The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday,October4,1993-5 I 0 W A 7 s don't dig field's divots les cause concern for coaches, grounds crews GAME STATISTICS PASSING Player C-A Yds TD Burmeister2l-34248 1 Totals 21-34 248 1 Fielding Hawkeye Nick Gallery's punt at the 29, Alexander dug into the grass to make a cut and peeled off a piece of sod from the ground. The restof the game provided simi- Larepisodes, none of them revealed as raphically as arun by Michigan full- back Ch6 Foster, who tore up the field -literally. As he lined up for a snap The god thing Is It as just as bad for Ichlgan as It was for owa' - Hayden Fry Iowa football coach y in the second half, Foster set imself over some loose turf and re- lved the problem by picking up the ffending sod and flinging it toward e sideline. "There's big divots coming up and it's half a foot down deep with dirt where the sod was," Collins said. "But the fact of the matter is, there's noth- ing you can do about it. It's not going to get a lot better, either." Neither side seemed to think that the field condition was much of a factor. "The good thing is it was just as bad for Michigan as it was for Iowa," Fry said. "You can't complain about stuff like that," tailback Tyrone Wheatley said. "It was loose in some parts, but you just have to pick up your feet and keep going." If the plan to replace the section works out, Wheatley may not have anything to complain about. The cur- rent section - which was installed after the Notre Dame game to replace loose turf put in during preseason -is scheduled to be removed this week. Roberts said the sand base of the special Prescription Athletic Turf - designed to drain more efficiently than a regular field -was too thin and did not allow the sod to take root. "We're going to put some wider, thicker sod in and that should do the trick," said Todd Williams, who spent the afternoon helping Roberts try to keep the field playable. Penn State, which is trying to re- place its entire field before its show- down with Michigan Oct.16, is using strips of sod longer, wider and thicker than the ones Michigan originally used. Roberts said he will try the same strat- egy with 4-by-100-feet pieces of two- inch thick turf. "It's not necessarily going to take root," he said, "but we're hoping that being that big, it'll hold down, just the weight of the sod itself." The schedule will help the Michi- gan Stadium sod. The Wolverines are on the road for two consecutive weeks. "It'll cost a lot, but it's got to be taken care of," Roberts added. "Foot- ball makes a lot of money, so it's got to be done." t 1 RUSHING Player Att Yds Avg Lg Terry 16 40 2.5 13 Shaw 4 24 6.0 13 King 1 3 3.0 3 Burmeister 9(-)19(-)2.111 Totals 30 48 1.6 13 OUNDIJ Penn State, Ohio State ~aUELAYED O. 29teemolisn opponents "I think this is the best football eam we've ever had," Ohio State oach John Cooper said. "I like the hemistry." Northwestern (0-1,2-2) was seek- ts first three-game winning streak ince 1971. The Wildcats came in veraging 335 yards a game, but were imitedto 162 yards-86rushing and 6 passing. It was the third game in a o that an opponent didnothave 100 rards rushing against Ohio State. The Buckeyes had 428 yards of otal offense. linois 28, Purdue 10 4Foph omoreJohnny Johnson threw or three touchdowns in his first colle- iate start as Illinois beat Purdue, 28- 0, Saturday. Johnson completed scoring passes f 32 yards to Ty Douthard, 24 to ason Dulick and 28 yards to Kevin ackson. Johnson was named the start- ng quarterback to replace freshman cott Weaver after Illinois lost its first games for the first time since 972. The elusive Johnson consistently rustrated Purdue defenders while shing for 32 yards and passing for 66. Illinois (1-0,1-3) turned two con-. utive fumbles by Purdue (0-1,1-3) nto touchdowns in the third quarter. diana 23, Minnesota 19 ohn Paci passed for 255 yards d Jermaine Chaney rushed for 109 ards, both career highs, and Indiana eld Big Ten total offense leader Tim chade to 62 passing yards as the oosiers beat Minnesota 23-19 Sat- day night. After completing only eight of 21 asses, Schade was benched with innesota trailing, 20-3, early in the quarter. Backup Scott Eckers w two touchdown passes to Omar uglas. The second, a 12-yarder with :42 to go, came one play after Paci as intercepted by Juan Hunter. ButIndiana (1-1,4-1), stopped the Gophers (0-2, 1-4) on downs with 1:39 to play. Alfonzo Thurman and Jason Orton broke up passes for the Hoosiers, who entered with the Big Ten's top-ranked defense. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Lance Brown inter- cepted a pass by Eckers in the end zone. Paci was 18-of-32 to surpass his previous best of 204 yards, set against Minnesota last year in his first career start. His favorite target was Thomas Lewis, who caught five passes for 123 yards. MI'ULL" UY/Uay The Michigan grounds crew was busy at work repairing the tom-up turf on the south end of the field Saturday. Several times during the game, pieces of sod were ripped from the field by scrambling players. FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK Is Heisman Trophy still in cards for Wheatley? By RYAN HERRINGTON DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER Are 202 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns good enough to stay in Heisman contention? While Tyrone Wheatley continued his crusade for the coveted award Saturday against Iowa, the junior tailback's numbers were ordinary by his personal standards. Wheatley - who was second in the country in rushing and first in all-purpose yards prior to Saturday's contest - ran for only 113 yards on 28 carries, taking two into the end zone on the ground. He had been averaging 144.7 yards per game. Despite such "paltry" statistics, Wheatley was the Wolverines' main offen- sive threat in their 24-7 victory over the Hawkeyes. Using a more conservative game plan than in previous weeks, Michigan coach Gary Moeller relied heavily on Wheatley's running abilities. Suffice it to say, he was pleased with his star's performance. "This game today was him," Moeller said. "He's something special." In addition to his rushing output, Wheatley had a career-high 