ills -- illillilillm -- r _ . , 0- 9 4 t October 9, 1999 --F 4 - The Michigan Daily - FootbaN Saturday - October 9, 1999 MIcA /an students fall ito ve stereotypes BIG BILLY STYLE After starting the season surrounded by questions, Michigan's defenders are ... FINDING THEIR WAY Here at MSU we have more than 40.000 undergraduate students. I see them every- where I go. But at Michigan. it seems like there are only five. I've been to Ann Arbor dozens of times, and, try as I might, I can only find five different U-M students. There is Nicky, the rich, arrogant sorority girl wearing her tight black pants, walking into the latest coffee shop for a cafe Pat Then there is Steve. the rich. Muir ar rogant busi- ness student, sporting hisy Abercrombie & Fitch sweater and khakis. He's w alking into an equally trendy m coffee shop to STAT NEWS t light lunch on his way to his banking internship. His white fraternity cap hides the horns that are already starting to grow out of his head. Nicky and Steve's worst enemy, Moonbeam the hippy. is around the corner at the fee shop. She's rich and doesn't want anyone to know. Her coffee tastes the same. but it costs more because the beans were Frown in an eco- friendly environment. She later tosses her cup on the sidewalk. "1 hate those kids, Nickv and Steve. They 're so materialis- tic," Moonbeam says as she plunks down 580 for a new pair of Timberland boots. right beatnik cof- arrogant but Well, th take th Diag an block 'R shove it because finally t year of Spartan I even lived there for a summer - I call it my "dark period" and rarely speak of it. That's how I know there are only five different people on or around U-M's campus. What Ihey all have in common, besides wealth and arrogance, is they expect Saturday's game against Michigan State to be a cakewalk. Well, they can take theiriDiag and their block M' and shove it, because it's finally the year of the Spartan. Why is it that none of them has noticed? Did they get too stoned at Hash Bash? Did their brains freeze while run- ning the Naked Mile? Or does it all just come back to Ann Arbor's chief natural resource - arrogance? I'm not sure, but boy, are they in for a surprise when the green-and- white ball of fury we call the Spartan offense torches the overrat- ed Michigan defense. Then the smaller, less furious green-and-white ball of fury we call senior placekicker Paul Edinger will torch the overrated Michigan extra point blocking unit. Nicky, Steve. Moonbeam, William and Mike will be so stunned at the 7-0 ey can deficit, they will need ir some coffee. Stheir It will only get worse d twhen the Spartan ' and defense takes the field. Senior defensive end ' ,,Robaire Smith and It'S friends will have more 'he sacks than Ann Arbor the has trendy shoe stores. The game should be t. over by halftime, leav- ing our five Michigan friends some free time. Nicky will turn off the television and change out of her daytime tight black pants and into her evening tight black pants. Moonbeam will turn off her tele- vision, do some yoga, smoke a joint and talk about the game's cosmic significance. William will turn off the comput- er Webcast of the game, open up a book of Kurt Vonnegut's short sto- ries and start building a letter bomb. Mike won't be watching the Michigan State vs. Michigan game because, "It's so Midwestern." By Saturday night, the five of them will be out on the street head- ed to consolation parties. We'll be here celebrating a glori- ous victory - all 40,000 of us. - Par Muir; State News sports edi- tor. is still tiing to find a place in Ann Arbor where he can buy a regu- lar cup of coif(e. If you know of one, or would like to contact him for any other reason, he can be reached at muirpatr@msu.edu. By TJ. Berka Idaly Sports Editor Things weren't exactly perfect last season for Michigan State quarterback Bill Burke. He struggled mightily under center as his team - a presea- son top 20 pick - finished 6-6 and didn't qualify for a bowl for the first time in four years. Fans were angry at the Warren, Ohio native, and many wanted to replace him with Ryan Van Dyke, a hotshot freshman from Marshall. With the loss of running back Sedrick Irvin to the NFL, big things weren't expected of Burke and the Spartans this year. Not as if Burke cared. "I looked at last year as being a learning experience," Burke said. "It was my first year, so I was learning and starting to come into my own." Not many preseason prognositcators were sure what Burke would be like after he came into his own. With that said, and the loss of Irvin, the Spartans were picked as a middle-of-the-pack team in the Big Ten this year. They have been far from mediocre thus far this season. Michigan State has started the season 5-0 and finds itself ranked 1Ith in the national polls preceding today's game against Michigan. And a lot of that success can be attributed to Burke. "Bill has played very well for us," Michigan State coach Nick Saban said. "For us to be successful, Bill has to keep it up." Under new offensive coordinator Morris Watts, Burke has had to pass a lot to be successful. And with talented wide receivers Gari Scott and Plaxico Burress at his disposal, Burke is loving every minute of it. "We definitely like to mix it up and spread the wealth around," Burke said. "We like to run the ball, but we also pass more than we used to. As a quar- terback, I love it." Watts has put more emphasis on Burke and his connections with the 6- foot-6 Burress and senior co-captain Scott. It is a direct contrast to last sea- son, when the offense consisted of Irvin running the ball, Irvin catching the ball, and the other guys getting the ball once in a while. Along with getting everyone involved in the offense, Watts has also allowed