4 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, November 1, 1993
GAME STATISTICS
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FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
Disputed interception
just one of many misses
PASSING-
Player C-A
Bevell 15-20
Totals 15-20
Yds TD Int
118 0 0
118 0 0
RUSHING
Player Att Yds
Moss 26128
Fletcher 9 78
Montgomery 6 17
Bevell 7 2
Totals 48225
Avg
4.9
8.7
2.8
.29
4.7
Lg
16
40
17
9
40
RECEIVING
Player No.
Dawkins 4
DeRamus 3
Montgomery 3
Roan 2
Nyguist 1
Fletcher 1
Moss 1
Totals 15
Yds
27
32
15
16
12:
9
7
118
Avg Lg
6.8 8
10.721
5.0 8
8.0 8
12.012
9.0 9
7.0 7
7.921
By RYAN HERRINGTON
DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER
MADISON -- While the Michigan offense was
sputtering for much of Saturday's 13-10 defeat at
Wisconsin, it had its opportunities in the fourth quar-
ter to take the lead against the Badgers. However,
several Wolverine players said that, it was the offi-
cials who prematurely ended one drive for Michigan.
Trailing by three, the Wolverines had the ball on
the Wisconsin 35 in a second-and-13 situation. Spread
out in the I-formation with DerrickAlexander on the
left side, quarterback Todd Collins faked a handoff to
Ed Davis and threw to Alexander who was in man-to-
man coverage with Badger safety Jeff Messenger.
"I turned around and I jumped for the ball and
(Messenger) pushed me in the back," Alexander said.
"Then the ref comes over and tells me that he didn't
call anything. I didn't see the ball."
Indeed, not only did the referee not call pass
interference but Messenger wound up intercepting
the pass, thwarting another Wolverine drive.
Whether Alexander was pushed or not varied,
depending on who you spoke with.
"They had sent the blitz and I got hit," Collins said.
"Then I threw it and it looked like the guy pushed
Derrick out of the way, and then he caught the ball. I
wasn't exactly sure what happened, but it look liked
a question of interference to me."
"It was all reaction because when the receiver
turned, it was an underthrownball ... and it was agreat
reaction by Messenger to look back," Wisconsin
coach Barry Alvarez said. "I don't know how he
caught it, but the ball was stuck in his hand on his hip."
While at the time his rage led him halfway onto the
field, Michigan coach Gary Moeller was more calm
during the postgame.
"The only thing I can say to you is if you were at
the game orwatching itonTV, you can draw your own
conclusions," Moeller said. "You know we are not
allowed to say anything about the officiating in this
league and I am not going to be talked into that."
RUNNING ON EmrY: As the Michigan ground
game sputtered during the first half of Saturday's
game against Wisconsin, accumulating only 10 yards
on 8 carries, one could only imagine what was going
through the mind of Tyrone Wheatley.
The junior tailback who had been averaging 118.3
yards a game for the Wolverines was back in Ann
Arbor, resting an injured right shoulder, sustained a
week earlier against Illinois. And while Moeller was
not making any excuses for his team's 13-10 defeat
against the Badgers, the loss of his explosive tailback
limited his offensive options.
"Obviously, you're going to miss a guy like
(Tyrone)," Moeller said. "There isn't any question it
hurt our football team, but we still should have won
thisgame. We should have won this football game and
I'm not taking anything away from them. I thought
they played very, very tough. I think they're a good
football team but in my opinion I thinkwe should have
won this football game."
Wheatley's replacements - Ed Davis, Ricky
Powers and Tim Biakabutuka - improved their
output somewhat in the second half but by that time
Wisconsin had a lead that the Wolverines could not
overcome. Davis finished the game as Michigan's
leading rusher with 69 yards on 16 carries.
"Anytime you lose a guy that could win the
Heisman Trophy you're going to miss him," Collins
said. "We started to run the football in the second half
and that was the biggest difference from the first half.
We started to control the line of scrimmage so that's
why we were successful."
RoIeN' RouiI' ROLUN': As the Michigan of-
fense encountered its woes, Wisconsin's running
game showed why it was the 11th ranking rushing
offense in the country. In the first half alone, the
Badgers had 30 rushes to the Wolverines eight and
gained 131 yards.
During the half, tailback Brent Moss eclipsed the
1,000-yard mark for the season. The Big Ten's lead-
ing rusher finished with 128 yards on the day, while
his partner, Terrel Fletcher, gained 78. As a unit,
Wisconsin had 225 total rushing yards.
