A ORTheSirtigan Dil S3 RTS michigandaily.com/sports sportsdesk@umich.edu THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2002 IOA C bz} C arr expects compe tition o ~at quarterback in spring STEVE JACKSON By J. Brady McCoflough Daily Sports Writer Is John Navarre still Michigan's starting quarter- back? If Michigan coach Lloyd Carr is planning to start Navarre next season, he did nothing to indicate it at yesterday's press conference. He gave no clear endorsement FOOTBALL Navarre, who has started 16 games for the Wolverines. Notebook When asked to evaluate his quarterbacks heading into spring practice, Carr vaguely replied, "They'll all be there." This fall, "all" will consist of Navarre, sopho- more Jermaine Gonzales, junior Spencer Brinton and incoming freshman Matt Gutierrez. Navarre had a turbulent sophomore season as the premier signal caller. After leading the Wolverines to a 6-1 record and No. 4 ranking in the Bowl Championship Series by throwing 11 touchdowns and just four interceptions, his season took a turn for the worse. In his last five games, he threw seven touchdowns and nine interceptions, as the Wolver- ines stumbled to a 2-3 record in those contests. Brinton, who spent two years away from football on a Mormon mission before joining the Wolver- ines last season, had less than four months to get back into shape for football. He was unable to gain ground on Navarre and Gonzales as the season pro- gressed. "Because of all the things we threw at him, and* because we had such a short time span with him, I thought he hit a plateau," Carr said. Trailing the Bucks Every offseason, recruiting analysts from around the country give their opinion on which school brought in the best class. Here is where the experts placed Michigan's 2002 recruiting class, as well as Jim Tressel's first full recruiting class at Ohio State. ANALYST MICHIGAN ESPN.com No. 9 CNNsi.com No. 9 Rivals.com No. 18 CBS Sportsline No. 15 OHIO STATE ESPN.com No. 2 CNNsi.com No. 2 Rivals.com No. 4 CBS Sportsline No. 2 But the transfer-student from San Diego State continued to work on his fundamentals. During the preparation for the Florida Citrus Bowl, Brinton got a chance to take more snaps and give the coaches a glimpse of what he could do. "I thought he made very good progress," Carr said. "Coining out of (bowl practices) his confi- dence was better. I think he's going to compete very well (in the spring)." Carr will be looking closely at spring practices as a chance for his three quarterbacks to improve their strength, speed and take as many snaps as possible. "As a coach, you want to give them as many rep- etitions as you can," Carr said. "I always tell them to not worry about what the other guy is doing." HAIL TO THE VICTOR: Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady also knows a few things about being a quar- terback at Michigan. Tuesday night, Brady spoke with Carr for 40 minutes from New England Patriots' owner Bob Kraft's private jet on his way to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. "I told him last night, 'Nobody deserves that type of success more than you do,' " Carr said. "What a kid, what a story - you look at him for three straight weeks, where every game he was a question, and what he did for his team was exactly what they asked him to do." Carr reminisced that early into Brady's Michigan career he was struggling and actually considered transferring. But those thoughts lasted just one day. "He came back the next day and said, 'Coach I love it here at Michigan. I'm going to stay here. I'm going to prove to you what kind of quarterback I can be."' BYE, BYE BOBBY: Michigan's special teams and recruiting took a big hit yesterday when coach Bobby Morrison announced his retirement after 31. years of coaching. The 56-year-old's ongoing fight with bladder cancer was too much for him to han- dle. "What I've been going through is not fun," Mor- rison said. "I just thought it was time. I'm falling apart." Said Carr: "He's a man's man, a coach's coach, a player's coach and he's done a tremendous job. We're extremely proud of his loyalty and work ethic." Morrison has been the team's recruiting coordi- nator for the past eight years and has nabbed top- 10 classes in seven of those years. His special See MORRISON, Page 12A BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily Coach Carr is not willing to name John Navarre (right) his starting quaterback next season just yet. Michigan's 2002 football recruiting class Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown Jason Avant Wide reciever 6-2 195 Chicago, Ill. Willis Barringer Defensive lineman 6-1 185 Toledo, Ohio Tom Berishaj Offensive lineman 6-5 295 Sterling Heights Mark Bihl Offensive lineman 6-5 265 Washington Court, Ohio Steve Breaston Wide reciever 6-0 170 North Braddock, Pa. Greg Cooper Defensive back 6-0 180 Flint Larry Harrison Defensive lineman 6-2 261 Detroit Darnell Hood Running back 5-11 186 Detroit Matt Gutierrez Quarterback 6-4 206 Concord, Calif. Mike Kolodziej Tight end 6-7 280 Joliet, Ill. Kevin Murphy Tight end 6-5 220 Grand Rapids Pierre Rembert Running back 6-1 197 Milwaukee, Wis. Rueben Riley Offensive lineman 6-3 311 Grand Rapids Jacob Stewart Defensive back 6-0 195 Ypsilanti Carl Tabb Wide reciever 6-2 171 Ann Arbor Brian Thompson Linebacker 6-3 215 Saginaw Jeremy van Alstyne Linebacker 6-4 224 Greenwood, Ind. Gabriel Watson Defensive line 6-4 334 Novi i i Cagers catch Illini at wrong time, again The Winter . Games are nothing but Siberian TV.. E very four years another Winter Olympics comes. And each time, I wonder why so many people watch it. For some unknown reason, millions of Americans are glued to their televi- sion sets, hoping to capture every pre- cious moment of bobsledding and giant slalom. If you chose to tune in to NBC (or CBC if you want superior coverage and stories on Canadian athletes) you will learn more about curling and speed skating than any human being should ever know. I realize that many people may not feel comfortable making an anti- Olympics statement right now. The World Trade