A - The Michigan Daily - Sp.ortsWednesday - September 5, 2001
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Harrington leads the
Ducks past Wisconsin
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Oregon
believed its own marquee billing and
nearly blew it. Fortunately for the No.
7 Ducks, quarterback Joey Harrington
believed in his uncanny ability to lead
his team back.
In a flawed but inspired perfor-
mance, Harrington threw three touch-
down passes and scored on.a 1-yard
dive on fourth-and-inches with 4:03
left Saturday night to lift Oregon past
No. 22 Wisconsin 31-28.
Coming off a school-record 10 vic-
tories last year, the Ducks (1-0) have
legitimate national title aspirations. By
falling behind three times in the second
half, Oregon put itself in jeopardy of
ruining those Rose Bowl dreams
before they got out of neutral.
Wisconsin will play Fresno St. at
home on Saturday, with kickoff sched-
uled for 12:10.
No. 2 MIAMI 33, PENN STATE 7:
All the emotion Penn State could gath-
er was not even close to overcoming
No. 2 Miami's talent.
Ken Dorsey threw three first-half
touchdown passes and the Hurricanes
scored on six of their first seven pos-
sessions in a dominating 33-7 victory
over the Nittany Lions on Saturday
night.
On an uplifting night at Beaver Sta-
dium, a record crowd of 109,313 stood
and cheered as once-paralyzed Adam
Taliaferro hopped and skipped onto the
field before the game. Taliaferro, wear-
ing his No. 43 jersey and blue sweat
pants, was injured against Ohio State
last season and it was feared he might
never walk again.
But when the season-opener for both
teams began, the night belonged to the
Hurricanes. In the first half alone,
Dorsey hit 12 of 18 passes for 205
yards, including TD tosses of 27, 28
and 10 yards to three receivers.
PURDUE 19, CINCINNATI 14: Pur-
due won its opener by running the ball
Wildcats
primed for
first game
at UNLV
EVANSTON (AP) - No matter
what happens this season, Rashidi
Wheeler will be with the Northwest-
ern Wildcats.
They have their own memories,
and the patch on their uniforms will
be another reminder of the senior
safety. And as investigations into his
Aug. 3 death continue and his moth-
er's lawsuit play out, Wheeler's
memory can't help but be a constant
presence.
"There will be distractions and
we've done a good job initially of
dealing with them," said Zak Kustok,
the quarterback and co-captain of the
No. 16 Wildcats.
"Once we get into football season,
it'll be easier to keep our mind week
to week on the task at hand."
Wheeler, a chronic asthmatic, col-
lapsed during a preseason condition-
ing drill involving a series of wind
sprints and was pronounced dead a
short time later. The cause of death
was listed as bronchial asthma.
But Wheeler's mother, Linda Will,
has filed a lawsuit, accusing the uni-
versity of being ill-prepared to deal
with such an emergency. Represented
by attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., her
lawsuit names Northwestern, coach
Randy Walker and other athletic
department personnel.
The university is conducting its
own investigation into the incident.
"We have no choice," co-captain
Napoleon Harris said when asked if
the team is prepared to deal with
questions about Wheeler as the sea-
son goes on.
"A lot of guys really don't want to
talk about it anymore," he added.
"It's more of a distraction right now."
That's not meant to be insensitive
and picking it off- a sign of things to
come without Drew Brees running the
offense.
Brandon Hance scored on a 1-yard
quarterback sneak, Joey Harris had a
16-yard touchdown run and Purdue's
defense intercepted three passes Sun-
day as the Boilermakers held on for a
19-14 victory over Cincinnati.
The Boilermakers' top concerns are
Hance and an offensive line that lost
four starters. Hance was sacked twice
on third-down blitzes and again on a 2-
point conversion attempt.
TOLEDO 38, MINNESOTA 7: "This
is just the start of it," Amstutz said
after Toledo rolled up 512 yards on
offense to beat Minnesota 38-7 Thurs-
day night, the Rockets' second straight
season-opening victory over a Big Ten
team.
The Rockets scored the first four
times they had the ball. With four
receivers spreading out Minnesota's
defense, Taylor had no trouble finding
space to run.
The Golden Gophers, with eight
new starters on defense, had no answer
for the spread offense.
Minnesota was no better on offense,
crossing midfield just once in the first
half. The Rockets held all-Big Ten
receiver Ron Johnson to seven catches
and 72 yards.
Minnesota will attempt to recover
this Saturday when they go on the'road
against the University of Louisiana,
Lafayette, at 2:30.
