10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 31, 1996
M crew
heads to
Head of
the Elk
Coxswains critical in
head-style regattas
By Tracy Sandler
Fur the Daily
After finishing off Ohio State at last
Sunday's Jack Speakman Regatta in
Columbus, the Michigan crew team is
preparing for another head-style race
at this Sunday's Head of the Elk
Regatta in Elkhart, Ind.
Both the freshman ° and varsity
teams are looking to the coxswains to
keep them on the right track.
"We have three very g~ood
coxswains on the varsity team,"
Michigan coach Mark Rothstein said'
"We also have very good coxswains
on the freshman team. In a head style
race, the coxswain can make a big dif-
ference. The course that they steer is
very important."
This Sunday, the Wolverines will
face competition that includes Purdue,
Indiana and Northwestern, but no
first-place finishes are guaranteed.
"I don't really know what the com-
petition is like, but we hope to do
well," junior rower Tina Stutzman
said. "We expect to be at the top. We
were very happy about our perfor-
mance against Ohio State. We came in
first and second and they came in
third."
Besides speeding past the competi-
tion this fall; Michigan's long-term
objective is to prepare for the spring
season.
"At this point in the season, we are
more focused on improvement,"
Rothstein said. "I feel we have a good
chance to win (on Sunday), but we're
focused on getting faster. The athletes
have been working extra hard this fall.
The work we do right now will pay off
in the spring."
The freshman team is also showing
a lot of promise for a successful
spring, after last Sunday's second-
place finish.
"We feel very good about the fresh-
man," Rothstein said. "We feel they
are developing and that they are where
they need to be. We expect them to be
very fast in the spring. A lot of talent
is going to develop in the next four
years.
THE GAl
Northwestern
quarterback
Steve Schnur will
need many hand-
offs to running
back Darnell
Autry to defeat
Penn State.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
AROUND THE ITN
CONFERENCE
Black cat crosses Wildcats' path
Who: No. 9 Michigan vs, M
Where: Michigan Stadiumf
106,000 expected)
When: Saturday, noon
Television: ABC, Channel
Notable: State won last fa
Sparty
Michigan State students ar
statue of Sparty this week
vent vandalism before the
By Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Writer
Will Jim Wacker finally get victory
number four? Will Northwestern pull
off yet another miracle on its last drive?
Will Wisconsin blow a late lead and
lose an upset bid again?
Nope.
While the Big Ten has had a crazy
season so far, don't expect anything too
crazy this weekend.
NORTHWESTERN (5-0 Bi; TEN, 7-1
OVERALL) AT PENN ST ATE (3-2, 7-2):
Northwestern is a team possessed.
The I Ith-ranked Wildcats have won
their last four games in the final min-
utes, and each game was decided by
four points or less. Only a team with
God on its side can win so many games
in the final minutes. Well, this week-
end, God will be looking the other way.
In the best Big Ten game of the
weekend, and one .of tfie best in the
nation, the Wildcats go into Happy
Valley with star running bac~k and actor
extraordinaire Darnell 'Autry returning
to the lineup. Last week, Autry, the Big
Ten's leading rusher who averages 5. 1
yards per carry, was sidelined due to a
shoulder injury sustained two weeks
ago. Understudy Adrian Autry, who is
unrelated to Darnell, filled in, rushing
for 128 yards on 30 carries against
Illinois.
Much of the Wildcats' success will
ride on the health of Darnell Autry. If
he's 100 percent. the Nittany Lions'
defense could be in for along day. But
if he's still not healthy, the Lions should
be able to contain both him and Adrian.
After a fabulous start, the Penn State
defense has cooled off of late. It
allowed only 34 points in its first five
.games, but the Lions have allowed 99
points in their last four, and a healthy
Darnell Autry could be trouble.
Penn State quarterback Wally
Richardson has one of the worst pass-
ing-efficiency rankings in the Big Ten
and was yanked last week in favor of
Mike McQueary, creating a quarter-
back controversy in Happy Valley.
Expect Joe Paterno to give McQueary
some playing time if Richardson does-
n't get ofT to a good start. The Lions
will have to look to their running game
to make up the difference. Running
back Curtis Enis has been excellent this
season. averaging five yards per carry,,
although he had a sub-par performance
last week against Indiana.