Center flag will accompany the athletes as they march during the opening ceremonies tomor- row night. The Games are being held in Salt Lake City - and the media are trying to turn snowboarding and luge into the most patriotic week of sports in years. But this isn't about patriotism - Afghanistan is not going to lace up and skate against Chris Chelios and Team USA. This is about random Norwegian athletes with unpronounceable names like Yevgeny Plushenko andYorgo Alexandrou (I don't know who they are either - that's the point.) This is about high-tech, bright-col- ored wind suits that enable skiers to fly down the slopes with reckless abandon. It's just like NASCAR. I don't want to watch, but I'll be sure that I catch the crash highlights on SportsCenter. Every year these same athletes com- pete in the World Championships. They have all the same feel-good stories, and they hold all the same events. But even on their biggest day of the year, these guys could only find televi- sion time on ESPN2 at 3 a.m. But when the Olympics comes along, NBC needs to interrupt every sitcom to remind us that they are cover- ing the biggest sports story around. Who do they think they are taking to? A bunch of sheep? Do they really expect us to believe that the same events that nobody cared about two weeks ago are suddenly more important then the NBA or col- lege basketball? Please. The highlight of the coverage will be -as always - figure skating. Unfortunately there is no Nancy Kerrigan vs. Tonya Harding issue this year. But this event still featurs pretty dresses, plenty of skin and musical accompaniment. I shouldn't have to say this, but I will. Figure skating is not a real sport. Figure skating is art. "Artistic impression" is part of the scoring process. If your hair is messed up in a real sport, you don't lose points. I will not argue about this. Don't get me wrong; I don't hate all the winter sports. As a native Michigander, I have f spent many a fun afternoon at Boyne Mountain. And I would like nothing better than to be able to fly like Jonny "Super Air" Mosley. But the fact is that most of the winter sports don't make for good television. For example, you can tune in this weekend and watch the biathlon. In this "sport," a bunch of people go running around in cross-country skis and shoot guns. That's just too exciting for me - I'd rather be watching QVC. Unless you live in Siberia, I guarantee that you have plenty of better choices for enter- tainment. Despite all my complaints, there is one event that I will be sure to watch this year. They call it the skeleton race. Basi- cally, this is head-first luge. I've never seen someone travel 80-90 miles per By Steven Jackson Daily Sports Editor Illinois may be ranked No. 21, but things are certainly not going accord- ing to plan in Champaign. Picked by almost every preseason publication as the Big Ten favorite, the Fighting Illini (4-5 Big Ten, 15-7 overall) are struggling to stay above water in conference play. After three straight losses - at Indiana, at Ohio State and at home against Michigan State - Bill Self's team is in a fhust-win situation. "I drove to work today saying 'God, I wish we could replay the last nine or 10 days.' But we can't," Self said. "All we can do is worry about today." After Illinois notched back-to-back Big Ten losses to open the conference slate, the Illini took their frustrations out on the Wolverines, winning 94-70 in Assembly Hall. "They're talented. I think we all know that," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "They were a team that was picked to have an opportunity to win a national championship or be a Final Four team. In my honest opinion that hasn't changed." If Michigan wants to avoid repeat- ing history tonight at 8 p.m. in Crisler, it will have to do a much better job defensively. Illinois dominated the inside in the teams' matchup earlier this year, exe- cuting high-low passes to perfection and shooting nearly 70 percent from the floor. But Michigan (4-5, 9-10) is coming off a high-energy defensive win against Wisconsin, 64-53. Meanwhile, the Illini are searching for something to spark their on-court effort. "The highest level of frustration that I have - and fans don't want to hear this - is that before you can talk about Xs and Os, the guys (have) to play as hard and unselfish as they can," Self said. "The frustrating thing to me is that we have not come close to doing any one of those to the capa- bility that we have." But Self is quick to take responsi- bility for his team's failure in this regard. "It's frustrating as a coach because I haven't gotten them to do or think the way they should when they play and think the game - and that all falls on the coach's shoulders," Self said. During Sunday's loss to Michigan State, CBS commentator Billy Packer attacked Illinois guard Frank Williams, the returning Big Ten Player of the Year, for not playing hard enough. Self echoed those thoughts. "I feel the exact same way," Self said. "I don't think he's playing with much emotion or energy, and I think that definitely affects performance. "He's playing for (NBA) money, but there doesn't seem to be that get- up-and-go in him that there should be." Amaker is all too familiar with the problems associated with not living up to expectations. CRISLER ARENA Who: Michigan (4-5 Big Ten, 9-10 overall) vs. No. 21 Illinois (4-5, 15-7) When: 7 p.m. TV: ESPN Latest: The Fighting Illini are reeling from a three-game skid in the Big Ten. Last season as coach of Seton Hall, Amaker started the season with a team many predicted to reach the Final Four. But soon his young team was broken apart internally, finishing the season in the NIT with a 16-15 record. "It's very tough, I'm sure he's very frustrated," Amaker said. "But looking at Illinois from the outside, the ingre- dients are there. Obviously, Bill is a good coach and sometimes its just a matter of hitting your stride. I'm just hoping they do that after (tonight's game)." r Nationwide Long Distance Included. Every Minute. Every Day. 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