TEXAS A&M 22, MICHIGAN 20 Blue should remember the Rose Bowl and the Alamo seemed to tail off, though, as the half wore on. So did Griese's veness. Michigan quarterback was 5- in the third and fourth quarters, ig eight in airow at one point. ason? The pressure. wears on you, to be honest," s d. t obably why the Aggies kept ing the entire game. Texas A&M R.C. Slocum insists, though, le Aggies didn't always bring body. ehadmore individual stunts where 3re bringing an extra linebacker li-out blitzes," Slocum said. A&M coach estimated that the s blitzed about 30 percent of the o the Wolverines, it seemed like rr should be a lot higher. But ver many times they did, the Tex- :reunbeatable when they blitzed. rly the guys defending the Alamo iought of it. AN ANTONIO - It's ecome an unwanted Michigan tradition. Yet once again, the Wolverines have sunk to its depth. For the third consecutive cam- paign, the Michigan football team managed to drop four games in a season. You have to go all the way back to the '60s, before the Schembechler era, to find the last time the Wolverines pulled that trick. From 1965-67, the school lost a combined 16 games. The Dec. 28 contest against Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl marked the third straight season that the Wolverines have traveled to an also- ran bowl game. Michigan played last season in the Holiday Bowl and the year before in the Hall of Fame Bowl. It was also the second straight year that the Wolverines did not see action on New Year's Day. There was a day and age when Michigan actually played on Jan. 1. Recently, the Wolverines and their followers have watched everyone else enjoy the prestige of playing on the first day of the new year. The 22-20 loss to the Aggies certainly should leave Michigan with a bad feeling after the 1995 season. The previous two seasons ended with the Wolverines easing by lesser opponents. Michigan whipped North Carolina State, 42-7, in the 1994 Hall of Fame Bowl and outlasted Colorado State, 24-14, in last year's Holiday Bowl. A&M Continued from Page 1B kick to give the Aggies a 13-10 lead. Bryant kicked his third field goal with 5:34 remaining in the third; Hamilton hit his second 5:01 later. Bryant would hit two more in the fourth to put the game out of reach. Michigan's final score came on a 44-yard Hail Mary from Griese to Toomer into the left side of the end zone with five seconds left. "We gave them that last one," Mickens said. For the game, Michigan had more yards on offense than Texas A&M, 311-276, but the Wolverines were unable to consistently move the ball. "We did not execute the way you have to execute against that kind of defense," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said of the Aggies' stop-the-run-first game plan. "We hit some big passes, particularly in the first half, but we were only able to get one touchdown out of that." "I thought we had guys open; we didn't find them consistently or hit some of those (passes)." " I didn't even think it was possible for a placekicker to win the MVP" - Kyle Bryant Texas A&M kicker For Bryant, who had been incon- sistent throughout the season, his five field goals and Most Valuable Player honor were a bit of redemption. "It's always that' first field goal that breaks the ice," he said. "The 49-yard field goal pretty much set me straight for the game. "I didn't even think it was possible for a place kicker to win the MVP." Aside from Texas A&M's highly aggressive defense, Michigan ran into two other problems in San An- tonio: crowd noise and field posi- tion. "We had a very, very difficult time communicating," Carr said. "If any- thing, it was louder than what we anticipated it being." As for field position, the Aggies only touchdown drive started at Michigan's five-yard line. For the game, Texas A&M's average field position was its own 45.5 yard line, while the Wolverines began their drives an average of 25 yards further back, at their own 20.3. In the end, though, Michigan co- captain Jarrett Irons may have summed up the game best. "A&M executed their plays and we didn't execute ours," he said. "You can't sit and dwell on it be- cause it's over with." Those victories gave the Wolver- ines false praise for their work in those two seasons. The fact of the matter is that Michigan did not have good seasons in 1993 and 1994, and it didn't have a good year in " 1995. There were a lot of reasons, or excuses as some like to say, why the ANTOINE Wolverines