The 15th-ranked Nittany Lions start-
ed out flat against Indiana last week
and faced a 21-10 deficit at the half
before waking up and routing the
Hoosiers, 48-26. Don't expect to see a
similar start to this one. Afier the 21-10
loss last season, this is a game the Penn
State players have been looking for-
ward to. Penn State will be out for
revenge, but the game will oo down to
the wire. The Wildcats' last-minute
drive will be stopped this time.
Penn State 27, Northwestern 24
MINNESOTA (0-4, 3-4) r Oio
S"I'AE (4-0, 7-0):
In Minnesota. coach Jim Wacker's
contract says if the Golden Gophers
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don't win five games this season,
Wacker will lose his job. With only four
games left on their schedule, the
Gophers are two shy of the magic num-
ber. And don't expect victory number
four to come in Columbus.
The Gophers are coming off a 44-10
drubbing at the hands of Michigan, a
team that supposedly doesn't believe in
running up the score. The second-
ranked Buckeyes need to light up the
scoreboard to impress pollsters. And
we all know John Cooper's stance on
running up the score.
Ohio State is undefeated and in the
middle of both a Rose Bowl and a
national championship race. With run-
ning back Pepe Pearson averaging five
yards a carry, and quarterbacks Joe
Germaine and Stanley Jackson holding
the one-two spots in Big Ten passing
efficiency, the Gophers shouldn't be
much of a road block for the Buckeyes.
Minnesota is 2-16 all-time in
Columbus and hasn't beaten the
Buckeyes since 1981. Last year. the
Buckeyes blew Minnesota out, 49-21,
amassing close to 600 yards on offense.
This year, don't expect to see much dif-
ferent.
Ohio State 653, Minnesota 13
PtROlE (1-3, 2-5) AT WIscoNSIN (0-
4, 3-4):
Wisconsin has to be the best 0-4
team in the conference. Afterjust miss-
ing upsets over Penn State, Ohio State
and Northwestern, an obviously demor-
alized Wisconsin team was blown out
last week by Michigan State. Don't
expect the same thing to happen this
weekend.
The Badgers are led offensively by
running back Ron Dayne. Dayne, one
of the best freshman backs in the
league, has averaged 5.2 yards per
carry. While sophomore quarterback
Mike Samuel has been less than stellar.
junior wide receiver Donald Hayes has
played well, averaging just under 60
receiving yards per game.
The Badgers, ranked fifth offensive-
ly in the conference, shouldn't have
much trouble against Purdue's defense.
The Boilermaker's D is last in the Big
Ten, allowing a whopping 401.9 yards
per game. I f Samuel is going to have a
good game, this Saturday is the day to
do it.
The Badgers finally get their first
Big Ten win - in fashionable style,
too.
Wisconsin 24 Purdue 10
low (3-1, 5-2) AT ILLINOS (1-3, 2-
5):
After a comeback bid against Ohio
State failed last week, the 25th-ranked
Hawkeyes look to right themselves and
stay in the Rose Bowl race as they go
into Champaign.
The Illini coming off a heart-break-
ing loss to Northwestern in the
Wildcats final drive - surprise, sur-
prise - looks to repeat last year's per-
formance, when they blew the
Hawkeyes out, 27-6.
Illinois will look to running back
Robert Holcombe. Holcombe, who
gets virtually no recognition nationally
- or even in the conference - has
amassed 759 yards in seven games
behind a weak offensive line.
The Hawkeyes will look to running
back Sedrick Shaw, who has averaged
close to 90 yards per game this season,
to ignite them offensively.
Quarterback Matt Sherman must be
better this week than he was last week
if Iowa is going to win this game. Last
week, Sherman was picked off four
times. If he has a good day, this game
should be all Iowa. It probably will be
anyway.
Iowa 27, Illinois 17
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Reese starting to
pick up pieces
Linebacker's life, game in order
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By Brian C. Hedger
The State, News
On the Monday following a great
performance in a blowout win over
Illinois, Spartan junior linebacker Ike
Reese sat listening to his head coach
do something rare - publicly compli-
ment a player's personality.
The player to whom Saban was
referring his remarks was Reese, who
sat not .more than 50 feet from the
podium where his coach was speaking.
