4 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 10, 1995
Dreisbach is the man
for now
Moeller says the redshirt freshman would start if first game was tomorrow
By Darren Everson
Daily Sports Editor
Jason Carr opened Saturday's
scrimmage by fumbling the snap from
center. Recovering his own fumble
only led to more misery, as line-
backer Rob Swett intercepted the
senior quarterback's first pass on the
next play.
That's not the performance Carr
was looking for -not with the start-
ing quarterback position up for grabs.
"Yeah, he dropped the first snap,"
lineman Joe Marinaro said, "but at
the end of the first half and the start of
the second half he looked really
good."
Despite fumbling the snap from
center once more, Carr managed to
complete 5 of 7 passes for 50 yards.
After hitting running back Chris
Floyd on a screen and connecting on
some short passes to the tight ends,
Carr rolled out and hit Jeff Hall for 16
yards, his best-looking throw of the
day.
Even still, Scott Dreisbach
emerged from the spring practice-
ending scrimmage ahead of Carr and
the other four signal-callers. Coach
Gary Moeller said that the redshirt
freshman would be his starter "if the
season began tomorrow."
Driesbach hit 6 of 10 passes for
57 yards on the day. He didn't do
anything extraordinary, though, and
Moeller isn't about to hand him the
starting job.
"I don't think the (quarterback is-
sue) will everbe closed," Moeller said.
"It won't be until we get (into) fall
ball."
Although Moeller wouldn't com-
ment on who Driesbach's closest com-
petitor is, Brian Griese played well
enough to deserve that recognition.
He completed 6 of 11 passes on the
afternoon, good for 109 yards.
Griese appeared to be at his best
throwing deep. He connected with
wide receiver Amani Toomer on long
throws on two different occasions,
one of them being a 50-yarder down
the sideline. That set up a nine-yard
touchdown pass to wideout Anthony
Williams, his second TD throw of the
day.
"Amani's doing a good job for us,
and I've been getting better with the
timing with him," Griese said.
"(The quarterback situation) is
going to be kind of tense, but it's
going to keep our competitive juices
going."
Michigan's starting quarterback
in the fall will most likely come from
the Carr-Dreisbach-Griese group. How-
ever, three other Wolverines ran the
offense during Saturday's scrimmage.
Scott Loeffler, a sophomore from
Barberton, Ohio, hit 4 of 5 passes for
21 yards. His best throw, a fade-pat-
tern toss to wide receiver Tyrone
Butterfield in the end zone, was called
back, as Butterfield was flagged for
interfering with Andre Weathers.
Freshman Ed Kiser threw three
short passes for 33 yards as he di-
rected a methodical drive that ended
in a missed 44-yard field goal. Colby
Keefer also threw just three passes
but ended up with an interception and
only 17 total yards.
"In (the quarterbacks') defense,
there's too many of them," Moeller
said. "As a quarterback, the most
you'd want to compete against is one
other guy. Not because you wouldn't
like the other competition; there's not
enough snaps."
While having so many quarterbacks
cuts into each player's time on the
field, there was plenty of hitting to go
around.
"You're never going to find out
what they're going to be like if you
don't hit them," Moeller said.
"They've got to be out there and get
hit just like everybody else.
"Sure there's a possibility of an
injury, and the good news is, from
that standpoint, we didn't get any-
body banged up."
So, Michigan has six quarterbacks
- all of them healthy and each hav-
ing his moments in Saturday's scrim-
mage. With spring practice now a
memory, the Wolverines' offensive
leader has hardly been determined.
"When you have a few (quarter-
backs) in the huddle at different times,
you've got different cadences, differ-
ent leadership styles, it's hard to really
settle on one," said tight end Jay
Riemersma. "(Looking for a quarter-
back) is a new thing, but historically
Michigan has always had a quarter-
back step up."
0
Quarterback Comparison
These are the quarterback statistics from Saturday's scrimmage.
Comp.-Att
Brian Griese
Scott Dreisbach
Jason Carr
Scot Loeffler
Ed Kiser
Colby Keefer
6-11
6-10
5-7
4-5
3-3
1t3
Yards
109
57
50
21
33
17,
Ints.
0
0
1
TDs
2
0
0
0
0
0
Redshirt-freshman Scott Dreisbach completed 6-of-10 passes for 57 yards
in Michigan's spring game Saturday. Six Wolverine quarterbacks
combined to throw for 282 yards in the contest.
New year springs refreshed
attitude for upcoming season
mani Toomer could
easily have gone to the
National Football League
after last season. The Michigan
wide-receiver caught 54 balls for
1096 yards in 1994, and was
named first team All-Big Ten.
Instead, Toomer made the
decision to stay at Michigan, and,
like Tyrone Wheatley before him,
he's hoping that it pays off.
"We really want to go back to
the Rose Bowl. It's been tough the
past two years with some tough
breaks so we want to put it all
together," he said after Saturday's
spring game. "I think this is the
year that we're all going to come
together."
No one need remind Michigan
fans exactly how "tough" the past
two seasons have been.
The Wolverines have lost eight
games in those two years - three
more than in the rest of coach Gary
Moeller's years at the Michigan helm
combined.
