10 - The Michigan Daily - Kickoff '99 - Thursday, September 9, 1999 S 0 9 Thursday, September 9, 1999 - K One tailback has battled nagging injuries during his first two seasons. The other is sidelined for the year after having complicated leg surgery. Anthony Thomas and Justin Fargas have certainly endured their share of... First he was the kicking-game savior Then he was the kicking-game cripple. Now A C K A S S C I By Andy Latack U Daily Sports Editor e two men exit through the auto- matic doors and step out onto the sidewalk, their eyes squinting against the persistent August sun. One of them adjusts a duffel bag on his broad shoulders, and they set out into the street. As they cross, Anthony Thomas and Justin Fargas walk close to one another, but they couldn't be farther apart. Thomas leads the way, one of Fargas' cumbersome bags doing little to slow his easy, gliding steps. Behind him, Fargas walks gingerly, his jeans swelling around his lower right leg, where a cast still remains nine months after he shattered the bone in two places. T homas is clad in a Michigan foot- ball shirt, mesh shorts and athletic shoes, never far away from a workout. lie looks fit and athletic. A few steps behind him, Fargas' smaller frame is draped with a long- sleeve shirt and jeans, as if bracing for some unseasonable cold. The cast makes him walk with an uneven, staggering gait. It is less than a week before Michigan's first practice. Thomas is meeting Fargas' flight as it arrives in Ann Arbor. Now, trudging single-file across an oil-stained crosswalk at Detroit's Metro Airport, is the present and future of Michigan's running game. But those roles are mutually exclusive. Thomas is the present. And Fargas is the future because, well, there is no present for Fargas. This study in contrast eventually dis- appears from sight. And while they both play the same position, Thomas and Fargas are at very different points in their careers. A year ago, the tandem was looked upon as the arrival of Michigan's next great offensive backfield. Thomas was coming off 1997's national champi- onship season in which he was named Big Ten freshman of the year, and was a. talented blend of speed and power. Fargas was considered by some the top running back prospect in the nation, and would counter Thomas' bruising style with lightning quickness and finesse. But Thomas struggled for most of the regular season, rushing for less than 40 yards in five of Michigan's first 10 games. The injuries that Thomas could ignore during his freshman season final- ly caught up with him. An offseason appendectomy, coupled with groin, shoulder and ankle problems, limited Thomas' effectiveness for much of the season. "The past two years, there was always something wrong with me," Thomas said. "If it wasn't one thing, it was another." It was one of Thomas' numerous injuries that allowed Fargas to break out during his freshman season, starting the Northwestern game when Thomas was forced to sit out with an ankle injury. To say Fargas answered the call would be an understatement. In what looked more like an old black-and-white game film from the '30s, Fargas trashed his flashy, West-Coast style in favor of blue-collar Big Ten football. Playing in a torrential downpour that made any type of air attack fruitless, Fargas took control of the ground game, carrying a workmanlike 31 times for 120 yards. It would be the most carries by any back last season, and earned Fargas a start the following game against Indiana. But then, during garbage time three weeks later in a win over Wisconsin, Fargas got twisted around in a pile-up. He snapped the bone in his right leg in two places, ending his season. He was forced to watch Michigan's final three games - including its Citrus Bowl vic- tory - from the sidelines. He figured it would be the last game he'd see from that vantage point. EU The way Thomas is listing body parts, you'd think he was studying for a biology exam. "Appendix, hand, ankle, shoulder," he rattles off, naming only some of the places he's been injured since arriving here as a freshman. "I've had so much stuff, I'd be here listing all day." Which is something Thomas can't afford to do. As the leading member on a depleted cast of running backs, Thomas' time is most certainly now. And he has prepared himself to be the featured - and only - back for the Wolverines this season. He has been doing so since the off- season, engaging in a strenuous program that not only got him in the best shape he has been in since he arrived here, but also has him completely injury-free for the first time. Think Thomas is ready to carry the load this year? In the season opener against Notre Dame, he rushed a career- high 32 times for 138 yards. Thomas car- ried the ball on every Michigan rushing play but one, and earned Big Ten offen- sive player of the week honors in the process. Thomas' previous best mark for car- ries was 21 in last year's