4 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, November 1, 1993 GAME STATISTICS w I S C I N S I H 1 I 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