60 yards receiving, including an impressive 48-yard TD reception from Todd Collins. On the play, Collins threw a short pass over the middle to Wheatley, who proceeded to elude two Iowa defenders and sprint 40 more yards for the score. It was the longest Michigan passing play this season. Afterward, Collins thanked Wheatley for his effort. "He's a big luxury," Collins said." I probably threw the ball three yards and he made it into a 48-yard touchdown. It helps my statistics (to throw to him)."' Having a big game against Iowa is nothing new for Wheatley. Last season, he rushed for224 yards and three touchdowns in the Wolverines' 52-28 victory. Wheatley's accomplishments thus far this season have gone a long way to making him a permanent fixture in the Michigan record books. His three-yard TD run in the third quarter was his 35th career score as a Wolverine, moving him past Rick Leach to third on the all-time Michigan touchdown list. It was also Wheatley's 30th rushing TD, putting him one shy of Steve Smith and Billy Taylor for second in career rushing touchdowns. Smith and Taylor each have 31. With the Heisman spotlight growing evermore intense, Wheatley said he is focused on but one thing - the team. "I look at every game being tough, but I don't look at every game for the Heisman," Wheatley said. FLAGS A FLYING: With 138 yards on 16 plays, referee Ron Winter was the game leader in yards on the ground during Saturday's penalty-mired contest. When he was not explaining a call to the 105,432 in attendance, Winter was either throwing his flag or marking off yardage. The Wolverines almost doubled their season average of 5.7 penalties per game when they were flagged nine times for a total of 72 yards. "I'm not happy with it," Moeller said after the game. "I don't care what the reason is. You've got to cut it out. You can't self-destruct. It's something we work on hard, but we'll work on it harder." Moeller was particularly critical of a second-quarter penalty by right tackle Mike Sullivan. The Wolverines had a first-and-goal situation on the eight-yard line when Sullivan was called for holding on a Wheatley' draw. The penalty pushed the ball back to the 18. Michigan would have to settle fora 39-yard field goal attempt by Pete Elezovic, which was wide left. "That's ridiculous by the individual they called the play on," Moeller said. "You never get called for holding on the draw play, regardless." The sloppy play was not confined to Michigan's side of the field. Iowa had seven penalties for 66 yards. BOMBS AwAY7: Saturday marked the first game in which Collins has started a game at Michigan and thrown for less than 200 yards. The junior signal caller went 13-for-19 for 178 yards in his first Big Ten start and was not surprised that the Wolverine strategy would be to keep the ball on the ground. "We faced a seven-man front where (Iowa) had two corners on the line taking away our wide receivers, so really there's no place to pass," Collins said. "It's just indicative of the defense we faced so we tried to run the ball." "We knew we wanted to run the football a little bit more today," Moeller said. "I wanted to get that accomplished. I wanted to control the clock a little bit." Despite the change in offensive emphasis, Collins was still happy with his passing and the outcome of Michigan's conference opener. "I think our passing attack was effective today and got us a couple critical third-down conversions, especially in the first half," Collins said. "I think that even though we didn't win by a big margin, the feeling of the team was that it was a big win. For me it was a big win because it was my first Big Ten win." ALEXANDER GREAT AGAIN: After sitting on the sideline for three weeks with a sprained right ankle, senior wide out Derrick Alexander returned to the line up against Iowa. Without missing a step, Alexander led the team in both receptions (four) and receiving yards (72). Player Jasper Roussell Kahl Shaw Odems King Terry Dean Slutzker Totals RECEIVING 14 21248 No. 5 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 Yds 102, 34 21 26 25 15 9 12 Avg Lg 20.443 11.3 22 7.012 13.021 12.516 7.5 9 4.5 5 12.012 4.0 4 11,843 Burmeister PUNTING Player Stapleton Totals No. 3. 3' Yds Avg Lg 12140.343 12140.343 PUNT RETURNS Player Guy Totals No. 2 2 Yds 17 17 Avg 8.5 8.5. Lg 13 13 KICKOFF RETURNS Player Shaw Kahl Totals No. 4 1 5 Yds Avg Lg 6817.0 20 1 1.01 6913.820 MICHELLE GUY/Daily With Gary Moeller running a more conservative game plan against the Hawkeye Saturday, Michigan quarterback Todd Collins threw only 19 passes. s Improved. d. I don't think we have. We can't self- h penaltIes. I don't feel now. We're a better - Gary Moeller Michigan football coach Harold Jasper said he thought is team did not need them. "We hadchancestoscoreon them," asper said. "We got down the field, but we just didn't score. It's hard to n (trick) plays inside the 20." it. "I feel extremely good about my defensive football team. Time after time, they stopped Michigan down in there close," Fry said. "They only had one or two good drives that scored. They made a lot of drives but we shut them down. I'm tickled to death with my defense." Although Collins was only sacked once and did not feel the heat as often as Burmeister, tickled didnot describe his feelings of the Iowa defenders. "They took away a lot of the things that we like to throw." Collins said. "I think the passing attack was effective today, and got us some key third down conversions today. "When you get down inside the 20, you run out of room down there," he added. "It's a lot more difficult to pass, you can't run any deep routes. The end zone is down there and it's like a 12th defender." Peoples' interception keyed the last Michigan score. The senior picked off Burmeister at Iowa's 31 and returned it three yards. Five plays later, Wheatley jumped across the goal line on a three-yard run. DEFENSE Player Dailey Blue Crain Wildeman Wells Olejniczak Diaco Porter Hartlieb Sether Hilliard Boone Webb Bates Palmer Plate Robinson Tac 11 4 6 5 5 3 5 5 4 3 1 1 1 I 1 1 0 Ast Tot 0 11 48 0 6 1 6 1 6 3 6 0 5 0 5 1 5 2 5 2 3 1 2 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 Ft I.