PITTS couldn't get Pitts the job done. Stop There was a ________________ new coach in Lloyd Carr who had to start a redshirt freshman quarterback in Scott Dreisbach. After Dreisbach's injury, Michigan had to turn to another experience- less quarterback in Brian Griese. The Wolverines were stacked top to bottom on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, but an untimely penalty, missed tackle or some other error cost the team victories. Michigan had few holes in its lineup, but the quarterback position was one of them. Both of the first-year players went through growing pains and it hindered the team. The bottom line, though, is that Michigan did not win. In fact, it has been some time since the Wolverines have won. Part of the Michigan tradition is its winning. Throughout their history, the Wolverines have prided themselves on being better than everybody else. Michigan has won 37 Big Ten championships, a conference best; but it hasn't been in the winner's circle since 1992. Carr and his returning players have the Alamo Bowl loss to think about for a couple of months until spring practice begins. It should remind everyone how far this program really has to go. Michigan didn't build its reputation by dropping a lot of games and going to the "second-chance" bowls. Michigan became what it is by winning and by going to the Rose Bowl. You have a senior class coming back next year that has lost 12 games in their time in Ann Arbor. There aren't a lot of Michigan football teams over the past three decades that can say they lost 12 games in four years, much less three. . Carr has piggybacked on the Michigan tradition all season long, taking the team for a late-night visit to Michigan Stadium before the season, bringing great players from the past to speak to the team. Carr deserves a good five years to build his own program. He should get a chance to recruit his own players and shape the team the way he wants to. If Carr believes in that tradition, though, he ought to step aside should he not be able to take the Wolverines back to Pasadena in the next five years. If Michigan cannot get to the Rose Bowl within that time, it will be time to find someone else who can get the school there. "If this link is destroyed you're messing with tradition," nose tackle William Carr said about Michigan's history. "Our class has come in and put a dent in the chain." It's funny that you can think back to a time just a few years ago when Michigan thought it would be a factor in the national championship race every year. These days it's a question of whether or not the Wolverines can finish as high as second in the conference. Michigan shouldn't pride itself for rescuing an underachieving season by knocking Ohio State out of the Rose Bowl, as it has two of the last three seasons. The Wolverines can only be proud when they beat the Buckeyes to advance to the Rose Bowl. Someone needs to take charge, whether it be Carr, next year's seniors, or someone else from the program or a combination of them all to end this madness. Michigan better remember the Alamo all right, because it doesn't want to be back. It's about time for the Maize and Blue to get back in the Rose Bowl. -Antoine Pitts has a World Wide Web page at http://www- personal.umich.edu/-apitts PASSING Player Griese Totals RUSHING C-A Yds TD Int 9-23 182 23-9 182 2 1 2 1 Player Att Yds Avg Lg TD Biakabutuka 24 94 3.9 16 C. Williams 7 Hayes 1 Griese 6 Totals 38 36 5.1 9 0 0 0 0 17 17.0 17 (-)18 (-)3.0 7 129 3.4 17 0 RECEIVING Player No Toomer ! Hayes Riemersma Biakabutuka Totals O, Yds Avg Lg TD 5 135 27.0 44 2 2 35 17.5 21 0 1 10 10.0 10 0 1 2 2.0 2 0 9 182 20.2 44 2 PUNTING Player Peristeris No. Yds Avg Lg 7 252 36.0 50 7 252 36.0 50 GAME STATISTICS Totals PUNT RETURNS Player Hayes Totals No. Yds Avg .Lg TD 2 1 0.5 1 0 2 1 0.5 1 0 KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Hayes 4 Totals 4 Yds Avg Lg TD 80 20.0 24 0 80 20.0 24 0 : Michigan's Jarrett Irons was awarded the Fred Jacoby Sportsmanship Awai Freshman backs get Despite McElroy's absence, Texas A&M By Scott Burton The Aggies compiled 140 n Daily Sports Writer yards on the day, paced by Park SAN ANTONIO - ESPN football yards, Bernard's 50 yards analyst Craig James claims that Texas Hardeman's 41. Just as importa A&M's Leeland McElroy is the best Aggies picked up seven of their I running back in football, college or pro. downs on the ground. Draft guru Mel Kiper has suggested that It certainly