The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 15, 1997 - 13
Fry promises to
pull out all stops
Lobos looking
for WAC title
IOWA CITY (AP)-- Hayden Fry said
yesterday he will pull out all the stops this
weekend when No. 15 Iowa visits No. 5
4ichigan, but the Hawkeyes' coach says
it will be a "fun" game and not a must-
win contest.
"We're going to have fun. I pulled out
my foot locker during the open week. I've
dusted off a lot of my old exotics (trick
plays) and so forth," Fry said at his week-
ly news conference.
"So, we don't have anything to lose"
Fry said. "Go up there and have a little
fun and see if we cgn't win it."
Tie Hawkeyes, who did not play last
weekend, need a win against the
Wolverines to stay in the running for a
Rose Bowl berth. They opened the sea-
son with four straight wins before losing
to No. 11 Ohio State on Oct. 4, which
dropped them to 1-1 in the Big Ten.
"Obviously, we see this as a must-win
situation," defensive tackle Jared
DeVries said.
Iowa's other defensive tackle, Jon
*Fleur, thinks his team will have to go
undefeated the rest of the way to get to
Pas4ena on New Year's Day.
"It's got to be a must win from here on
out for us to go to the Rose Bowl" he
said.,"I don't know if any other teams
will be defeated more than once, and
maybe none of them will get defeated at
all, and we'll just be out of it."
Wisconsin leads the early conference
title chase with a 3-0 mark, followed
osely by Michigan, Michigan State,
Penn State and Purdue, which are all 2-0.
Ohio State and Iowa are next at 1-1,
with Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana
and Illinois all winless in league play.
Fry was in a jovial mood yesterday but
admitted he was just the opposite after
the Ohio State loss in which the
Hawkeyes were punchless on offense
(106 rushing yards) and anemic on
defense.
"Hey, I'm a nice guy and I like to be
nice to the public and this and that, but
I'm madder than hell inside about that
last ball game," Fry said. "Ohio State's
got a tremendous football team, but I
think we do, too. But we didn't show it
that day."
He credited the Buckeyes' kicking
game for keeping the ball away from Tim
Dwight, who was second in the nation in
punt returns last year, and Tony Collins,
who leads the Big Ten this year with a 24-
yard average.
. "Ohio State killed us with field posi-
tion. I mean, every time we had that ball,
we had 81 yards or more to go -- twice
inside the five - and no punt returns, no
kickoff returns," Fry said. "They
deserved to win the ball game, but we
had our chances.
"We block, but we don't stay with our
block. We tackle, but we don't tackle hard
enough," he said. "How many sacks did
we get against Ohio State? Zippo. That's
ridiculous."
The Hawkeyes have rebounded psy-
chologically from the loss, Fry said, and
AP PHOTO
Running back Tavian Banks will look to run past the Michigan defense on Saturday.
Iowa coach Hayden Fry said his team might have some tricks up its sleeve.
he thinks they will play well in front of
the more than 102,000 people expected
to jam Michigan Stadium.
"Yeah, I think we have a chance," he
said. "I'm very sold on this ball club.
They're very mature and solid.
"If nothing else from the Ohio State
game ... the most important thing from a
coaching standpoint that we gained is
that our players now know - whether we
can do it or not remains to be seen -
they now know the intensity level and the
execution level required to play with the
big guys," he said.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -
With every victory in a season that
seems destined to be the best in New
Mexico's history, the expectations soar
higher and coach Dennis Franchione's
voice of reason grows louder.
New Mexico's 6-0 start is the best in
school history and, with the Lobos on
the verge of cracking the Top 25 for
only the third time ever, Lobos fans
are engulfed in talk of a bowl bid and
a Western Athletic Conference title.
Neither has happened in decades.
New Mexico's last bowl appearance
was in the now extinct Aviation Bowl
in 1961 and the Lobos' last WAC title
was in 1964, when they shared it with
Arizona and Utah.
This week, New Mexico, 3-0 in the
WAC, faces its toughest challenge to
date, against a Rice (4-2, 2-1) team
that last week used its option offense
to beat then-No. 21 Brigham Young,
27-14.
It was Rice that a year ago literally
ran over New Mexico's promising sea-
son by rushing for 481 yards in a 38-
21 victory in Houston.
All the more reason, says
Franchione, to temper the mania that
is sweeping through Albuquerque and
the rest of New Mexico this fall.
"We haven't played ourselves into
anything yet and all this game counts
is one," Franchione said yesterday.
"We're not bowl eligible at this time,
and we're only at the top of the con-
ference."
New Mexico has played itself to the.
top of the Mountain Division in the
16-team WAC by playing solid
defense in a league where offenses
dominate and by Franchione's ability
to keep his team from resting on its
last victory.
"There have been years around
here, where we won a damn football
game and we acted like we had
changed the state of the union," he
said. "I understand why. We didn't win
very many, so when we did, we were
happy and they (players) wanted to
cling to that feeling. Sometimes, we
hung onto the feeling so long, we lost
the next game."
New Mexico was 26-80 in the nine
seasons before Franchione took over
the program in 1992. In the five-plus
seasons since then, New Mexico has
won 30 games, including 6-5 seasons
in 1993 and 1996. The six wins this
year assures the Lobos will have back-
to-back winning seasons for the first
time since 1971.