The dominance on the ground allowed the Bad-
gers to control another vital statistic--time of posses-
sion. Wisconsin had the ball for 19:55 in the first half,
keeping an already undermaned Wolverine defense
on the field for eight- and nine-minute stretches.
"Our offense needed to help our defense and every
time we did something, we got a penalty," Moeller
said. "We come out and we get a first down and we got
holding. Every time we do something we get a pen-
alty."
FUTuRE BOwuNG PLANs? No Wolverine fan in
their wildest dreams could have imagined the night-
marish season Michigan has endured in 1993. With
predictions of national championships and return trips
to Pasadena almost booked in late August, the Wol-
verines are now in the incredible position of possibly
not even receiving a bowl bid.
Unlike any other must-win situation for Michigan
during the past few years, the Wolverines must win
two of their remaining three games in order to post the
6-5 record necessary for any sort postseason play.
"We're just not as good a football team as we
thought we were," Collins said. "I guess we were
resting on the laurels of the guys who went before us
and I guess we didn't earn it."
The last time Michigan did not play in a bowl game
was 1974when the Wolverineswent 10-1 andgrabbed
a piece of the Big Ten championship with Rose Bowl-
bound Ohio State, but under Big Ten rules could not
play in a bowl other than the Rose. The rule was
changed in the next season.
L
Senior running back Ricky Powers did
yard line in the third quarter Saturday
LOSS
Continued from page 1
the next series, regaining possession
with 8:33 remaining.
Again, Michigan was driving and
moved the ball down to the Wisconsin
21, when, on second-and-one, Collins
was sacked by linebacker Yusef Bur-
gess for a seven yard loss on the play
On third-and-eight Collins would
miss wideout Amani Toomer - the
Wolverines' top performer on the day
with six catches for 112 yards-with a
pass, forcing fourth down. Out of kicker
Pete Elezovic's range, Moeller went for
it and Wisconsin was ready, coming
with pressure on all sides of the line.
"They had a pretty good rush on the
right side so I had to side step the guy
and look for Walter Smith underneath,"
said Collins, who was 21-for-31 for 248
yards, "but it wasn't enough."
Smith had run a slant pattern over
the middle of the field but was stopped
by linebacker Chris Hein a yard short of
the first down mark, giving the ball to
Wisconsin to run out the remainder of
the clock.
"We had a couple great opportuni-
ties and we just let them slip away,"
Moeller said. "Particularly in the sec-
ond half, we should have possessed the
ball better."
"The offense controlled the ball in
the first half and kept the defense off of
the field," Alvarez said. "I think that
probably paid off in the end when they
(defense) weren't worn out and could
come up and make some plays."
While the Wolverines offense was
not rolling over the Badgers in the sec-
ond half - scoring only once on a
seven-yard TD reception by Alexander
in the third quarter, cutting the halftime
deficit of 13-3 down to a three-point
spread -it was performing better than
it had for the first 30 minutes of the
game. Without the services of the in-
jured TyroneWheatley,Michigancould
manage only 10 yards on the ground in
the first half and 111 total.
"They played good defense on us,"
Collins said. "They were executing bet-
ter than we did. We're not a very good
football team right now."
Take away Toomer's 54-yard re-
ception late in the second quarter, which
led to the Wolverines' lone score in the
half - a 22-yard field goal by Pete
Elezovic-and the numbers look even
more dismal to Moeller.
"Wedidnotcomeouttoplayinthefirst
half," Moeller said. "And obviously that
was expressed to them at halftime. That
first half we went out there like we didn't
even come to show up."
Yet by that halftime speech, the
damage had been done. Wisconsin had
mounted successive drives of 16 and 21
plays in its first two possession of the
game, consuming 17:53 and resulting
in two field goals by freshman Rick
Schnetzky, who made his kicking de-
but, giving the Badgers a 6-0 lead. On
the two drives alone, the nation's sec-
ond leading rusher, Brent Moss, gained
80 of his 128 yards on the day.
"You can't be a good football team
unless you stop somebody else's run-
ning the ball," Moeller said. "The one
thing we did do was keep them to field
goals other than that one they broke off
on the draw play, which was sad."
The play in question put the game
out of reach for Michigan. Just as Notre
Dame had done six weeks earlier, the
Badgers and QB Darrell Bevell (15-
for-22,118 yards) mounted an impres-
sive hurry-up offense in the closing
minutes of the half, working the clock
with short, sideline routes.
