeller continues to preach it. Nevertheless,
Collins said he expects to lead a Wolverine aerial attack in the fall.
"I think we're basically going to pass this year," he said. "But we'll do
whatever the defense dictates to us."

Jesse Johnson splits the White squad's defense for a gain in Saturday's game. In hot pursuit are Tony Henderson and Jamie Mignon. Johnson
carried 11 times for 68 yards for the Blue team. He also caught a pass for 13 yards but his team fell to the White, 21-20.



FOOTBALL
Continued from page 1
The White tied the game with
only 3:21 left in the half on a bizarre
play that affirmed the old adage that
sometimes it's better to be lucky
than good. With the ball on the Blue
4-yard line, Ed Davis took a handoff
only to fumble the ball forward.
Davis' teammate Ron Buff fell on
the ball in the end zone, and an
Elezovic extra point knotted the con-
test at seven.
Quarterback Jason Carr, who saw
some game time last season, ran a
drive of his own to give the Blue a
14-7 lead. Alexander caught a 26-
yarder for the score, and Erik Lovell
converted the extra point. The White
responded on the next series with a
41-yard Elezovic field goal.
Alexander's punt return took the
Blue down to the White's 6-yard line
and created an easy Blue scoring op-
portunity. Wheatley came through
on the second play of the drive with
a 3-yard bolt into the end zone.
White's block of Hamilton's extra-
point attempt proved to be instru-
mental in the final outcome, as the
Blue's lead stood at 20-10.
The White's following drive

lasted over five minutes, but Pow-
ers' one-yard touchdown run made it
worthwhile. Powers then came
through on the two-point conversion
to cut the Blue's lead to 20-18 and
set up the dramatic finish.
The offensive line's inexperience
still ranks as Michigan's primary
concern, and although it performed
competently yesterday, it didn't pro-
vide many answers to the questions
that lay ahead this fall.
"There were a couple of times
where they got tired, but those guys,
they blocked their butts off," Powers
said. "They did a heck of a job."
"I think those guys did a great
job," Collins said. "I was very
pleased with the protection."
"It's tough, because in a spring
game, most guys aren't playing next
to guys that they're used to," defen-
sive tackle Gannon Dudlar said, "and
from what I've gathered over the
years, it's really important for an of-
fensive line to gel together and know
the guy who's playing next to you.
And when the first team's in prac-
tice, they're getting to the point
where they're really starting to gel
together, and that's just going to
come with time."
Dudlar proved to be one of the
more pleasant surprises of the after-

noon, as he put together seven tack-
les, two assists and three sacks. He
admitted that he never expected he
would have to address the media fol-
lowing the contest.
"As a defensive lineman, you ba-
sically get no glory or anything,"
Dudlar said. "When they told me to
come up here, I was shocked."
'It's tough, because in
a spring game, most
guys aren't playing
next to guys that
they're used to,'
- Gannon Dudlar
'M' defensive tackle
While Dudlar made his premiere
appearance in the spotlight, Powers
returned from a season full of
injuries and frustration to begin what
he hoped would be his comeback
run.
"(The game) was very impor-
tant," Powers said. "Every day I
come out to practice is very impor-
tant. Just staying healthy, these are
the kind of things I have to do when
I'm healthy, and it feels good. Ii
haven't felt like this since I was a

freshman."
The contest also held a great deal
of significance. He acknowledged the
expectations of being the starter felt
much different from that of a reserve.
"There's some added pressure
there," Collins said. "If you're a
backup and you don't go out and per-
form that well in the Spring Game,
you're just a backup, but there's a
little more pressure being the first
guy. It's something I learned to deal
with from my experience last year,
so it wasn't something that was to-
tally new to me."
"I think he's in pretty good
shape," Moeller said of Collins. "He
played better today then he probably
scrimmaged on Thursday. ... I think
he just needs to play and play. The
best thing that he does is he negoti-
ates the situation and what it needs
and what it doesn't. Some people
think he throws too soft. The best
thing Todd does is he can get rid of
the ball."
Moeller improvised a few rule
changes throughout the game. He
aborted kickoffs after the beginning
of the second half to avoid unneces-
sary contact, and the quarters dimin-
ished in length from a 15-minute
first stanza to two 12-minute periods
to a 10-minute finale.


Quarterback Eric Boykin breaks out into the open field for a 48-yard play for
the White squad in Michigan's annual Blue-White scrimmage Saturday.
Rain, wind drive women
to 12th at Buckeve Invite

by Andy De Korte
Daily Sports Writer
When it rains it pours.
At the spring version of the Lady
Buckeye Invitational it poured and
Ohio State reigned - winning its
own tournament by shooting a 956.
The Wolverine golfers finished 12th,
a distant 74 strokes behind the first-
place Buckeyes. The rest of the Big
Ten also finished ahead of Michigan
with the exception of Penn State,
Northwestern, and absent Purdue.
Hieh winds accomnanied the

on the saint course in the fall; could
only manage a 235 this time around.
Still, the results disappointed
Michigan in light of its fourth-place
finish at the same tournament in the
fall.
"I don't know how to explain it,"
LeClair said. "We're just going to
have to take a weekend out. This
was just our third week in a row.
Plus we can't paiy (at our own
course.)"
Fatigue is only part of the
nroblem. Not having time to work

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