was an impressive ef McElroy, who Dec. 29 declared his eli- the face of one of the top rushir gibility for the NFL draft, will be the fensesinthenation.Goingintothe second back selected behind Nebraska's the Wolverines had held their opp Lawrence Phillips. to 90 rushing yards a game, first So needless to say, Michigan thought BigTen by more than 25 yards per it caught a break when McElroy was Yet interestingly enough, Mi physically unable to compete in the proved vulnerable to some of th Alamo Bowl, Dec. heralded backs it faced during th 28, due to an ankle son. Penn State ran for 262 yards a injury. Not only is the Wolverines Nov. 18, by far the McElroyanexplo- est total Michigan allowed all yea 0"' 11 sive runner out of the man who did the most dama Noe the backfield, but senior Stephen Pitts, with 166 ya he was also one of had only one 100-yard game to his the top kick return going into the contest. men in 1995. Michigan consistently took c However, the the big boys, however. Ohio" - - Aggies were able Heisman trophy winner Eddie G to establish an ef- ran for 104 yards against the W MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily rd after the Alamo Bowl. the job done rushes for 140 yards DEFENSE Player Sword Horn Hankins W. Carr Winters Thompson Z enkew icz I rons King Bowens Copenhaver Weathers Steele Campbell Griese Miller Woodson Solo 7 6 6 6 4 1 5 5 0 5 5 0 5 3 1 4 Ast Tot 0 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 -ushing er's 56 and nt, the 17 first ffort in rng de- game, onents in the game. chigan he less he sea- against e high- r. And age - ards - credit are of State's seorge Volver- all, the two teams broke 13 records, not all of which stand out as being particu- larly impressive. Indeed, the standard for most rushing yards was eclipsed by Tshimanga Biakabutuka, who didn't even hit the century mark in that cat- egory (94 yards). However, Texas A&M field goal kicker Kyle Bryant seta record thatwill likely stand for a long time. He kicked a 49-yard field goal and five total, both easily Alamo Bowl records. Bryant's performance was so exemplary that he was named the offensive MVP for the contest. Texas A&M linebacker Keith Mitchell was named the defensive MVP for the contest, while Michigan line- backer Jarrett Irons garnered the Fred Jacoby Sportsmanship Award. WE'RE No. 1: More often that not, football teams downplay lofty preseason prognostications. The Aggies, however, were perhaps the only team that em- braced the idea that they were the best team in the nation, when several publi- cations named the Aggies No. 1. Three losses later, the Aggies' hopes for a national title were obviously oblit- erated. Consequently, the Aggies were a little more humble when thinking of their prospects for the next season. "It's still our goal to the best team in the nation next year," linebacker Dan Nguyen said. "But we'll have a lot of things to work on." 4 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 4 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 i MICHIGAN RESULTS AUG. 27 SEPT. 2 SEPT. 9 SEPT. 16 SEPT. 30 OCT. 7 OCT. 21 VIRGINIA Illinois Memphis Boston College MIAMI (OHIO) NORTHWESTERN Indiana 18-17 38-14 24-7 23-13 38-19 19-13 34-17 3:30 25-28 5-0 17-27 31-23 20-22 fective running game against the stingy Wolverine defense - and Texas A&M did so behind the efforts of three previ- ously untested freshmen: Sirr Parker, Eric Bernard and D'AndreHardeman. "We knew if we gave our running backs holes we'd do good," Aggie of- fensive lineman Koby Hackradt said. "We knew with a hole they would get good gains." ines, 50 yards less than his per game average. Likewise, Purdue's Mike Alstott ran for some 100 yards less than his per game average against Michigan, while Northwestern's Darnell Autry ran for 40 less. RECORD-BREAKERS: Because the Alamo Bowl is just three years old, it wasn't too hard for Michigan and Texas A&M to break a few records Dec. 28. In OCT. 28 MINNESOTA NOV. 4 NOV. 11 NOV. 18 NOV. 25 DEC. 28 Michigan State PURDUE Penn State OHIO STATE Texas A&M JONATHAN URIE/Daily Iucdowns in a Michigan ever, Michigan might look in Michigan has found several cluging flanker Mercury Hayes. Home games in CAPS hinent ceivers Mercury Hayes and i Toomer will be leaving, but uarterbacks that saw action this Brian Griese and Scott Dreisbach) weaknesses sive line will be losing two of its key pillars: Trent Zenkewicz and Jason Horn. The defensive unit improved dra- tl:f:"a