_ _ ___ The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, September 27, 1993 - 5 H 0 u S T 0 N 2 1 i 1%- -^-" ^ ^ ^ ^1^ ^ ^ ^ Injury situation gets even GAME STATISTICS FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK IERRINGTON menJarrett IronsandMikeVanderbeek.Their UGIURA inexperience concerns Moeller. LL WRITERS "We've never had to play this many fresh- worse as Big Ten approaches PASSING Player Clements 25-40 276 Tot. 25-40 276 C-A Yds TD 2 2 int 1 I (AN N (EN St FOOTBA -Considering that the Michigan defensive unit 'as beginning to resemble a MAS H unit prior to StSaturday's 42-21 victory over Houston, it night seem hard to believe that the Wolverines jury situation could get any worse. Believe it. The latest setback occurred halfway into the bird quarter when linebacker Matt Dyson - trecovering from a calf injury he suffered er this season -injuried his right knee and ad to be carried off the field by three of his Volverine teammates. After his being carted to he locker room, Michigan coach Gary Moeller as pesimistic about him returning to the start- ig lineup anytime soon. Add to this the loss of inside linebackers teye Morrison, who Moeller doesn't expect to ee practicing for at least another week, and Osrcus Walker, who underwent arthroscopic ry on his knee last Thursday and is out for wo to three weeks, and the Wolverines' defen- ive. corp finds itself in a difficult situation. "We can't sustain the injuries that were hav- Mg," Moeller said. "We're going to lose Matt )son for a while and you can't offord to lose it:. There's no quick fix in this siutation." With the latest series of injuries Moeller and efensive coordinator Lloyd Carr have but iree remaining inside linebackers to choose A injuniorBobby Powers andredshirt fresh- man before. This isn't the picture I thought would be painted, but I'm not going to play any one not ready to play." PASSING FANCY: Another day, another record. Todd Collins added to his wealth of school passing marks by becoming the career completion percentage leader. By going 20-for- 34(58.8 percent), Collins reached the 200 passes for his career the minimum number of throws necessary for career-record consideration. "I think the first half I did pretty well," he said. "Then I came out in the second half and made the interception that I threw that we got called back. I made a wrong decision there, but overall, I think I did pretty good." Collins' 267 yards of passing (the seventh- highest single game passing total in school his- tory) marked the fifth time in as many career starts that Collins has thrown for over 200 yards. He now owns four of the top 12 Michigan single-game passing yardage total marks. WHEATLEY FILE: The Tyrone Wheatley legend keeps growing. For the third time in as many games this season, and the fifth game in a row going back to last year, Wheatley surpassed the 100-yard mark rushing. He had exactly 100 yards at the half, carrying the ball 15 times for two touchdowns, the first coming on a 25-yard run punctuated by two bounding leaps into the end zone. He finished the day with 171 yards and a third touchdown. "I'm pretty satisfied with my performance," he said. "I would grade it as decent." The 171 yards is a season-high. Wheatley now has 2,339 rushing yards - 10th most in school history - and has 28 rushing touch- downs. CLEMENTS' TIME: For the second time in three games, the Michigan defense faced a quar- terback making his career debut. Houston's Chuck Clenents, a redshirt quarterback, had a field day, going 25-for-40 for 276 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. "I thought he played under a situation with a growing new offense, and is just trying to learn it," Houston coach Kim Helton said. "He made some good plays. The young guy did a great job, in all fairness to him." Clements himself said he felt pleased with his play, adding he was surprised with the play of the Michigan defense. "It doesn't matter who you play, you expect a little pressure at times, and i didn't get any of that," he said. "That's surprising. You sit back there and don't know if a guy's coming from the backside because you can't see him. "Not knowing if he's coming or not, and then no one ever comes to hit you, that's surprising," he added. "You expect to get hit a couple of times after you release the ball and i didn't get hit a whole lot today. It's just a great job the