The Michigan Daily -- SPORTSMonday - Monday, September 12, 1994 - 5 ..1: ii 0 T R E B A E 2 4 fOOTBALL NOTEBOOK GAME STATISTICS I I "IlN I Mistake-free Becton looses his grip on ball By BRETT FORREST and MICHAEL ROSENBERG Daily Football Writers NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame tailback Lee Becton fumbled twice against Michigan. The first time the ball was stripped by Clarence Thompson at the Notre Dame 18 and recovered by Tony Henderson. Then, in the third quarter, Becton was about to spring loose when he was hit by Michigan defensive lineman Jason Horn. The ball popped loose and Wolverine Trevor Pryce jumped on it. The fumbles were way out of character for Becton, who had fumbled only once before in his career, in the 1993 Cotton Bowl. He had gone 233 consecutive carries without coughing it up. "Lee went all last year without a fumble," Irish coach Lou Holtz said. "We thought it was best to sit him for a series (after the second fumble). He has been a fine player here, made some great plays and will continue to." HOLTZ AGAINST THE BLUE: In his coaching career, Holtz stands even against Michigan, 5-5-1 (5-3-1 while at Notre Dame). Saturday's loss gave Holtz a .500 home record against the Wolverines (2-2-1). Michigan coach Gary Moeller and Holtz are now even with each other as well (2-2-1). TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING: Notre Dame's last-minute loss by way field goal Saturday was reminiscent of the defeat the Irish suffered at the hands of Boston College, Nov. 20th of last season. The game against the Eagles was also the last home game for the Irish. The last time Notre Dame lost two in a row at home was in 1984. Head coach Gerry Faust led his squad to consecutive losses to Air Force, 21-7, on Oct. 13, and South Carolina, 36-32, the following Saturday. NmH IN THE '90s: Michigan entered the weekend as the ninth-winningest team in this decade, with 37 wins. Florida State leads the nation with 45 wins in the 1990s. Michigan was the 10th-winningest team in the 1980s and third in the 1970s. Since 1970, Michigan has won 213 games. AMAm IN THE BANK: Michigan junior wide receiver Amani Toomer is one of ten initial nominees for the first annual Biletnikoff Award, given to the best receiver in the college game. The other nine nominees are: J.J. Stokes of UCLA, Joey Galloway of Ohio State, Michael Westbrook of Colorado, Bobby Engram of Penn State, Jack Jackson of Florida, Kez McCorvey of Florida State, Mike Adams of Texas, Brice Hunter of Georgia, and Eddie Goines of N.C. State. Galloway, Westbrook and Engram all face Michigan this season. EVERYWHERE BUT SCOREKEEPERS: The Michigan-Notre Dame game will be televised tomorrow to over 100 countries, including Zimbabwe. So if you're flying to Zimbabwe tonight and you missed the game, don't fret. You can catch it on the tube tomorrow. PASSIN Player Powlus Tot. RUSHIN Player Becton Zellars Kinder Powlus Edwards Totals Aft 13 13 3 13 2 44 Yds 76 61 11 10 7 165 Avg 5.8 4.7 3.7 0.8 3.5 165 C-A YdsTD 15-27 187 2 1.5x27 187 2 Int 0 0 Lg 21 16 6 16 8 21 Tim Biakabatuka ran for 100 yards on 25 carries. His eight-yard touchdown put Michigan ahead, 7-3. OSEs Continued from page 12 final gun was fired to end the third quarter, the scoreboard read: Michi- gan 20, Notre Dame 17. But that, as they say in all those previous volumes of Notre Dame folk- logre, was just the beginning. *The teams went back and forth in the fourth quarter until Michigan fi- nally managed to kick a field goal. Wolverine fans celebrated. How na- ive, The field goal gave Michigan a sixpoint lead with 2:08 to go, which gave Notre Dame freshman Ron Powlus a chance to march his team downfield and score the winning touchdown and then get carried off field by several thousand joyous C executives. Powlus proceeded to lead the Fighting Irish straight into Michigan territory, a textbook Notre Dame comeback. This should surprise none of you Irish mystique-makers, because you guys are always talking about how Notre Dame players carry text- books with them everywhere, even to football games, in case they should, * example, want to study during halftime. At this point it was obvious to everyone that Notre Dame was going to win, and Powlus' pretty touch- down pass to flanker Derrick Mayes was regarded as a mere formality. The extra point gave the Fighting Irish a 24-23 lead. Wow. This Powlus kid learns quick. Too quick, as it turns out, because kid left 52 seconds on the clock for Michigan to work with, and in foot- ball, as in economics class, 52 sec- onds, can seem like forever. Collins answered Powlus, driving the Wolverines downfield. Take tha4 freshman. Suddenly Michigan had the ball on Notre Dame's 33, with time for just one play to get them into field- goal range. Just minutes earlier, not far from this very spot, Collins had been hit from behind and fumbled the ball over to Notre Dame. It was the kind of play that players replay in their minds again and again if they lose. From the start, the play did not look good for Michigan. Collins was immediately flushed out of the pocket. Fighting Irish linebacker Bert Berry decided that Collins would look much nicer with his head embedded in the field, and grabbed the quarterback by the jersey. As he was pulled down, Collins somehow completed a pass to Seth Smith, who scrambled for