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"Ijust sat down by
it wouldn 't happen
just prayed"
myself hoped
agai, and
"It shows you how easily things
could have happened the other
way in 1994 ."
- Rick Neuheisel
Colorado coach
- Scott Dreisbach
Michigan quarterback
Michigan bats down
Buffs' 2nd miracle pass
By Nicholas J. Cotsonika
Daily Sports Editor
BOULDER, Colo. - The
Wolverines looked up at the score-
board Saturday and saw 1994. Five
seconds left. Michigan with the lead.
Colorado with the ball.
And just like two years ago, when
The Catch gave the Buffaloes a shock-
Michigan 20
Colorado 13
ing 27-26 victory in Ann Arbor on a
last-second play, Colorado lofted a
pass toward the right side of the end
zone. And again, the ball was tipped.
And again, the home team's national
title hopes ended with the game's final
play.
But this time, the football gods
answered a different Hail Mary. The
11 th-ranked Wolverines prayed hard in
the final moments, held on, and beat
the fifth-ranked Buffaloes, 20-13, in
front of 53,788, the third-largest crowd
in Folsom Field history.
This time. The Catch was not to be.
"I knew that the defense had to make
Sophomore tail-
back Clarence
Williams avoids
the grasp of
Colorado line-
backer Ron
Merckerson, run-
ning for a good
chunk of his 79
yards. Williams,
who also
snagged two
Scott Dreisbach
passes for 15
yards, carried the
ball for half of
the Wolverines'
50 rushing
attempts.
Michigan had
much better luck
running the ball
than the
Buffaloes did.
The Wolverines
ran for 139 yards
while holding
Colorado to a
measly 70 yards
on the ground.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
a play," said Michigan quarterback
Scott Dreisbach, who sat helpless at the
end of the bench and didn't watch the
Buffaloes' last-gasp pass. "I just sat
down by myself, hoped it wouldn't hap-
pen again, and just prayed."
Prayers and penalties won the game
for the Wolverines (1-0 Big Ten, 2-0
overall), even though Michigan's
defense limited Colorado to 70 yards
rushing. The Buffaloes (2-1) committed
14 penalties for 99 yards, nullifying a
touchdown reception and keeping alive
two Michigan-scoring drives.
"Penalty wise, I don't really have an
answer," Colorado quarterback Koy
Detmer said. "But I think sometimes,
when you try too hard, those things hap-
pen.
Due to a mistake made by Dreisbach,
however, the penalties almost didn't
matter. That was when the prayers came
in.
Ahead 20-13 in the game's waning
moments, Dreisbach simply had to run
out the clock to send the Wolverines
home with a victory. On second-and-
seven, he started to do just that, kneel-
ing down. On third-and-nine, he scram-
bled around and fell. Then, on fourth-
and-13, he fumbled the snap and
downed the ball.
But there were five seconds remain-
ing on the clock, and on a change of
possession, the clock stops.
Colorado had one last chance.
"I thought we could kill it,"
Dreisbach said. "It was my fault."
So the made-for-television scene was
set.
The differences with 1994 were sub-
tle: The Buffaloes were closer to the
end zone this time, on the Michigan 37
instead of their own 36. There were five
seconds remaining instead of six. The
game was in Boulder, not Ann Arbor.
And, of course, the team The Catch
cursed won.
The similarities were eerie: The play
itself looked much the same, ~and
Michigan even ran the exact same
defense - 30 victory - and Colorado
made the exact same offensive call -
rocket-jet-right. Detmer released the
ball quickly, and time stopped. The ball
was tipped into the air again - only
down instead of up this time - and Rae
Carruth, who was involved with The
Catch in 1994, dove but couldn't come
up with the ball.
"Had that ball ended up in one of our
kids' hands, we'd be talking about it as
another great mark in Colorado football
history," Colorado coach Rick
See COLORADO, Page 4B
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Michigan tight end Jerame Tuman is lifted skyward by teammates Mark Bolach and Zach Adami as Scott Dreisbach and Jon
Jansen celebrate Tuman's three-yard touchdown catch in front of a dejected Colorado cheering section.
ail Mary II has
OULDER, Colo. - For a But in reality, it didn't
minute, it seemed like 1994 all Michigan fans, Hail Mar
over again. no
Kprdell Stewart had snuck in at me
quarterback for Colorado. Michael
Westbrook was in the slot at wide par
receiver. And Gary Moeller patrolled wer
the sidelines. An
, or many Michigan fans, their resu
emory of the Michigan-Colorado
rivalry centered on one play. BARRY Koy
Stewart back to pass (again) ... he SOLLENBERGER des
heaves it into the end zone (again) ... Sollenberger in t
the ball is tipped (again) ... it s caught in Paradise rec
by Westbrook for the touchdown Car
(again)! incomplete. And bonehe
diffrent
result
t happen. For
iry part t is
w just a bad
,mory.
On Hail Mary
t II, the actors
e different.
id so was the
ult.
Quarterback
y Detmer's
peration heave
he direction of
eiver Rae
ruth fell
ad Michigan
coaching - this time by Lloyd Carr
- did not cost the Wolverines a victo-
ry over the Buffaloes.
"I was thinking, 'Here we go
again,"' Carr said of the final play.
"The ball went up in the air, and I held
my breath."
Michigan quarterback Scott
Dreisbach took the blame for giving
the Buffaloes one last chance. He fell
on the ball on fourth down at the
Michigan 37 yard-line, turning the ball
over and stopping the clock with five
seconds left. But it is Carr's responsi-
bility to make sure his quarterback
See PARADISE, Page 4B
'M' volleyball takes 2 of 3 in Spikeoff
9
Sophomore out-
side hitter Jane
Stevens and the
Wolverines
passed well
enough to win
two of their
three matches
this weekend at
Ibe Spikeoff
rnament in
Spokane, Wash,
Michigan's
straight-set loss
to George Mason
in Its second
game halted the
Wolverines'
Mendoza, Chase, Jackso
By Sharat Raju
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's volleyball team
took the good with the bad this weekend.
Fortunately for the Wolverines, there was
more good than bad.
The Wolverines won two of three games at
the Spikeoff Spokane Tournament over the
weekend. The tournament improved their
record to 4-5.
"I'm pleased with our play this weekend,"
Michigan coach Greg Giovanazzi said. "We
picked up a pair of wins and got solid perfor-
in lead balanced attack in Spokane tournament
attack produced a 15-3, 15-5, 15-9 sweep of
the Bulldogs. The win extended Michigan's
winning streak to three matches.
The first game set the pace for the entire
match, as the Wolverines had 15 kills and a
.242 hitting percentage.
Sarah Jackson and Karen Chase each had
11 kills, leading the team's 42 total kills for
the match. Michigan's serving game gave
Gonzaga fits with eight aces, two each from
Linnea Mendoza, Jeanine Szczesniak and
Chase.
"(Mendoza) played a great match,"
Mendoza's 24 assists led the passing game,
while Chase and Shareen Luze provided a
defensive spark with 13 and 10 digs, respec-
tively.
But the weekend had just begun for the
Wolverines. They had two more games in
store for them, one against George Mason and
another against Wyoming.
George Mason, the strongest team in the
tournament, proved to be too much for
Michigan to handle. George Mason swept the
Wolverines, 15-5, 15-12, 15-2, in convincing
fashion.