The Lobos haven't won more than
six games since they went 10-1 in
1982 under the late coach Joe
Morrison. That team was ranked No.
20 for two weeks, but lost the WAC
title to BYU and failed to get a bowl
bid.
This New Mexico team, says BYU
coach LaVell Edwards, deserves a bet-
ter fate.
"I've voted for them (in the USA
Today-ESPN poll) the last two or three
weeks," Edwards said. "They've been
so close to a big year the last couple of
seasons, and you could see the
improvement all along."
"They're aggressive and fly to the
ball on defense. Offensively they run
the ball well and just don't beat them-
selves," said Rice coach Ken Hatfield.
Another factor in the winning streak
has been the play of junior quarter-
back Graham Leigh, who transferred
to New Mexico two years ago after
Pacific dropped its football program.
Leigh was expected to be mostly a
role player in a backfield that was rich
in running backs when the season
started. But injuries have sliced into
that depth and Leigh's foot speed and
accurate arm have carried the Lobos in
recent weeks.
He leads the team in rushing with
345 yards and last week accounted for
all five New Mexico touchdowns -
three, passing and two rushing - in
the Lobos' 36-21 win at San Diego
State.
Leigh, like his teammates, is trying
.to keep these good times in perspec-
tive.
"Everybody has it in the back of
their mind how good the season could
turn out, but our main focus is Rice,"
Leigh said. "We're not looking ahead
to Utah or BYU or anyone else. We're
going to keep doing what we've been
doing and improving every week.'
Saturday's game against the Owls is
sure to be a sellout and school offi-
cials are predicting a record crowd i-
excess of 35,000 to a stadium that
seats just over 31,200.
John Reid, the executive director of
the Holiday Bowl, will be in the crowd
to evaluate both teams.
All of that, says Franchione, is a
tribute to what the Lobos have accon-
plished and what might be.
"I continue to remind them that
they're special, no mattet what hap-
pens the rest of the season," he said.
"And I continue to remind them that
they need to believe in themselves and
that they will find a way to win. They
have for six straight weeks?'
Robinson to leave Trojans at end of season?
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Coach John Robinson, call-
ing Southern California a football team in crisis, said
yesterday he will quit after the season if the Trojans
don'fimprove.
I a really good football coach who's not doing
ery well right now," Robinson said yesterday. "If I don't
do better, then I will step aside.
"if we don't turn the program around, I'm not talking
about wins, but I'm talking about facing this crisis and
having our players respond, then our football team
should go in a new direction at the end of the season.
"I'm the first to say that.... I'm not going to be part of
a situation where I let this team slide into the gutter."
Athletic Director Mike Garrett said after the Trojans'
35-7 loss at Arizona State last Saturday that he was
cking with Robinson through this season. The coach's
ontrat extends through the 2001 season.
Robinson said he, Garrett and school president Steven
Sample had talked, including on the flight back from
Arizona last weekend, and were in concert as far as try-
ing tQ get the football team back on track.
"Mike Garrett, President Sample and myself will
move forward," the coach said.
The Trojans' loss to the Sun Devils was their most
lopsided defeat by an unranked team in Robinson's 12
years, and dropped them to 2-3, with two of their losses
in Pac-10 games.
Having lost six of their past nine dating back to last
season, they face another team in trouble, Notre Dame,
at South Bend this weekend.
Late last season, with Garrett unhappy with the way
the Trojans had played on their way to a 5-6 record,
Robinson may have salvaged his job with a 27-20 over-
time win over Notre Dame, USC's first victory against
the Fighting Irish in 14 years.
This time, however, Notre Dame has a 2-4 record, and
a win by the Trojans wouldn't have as much signifi-
cance.
"I don't think they were playing for me or my job (last
season). Everybody has a job and eventually moves on,"
Robinson said. "Not living up to your potential, that's a
crisis."
The Trojans' problems have been many and varied:
they've had trouble running the ball, sophomore quar-
terback John Fox hasn't been able to move the team con-
sistently, and even the secondary, considered one of the
strong points heading into the season, has been getting
shredded.
What bothers Robinson most, however, is what he
considers a lack of fight by the team.
Talking about the Trojans trailing just 13-7 before
falling apart in the second half at Arizona State,
Robinson said: "The thing that's most disturbing is when
it was time to step up and win the game, we stepped back.
We were without energy and without confidence and I
think it was mind-boggling to everyone involved....
"I've told them (the players), among a lot of other
things, that if you can't perform, you've got to step aside.
... Somewhere along the line, they need to stand up and
fight. They need to punch the other guy instead of letting
him punch them."
Robinson shouldered the blame, saying, "One thing
that is happening is they're choking or not performing
and that's my responsibility, to get them ready."
.Asked what the players' mood was, the coach
answered, "The team pretty much has been told to shut
up and listen. The only real significance now is how they
perform."
Showing his sense of humor is intact, Robinson said:
"I would ask all Trojans, or people who care about USC,
to join us. We're starting a million man march, and
we've only got about 12 guys right now."
VOLUE 3 NUBER A v - P S r1
C
m
s
1997
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FLAG FO0TBALL
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