offen- sive line did." OFFICIALLY UPSET: Members of the Hous- ton team felt that the Big Ten officials used for the game provided a little "home cooking" for the Wolverines. "We executed well," running back Lamar Smith said. "We had some bad officiating, but that's life." He added, "We had to play Michigan Wol- verines and we also had to play Big Ten officicals." Helton put a different twist on the situation. "We'll let y'all play in front of Southwestern Confernence officials," he said. "We'll have fun." TOUCHDOWN TSHIMANGA: Quebecois Tshimanga (Tim) Biakabutuka made his ca- reer debut, scoring on his third carry. The fresh- man running back made his appearance at the end of the fourth quarter, scoring the game's final touchdown with a 4-yard plunge. "I wanted to see Biakabutuka run a little bit more so that's why I got him in at the end," Moeller said. COVER JINX: Forget "Sports Illustrated." Maybe the Wolverines ought to worry about not getting their likenesses on the game program cover. The three most prominently featured play- ers on Saturday's program, Morrison, Dyson and Walker, either missed or left the game be- cause of injury. RUSHING Player I L. Smith Tommy Guy McPherson Clements Team Totals Att Yds Avg Lg 20119 6.0 4 6 1.5 1 2 2.0 3 (-)3(-)1.0 1(-)14 (-)14 29 110 3.7 34 3 2 .1 0 34 RECEIVING Player Peters Jack L. Smith Sanders Adams Pitre Mouton Totals No. 4 6 5 4 2 2 2 25. Yds Avg 6917.3 57 9.5 44 8.8 4310.8 3517.5 2311.5 5 2.5 27611.0 Lg 29 15 27 14 23 13 9 29 PUNTING Player George Totals No. Yds Avg 6 24841.3 Lg 48 6 24841.3 48 :Dis a c caemsevs eat Ui god stailbac, Tr on apenn ~ck#9 ardfr; intefr ...enzn~ om Clements .alled for ;. a aft; h offc~lsruedth Hu~on KICKOFF RETURNS drv ud begiath *' , ..! Cougtos pund;ft te r + njouditelXi .AS ANTER/DailY Huston Coac Player Moffet Tommy Guy Totals NO IS Avg 5 8917.8 1 1313.0 Lg 23 13 *amdhigh 171 yards in Saturday's 42.21 victory over Houston by draggin Cougar linebacker Allen Aldridge with him. DEFENSE Player McCoy Young G. Williams Douglas Harrison Newhouse Aldridge Mathis Dixon Meux J.W. Brown N. Johnson S. Williams Bell J.H. Brown Ty. Guy Holmes McGaughey Foots 6 10217.0 23 Tac Ast Tot 11 2 13 8 2 10 7 2 9 6 1 7 6 1 7 5 2 7 6 0 6 6 0 6 4 0 4 Spartans get revenge vs. Chippewas in 48-34 triumph Nittany Lions, Badgers, Wildcats continue to roll over non-conference foes 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 i was 18-of-25 for 222 yards. wcca, who threatened to quit the eam, came in with8 1/2 minutes left to smattering of applause from the 5,000 or so rain-soaked fans who re- wained from a Beaver Stadium crowd f 92,000. Much of the crowd left at halftime fter Penn State (2-0, 4-0) had built a 7-0 over the Scarlet Knights(2-1). No. 23 Wisconsin 27, Indiana 15 Rrent Moss rushed for 198 yards held off Indiana's third-quarter rally and clinched the game with the 42- yard completion to DeRamus that set up a 4-yard TD pass to Matt Nyquist in the final period. Indiana (0-1, 3-1), which came in ranked sixth in the nation in total de- fense, was unable to stop the Badgers on a field soaked by a constant rain. No. 4 Notre Dame 17, Purdue 0 Purdue finally proved it can play with Notre Dame. The Boilermakers field goal and a 1-yard run by freshman Marc Edwards. It was Notre Dame's eighth straight win in the 97-year-old series, and its second consecutive shutout.. Northwestern 26, Wake Forest 14 Quarterback Len Williams passed for two touchdowns Saturday in lead- ing Northwestern to a 26-14 victory over Wake Forest. The Wildcats (0-0, 2-1), off to their best start since 1986, went up 16-0 29-yard TDpass to John Leach to make the score 19-14. But Northwestern ce- mented the win when Williams tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Mike Senters. Oregon 13, Illinois 7 Willy Tate's 87-yard touchdown catch and two field goals by Tommy Thompson gave Oregon a 13-7 victory. Saturday over Illinois. Oregon quarterback Danny O'Neil, passes for 375 yards and four touch- downs in his first college start, reduc- ing Marshall Faulk to a secondary role as San Diego State beat Minnesota, 48-17, Saturday night. Faulk, the two-time national rush- ing leader, carried 22 times for 81 yards and one touchdown as SDSU improved to 3-1. It was his fourth-lowestcareerrush- ing output, not including two games cut short by injury. He also had four TEAM STATISTICS First Downs MICH 32 UH 22