3F The Michigan Daily - Football Saturday - November 6, 1999 Safety T I has seen alot during his career at Michigan. H s won a national championshp, played in wo bowls ad now anchors a young Michigan secondary, But through it all, he's remained W November F. 1999 - Erm With former coach and program. savior Gary Barnett jumping Northwestern's program for dead, first-year coach Rai is attempting to lead the Wildcats back along tI O4A I TGI ESA BY T.J. BERKA 0 DAILY SPORTS EDITOR By Andy Latack U Daily Sports Editor ......................................................................................................................................................... W hen Tommy Hendricks walked onto the Michigan campus while being ecruited in high school, loyal Oichigan fans did a double take. 'Wasn't there a Tom Hendricks vho played a long time ago?' hought the fans as they heard about he 6-foot-2, 205-pound recruit from Eisenhower High School in Houston. Those fans were right. Tom Hendricks did play running back for the Wolverines in 1954 and 1955. Now his son Tommy is a senior free safety. But Hendricks hasn't had to deal with any shadow his father might have cast. He got rid of that by doing what he does best on the football Field - hitting opponents at full speed. "I love making the big hit," Hendricks said. "It is what a safety is supposed to do. When I have a chance to make the big stick, I take it." But when Hendricks was younger, it looked as if he might follow in his father's footsteps and be a running ,ack. Hendricks was adept at avoiding :he big hits in his peewee games and looked to be prime running back material. "I was a sweet little running back," Hendricks said. "In flag football, I was the man. I once scored 22 touch- :owns in one season. No one could stop me." Like any other child, Hendricks got fanatical support from his par- ents. With all the touchdowns that Hendricks scored when he was a child, his parents had to name some of his big plays. "Mv mom's favorite is the immaculate Reception," Hendricks said. "In one game. I caught a ball at my feet just before it hit the ground and ran it in to win the game, just like Franco Harris did for the Steelers. So my mom called it the Immaculate Reception, and it stuck." One person finally stopped the young Hendricks from winning the Heisman Trophy as a tailback - his high school coach. When Hendricks arrived at Eisenhower High School, ,he coach on the freshman team decided to shift him to quarterback. While Hendricks' style was radi- Yally different from Tom Brady, he was effective as a ninth-grade signal- caller, throwing 13 touchdown pass- ys. But once again, Hendricks changed positions. The Eisenhower varsity head coach wanted to move Hendricks to the defensive side of the ball. But not necessarily because the other quarterback was better. "The coach thought I was too tall for the position," Hendricks said. "I was six feet tall my freshman year of high school and the other quarter- back was 5-foot-8. The coach decid- ed to go with the shorter guy. I was- n't so happy." After being switched to defense, Hendricks moped around for a while until he discovered something that he uses religiously to this day - that defensive players have full reign to beat up on any offensive player they want. And that's something that Hendricks takes high priority in doing. "It's always my goal to give the big hit, to lay the hurt on the other guy," Hendricks said. "DeWayne (Patmon) and I love delivering the big hit." The combination of Patmon and Hendricks leaves wide receivers and running backs roaming in the sec- ondary in fearing for their personal safety. But when Hendricks was asked if there was a competition between himself and Patmon for the title of biggest hitter, he shrugged his shoul- ders. "That's a good idea," Hendricks said. "We should have thought about that before the season started. We can't do it now, because sometimes people claim hits that they didn't make." Hendricks claimed Michigan after looking at a list of schools that included Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame and North Carolina. Hendricks had some subtle prod- ding to go to Michigan, as his father wanted his son to follow in his foot- steps and play in Michigan Stadium. While the elder Tom Hendricks sold Michigan passionately, he didn't force his son to become a Michigan man. "It was a really big factor," Hendricks said about his father play- ing at Michigan. "It opened my eyes to the University. He was pretty adamant about telling me about Michigan. but he pretty much left it up to me" It turned out to be a difficult deci- sion for Hendricks. Although he was a legacy at Michigan, Hendricks had a hard time turning down the Texas schools because, simply, football in Texas is a religion. At Eisenhower, Hendricks played in a stadium which seated 16,000 people. While that figure looks shoddy compared to Michigan Stadium's 107,501 holding capacity, it is big in high school football. As with many things. high school football is bigger in Texas. "It's nuts down there," Hendricks said. "People there are crazy about football. Texas has by far the best high school football in the country." But Texas has one thing that Hendricks doesn't like - the city of San Antonio. Hendricks played in the state semifinals against Converse Judson - which is located in the San Antonio metropolitan area - in the Alamodome. Eisenhower lost to Judson and Hendricks has hated the Alamo City ever since. "I hate San Antonio," Hendricks said. "We should have won that game against Judson. I hated that team and I hate the city they come from." With Michigan losing two games in the Big Ten thus far this season, a trip to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl is a distinct possibility. But Hendricks wants nothing to do with the Alamo in late December. "There is no way we are going