Thursday October 9, 2003 www.michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com POTeSfiditan aig LOA 'Wide right' haunts'Noles Sooners head to Texas for Red River Shootout By Beth Adelson 4For the Daily You could almost thank the football gods (or the Minnesota Twins) for the Wolverines' game at the Metrodome tomorrow, because this Saturday offers enough exciting rivalry matchups in college football to occupy and justify a full day on the couch. No. 2 MIAMI (5-0) AT No. 5 FLORIDA STATE (5-0) - NOON, ABC: At noon, grab the chips and soda and take a seat, because the best game of the day is also one of the first. Second-ranked Miami is riding the high of last week's dramatic win over West Virginia, while fifth-ranked Florida State is coming off a bye week following a 56-7 shellacking of Duke on Sept. 27. Junior transfer Brock Berlin is poised to start at quarterback in the biggest game of his short career at Miami. Berlin completed almost 70 percent of his passes last week and finished with a spectacular total of 352 yards. Miami will have problems in the backfield due to the season-ending injury suffered by star running back Frank Gore against West Vir- ginia. Fifth-year senior Jarrett Payton has a chance to shine in his first collegiate start at tailback, and Tyrone Moss and Jason Geathers will be other options on the rush for the 'Canes. Florida State's defense, which has allowed just 14 points over the last two games, faces its biggest test of the season against Miami. Starting at quarterback for the Seminoles will be junior Chris Rix, who had his worst game of the sea- son last year at the Orange Bowl. He'll look to jun- ior wide receiver Craphonso Thorpe, who'll try to bounce back from a disappointing game last week. At kicker, Xavier Beitia is hoping for revenge after last year's chapter in the "Wide Right" saga. This will be a close game, and close games between these two powerhouses have traditionally gone Miami's way. However, after losing Gore last week, the Hurricanes are weaker offensively than they have been in several years. Look for Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden to tie Joe Paterno with 338 Division I-A wins this weekend at Doak Campbell Stadium. Florida State 24, Miami 21 No. 1 OKLAHOMA (5-0) AT No. 11 TEXAS (4-1) - 3:30 P.M., ABC: This year's Red River Shootout will answer a few questions about both the Sooners and the Longhorns: Just how strong will the Okla- homa defense prove against a ranked team? Which quarterback will Longhorns coach Mack Brown start? Big Ten title impossible without Little Brown Jug Georgia quarterback David Greene will have to be much sharper if he wants to beat Tennessee. Will the Sooners finally be able to win a game in this series? There's no question who will start at quarterback for the Longhorns. Senior Jason White has emerged recently as a Heisman candidate, throwing for 16 touchdowns on the year. Running backs Kejuan Jones and Renaldo Works and wideouts Mark Clay- ton and Brandon Jones will be offensive threats for the Sooners. All-American linebacker Teddy Lehman already has 39 tackles and will look for more against Texas. Either redshirt junior Chance Mock or freshman phenom Vince Young will start at quarterback for the Longhorns. Mock started last week's game against Kansas State, but was replaced in the fourth quarter with Young, who rushed for the game-win- ning touchdown. Either quarterback will look to star wide receiver Roy Williams, who came back for his senior season, in part, for one more chance to beat Oklahoma in Dallas. Oklahoma enters the game undefeated, but the Sooners haven't played many decent teams this year. Texas is trying to shake the big-game monkey off its back, and prove that it isn't soft. However, the Long- horns aren't going to beat the Sooners this year at the Cotton Bowl. Better luck next year. Oklahoma 24, Texas 14 No. 8 GEORGIA (4-1) AT No. 13 TENNESSEE (4-1) - 7:45 P.M., ESPN 2: The last two meetings between the Bulldogs and Volunteers have been decided by a total of seven points. Saturday's matchup promises to be just as exciting, with Ten- nessee looking for revenge after falling sh comeback effort during the fourth quarter 1a The SEC East lead is at stake, as is a chanc on the fast track to a conference championshi Georgia is coming off a sloppy win against, ma and can't afford to play as carelessly again nessee. Junior quarterback David Green connect with a variety of wideouts, and r freshman running back Michael Coope missed last week's game, will be eager to get bench. The vaunted Georgia defense has a more than 10 points just once this season, an omore linebacker Thomas Davis is hop improve on his two sacks against Alabama. Vols quarterback Casey Clausen will havea chance at the Bulldogs after sitting out last s contest with a collarbone injury and a 26-24 2001. Following last year's loss, he said, " have played on one arm and we could've de beaten them but (the doctors) didn't want tor His comments incensed the Tennessee squ have Georgia ready to compete as well. Ten needs a solid effort from both leading rusher Houston and wide receivers James Banks Brown and last week's star Chris Hannon. Georgia's taken the last three games series, but Tennessee's home-field advantag negate the Bulldogs' streak. Both quarte have