4 - The Michigan Daiy - SPORTSMonday - Monday, September 13, 1993
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GAME STATISTICS
PASSING
Player C-A Yds TDInt
McDougal12-21 208 0 0
Tot. 12-21208 0 0
McDougal finds day worth the wait
Irish quarterback happy to finally get chance to start
RUSHING
Player AttYds,
Becton
Zellars
McDougal
Burris
Kinder
Dawson
Edwards
Totals
17 66
12 18
9 66
3 4
3 1
1 ,8
1 0
46163
Avg Lg
3.9 15
1.5 5
7.3 43
1.3 2
.3 5
8.0 8
0 0
3.543
By KEN SUGIURA
DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER
Kevin McDougal had waited three
years for Saturday.
After three seasons as understudy for
Notre Dame golden boy Rick Mirer,
McDougal's day in the spotlight finally
arrived in sun-drenched Michigan Sta-
dium.
It was worth the wait.
A week after keeping the cards close
to the vest in a lackluster witiover North-
western, McDougal dealt the Michigan
defense a full house Saturday. With two
touchdowns on the ground and208 pass-
ing yards, McDougal surprised the Wol-
verines, who called his bluff after a luke-
warm 6-for-8 performance against the
Wildcats.
"I think maybe we didn't think he
was that mobile or talented," Michigan
linebacker Steve Morrison said.
McDougal was both mobile and tal-
ented against the Wolverines, running
away from them and passing over them.
He ran for66 yards on nine carries, tying
for the Irish lead with Lee Becton, who
had eight more carries. Passing the ball,
he was 12-for-21 with no interceptions.
The day was a long time coming for
McDougal, who sat behind Mirer, now
the Seattle Seahawks' starting quarter-
back. Before his first start against North-
western last week, McDougal had thrown
a total of 21 passes in mop-up situations
for Notre Dame.
"If things keep happening this way, I
don't mind sitting, especially behind a
quarterback like Rick Mirer," he said.
"He's in the NFL making more money
than my whole family put together. If
that's the way it had to happen, I'm
content with that."
He may have won the starting job
once and for all from alternate starter
Paul Failla, who sat out the Michigan
game with athumb injury. During spring
practice, Irish coach Lou Holtz desig-
nated McDougal and Failla as 1 and ,A
on the depth chart.
McDougal played the majority of the
game vs. Northwestern, as well.
'if things keep happening this way, I don't mind sitting,
especially behind a quarterback like Rick Mirer. He's in
the NFL making more money than my whole family put
together. If that's the way it had to happen, I'm content
with that.'
- Kevin McDougal
Notre Dame quarterback
"I think (I've won the job), but Paul
Failla'sstill gonnaplay,"McDougalsaid.
"Like I tell a lot of people, Washington
won a national championship with two
quarterbacks, and if that's what it takes,
then I'm all for it."
Against Michigan, it just took
McDougal.
"I told the quarterbacks, 'We're gonna
make Kevin McDougal look like All-
World this week,"' Holtz said. "I just felt
like he was gonna play like it. You could
see it in practice, doing the things he
did."
It didn't take long to see in the game,
RECEIVING
Player No.Yds Avg Lg
Dawson3
C. Johnson2
Mayes 2
Zellars2
Becton2
Miller1
Totals 12
4
PUNTING
Player No.
Leonard 5
Totals 5
3
2
2
2
2
1
64
56
34
17
14
23
21.3
28.0
17.0
8.5
7.0
23.0
32
43
19
16
7
23
220817.3 43
Yds Avg Lg
206 41.2 53
20641.2 53
because McDougal took control of the
game right off the bat.
During the game's first drive, when
Notre Dame jumped to a 7-0 lead,
McDougal kept the ball on an option
play and burst through the Michigan
defense for a 43-yard touchdown run.
After a Pete Elezovic field goal,
McDougal showedoffhisarm, firstfling-
ing a43-yarder to splitend Clint Johnson
and then winging a drive-saving 32-yard
pass to the other split end, Lake Dawson,
on a third-and-eight situation. The two
plays helped set up a Kevin Pendergast
field goal (held by who else -
McDougal) that boosted the Irish advan-
tage to 10-3.
"Basically, when I first got out there,
I tried to stay calm," McDougal said.
"Coach talkedto (backup QB)Paul Failla
andI the whole time and hejust said, 'Go
out and play our game.' He gave us a lot
of confidence this week."
McDougal displayed great confi-
dence and poise Saturday, waiting pa-
tiently in the pocket when necessary and
fleeing the rush when the situation dic-
tated. His second score with seconds left
in the half, was a perfect example.
With his receivers tightly covered
and the rush converging, he took off
from the pocket for the left corner of the
end zone, scoring untouched on an 11-
yard run.
He was even showing confidence in
the post-game press conference. Was
this his best passing day ever?
"I don't know," he -said. "I've had
some pretty good passing days."
One of his receivers, Mike Miller,
who caught one pass for 23 yards, had no
doubts about his performance.
"I don'tknow what his stats were. He
had a great day," he said. "He was re-
laxed in the hole. He just sat back; hejust
picked 'em apart, almost."
The young Michigan offensive line couk
in this sequence.
DOUGLAS KAWER/Daily
Notre Dame quarterback Kevin McDougal held his coming out party Saturday, and the Wolverines were surprised hosts as McDougal
had a career day in leading the Irish.