to the Alamo Bowl, I guarantee you that," Hendricks said. Besides his hatred of San Antonio, Hendricks isn't too happy about Alamo Bowl prospects because the bowl does not fit Michigan's stan- dards of excellence. Those standards are a big reason why Hendricks committed to Michigan. "I canceled the rest of my visits after visiting here,' Hendricks said. "Michigan has great academics and a great social atmosphere. I especially enjoy the social atmosphere of this university. "And the football program speaks for itself." As the only senior in a young sec- ondary. Hendricks takes it upon him- self to lead the young guys. The sec- ondary has taken a lot of heat and Hendricks'job is to keep the younger defensive backs focused on their games. Hendricks learned a lot of his leadership skills from his secondary mates during the 1997 national championship season. Guys like Charles Woodson and Marcus Ray helped make Hendricks' acclamation to Michigan as smooth as possible. "Those guys were great," Hendricks said. "Steve King was a big factor in my early years. They did things to help me get adjusted to Michigan and got me to respect them very qitkly." When asked what those things were, Hendricks refused to com- ment, saying that it was a surprise for future Michigan defensive backs to experience. But its no surprise that Hendricks has emerged as a defensive leader. "Guys like Tommy Hendricks do a good job keeping everyone together," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "They are the type of guys you need to have on a team." As he does prior to any game, Northwestern coach Randy Walker has been watching film of Michigan this week. He does this in an effort to notice the Wolverines' weaknesses, make the necessary adjustments and exploit them come game time. So Walker has seen Michigan's alarming potential to give up big plays on defense. One could hardly watch a minute of the Wolverines' last three games - losses to Michigan State and Illinois and a narrow win over Indiana - and not see an opponent breaking away for a long gain or a touchdown. So Walker is probably licking his chops, right? Not exactly. You see. Northwestern's offense has as much trouble making a big play as Michigan's defense does stopping one. Northwestern is aver- aging a meager 4.0 yards per play, as compared to 5.2 for Michigan and all the rest of the Wildcats' oppo- nents this year. So Michigan's appar- ent defensive vulnerability is of no concern to Northwestern's coach. "That doesn't affect us because we can't make a big play," Walker said. "We have to nickel and dime, scratch and claw. We're really struggling to make big plays." But unfortunately for Walker, Northwestern has been providing its opponents with plenty of opportuni- ties to break the game open. A few weeks ago, the Wildcats were battling with conference heavy- weight Purdue before they let up a 99-yard fourth-quarter touchdown bomb from Drew Brees to Vinny Sutherland that sealed the game. And just last week, in the Wildcats' 35-19 loss to Wisconsin, quarterback Zak Kustok threw two interceptions inside the Badgers' 10- yard line. One of them was returned 93 yards by Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher for a crucial touch- down. But Walker can't fault Kustok, a Notre Dame transfer who left after the Irish installed their option offense. "If I look at the one slant that was picked for a TD, that's where I told him to throw it," Walker said. "I know what he saw, and it wasn't that bad of a decision." *Still, the Wildcats have made more than their share of mistakes this sea- son, and have a 1-3 Big Ten record and a 3-4 overall mark to show for it. Walker knows this disturbing trend must stop if the Wildcats are going to stay with Michigan. "We're going to work real hard to take these self-inflicted wounds and these turnovers out of our football team," Walker said. "We have to take advantage of the scoring opportu:i- ties we've got." If Northwestern had done that against Wisconsin and Purdue, it would have probably come out on top in at least one of those games. But in hanging around with such ranked foes, Walker feels that he has his program going in the right direc- tion. "I don't see any give-up in our kids," Walker said. "I think they've felt like they've made some strides and they're committed to making the kinds of strides they need to make the rest of the way." Much of that determination is a result of Walker's hard-nosed style, an approach he developed as head coach at Miami (Ohio) University. Walker led the RedHawks from 1990 to 1998, and left as the win- ningest coach in program history with a 59-35-5 record. An impressive feat considering some of the names that have stalked the sidelines at Miami. Dubbed the "Cradle of Coaches," the program has spawned such coaching legends as Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and Ara Parseghian. Much like Walker's predecessors at Miami, his style is hard-nosed ar no-nonsense. And as a result, ma of his players embody the same c acteristics. "We have the same style of pl we did at Miami," Walker said." never question our effort or our commitment. I think our kids bu into what we're trying to do." One player who appears to be ing Walker's all-out style is runn back Damien Anderson. The jun has emerged as the primary offe weapon for the Wildcats, averag 106.6 rushing yards per game. "By and large, he's really been guy for us," Walker said of Ande "There's not a whole lot of reps f 4( 4 V ,,. i C$t XYL ~ UiNrt DANA LINNANE; Daily Drew Brees is one of many players who has felt the wrath of Michigan free safety Tommy Hendricks this season. The senior is currently third on the team with 48 tackles.' Northwestern coach Randy Walker, right, left Miami (Ohio) University as the winningest coach in program history, and is attempting to replicate that success with Northwestern this season.