8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 23, 1993 Cougars attempt new approach Helton stresses discipline over flashy style of Jenkins' regime By RYAN HERRINGTON fense. the run-and-shoot. However, Helton's hands have DAILY FOOTBALL WRfER Jenkins was forced to resign amidst the contro- been tied this season in terms of personnel. While the city of Houston ordinarily feels like a versy, working out a settlement with the university in "What we're trying to do right now is give our sauna in the summer time, the heat was even more which he was paid the remainder of his salary. seniors a chance to win football games," Helton said. intense this past year, primarily because of the spot- Last spring's troubles were nothing new for the "If I wasn't concerned about the seniors, I'd simply light focused on the Cougar football program. Houston football program, which has come under the get rid of the four-wideout offense and go get in the With accusations of NCAA improprieties, the NCAA microscope on conventional offense." resignation of head coach John Jenkins and an overall other occasions. The Helton's squad has run into numerous difficulties state of confusion, the Houston squad that steps on the Cougars wereplacedon on the field thus far. In their first two games, the field Saturday in Ann Arbor will have gone through a probation as recently as Cougars have been outscored by a 87-31 margin, great deal of turmoil since its 61-7 whitewashing 1987 for rules viola- losing to USC and Tulsa. Regardless of the rough against Michigan a year ago. tions. start, Helton insists on taking on the challenge at "I think we're all, right now, fighting and scratch- Added to this the Houston head on. ing to do the right things," said first-year coach Kim already tamishedimage "I think we've got all the excuses you want," said Helton yesterday in his weekly press conference. "I'm of the Southwest Con- Helton about his early season trouble. "I think our proud of our football kids." ference as a whole, football program was bottomed out, our facility was The Cougars came under fire last spring when two Houston athletic direc- certainly in need of being redone. Our attitude, our assistants accused then-head coach Jenkins of violat- tor Bill McGillis knew discipline, our recruiting, not being in spring prac- ing NCAA rules. that he would have to tice, they're all there. One of the assistants - Steve Staggs - alleged bring in a no nonsense "I think our situation is we don't want to grow that Jenkins had made an improper payment to a leader to counter the into being an excuse maker. We'll take our licks and recruit, along with violating limits on practice time backlog of negative if we get ourselves squared away and play as well as during spring workouts. Staggs had been fired by publicity. Hlton we can we'll have a chance to win some football Jenkins just weeks before he went public with his Enter Helton. games." allegations. A long-time assistant in both college and the NFL, While somewhat inexperienced, the Cougars are Aside from rules violations, Staggs also reported Helton was brought in on May 21 to shape up a Cougar not without talent. Middle linebacker Ryan McCoy that Jenkins had spliced footage of topless women into program in need of facelift. heads the list of standouts. videotapes of his team's practices. "I have very narrow boundaries regarding disci- The Butkus Award nominee is first on the team in While continually denying the rules violations, pline," Helton said. "I think the football team has tackles with 27. Jenkins later admitted that he had altered the videotape accepted the rules and regulations. Obviously, with However, inconsistencies have been the bugaboo as an "innocent attention-getter." that (new discipline) comes great expectations of of the Cougars. Helton is trying his best to rub away The videotape certainly grabbed the attention of victories. With sacrifice they're looking at being a the distractions of the past and present a new outlook school administrators, who decided that the incident winning football program." at Houston. was the last straw. Jenkins' image during his three To say that Helton's style of coaching is different 'We're not looking where we're at," Helton said. years at Houston had been less than angelic, as he than Jenkins is an understatement. A self-proclaimed 'We'relooking wherewewanttobeandwherewe're alienated many other coaches by running up the score disciple of Howard Schnellenberger, Helton prefers a headed and some of these young men are going to against lesser opponents with his run-and-shoot of- conventional two-back passing offense to the flash of have some great experiences in the future." 0 0 HmstnSpoats tnfarati 'Houston linebacker Ryan McCoy is one of the Cougars best players on the defensive side of the ball. The Butkus Award candidate leads the team in tackles with 27. Midwestern Invitational chance 'fore' Blue golfers to improve By JOSH KARP FOR THE DAILY In the second tournament of the fall season, Michigan men's golf coach Jim Carras will bring a fairly young and inexperienced squad to the Midwestern Invitational in DeKalb, Ill., which be- gins tomorrow. The 12-team field, which includes Big Ten foes Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan State, will play on a wide- open course thatmeasuresroughly7,000 yards. With a history of encountering bad weather in early spring tournaments, Carras added two more matches to the fall slate. After tying for 11th place out of 24 teams at last week'sFalcon Invitational, the golfers will visit the Northern Illi- nois course for the first time in five years. Carrasalso made two roster changes for this week. Juniors Chris Brockway andBillLyle, andfreshman KyleDobbs return to the lineup. SeniorCarl Condon and junior Mike Hill replace team co- captain Bob Henighan and freshman Brent Idalski. "Bob and Brent, who played at the Falcon Invitational in Colorado Springs, Ididn'tfeel played well enough to make this trip." Carras said. "The first two or three tournaments, we're attempting to try new kids, kids that we think can be competitive and be contributors to the program. "And the only way we're going to find out is to put them in the line of fire and see how they respond." Carras said he felt both Henighan and Idalski would be back in the lineup in due time. "Bob's a proven player going through some rough times right now, butthatwon'tlast," Carras stated. "And Brent Idalski is an exceptional fresh- man golfer. I think all of this kind of overwhelmed Brent to some extent." Idalski wasn't the only freshman playeron theroster, though. KyleDobbs, a freshman from Saline, paced the team with a 226 last week and said he feels that the squad can be very competitive. "I've got the feeling we can always battle out for the first spot no matter what," Dobbs said "We can just take any title, I feel. We've got a strong enough team for that." Carras on the other hand, did not sound as optimistic. "If we finish in the top five, I would suggest that that's a pretty good finish for an early tourna- ment," he said. Who does Carras feel will putt it out for the top spot? "If you ask me to pick a winner out of all this, I would suggest maybe Wis- consin or possibly Kentucky are the strongest two teams in the field." One way or another the Wolverine golf squad will have to show up this weekend. "I think we're going to have a great team," Dobbs said. "We're going to kick butt!" 0 215 S. Ann (up Darts + Dart Supplies State St. Arbor DEAD stairs) For the best Michigan football coverage, read SPORTSMonday. Griddes!"P. Drop off your picks at the Michigan Daily sports desk on the second floor of the Student Publications Building at 420 Maynard by noon Friday. The most accurate prognosticator will receive a $15 gift certificate to O'Sullivan's Eatery & Pub. Contestants are restricted to five entries per week. Large selection Free Flights w/ every Purchase of Darts 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Houston at Michigan Oregon at Illinois Wisconsin at Indiana Central Michigan at Michigan State Minnesota at San Diego State Wake Forest at Northwestern Rutgers at Penn State Notre Dame at Purdue Miami at Colorado Cincinnati at Syracuse 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 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