Burke something that wasn't allowed last season - for Burke to call his own audibles. "I have more freedom in a way," Burke said. "I do a lot of checks at the line of scrimmage." The new freedom on offense has been the icing on the cake for Burke in his experience at Michigan State. Although he was a native of Ohio, he never was a big fan of Ohio State, which allowed him to have an open mind when it came down to choosing colleges. The openess in his mind was closed quickly, as Burke instantly fell in love with the State campus. All other prospective schools were thrown out the window after Burke visited East Lansing. "I took a visit to Maryland, but I did- By Rick Freeman Daily Sports Editor Bill Burke is a marked man. "I'm looking forward to punishing the quarterback," said Michigan senior linebacker Ian Gold of the man who directs the most balanced offense he and his defensive team- mates have yet seen this season., "This is truly the hardest hitting game I play every year," Gold said. "What more could you ask for out of a big game." Michigan's defenders, who have punished more than just quarter- backs this season. see their biggest threat in Michigan State's beefy offensive line and balanced offensive attack. "It will definitely be a challenge, from the standpoint that we can't just sit down and play the run. So we'll have to keep on our toes." said fifth- year senior nose tackle Rob Renes. "They're very capable of picking up a bunch of yards on offense. They have an offensive line that's very; good at. sustaining blocks." But Michigan has a defense capa- ble of sustaining 60 minutes of effort and emotion. "I think the most important thing about this year's defense is the cama- raderie," junior defensive end Jake Frysinger said. "I've been playing football since I was eight years old, and this is the best team chemistry I've ever felt in my whole life." ~ In the season opener against Notre Dame, the only chemistry Michigan's defenders felt was the burning lactic acid in their legs. After Jabari Holloway's beyond- wide-open touchdown catch woke up the echoes of last season - the only time Michigan ever allowed 30 or more points in three games - they began to emerge. Linebacker Dhani Jones and safety Tommy Hendricks sacked Jackson on the Michigan 29 in the final minute. His next pass was com- plete, but short of the first down, and time ran out on the Irish. Timely? "I was tired, I was dead, I was on 'E'," Jones said. But he got his sack - and took the first step in building recogni- tion for a unit that finally appeared on the national scene last week, debunking the "suspect" label as they simultaneously embraced it. But Michigan's pass rushers - in defensive coordinator Jim Hermann's schemes they can be almost anyone -: deserve just as much credit. They made Purdue's Drew Brees pay for bad snaps and covered receivers. Now, against an offense they call the toughest they've faced yet, the challenge is tantalizing. Despite the comparisons Michigan coach Lloyd Carr makes to Michigan, State's Lorenzo White-led -wrecking: crew of 1987, the fact is Purdue is a, more productive offense- produc- ing 450 yards per game to the Spartans' 423. But unlike the Boilermakers, the Spartans have bal- ance. Their ground game rips off 185, yards per game - Purdue hovers near 125. "I can say clear-cut it's the best Michigan State team since 1987," said Carr. "They have a lot of weapons and they don't have any weaknesses." So much the better for Michigan's defense. The Wolverines have a calm, even-keel confidence that has helped them ride out three late-game comeback attempts, and then against Purdue, one of the nation's most potent passing attacks and a trick substitution pattern that might have thrown less cohesive units into disar- ray. "We don't like to get into a situa- tion where we feel panic-stricken at all, and we haven't felt that this year," Renes said. "Even with the last few seconds on the clock against Notre Dame up until the end of the Purdue game, we've really felt as if we can rely on the other 10 guys on the field." The defense's biggest challenge - other than the balanced Spartans - might be Of course, there's also William, the nerdy pre-med student who won't let anyone borrow his notes, lest he inadvertently ruin the curve in his organic chemistry class. He is slowly developing into a new ver- sion of Michigan alumnus Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Steve and Nicky pick on him. Moonbeam laughs at him, but soon he will rule the world - at least he's rich and arrogant enough to think so. William doesn't stop in any of Ann Arbor's 2.000 coffee shops eery often because he's too busy studying. Finally, there's Mike from Long Island. Mike is rich enough to afford out-of-state tuition and arro- gant enough to resent being in Iichigan. "This coffee sucks," he says. "It's totally better back East." Mike doesn't really get along well with the others. Trust me. I know all of these peo- ple well. I've been to Ann Arbor more times than I care to remember. Michigan State quarterback Bill Burke, hou instrumental in the Spartans' 5-0 start this n't go anywhere else after I visited MSU," Burke said. "I like the size of the campus and the educational pro- grams available to me, not to mention the football program and coach Saban." After backing up Todd Schultz for two seasons, Burke had his chance to make an impact last season. Burke had his moments, engineering a 45-24 upset of Notre Dame last September and leading the Spartans back from a 24-9 deficit to shock top-ranked Ohio State, 28-24, in Columbus. But the surprising successes were counteracted by mind-numbing fail- ures. The Spartans were stomped by Oregon, 48-14, and lost to Minnesota for the first time