nine yards before diving out of bounds. There. Collins had done his part. Now all Michigan needed was a 42-yard field goal. From a guy who, until Saturday, had only made one field goal in his career. It would have been great if Remy Hamilton had just kicked the winning field goal. People would be talking about it for ages, like they talk about the Four Horsemen and George Gipp and Joe Montana's Cotton Bowl comeback, about how Hamilton was an untested player who came through in the game's final moments. But you know how these legends are. You always need to keep tugging at the heartstrings. So it wasn't enough that Hamilton kicked the winning field goal. You also have to bring up that since com- ing to school he had been injured, frustrated, and had lost confidence in himself. He was thinking of transfer- ring. "You have to realize where this kid's come from," special teams coach Mike DeBord said. "He's come from not being able to kick an extra point or a field goal to hitting them like he's hitting them today." He was ready to change schools, but instead changed his work habits. He practiced and practiced all sum- mer. He became the best kicker on the team. The coaches tried Erik Lovell for a week, but when that didn't work out, they had no problem going to Hamilton. HARD WORK MAKES HAMILTON HERO, you could call this chapter. But then you would be leaving out that special bit of historical inspira- tion found in most of your previous chapters. When Remy Hamilton arrived at college, he was given the number 19. That was the number worn by his team's last great kicker, Mike Gillette. Hamilton had never met Gillette, but. he knew all about him. Saturday morning, Mike Gillette walked up to Remy Hamilton. "I met him today and he said, 'I don't know if you know who I am. I'm Mike Gillette. Just go out there and have a good day."' Hamilton said. Thus inspired by a hero from the past, Hamilton kicked the winning field goal. "Kids always have their own ways of trying to do things and a guy that's been there before can sometimes speak their language better than a coach," Moeller said. "You can look at me and tell I wasn't a placekicker." I'm telling you, it's perfect. An- other chapter in the folklore. Powlus RECEIVING Player Mayes Miller Zellars Stafford Becton Totals No. Yds AvgLg 7 3 2 2 1 Is 106 24 31 25 1 187 15.133 8.013 15.517 12.514 1.0 1 12.533 PUNTING Player No. Yds AvgLg Ford Totals 5 5 199 199 39.8 47 39.847 PUNT RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg Lg Miller 2 18 9.0 12 Totals 2 18 9.012 KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg Lg Miller Chryplewicz Totals DEFENSE 5 12925.8 1 4 4.0 6 13322.2 55 4 5E Penn State sends Southern Cal packing; Purdue finally wins one Linebacker Trevor Prye sacks quarterback Ron Powlus. W No.8 Penn St. 38, No.14 South- rn Cal 14 Kerry Collins passed for two of Penn State's five first-half touch- lowns and the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions went on to beat No. 14 South- -rn Cal 38-14. Penn State (2-0) led 21-0 less than ight minutes into the game and 35-0 halftime. Southern Cal (1-1) scored only on auincy Harrison's 68-yard intercep- ion return in the third quarter. Purdue 51, Toledo 17 Corey Rogers rushed for 129 yards ind three touchdowns and Joe Hagins, itarter on defense. carried for two in the first half and finished with 191 as Indiana defeated Miami (0-2), 35- 14. Smith carried 26 times in the first half and sat out the fourth quarter as Indiana (2-0) took command. No. 25 Washington 25, No. 18 Ohio State 16 Napoleon Kaufman squirted his way to a career-best 211 yards and scored a touchdown to lead No. 25 Washington to a 25-16 victory over 18th-ranked Ohio State. Washington (1-1) scored three touchdowns and led 19-0 in the first quarter, then had to hang on to beat Ohio State (1-1). Doxzon and Robby Duncan into 17 points and beat the Cyclones 37-9. Iowa (2-0) committing three turn- overs, including Ryan Terry's fumble into the end zone, and Iowa State (0- 2) turning it over four times. Leading 13-3 at halftime, Iowa broke it open after Doxzon fumbled on Iowa State's first two plays from scrimmage in the third quarter. Minnesota 33, Pacific 7 Chris Darkins rushed 33 times for a career-high 179 yards and a touch- down and turned a short pass into a 47-yard scoring play as Minnesota rebounded from an opening-game embarrassment to beat Pacific 33-7. COLLINS Continued from page 1 sealed. When Notre Dame linebacker Bert Berry grabbed Collins around the waist at midfield, the planned-for sack looked to be in the making. "I felt like I was just about ready to go down," Collins said. He went down all right, but not before spinning and throwing com- plete to wide receiver Seth Smith. "I was kind of worried as I twirled to my left that my momentum was going the other way and the ball was going to sail to the right," Collins said. "I thought at first it might get nicked off." Player Magee Nau Goheen Wynn Gibson Saddler Taylor Grasmanis Hamilton Sample Wooden Davis Cobbins Cengia McLaughlin Berry Moore Graham Zataveski SACKS Player Nau B. Taylor Tac 3 3 1 4 1 1 1 0 3 1 3 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 Ast 6 5 7 3 5 4 4 5 1 3 0 1 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 Toi 9 8 8 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 No. 2 1 Yds -11 22 -