TusaOtoeA2n 99 TeM ignDiy-13
The after .
A
ecities
All business
for Spartans
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - If you expected any
jubilation from Nick Saban on yesterday after defeating
Michigan, you should have looked somewhere else. He
was preparing to keep climbing that mountain.
Huh?
To simplify things: Saban gives his Michigan State
charges 24 hours to celebrate a win. After that, it's on to
the next game and the goals the Michigan State players
jave set themselves.
I"We have a goal board in there, and it doesn't have
Michigan at the top," Saban said at his weekly news con-
ference. "So we're climbing the mountain, and we cer-
taiinly haven't reached the top yet."
The Spartans made a big jump Saturday with its 31
victory over Michigan, which elevated it to No. 5 in the
rankings. And while Saban acknowledged savoring the
contest "for a few hours after the game," he quickly
turned to preparing for the Purdue game on Saturday.
"We should look at this as another thing we have to do
4 climbing this mountain that is the challenge of our
'ason," he said.
"Once you've reached the top, and you quit feeling
like you're trying to be relentless, trying to be danger-
ous, trying to prove something, you go back the other
way and start being afraid to lose," he said.
Before the season began, Saban said, his team came to
him with three goals. First, he said, was to finish in the
top 25 teams in the country. Two and three were to play
in a New Year's Day bowl game and to win the Big Ten
championship.
"Those are the three goals they chose, and those are
e goals we're working toward," Saban said. "There is a
ertain kind of competitive attitude, chemistry, maturity,
that you have to have to be able to get there."
And, he said, now is no time to gloat about the
Michigan win or other achievements.
"I think the time to talk about what you've accom-
plished is when you're sitting in a nursing home someday
talking to your grandkids, not after you've played six
games in a season," Saban said. "We have a lot of foot-
ball left to play."
The next step is at Purdue on Saturday. And Saban has
*spect for the Boilermakers, their wide-open offense
and their 4-2 record.
"Purdue is another very challenging opponent for us;
they're a top 20 team," he said. "They've come off two
very difficult road losses against very good football
teams (Michigan and Ohio State).
"When you think about Purdue, you think about their
offense, their quarterback (Drew Brees), the skill players
they have ... They're not going to be one-dimensional,
that's for sure."
And Saban acknowledged he gets more enjoyment out
preparing for the next game than the latest victory.
" enjoy it for a few hours after the game. When I get
up on Sunday morning and start the next week, I don't
enjoy it," he said. "I enjoy getting ready for the next
game."
!M'ATE'S UPCOMING SCHEDULE
10/16 at Purdue
$0/23 at Wisconsin
10/30 off week
1/06 vs Ohio State
ii/13 at Northwestern
41/20 vs Penn State
J9
LOUISBROWNaM-g.
archrival Michigan and remained
Michigan State quarterback Bill Burke raises his arms in triumph as the Spartans held on in a thrilling victory over,
undefeated, at 6-0. Burke's record-setting performance catapulted Michigan State to No. 5 in the country.
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Too little
too late
at crunch
time
From staf and wire reports
Ilad Tom Brady's 21-point fourth
quarter been enough for Michigan to
win on Saturday and had Spartans
fullback Dawan Moss not scored on
his only carry of the game the
comeback would have been the
biggest in Michigan history.
Technically, it would have tied
Scott Dreisbach's comeback, also
from 17 points down, against
Virginia in 1995. But the comeback'
against Michigan State would have
been bigger. lie engineered three
touchdown drives - - in one quarter
- and it would have been against
Michigan State.
Instead, Moss scored on a 14-yard
rumble to distance the Spartans past
the Wolverines.
And now, fairly or not, Lloyd Carr
has been drawing fire for sticking to
his two-quarterback system. After
Saturday's loss - Carr's second in
three tries at Spartan Stadium -
Carr was asked if the effectiveness
o f the Wolverines' four-wideout
passing game in the fourth quarter
would change his thinking about the
Wolverines' offensive system.
"I'm not going to change what
we've been doing," Carr said. "That
wasn't what cost us the game."
But the Wolverines' six total rush-
ing yards didn't help.
Before this game, they had been
averaging 128 yards a game.
Now, they're averaging 108 per
game - 94th out of 114 Division I-
A teams.
The Wolverines' passing game is
22nd in the nation, fourth best
among teams ranked in the top 10 of
the Associated Press poll.
MORE RusIIING WOES: Michigan's
total of six rushing yards - even
though the Wolverines are 94th in
Division I in rushing yards - was
by far the lowest total of the season
for the Wolverines.
But Michigan has done worse in
the past. In a 15-10 victory over
Minnesota last October in the
Metrodome, the Wolverines didn't
even gain positive yards o . the
ground.
The Golden Gophers held
Michigan to -23 yards on the after-
noon.
- Daily Sports Editors Rick
Freeman and TJ. Berka conPribted
to this report.
Spirited Michigan State fans hang enemy quarterback Tom Brady in effigy after their beloved Spartans showed up the 1-96 rivals.
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