proven to be great gainers and will ba the very end. Georgia's defense, though, wi the war. Georgia 34, Tennessee 28 COURTNEY LEWIS The Daily Grind rom the beginning, the Little F Brown jug has meant more to Minnesota than to Michigan. In the 1903 game between the Gophers and the Wolverines in Minnesota, the game had to be stopped with two minutes still left on the clock because the Minnesota fans couldn't hold back any longer, and they rushed the field. The reason for their jubilation? The Gophers had pulled 6 into a tie with the Wolverines. True, one of Fielding Yost's "point-a-minute" teams was on the field. But still, the AP PHOTO story shows the difference, traditionally, between Michigan and Minnesota -- they've been on two different levels. ort in a The exchange of the trophy started st year. after that 1903 game, and yes most e to be Michigan fans know Michigan-Min- p. nesota as the Little Brown Jug game, Alaba- and it's neat to be tied to the oldest tro- nst Ten- phy in college football. But Michigan ne will leads the series 65-23-3, and the edshirt matchup usually doesn't register on the r, who Big Game radar of Michigan fans - off the they've always had bigger things in allowed mind. d soph- Minnesota coach Glen Mason exhib- ping to ited the importance of the game for the Gophers earlier this week when he was another asked, "Is Friday night what it's all eason's about?" loss in "You know who we're playing Friday, 'I could don't you?" Mason responded. "No real- finitely ly, think about it. Who are we playing? risk it." We're playing the Yankees. That's exact- ad and ly right. We're playing the New York nnessee Yankees. We're the Twins. And that's not Cedric saying anything bad about the Twins or , Tony the Gophers. We're playing the Yankees. "You're talking about the University in the of Michigan ... I mean you look ge may through their press guides and it's histo- rbacks ry after history after history after history. attle to Murderer's row, that's what we've got 'ill win here, really. That's why I've got so much respect for them." By the sound of it, you'd think Min- nesota will be honored just to be on the same field as Michigan, and that the Gophers will feel fortunate just to escape in one piece. That's a nice try by Mason to paint his team as the hopeless underdog, but the fact is the tables are turned a little bit this season. Michigan will enter the Metrodome on Friday as the underdog as far as the oddsmakers are concerned (the Gophers are narrowly favored). The Wolverines are also well behind the Gophers in the national polls. Minnesota comes in with a 6-0 record (Michigan hasn't won six straight since 1998), while Michigan is 0-2 on the road and 1-2 against nationally-ranked teams. Granted, Minnesota wasn't tested in its nonconference schedule and opened the Big Ten with wins against a struggling Penn State squad and lowly Northwest- ern. But both Minnesota and Michigan were picked as preseason threats in the conference, and so far the Gophers are the ones living up to the hype. A couple weeks ago, there was still talk among the media that this would be a huge game for Minnesota, much big- ger than for Michigan. And as a chance to upset the "Yankees," you'd expect as much. But the unexpected thing is that Michigan needs this win just as badly as Minnesota does, probably more. "It is a Big Ten championship game," Michigan defensive lineman Grant Bowman said. And he's right - the Wolverines need to win out to have a chance at the Big Ten title. But this year, the Little Brown Jug holds more than title hopes. Lose it, and the Wolverines will lose a little of that Michigan aura that Mason alluded to. Michigan will have lost to Minnesota for the first time in 15 years and will likely drop out of the top-25 for the first time in 64 games, ending the longest streak in the nation. The implications of the game and the apparent talent of the unproven Gophers should be good for the series. If the Gophers win, Minnesota-Michigan still won't be elevated to the level of Red Sox-Yankees in the minds of Michigan fans. But at least the Gophers will have fared better than the Twins. 4 4 Courtney Lewis can be reached at cmlewis@umich.edu. * I Special Advance Screening! As an engineer in the U.S. Air Force, there's no telling what you'll work on. (Se;i0ously, we can't tell you.) CUSRE HICKUMAN HOFFMAN WEISZ REGENCY [MIERPRISESpaim 3A NEW REGENCYPcn AGARY ffilECRut JOHN COSACK GENE HACKMAN DUSIIN HOffMAN RlACHEL WEISZ 'RUNAWAY JURY" BRUCE IMtGlt CIIRISIOPHER YOUNG Pi 11111AEJERMAN 119101JEFFREY OHWNIP RABIGAIL MURRIAY ' VWIAM SIEINKAM Pa. aaNElSON [D lES "" RBT EifSWI, ~iJOHN GRISFIAM "" BRIAN IIPPttM4AN A UMO LEVIEIJI Am MAEW CHIAPMAN ~AKRN II 1LHAN GAMlY fOER CHISTOPHIER MANKIFWICI "IrGA RY flf HER PY31 tssrosau'aAim.10 " i~aps a~ug n hm~i tKar t l (~yY~f( , U6Ykftssz OCTOBER 17 ONLY IN THEATRE United States Air Force applied technology is years ahead of what you'll touch in the private sector, and as a new engineer you'll likely be involved at the ground level of new and sometimes classified developments. You'll begin leading and managing within this highly respected group from day one. Find out what's waiting behind the scenes for you in the Air Force today. To request more information, call 1-800-423-USAF or log on to airforce.com. AW