All that is in the past now,
though, put there by yesterday's
spring football game - the first
glimpse of next season's squad.
The Wolverines no longer have
to wonder what went wrong and can
again concentrate on what might be.
"You can't dwell on the past and
there's not much there to dwell on,"
senior tight-end Jay Riemersma said.
Michigan already has a head
start on doing things differently
than last year.
Instead of the same old split-the-
team-into-two-and-play-a-game, the
Wolverines played offense against
defense and used a screwy scoring
system that was overseen by the
game's "Commissioner" - Moeller.
The change
was made
because of
injuries during
practice, but it
allowed for
such unusual
events as the
defense picking
up a point for a
third-down stop
outside the 30-
yard line.
It was a new
start to a new
season.
RYAN
WHITE
White on
Target
season were to start tomorrow, his
quarterback would be redshirt-
freshman Scott Dreisbach.
The season doesn't start
tomorrow, though; it begins Aug.
26 against Virginia, and a lot could
happen between now and then.
The other worry for Moeller is
in the secondary where he lost Ty
Law to the NFL.
The Wolverines are looking to
use a more aggressive defensive
scheme this season which will put
more pressure on their defensive
backs that were susceptible to big
plays last season.
Problems aside, Michigan has
switched focuses. Forgotten are
losses to Colorado, Penn State,
Wisconsin and Ohio State.
They've been replaced by
Toomer's visions of Roses.
It's easy to be cynical about all the.
talk of new attitudes and the team
finally coming together. Two years
ago Michigan came into the season
talking National Championship -
then lost to Notre Dame.
Last season the Wolverines
returned their Rose Bowl goal, only
to drop three Big Ten games.
But it's a new spring, a new
season, a new team and it's nice to
hear a positive outlook for the year
ahead.
And while Toomer's Rose Bowl
talk sounds like famous last words -
you couldn't expect any less or want
any more from any of the Wolverines
as they look toward another season.
"It's always nice to start from
scratch after a season like last," senior
offensive guard Joe Marinaro said.
"This spring everyone seems a little
more enthusiastic."
Ask anyone around the team and
they'll tell you the exact same thing.
Two weeks ago Moeller said that
the team's attitude this spring is the best
that it has been in two or three years.
None of that talk, however, should
hide the fact that there are still some
major question marks surrounding
this football team.
The biggest is still who will
replace last season's quarterback
Todd Collins.
According to Moeller, if the
EVAN PETRIE/Daily
Sophomore Chris Floyd rushed for 80 yards on 17 carries Saturday. The Wolverines' No. 1 tailback, Tshimanga
Blakabutuka, sat out the game with a knee injury. He'll be ready for the Virginia game, Aug. 26.
FOOTBALL
Continued from page 1
Williams on a nine-yard scoring play
less than five minutes into the third.
That score came just two downs after
Griese hooked up with All-American
candidate Amani Toomer on a play
that covered 50 yards to the Blue 15-
yard line.
Carr got off to a rocky beginning
after getting the nod from Moeller to
start. The fifth-year senior looked like
the Jason Carr of a year ago, when he
was 2-of-8 for 10 yards with one inter-
ception.
He fumbled the first snap from cen-
ter and had his first pass picked off by
linebacker Rob Swett. The Wolverines
went three-and-out on his second se-
ries and Carr began the third set of
downs by fumbling his second of only
six snaps.
To his credit, he rebounded nicely
to finish 5-of-7 for 50 yards with the
one interception. Overall, Michigan fin-
ished a combined 25-of-39 for 282
yards and two touchdowns and three
interceptions.
"I thought that Dreisbach and Griese
played pretty well," tight end Jay
Riemersma said. "When we were in
there, Dreisbach took us down on one
drive and showed pretty good leader-
ship."
Unfortunately for Michigan, the
defensive unit brought back memo-
ries of the squad a year ago that
surrendered a school-record 268
points. The Blue allowed 385 yards
of total offense Saturday.
"I was a little disappointed in our
defense,"Moellersaid. "We took some
of our starters out, but I would have
liked to see it be a lower scoring game
than it was."
With Tshimanga Biakabutuka
and Ed Davis out because of inju-
ries, sophomores Chris Floyd and
Chris Howard got the bulk of the
carries out of the backfield. Both
backs rushed 17 times, with Floyd
gaining 80 yards and Howard net-
ting 44 yards. Floyd also caught
five passes for 25 yards.
"Our running-back situation could
be healthy," Moeller said. "We just
don't want to bang guys up. I'd love to
put two tailbacks in the backfield at
some time."
.
The 1995
Wolverine
football
schedule
Aug. 26
Sept. 2
Sept. 9
Sept. 16
Sept. 30
Oct. 7
PIGSKIN CLASSIC
vs. Virginia
at Illinois
MEMPHIS
at Boston College
MIAMI OF OHIO
NORTHWESTERN
White 45,Blue 44
Offensive statistics (White) I
RUSHING: Chris Floyd, 17-80; Chris Howard, 17-44; George Howell, 6-13; Tom Mondry, 5-13; Brian
Griese, 2+7); Scot Loefler, 2-(18); Jason Carr, 7-(-22).
01
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