Collins
Miller
PUNT RETURNS
Player
Miller
Totals
NoYds Avg
3 68 22.7
3 6822.7
Lg
56
56
KICKOFF RETURNS
Player NoYds Avg Lg
Miller 3 48 16.0 20
Totals 3 4816.020
NOTRE DAME
Continued From Page 1
only to find his receivers covered.
Avoiding the Michigan pass rush,
McDougal narmwly made it outside the
pocket on the left side, racing to the
corner of the end zone for his second
rushing touchdown of the half and giv-
ing the Irish a comfortable 24-10 cush-
ion at the intermission.
"I can say it took a lot from us at that
time," said Peoples of the late touch-
down. "It was frustrating."
Things weren't much better for the
Wolverines during their first possession
of the second half. After two Wheatley
runs, Moeller called on Collins to take to
the air. Looking for Mercury Hayes who
was in double coverage, Collins had his
passed picked off by free safety Jeff
Burris, thesameNotre Dame player who
intercepted Elvis Grbac's pass a year
earlier to seal a 17-17 deadlock between
these two foes.
"The first interception I threw I just
tried to get it down the field, throw a little
fly route and the guy jumped up to get it,"
Collins said.
Notre Dame capitalized on the first
tumoverofthe game as Kevin Pendergast
kicked his second field goal to push the
Irish lead to 27-10.
Despite the lopsided score, Michigan
hung around during the second half as
the defense came out with a new attitude
and prevented McDougal from creating
any big plays.
'We believed the whole second half
that we were still going to win," line-
backer Steve Morrison said. "Coach
Moeller kept saying 'We're not out of
this. Go out and play Michigan foot-
ball."'
Following Collins' second intercep-
tion of the day, the Wolverine defense
stopped the Irish on a fourth-and-goal
situation. Then the junior signal caller,
who had his least productive start in a
Maize and Blue uniform, directed a 99-
yard scoring drive, with Wheatley enter-
ing the end zone for the second time,just
one play into the fourth quarter.
Having clamped down, the Michigan
defense forced Notre Dame to punt on
three consecutive series, giving the Wol-
DEFENSE
Player
Bercich
Goheen
Hamilton
Burris
B. Taylor
Lane
Covington
Wynn
Magee
Young
0. Gibson
Flanigan
Graham
Cobbins
Saddler
Sample
Tac
9
5
7
5
4
4
5
5
3
4
2
2
1
1
0
0
Ast
4
4
0
1
2
2
0
0
2
0
2
0
0
0
1
1
Tot
13
9
7
6
6
6
5
5
5
4
4
2
1
1
1
1
The Big Ten Is still very
important and we still want
to go to the Rose Bowl.
- Todd Collins
Michigan quarterback
verines the ball with plenty of time to
make a late-game comeback.
However, Collins couldn't connect
on two successive third-down pass plays,
forcing Michigan to punt on both occa-
sions. On his third attempt atmounting a
scoring drive, Collins was intercepted
for a third time, overthrowing Amani
Toomerbadly while NotreDame' sBurris
was again waiting in the wings.
"I do feel we did give the offense a
chance to win, but we didn't (win),"
Peoples said. "I'm not blaming the of-
fense, I think it's more of the defense
(fault). If we didn't give up 27 points in
the first half or 24 points, they wouldn't
have been in that situation."
Following the Burris interception,
NotreDame attemptedanother fieldgoal,
but Pendergast missed wide right, still
giving the Wolverines a ray of hope,
albeit thin.
This time Collins threw shorterpasses
to his receivers and with 34 seconds left
in the game, he connected on a fourth-
and-goal pass with Hayes for a 13-yard
touchdown.
By this time, it truly was toolittle, too
late, however, as the Wolverines' two-
point attempt failed and their use of two
kickers on an onside kick also did not
fool the Irish.
In the end, Holtz was most pleased
with victory from the preparation stand-
point.
'This is probably the most difficult
situation a team of mine has overcome,"
Holtz said.
By ADAM MILLER
DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER
If you thought there was a little less room on the benches of Michigan Stadi
Saturday, you were right.
An NCAA regular-season record crowd of 106,851 piled into the Big Ho
at Stadium and Main to watch Michigan's 27-23 loss to Notre Dame, eclipsing
oldrecord of 106,788. Thatrecord was also Michigan's, occurring in last ye's
10 victory over Michigan State. W
The Wolverines are averaging over 106,000 so far this season, and if t
continue on that pace, a new NCAA season-average record will be set. 3
Michigan owns that record too, having averaged 105,867 last season.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Saturday'sgame against the Irish was the400th ga
played in Michigan Stadium. Including the loss, the Wolverines are 292-93-1
the Stadium, for just below a 75 percent winning percentage.
Impressive? In numbers, yes, but not in percentage when compared
Michigan's previous home fields. Regents Field, site of Wolverine foot
Saturdays from 1893-1905, saw only 92 games, but if you went, you'd proba
see a Michigan win. The Wolverines were 87-2-3 at Regents Field
unbelievable 96.2 victory clip. -
ROAD SCHOLAR: Senior center Marc Milia received the Honda Schc
Athlete Award Saturday. Honda will make a $3,000 contribution to Michiga
general scholarship fund in Milia's honor. A two-time member of the Acadei
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