Citrus Bowl, a testament to how durable the new-and- improved Thomas is this season. "When you go in with a clean bill of health, that makes you feel a lot better than when you're going in thinking, 'Aw, By Josh Kleinbaum U Daily Sports Editor South Bend, Ind., Sept. 5, 1998 The cars parading to Notre Dame Stadium are backed up for miles, some bearing flags with the Michigan block M, others bearing bumper stickers talking about the luck of the Irish, all packed with football fans primed to see the pre- mier September rivalry in college football. Michigan fans stroll the sidewalks with T-shirts telling others to "Pooh on the Irish," complete with a picture of Winnie. Notre Dame fans are trash-talking about how Michigan can't even win its own national title, but has to share it - with people who husk corn, no less. But amidst the thousands of peo- ple waiting to see defending national champion Michigan take on perenial powerhouse Notre Dame, not one is thinking that the outcome of the ball. He sends it hurtling through the air, a low, tumbling line drive. The kick doesn't look as though it is trav- elling that far, but sure enough, 45 yards down the field, it splits the uprights right down the middle. Sitting in the stands, a fan in a Michigan jersey stands up and raises his arms, signaling that the field goal was good. But no one else seems to notice. None of the 111,523 fans filing into the stadium understand just how miraculous - or how important to the Michigan football team - it is that Epstein is on the field, kicking. Just over three months earlier, Epstein tumbled while doing sprints to keep in shape in his Cardiff, Calif. hometown. His knee buckled, his Anterior Cruciate Ligament tore and, because of the nature of the injury, the first placekicker ever given a Anthony Thomas displayed the benefits of his offseason conditioning program with his blue-collar outing against Notre Dame, carrying the ball a career-high 32 times. my hip's already hurting,"' Thomas said. And don't think his teammates haven't noticed. They can see as well as Thomas can that the back is poised to do some big things this year. "I told him before the (Notre Dame) game, 'Anthony, this is your show,"' full- back Evan Coleman said. "'Go do what you've got to do."' And when Thomas did what he did, Michigan running backs coach Fred Jackson wasn't surprised. Rather than looking like a man who has a depth problem on his hands in the weeks lead- ing up to the season, Jackson more resembled someone who knew some- thing everyone else didn't. But now the cat is out of the bag. "His muscle tone is unbelievable right now," Jackson said. "I really think he paid a price to be ready this fall. What I see is a kid who's ready to go. "Now, it's his time to be a leader," Jackson said. "He understands that, and he understands what we expect from a leader at that position. I really feel that he's set to have a super season." U .. As .Jackson is saying this, Justin Fargas is at the other end of Michigan Stadium. It is the Wolverines' annual meet-the-team day, and while the rest of his teammates are putting on their maize and blue game uniforms for the first time this season, Fargas is merely clad in sweats and his jersey. His cast still juts out from his lower pant leg, and it draws cursory glances from well-wishers as they approach him. They had heard about Fargas' slow progress after the injury. About how the bone wasn't healing correctly, making another surgery necessary a few months later that would cause him to miss this year as well. How his toes had atrophied because his leg had been in a cast for so long, requiring even more surgery in August. How he hasn't run - those quick, graceful strides that teased fans last season - for nine months. "You'll get 'em next year, Justin," one of the fans predicts. Fargas nods. "Thanks for the Northwestern game," another says. "Sure," Fargas replies with a smile. Taking a break from the hordes of fans, Fargas takes a minute to add his take on this season's version of Thomas. . "A-Train's going to have a great year," Fargas said, looking across the field at Thomas, who is surrounded by fans in replicas of his jersey. "I can already see he's worked really hard, and he's ready to take over." Unlike his counterpart in the back- field, Fargas' time is not now. He is just starting to rehab, lift weights, and try to locate the dazzling quickness he knows is still there. So he lingers for a while, shaking hands and taking pictures. The flow of autograph-seekers is constant. After all, they know he's going to be the future. After the first week of practice, I was ready to go for it 011every fourth down. -Michigan mcach [1oyd Carr walked on to their college football team and won themselves a job. The second school of thought teaches that kicking is too important of a position to rely on walk-ons. Although kickers only touch the ball a few times a game, the outcome