12 - The Michig aily - Rose Bowl! - Saturft/Sunday, Nov. 22-23, 199 4 _ - . _ ic c :ic r : t 'RW -" Roaring to HIGHLIGHTS -e !.t_ 0 - ------ NDEFEATED 3aLLuUI'.Iay/ 'JU iuLaJ, I '4V. ..Jo,.lout JI- top Game No. 9: Penn State BeaveJ~tadium Coverage Jr;7,e Michigan Daily Moa44o&. '10, 1997 Michigan Yost teams laid groundwork for Blue I uyy: 1 Quotable "They completely dominated us all game. They flat-out took it to us." Penn State quarterback Mike McQuery Michigan's Charles Woodson is mobbed by his teammates after scoring the Wolverines' second touchdown in Michigan's 34,8 victory over Penn State. takes over. No. 1 spot in AP poll By John Leroi Daily Sports Editor STATE COLLEGE - The implications of Michigan's domination of previously unbeaten Penn State reach far beyond the Big Ten standings. The Wolverines jumped three spots in the Associated Press top 25 poll and own the poll's No. I ranking for the first time since October 1990. Michigan was ranked second in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, surpassed only by Florida State, who trounced then-No. 5 North Carolina, 20-3, in Chapel Hill. N.C.. Saturday night. Undefeated Nebraska dropped from the top spot in both polls after needing overtime to edge unranked Missouri. 45-38. The Cornhuskers slipped to No. 3 and Penn State to No. 6 in both polls. "Right now, Michigan has the best defense in the country and one of the hottest offenses" said Jim Cnockaert of the Ann Arbor News. who voted lichigan No. 1 in this week's AP poll. "Lloyd Carr said all season that as soon as they cut down on their mistakes. their offense would be great," Cnockaert said. "Nobody's stopped Michigan except them- selves, but that performance Saturday was amazing." It is not unusual for a team to lose its No. 1 ranking after a poor performance, even after winning. The Nittany Lions dropped to No. 2 in both polls after a sub-par effort against Minnesota. The next week, Penn State slipped to No. 3 in the coaches poll after squeaking by Northwestern. With Florida State occupying the No. 2 spot in that poll last week, it's no surprise that the Seminoles are the coaches' top choice this week. Penn State coach Joe Paterno said he would vote for Michigan after suffering the worst home loss of his career, but coaches in the South who didn't get a chance to watch the game on TV may not agree. "The coaches tend to go with the teams that have already been there," Cnockaert said. "Generally, the writers are more open minded about giving (a first-place vote) to somebody new who deserves it." The Seminoles garnered 26 of the coach- es poll's 62 first-place votes. Michigan received 20 first-place votes and sits just 12 points behind Florida State. The Wolverines ran away with the AP poll, taking 44 of the 70 first-place votes. Florida State had 23 and Nebraska kept just three votes. Michigan leads the Seminoles by 30 points in the AP poll. The last time the Wolverines were the top-ranked team in the country, they lost their next two games and ended the season with a No. 7 ranking after beating Mississippi in the 1991 Gator Bowl. By Alan Goldenbach Daily Sports Editor Perfection has a lengthy and storied history at Michigan even though national championships have avoided the program for nearly 50 years. Remember, Michigan is the winningest team in Division I histo- ry with 775 victories over the 118 years of the pro- gram's existence, and this year's undefeated season is the school's 17th. Sort of makes the song "The Victors" even more appropriate for this school. Not only have past Michigan teams swept through the regular season unfettered, but some have done so in manners that were uniquely dominant. Michigan built one of college football's, and for that matter, all of sports' first true dynasties at the turn of the century. Led by first-year coach Fielding Yost, the 1901 Wolverines may very well still be the greatest team ever, although it is difficult to compare football from that era to the way it is played today. Still, Yost's Wolverines that year not only went 11- 0, but did not allow a single point to any opponent, while piling up 550 for themselves. The campaign was capped by Michigan making a joke out of its opponent, Stanford, in the inaugural Rose Bowl, handing the Cardinal a 49-0 walloping. The dynasty grew in magnitude over the next four seasons. 1902 saw Michigan duplicate its record from the previous season, while scoring even more - 644 points, including two games where the Wolverines surpassed the century mark. Although Michigan did allow single touchdowns to Case and Minnesota, the Wolverines easily won their second consecutive national championship. The 31-game winning streak came to an end on Halloween of the following season in a game that began another monster tradition in college football. Yost's team had won its first seven games - all by way of shutout - before traveling to Minnesota, where the Gophers gave Michigan its toughest chal- lenge thus far that century. With two minutes left in the game, Michigan led only 6-0. Moments later, the Gophers scored, sending the Minnesota crowd into a frenzy as it stormed the field. The game was called a tie at that moment, as Michigan was forced from the field by the barrage of fans. In his haste to leave town, Yost left his team's water jug on the sidelines. When he wrote Minnesota athletic director L.J. Cooke to ask for the jug back, Cooke said that he would have to come back and beat the Gophers for it. This dispute created what is now known at The Little Brown Jug. But Michigan was unaffected by that tie, and started a new winning streak; this one lasted 26 games, giving the Wolverines their fourth consecutive national title by the end of 1904. The streak was ended in the final game of 1905, when Michigan lost to Chicago, 2-0, despite shutting out all 12 of its previous opponents that season. Undefeated seasons under Yost's leadership fol- lowed in 1910, 1918 (without a tie), 1922 and 1923. But only the 1918 team was crowned national champs. Perhaps the one statistic most indicative of Yost's teams domination on both sides of the ball is this one: in Yost's 25-year coaching career at Michigan (204 