IN I WOMEN'S GOLF AIMING FOR OLIN-ONE Behind Laura Olin, the Michigan women's golf team is ready to rediscover success on the links. PAGE 7B GENNARO FILICE: Time to open the cur- tain on Michigan's tragic comedy. PAGE 3B The SportsMonday Column a_ ,.:. x RWTS4!:: c, A Y MMMMMMMMMOMMEMM P wpn Otte September 13, 2004 1B -------------- MICHIGAN 20 Notre Shame No matter who's QB, fire away S OUTH BEND - Lloyd Carr knew it wasn't worth denying. "I just don't think - right now, offensively we're a very good football team." As Ray Zalinsky said to Tommy Callahan in the elevator after he rubbed air freshener all over himself in Tommy Boy: "Good, you've pinpointed it. Now the next step is washin' it out." The Wolverines weren't SHARAD just running a conservative MATTU offense Saturday against Notre Dame. They were Booyakasha running a bad conserva- tive offense. : One in which they couldn't run the ball (appar- ently Michigan is trying to revolutionize the conservative offense) and didn't trust their quar- terback (though this is nothing new - Carr barely trusted John Navarre last year when he was a senior, and he holds just about every Michigan passing record). When the plan is to take an early lead and let the defense take you home from there, I wouldn't rec- ommend three turnovers and a blocked punt - all of which give the Irish the ball within sight of the endzone. I'm still baffled by the Michigan offense. Ini- tially, it seemed like the goal was to ease true freshman Chad Henne into his first road game with safe plays. OK, I thought. That makes sense. Then, before I knew it, the Wolverines were running on 3rd-and-goal to end the first half and on 3rd-and-17 immediately after Notre Dame had taken the lead in the fourth quarter. Of course Michigan's offense is a work in prog- ress. But how did Carr, offensive coordinator Terry Malone, quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler and company sit down and come up with that? Now, Henne is a true freshman, so I understand that a sizable chunk of the playbook has been tossed aside. But didn't Michigan take it too far? It seemed like Carr had sent a pre-programmed robot out on the field for the first 50 minutes. Drop back three steps and throw a 3-yard pass over the middle to the tight end. Roll out to the right. After your fifth stride, give me three chop steps and fire the ball off your left foot to the wide receiver's left shoulder, five yards in front of you at the hash mark. In Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant and Steve Breaston, Michigan has a trio of wide receivers that would put fear in just about every defense in the nation. But you wouldn't have known that Saturday, seeing short route after short route get stuffed shy of the first-down marker. Granted, the three of them were involved in Michigan's three turnovers, but didn't that at least partly have to do with the fact that so much was up to them? This is what they were told: We're ten yards from a first down, so run three yards, catch the ball and do what you have to do. Why are a quarterback-friendly offense and down-field passing attack truly mutually exclu- sive? The Wolverines - with or without a running attack and with or without a freshman quarterback - will be better off making proper use of their receivers. Better off for the next two months. Better off for the next three years. See MATTU, Page 5B TONY DING/Daily Running back David Underwood and safety Ernest Shazor walk through the tunnel In Notre Dame Stadium to their lockerroom. Freshman helps send Varsity packing By Chris Burke Daily Sports Editor SOUTH BEND -- Leading 14-12 and lin- ing up on the Michigan five-yard line follow- ing a blocked punt, Notre Dame wanted to put the game out of reach. And, just as they did throughout the sec- ond half, the Fighting Irish turned to running back Darius Walker. The freshman took a handoff from quarter- back Brady Quinn and bounced out towards the left sideline. There, he eluded tackles from Michigan cornerback Markus Curry and linebacker Lawrence Reid, and headed for the goal line with one arm in the air, pointing at the exuberant Notre Dame student section. Hello, end zone. Good-bye, Michigan. All told, Walker finished with two touch- downs, while accumulating 115 yards on 31 carries, helping Notre Dame (1-1) hand No. 8 Michigan (1-1) a 28-20 loss - marking the fifth straight year the Wolverines have suf- fered a crushing nonconference defeat away from the Big House. "We have no excuses," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "We just didn't do the things that were necessary to win." Thanks to a stellar defensive effort, the Wolverines took a 9-0 lead into halftime as sophomore Garrett Rivas drilled three field goals - the last coming on the final play of the first half. But things quickly unraveled for Michigan after halftime. The Wolverines went three-and-out to open the third quarter, and three plays later, Quinn went up top for a 46-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Matt Shelton, who leaped over top of Curry for the catch. That connection invigorated the Irish, who went on to score 28 of the game's next 31 points. "That's what big plays do," Carr said. "They change the momentum of the game. "It got the crowd back in the game, and I think it gave Notre Dame a lot of confi- dence." The Irish rode that emotional surge to take control of the contest. Reid briefly halted the Notre Dame rally, intercepting a pass to set up Rivas's fourth field goal of the game to put Michigan ahead 12-7. But just before the end of the third quar- ter, a pass from Michigan quarterback Chad Henne - who finished his first career road game 25-of-40 for 240 yards and one touch- down - deflected off wide receiver Braylon Edwards' hands and was picked by Notre Dame defensive back Dwight Ellick. And, from there, it was all Irish. Walker punched in his first touchdown with 13:48 left, giving the Irish a lead that they would never relinquish. "The right person at the right time can give you that spark that everyone feeds off of," said Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham of Walker's performance. "We wanted to get him in the first quar- ter, but we didn't know how many carries he would get." After that, the Wolverines were struck by one of their old downfalls - a special teams blunder. See IRISH, Page 51 Five Alive: Soccer wins again By Jamie Josephson Daily Sports Writer The No. 9 Michigan men's soccer team was ready to shake the hands of its Detroit opponents following its 2-1 victory yester- day at the Varsity Soccer Field. And this time, the gesture wouldn't have been out of "good sportsmanship", but rather as a "thank you." Michigan had the Titans to thank for the to win it," Michigan coach Steve Burns said. "They wanted to play a slower game, and we fell into that at first. But then we got out of that and played a more up-tempo game. We were able to make them defend a lot, kept possession in the front half of the field and took a lot of energy out of them, which was to our advantage." Before Michigan was able to get on the scoreboard again, Detroit converted late in the 38th minute of the first half. Titans for the game. Luckily, Michigan senior Mychal Turpin was able to take advantage of one of those many opportunities in his typical athletic fashion. At 55:25, junior Ryan Alexander's fancy footwork on the far left side of the field set up a pass back to sophomore Brian Popeney in the middle of the field. Popeney then sprayed the ball across to Turpin, who found the right side of the net and gave the - Q~~. ,.:__ U'