The question posed to Saban by one
reporter was: "What kind of maturity
have you seen in Ike Reese both on
and off the field?"
"1 think Ike is one of the guys that
Im most proud of in the program,"
Saban answered. "He's doing much
better in school, and I don't think he's
had any problems off the field for a
long, long time."
Saban didn't limit his praise of
Reese to his off-the-field actions.
however.
"He's having an
outstanding year
foot ball-w ise,
Saban said. "We
don't have any
player on the team
that works any
harder than he
does."
Reese leads the
team with 63 tack- Reese
les, has two sacks,
four tackles for a loss and he picked
off his first interception of the year
against Illinois.'
But Reese's newfound success did
not come without its share of growing
pains.
After a 1995 season full of nagging
injuries, Reese decided it was time for
a change. Taking on massive offensive
linemen was too detrimental to Reese's
health as a linebacker last season, so
he put on 10 to 15 pounds of muscle
over the summer.
He now tips the scales at an impres-
sive 220 pounds.
"In Hank Bullough's defensive
scheme (in 1994), my position was
more of a pass rushing position,"
Reese said. "In the new system, I had
to take on more offensive linemen
looking to chop block me. I felt like I
had to put the weight on."
Yet it has been Reese's development
into a mature person and player that
has caught attention this season.
"I did a lot of thinking in the off-
season about some of the things I
wanted to do, and some of the things I
wanted to accomplish' Reese said. "I
felt there were some changes I had to
make in the way I handled things and
in the way I dealt with things."
Reese made significant strides in
making those changes in the last year
and a half.
As a result, he is considered one of
the main leaders of a revamped "Gang
Green" defense.
Yet as Saban spoke of his improve-
ments on and off the field, Reese sat
quietly in the back of the room -
almost as if he was embarrassed by the
compliments.
Not exactly the reaction one migl
expect from an intense outside line-
backer who's been known to do a sack
dance every once in a while.
"It makes you feel good." Reese said
of Saban's remarks. "I guess that's the
type of reward you get for working
hard.
Reese has been working hard since
the summer of 1995 when his life as a
football player - and as a person - was
dealt a significant blow. He w
involved in a brawl on June 1. 1995
outside Dooley's Restaurant and
Sensations Nightclub.
The establishment has since been
shut down for numerous violations,
including citations for fights that
occurred outside the bar.
As it turned out, that fateful summer
night helped him make significant
changes in his lifestyle.
Reese was arrested, along with fort
other people, for disorderly conduc
He was sentenced to two days in jail
and received one year of probation.
Today, Reese does not discuss the
incident in detail.
Instead, he opts to discuss his pre-
sent situation as a team leader and role
model.
"I don't want to talk about it." Reese
said. "I don't want to discuss anything
about the whole situation."
This is an understandable reaction
from a player who went from Spartan
freshman hero to trouble maker in the
course of one night.
But Reese did come out of his shell
a bit to talk about the struggle he faced
in getting back to the top of his game
and his life.
He said the fall from grace came
quicker than what he expected.
"Before the incident happened, (I)
was the doll of the MSU campus*
Reese said. '"After it happened, I'm a
thug on the MSU football team from
the George Perles era that coach Saban
has to deal with."
How Saban would deal with Reese's
mental mistake off the field was a hot
topic of debate around the MSU cam-
pus last year. Many thought his MSU
playing days might be numbered under
the new coach.
Reese, who came to MSU frog
Cincinnati, would not say whether he
was worried about that possibility. He
did say, however, that the incident
changed his life.
"You can't constantly be in the pub-
lic eye negatively and be successful,"
Reese said. "I have a son (three-year
old Michael), and school became more
important for me. I'm going to be 23
years old, and I want to get my degree
for my mother and my son."
Reese's role as a leader on the team
is not going unnoticed by his team-
mates either.
Sixth-year senior tailback Duane
Goulbourne said Reese's improvement
as a player and as an individual is
clearly marked.
"He's matured a lot," Goulbourne
said. "Now he's still intense, but he's
more in control. You can see it in his
eyes, and in his performance."
Senior defensive tackle Chris Smith
said Reese's improved maturity level is
like night and day compared to his pre-
vious seasons.
"From his first year to now, there's
just been a 100 percent turnaround.
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