games), his teams allowed just 800 points. The 1902 team, alone, scored 644 during its 11-game slate. Harry Kipke took over in 1929, two years after Yost stepped down, and led Michigan to its next batch of undefeated seasons in 1930, 1932 (no ties) and 1933, with national titles coming in the final two years, running Michigan's all-time total to eight. Included in this run was the career of an all-America center named Gerald Ford, who had a pretty good career off the gridiron as well. Next came the teams of 1947 and 1948, Michigan's last two national champions, coached by Fritz Crisler and Bennie Oosterbaan, respectively. Both units pos- sessed suffocating defenses, although not at the level of Yost's dynasty, but still very impressive for its era. The 20 years after that last national title, Michigan hit a valley in the success of its football program, winning more than six games only four times during that span. With the formation of the modern Big Ten in 1953, when Michigan State joined, the conference became increasingly competitive and perfect seasons became, at best, a rarity. Only the Ohio State teams of 1954 and 1968 and Penn State's 1994 squad had gone wire to wire without a blemish on their records. Then came Bo. Bo Schembechler, who, along with Yost, are the two most influential figures in the history of Michigan football, revived the program. But his teams appeared in 10 Rose Bowls during his 21-year tenure and gar- nered at least a share of the Big Ten title 13 times. As for undefeated seasons, Schembechler had but one - 1973's 10-0-1 squad. That tie came in the Ohio State game and cost the Wolverines a trip to the Rose Bowl and a national championship because the Buckeyes went by way of a vote of Big Ten athletic directors, who chose the Buckeyes because Michigan quarterback Dennis Franklin was injured. Schembechler's 1971 team ran the table in the regular season, only to fall to Stanford in the Rose Bowl, 13-12, in the game's final minute. Now it is Lloyd Carr's team that has broken the 26- year span of Michigan going without a perfect regular season. Carr's team that has ended the five-year Rose Bowl drought. Carr's team that went undefeated the traditional Michigan way - a stifling defense. SARA STILLMAN/Daily Blue annhilates Penn State on drive to Roses By Danielle Rumore Daily Sports Editor STATE COLLEGE - Chants-of"It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine!" bellowed from the winners' -lockerroom after Saturday's game, as silence and dis- appointment seeped from the Penn State side. The game between undefeated Michigan and Penn State for control of the SMichigan 34 Big Ten was anticipated to be the best matchup in the A Penn State 8 country, but sometimes expectations fall short of reality. Behind a dominant offensive line and stellar defen- sive performance, No. 4 Michigan rolled to a convinc- ing 34-8 victory over No. 2 Penn State in front of a record crowd of 97,498 at Beaver Stadium. The victory, Michigan's first over Penn State in the past three tries, made the Wolverines the lone unde- feated team in the Big Ten, gave them the lead in the Rose Bowl race and sent them to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1990. "Honestly, it wasn't easy. It was a matter of prepara- tion," Michigan safety Marcus Ray said. "You watch our offensive line, the guys up front - they dominat- ed. If our offense continues to play like that, we'll be very, very successful:" Michigan dominated the Nittany Lions from the opening drive to the end of the game, due in large part to a renewed offense. The Wolverines, cut down on the turnovers and penalties that have ailed them through- out the season to turn in their best offensive perfor- mance to date. "It was the best performance we had at Michigan in a long time," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. Michigan quarterback Brian Griese, who paced the Wolverines with short pass patterns, passed for 151 yards and two touchdowns while running backs Chris Howard and Anthony Thomas and fullback Chris Floyd combined to add finesse and power to the rush- ing attack. In total, the three backs accounted for 195 of the Wolverines 265 rushing yards and added two touchdowns. But the story of the day was again Michigan's defense, which entered the game ranked No. 1 in the nation. Saturday, with the exception of a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, Michigan's defense entirely shut down Penn State's usually potent offense. Penn State came in averaging 240.7 yards rushing and 223.9 yards passing. The Lions were eighth nationally in total offense (464.6 yards per game) and ninth in scoring offense (37.3 points). At the head of Penn State's success was its star tailback, Curtis Enis, who entered the game averaging 118.6 yards rushing. The Wolverines held the Lions to 101 yards on the ground and 68 yards passing. Enis carried the bulk of the load to gain 103 yards rushing; the rest of the team had -2 yards on the ground. Enis had just 35 yards at halftime as Michigan raced to a 24-0 lead, the Lions' biggest halftime deficit at home ever under Penn State coach Joe Paterno. The defense rattled Penn State quarterback Mike McQueary all day, sacking him twice in the first four plays of Penn State's first drive. He was sacked a total of five times, accounting for 20 lost yards. All in all, the Lions did not convert any of their 12 third-down opportunities. "They completely dominated us all game. They flat out took it to us," McQueary said. The Lions only managed to break out of their end of the field twice, and the touchdown in the fourth quar- ter accounted for their only points. That touchdown broke Michigan's streak of not allowing a touchdown in the second half this season. "Obviously, in the fourth quarter, they scored on us," Ray said. "We didn't like that. We really, really did not like that. Thomas and Howard rushed for touchdowns for the Wolverines while Griese completed his stellar day with scoring passes to Charles Woodson and tight end Jerame Tuman. "The plays they beat us with are the ones they've been making all year," Paterno said. "They're very good, and few people can do it consistently."