in 22 seasons. That unpredictability has been cited by a lack of continous focus. Burke indicates that the Spartans didn't exact- ly have tunnel vision last season. "We've been hot and cold because we haven't had the maturity to focus the entire game," Burke said. "We sometimes would lose focus at times during games, and that would cost us." The Spartans have had razor-sharp focus in the first five games of the sea- son, pummeling Oregon, Eastern Michigan, Notre Dame, Illinois and Iowa by a combined score of 177-53. This point discrepancy can be attrib- uted to a solid defense and relatively mistake-free play from Burke. This type of play is what Burke expects out of himself and is what he is AP P!0' unded by critics last season, has been s season. intent on providing the Spartans in every game. "I'd like to think that I'm a guy W1ho can throw the ball effectively. I like to think that I am an efficient quarterback that doesn't make mistakes," Burke said. While Burke has been pretty effec- tive in cutting down on that thus far this season, he is faced with the biggest game of his college career so far Saturday against arch-rival Michigan. Although he is an Ohio native, Burke was just as aware of the bad blood between the Spartans and Wolverines as he-was of the Michigan- Ohio State rivalry. "Anybody who watches the game ksrow what a big rivalry this is," Burke said. "The state is pretty much divided in two during this week." The Green half of the state has not seen a win in this game since 1995. The Michigan State campus is eager to see that streak end, therefore putting the pressure on Burke's shoulders. Burke, while wary of the Michigan defense, has faith in himself and his team to give a good performance. "The Michigan defense is very good," Burke said. "They aren't afraid to come after you and attack the quar- terback. Their defensive players are very comfortable when they are out there. "We are only concentrating on one game right now, and that's on Saturday. We expect to play well." Toll them apart Some have already begun to compare Michigan's defense this season to that of 1997. But that group was far stingier. The Wolverines of 1997 didn't allow 66 points until the ninth game of the season - the Wolverines have allowed that many through five. deflecting comments about their sim- ilarity to the 1997 unit. Carr says "this team doesn't mea- sure up in any way" to the national champions, but he knows the 1999 defense best. He might see how they respond to critics; how a putdown fires them up. How they just seem to click, defying an explanation. "The chemistry," Renes said. "Is starting to take over." And that's what's more important about this year's Michigan defense. Lloyd Carr was right when he said they look nothing like '97's defense. That unit was known for stinginess, swagger and being the only set of defenders ever to claim a Heisman Trophy winner as one of their own. This year's defense has given up 66 points in five games. 1997's gave up 26 in the first five. It took a late- game touchdown and two-point con- version at Penn State in the season's ninth game for that unit to give up more than 66. From that last stand against Notre Dame five weeks ago to the hit Todd Howard laid on Purdue wideout Larry Shyne, this year's defense has played on emotion and fire - even when their collective needle has been pegged on 'E.' Believe that they're looking for- ward to Saturday because it will be tough. Believe that they want to shut down men with names like Plaxico and Gari and even Bill. Or don't. They like it better that way. With its perfor- mance against Purdue last week, the Wolverines' defense emerged as a force to be reckoned with, as Boilermakers' quarterback Drew Brees learned. DANA LINNANE/Daily Spartans it' n the t's pretty easy to make jokes about our lovable, dim-witte friends at Michigan State. I < write for hours on how Michiga State students are couch-burnin cow-tipping, less-than-sharp m< heads whose closest venture to cess would be delivering pizza head of a major corporation. But what's the point? I feel that Michigan State stu get a bum rap in this state. Sure, most of them tried to get into BERKA other schools and failed, but k:. that doesn't mean they are dumb. I think that Michigan students should be charitable TEEING and try to OFF understand what goes through a Spartan's head. First of all, this game on Sati is extremely important to the st dents at Michigan State Univer They really have nothing else t for. Ever since their senior year of high AS school, when they received the rejection Wai letter from U of M, acC they have been yearn- ing for the chance to stick it to the superior met school in the state. Mic It's really hard for a Michigan student to ly relate to the inferiority be complex that comes wh with being a student at sch State. Michigan is in the top 10 in countless Car academic programs Circ and has won five national champi- onships in four differ- let ent sports since 1995, so Michigan is used to success. At Michigan State, success i making flame-retardant couche defending local landmarks witi squirt guns and winning seven games in a football season. Th and beating the Wolverines. Michigan really doesn't thinl thing about beating State. It's s thing that Michigan students h taken for granted. Ever since ti early days of elementary schoo Wolverines have been getting t: best of Spartans. You remember the Spartans f growing up. The kids who wou lick the flagpole on a cold Janu day and get their tongues froze The kids who bought tickets to pep rallies in high school. Thos kids now attend Michigan Stat< It was fun to pick on them w we were younger. But it just dc have the entertainment value ai more. We have bigger schools 1