fre- quently lies on their legs. Coaches want the security of a strong, accu- rate leg they can rely on. Michigan had always been a walk- on school. Every kicker to ever play on Michigan's team, from Baker to Mike Gillette to Bob Wood, was originally a walk-on. They may have eventually been given a scholarship, but not at first. And then came the '90s. Except for Remy Hamilton, Michigan's only All-American placekicker, this decade has been a kicking disaster. Six times this decade, the Wolverines have dropped a game, or at least a shot at winning the game, because of the kicker. Here are the lowlights: Every Michigan fan remembers Oct. 13, 1990, for the failed, final- second two-point conversion where Desmond Howard was pulled to ground by Michigan State corner- back Eddie Brown as Howard tried to grab an Elvis Grbac pass in the end zone. Every Michigan fan remembers the stale taste from the 28-27 loss to the Spartans, and the fall from the top of the Associated Press poll. But not every Michigan fan remembers the failed kick in the final seconds of the first half, the one that would have made the two- point conversion moot. After the game, Michigan coach Gary Moeller called J.D. Carlson's missed 28- yarder "ridiculous." And it was. On October 7, 1995, Remy Hamilton missed a 37-yard field goal attempt that would have given Michigan a commanding 16-6 lead over Northwestern. Instead, it was the Wildcats who hit a field goal on the ensuing possession, cutting the lead to 13-9. Michigan didn't score again, and the Wildcats won their first game in Ann Arbor in 36 years, 19-13. After hitting 14 consecutive field goal attempts, Hamilton missed the final try of his college career, a 48 yarder in the fourth quarter of the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day, 1997. H ad the kick b e e n good, coupled with Michigan's final- minute touchdown, the Wolverines would have had a shot to win the game with a two-point conversion. Instead, they fell, 17-14. But possibly worse than those games were the entire 1992 and 1993 seasons. Moeller had such little faith in his kicking game that during those two years, he routinely went for the first down or punted in fourth-down situations. Against Wisconsin on Oct. 30, 1993 the Wolverines found themselves in a fourth-and-eight from Wisconsin's 28 yard line, trail- ing by just three points. But Moeller opted to go for the first down, Michigan failed to convert, and the Badgers won, 13-10. So, before the 1998 season, Lloyd Carr and his coaching staff made a philosophical change - they gave Hayden Epstein a scholarship. The decision was so abrupt that Epstein, an All-American place- kicker in high school, hadn't received a single recruiting letter from Michigan before his senior year. But when he did, he jumped at the opportunity. So imagine Carr's reaction when his prize investment, Epstein, went down with the knee injury. "After the first week of practice, I was ready to go for it on every fourth down," Carr said. "But we will recover." Epstein was the one recovering, not the team. And, to the world's sur- prise, he did. "Every day, my doctor and personal trainer told me I could do new stuff," Epstein said. We pushed it a little far- game might hinge on the leg of Kraig Baker. Despite a dominating first half in which Michigan outplayed the Irish in pretty much every aspect of the game, the Wolverines hold just a 13- 6 lead, keeping the door open for the Irish. Why? Baker missed two field goals, one from 33 yards and one from 43 yards. Still in the game, the Irish come out of the lockerroom inspired and score 17 unanswered third-quarter points. The Irish win the game going away, 36-20. Baker loses his starting job and Michigan loses its hopes of repeating the national title. Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Sept. 4, 1999, half-hour before game time Hayden Epstein sets a football on a tee at the 35-yard line. He takes three steps backward, two steps to the left and starts his run towards the Michigan football scholarship straight out of high school was lost for his entire sophomore season. Then how could he be standing there, kicking field goals, just three months later? Remarkable. When it comes to recruiting place- kickers, there are two schools of thought in Division I football. The first argues that giving a placekicker a scholarship out of high school is simply wasting a scholarship, for several reason. In high school, field goals are kicked off of a tee, as opposed to the college game, where a teammate has to hold the ball. Kicking off of a tee is much easier, and some great tee-kickers are unsuccessful with a holder. Also, many of the best college kickers were soccer players in high school, ther every day." Just two d a y s before I d Justin Fargas, shown during last year's 120-yard performance at Northwestern, will spend the year rehabilitating his right leg in an effort to get his strength back.