Moving the ball to the Michigan 12,
Alvarez called on his second-string tail-
back, Terrell Fletcher. Thejunior looked
to be wrapped up at the line of scrim-
mage only to spin away from Gannon
Dudlar and allude two other Michigan
defenders for what turned out to be
Wisconsin's final, but game-winning
score.
"It's very disheartening," Collins
said about the loss. "I really don't know
how to deal with this one."
Moss
PUNTING
Player
Veit
Totals
No. Yds Avg Lg
414837.040
415739.347
PUNT RETURNS
Player No. Yds Avg Lg
Nelson 2 8 4.0 4
Totals 2 8 4.0 4
KICKOFF RETURNS
Player No. Yds Avg Lg
McCulloch 2 34 17 19
Totals 3 8 2.6 9
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ohio State running back Raym*
Harris is nicknamed the "Quiet Storm.'
But there was nothing quiet about his
performance in a storm Saturday .at
Ohio State.
Harris rushed for a career-high 151
yards and a touchdown as the Buckeyes
beat Penn State 24-6 to remain on track
for their first Rose Bowl bid in nine
years.
"It's a luxury to run behind a li
that's knocking people off the bal
Harris said. "We have the best offen-
sive line in the country, and it makes it
easy for me to run behind them."
The win kept Ohio State (5-0 Big
Ten, 8-0 overall) atop the league stand-
ings and virtually eliminated Penn State
(2-2, 5-2) from title contention.
"I can smell a very faint smell of
roses," said Harris, who carried 32times
and topped his previous high of 1@
yards against Purdue last week and
Illinois in 1990.
The victory extended Ohio State's
regular-season unbeated streak to 14
games (13-0-1). It was the second
straight defeat for Penn State, which
had a week off after losing to Michigan
Oct. 16.
Penn State had won five of its six
previous games in Ohio Stadium.
"Wegotbehindandwehadto thr$
the ball more than we wanted to," Penn
State coach Joe Paterno said.
After the game, about 5,000 people
flooded the north end of the field, but
only succeeded in bending the goal
post. Authorities used a chemical spray
to disperse the crowd.
Three police officers were injured
by fans throwing beer bottles a
punches,U
The Red Cross treated one person
for inhaling mace-and another person
was taken from the scene after being
walked on.
Indiana 10, Michigan State 0
A fourth-down gamble paid off big
for Indiana (4-1,7-1). Jim DiGuilio ran
24 yards for a first down on a fake punt,
setting up the game's only touchdown
his new role in stride and never felt
uncomfortable about following Grbac.
"He's been to the Rose Bowl twice
in the past two years. In the past he had
a lot of success here," Collins said. "It's
going to be pretty tough to equal the
number of times he went to the Rose
Bowl."
Now after four losses, including
three in the Big Ten, Collins, to
credit, does not feel any extra pressure
to do what Elvis did.
"I think it's a team game. I know
Elvis was the quarterback, but it wasn't
just because of him they went to the
DEFENSE
Player
Hein
Fowler
Shackerford
Thompson
Jurewicz
Burgess
Unverzagt
Gales
Holt
Nelson
Lurtsema
Diatelevi
Messenger
Hall
Montgomery
Cascadden
Wirth
Tac Ast Tot
3
4
5
8
2
5
10
7
8
7
1
1
5
1
1
2
1
1
Strong safety Moss in Saturday's loss to Wisconsin. h ne Peoples corrals Badger Brent s
COLLINS
Continued from page 2.
addition to the Houston and Okla-
homa State starts going into his first
season as a collegiate starter. He had
already taken over the reigns from a
successful starting quarterback.
mo.
At Walpole (Mass.) High School,
former Iowa quarterback Matt Rodgers
had already led the school to a state
championship when Todd's brother,
year, he earned all-league honors while
throwing for 1,500 yards and 14 touch-
downs.
As impressive as those numbers
are, Collins further distinguished him-
self his senior year. After breaking an
ankle in the fifth game of the season,
Collins returned just a few weeks later
to throw two touchdown passes in his
first four attempts.
He finished the season by helping
his team win the state championship
and earning All-America honors from
Super Prep magazine.
"He always stood out against any
athlete at Walpole," his older sister
for football," John said. "Even though
there was interest in baseball, he had
more ability in football, and we always
thought football."
Nonetheless, baseball coach Bill
U..
Already having his name embla-
zoned in the Michigan record books,
Collins came into this season facing
expectations as high as the expectations
of4 ~thetnm
1 f*1