IOWA 51, KENT STATE 0: Aaron
Greving tied an NCAA record by scor-
ing touchdowns on all three of his car-
ries and Nate Kaeding kicked three
field goals to tie a school record for
accuracy as Iowa beat Kent State 51-0
Saturday.
Iowa dominated in the season open-
er for both teams, rolling up its highest
point total since a 62-0 victory over
Indiana on Oct. 25, 1997.
As~AP TOP 25
Sep. 3, 2001
first-place votes in parentheses
Team Record Pts Pv
1. Miami (37) 1-0 1,737 2
2. Florida (19) 1-0 1,721 1
3. Oklahoma (10) 2-0 1,633 3
4. Texas (4) 1-0 1,482 5
5. Nebraska (2) 2-0 1,474 4
6. Florida State 1-0 1,458 6
7. Oregon 1-0 1,357 711
8. Tennessee 1-0 1,355 8
9. Virginia Tech 1-0 1,200 9
10. Georgia Tech 2-0 988 11
11. Michigan 1-0 963 -12
12. Kansas State 0-0 943 13
13. Louisiana State 1-0 861 1
14. UCLA 1-0 809 17
15. Washington 0-0 728 15'
16. Northwestern 0-0 674 16
17. Notre Dame 0-0 604 18
18. Mississippi State 0-0 571 20,
19. Fresno State 2-0 554
s20. Clemson 1-0 524 1'9-
21. South Carolina 1-0 422 21
22. Oregon State 0-1 293 10
23. Wisconsin 1-1 208 22
24 Ohio State 0-0 189 23"
25: Georgia 1-0 129
The defense also came throu
twice stopping early Kent State scori
opportunities by forcing turnovers.
It came after a distracting preseason
that climaxed with the departure, of
quarterback Jon Beutjer, who was
attacked by teammate Sam Aiello at
their apartment in July and quit the
team earlier in the week.,x
Iowa is at home against Miami of
Ohio 12:10 Saturday.
ILLINOIS 44, CALIFORNIA 1 T.
Antonio Harris rushed for three touch-
downs, and Brandon Lloyd caught
eight passes for 178 yards and twQ
touchdowns as Illinois scored .38
points in the first half of a 44-17 romp
over Cal on Saturday. ,
Illinois' solid, methodical team
effort on offense was spiced up by a
spectacular return for Lloyd, who
missed all of last season with a brok'
leg.
Kurt Kittner completed 18 of 34
passes for 297 yards, while Lloyd prac-
tically dominated the game on the-out-
side while Cal used eight-man fronts,tp
stop Illinois' rushing attack. Illinpis
scored 24 points on its first four drives,
three of which ended in short scoring
runs by Harris.
"WQ
Northwestern's tragic summer comes to an end Friday when the Wildcats trai,.$
Las Vegas to tangle with John Robinson's explosive UNLV Runnin' Rebels.
or disrespectful to Wheeler and his
family. It's just that Wheeler's team-
mates - many of whom were on the
field and watched him die - are
ready to move on. They've done their
grieving and questioned the fairness
of a 22-year-old dying.
They want life to return to normal,
and for them, that's football. Nothing
will make them feel better than taking
the field Friday night at UNLV for
their first game.
"I can't wait, and I know that's the
feeling of the rest of the team," Kus-
tok said. "There was lots of distrac-
tions and things going on that most of
us didn't know how to handle.
"This is the opportunity for us to
go out and do what we know how to
do, and that's play football."
And the Wildcats aren't planfiliig
on forgetting Wheeler. His numer
was retired - the first in schooljhis-
tory to be retired - and Nort1ngt-
ern will wear the patches in his bax0r.
At Walker's weekly news co1-
ence Monday, the first personie
mentioned was Wheeler.
"We just want to thank everyone in
the extended Northwestern family,for
their support. It's been very meargg-
ful, very significant," Walker: sad.
"As we embark on the season-we
have vowed and have maintainedgthat
we are always going to have,aprt
and piece of Rashidi with us.
"We're going to continue to-m
rialize him and lift his family
friends up in our thoughts and prayers
as we go through this season."
Washington awards Neuheisel _
incentive-packed extension
SEATTLE (AP) - Washington football coach Rick university. If that rate is 90 percent or more, he wo) ld
Neuheisel has been given a 35 percent pay raise, bring- receive an additional $40,000.
ing his annual salary and other compensation to $1.2 If Washington - ranked No. 15 heading into its sea-
million. son-opener at home against No. 11 Michigan on 'atjur-
The 40-year-old Neuheisel could make up to $1.4 mil- day - plays in a Bowl Championship Series game,hie
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