GENNARO FILICE: Edwards is the No.1 option to be this year's hype-man. EPAGE 3B THE SPORTsrTUEsDAY COLUMN WHAT YOU TALKIN' 'BOUT, WILLIS' Michigan runner Nick Willis speaks of narrowly missing the finals of the 1,500-meter race at the Olympics. PAGE 8B 8 5 SPORTS rU \ \o V > September 7,2004 13A ---- - - - - ---- --- -- MICHIGAN 43, Miami (Ohio) 10 ------------------------------------------- - - ---- -- -- Freshman Solidstart& i nd regular college students think their schedules are hectic the week fore classes start. Can you imagine being Chad Henne? -, Register for classes. Fin-' ish moving into the dorm. Quarterback No.8 Michiganf in its first game of a national- title run in front of more than CHRIS 110,000 people. Yikes. Talk about freshmen orientation. Gon' to work Early last week, expected starting quarterback Matt Gutierrez began suffering fromb a sore shoulder, and, by Thursday, one of the nation's most-storied football programs was in the hands of a 19- year old who had never taken a college snap. But the kid can play. "You can see that he has a tremendous arm," Michigan i coach Lloyd Carr said. "I don't think you could ask any- thing more of a true freshman than what he did today."x What Henne did was, first and foremost, lead Michigan to a 43-10 victory over a better-than-the-score-indicates Miami (Ohio) team. He finished 14-for-24 on the day, for 142 yards and tossed two touchdown strikes to seniora receiver Braylon Edwards. Oh yeah, and he became just the second ever true fresh-' man to start at quarterback for the Wolverines, joining Rick Leach, who was given the nod in 1975.S All in all, a pretty impressive performance given the circumstances surrounding Henne's quick ascension into the starting role. "For your first start, there will always be those nerves going on," Henne said. "I think I handled it well." Still, maybe this is a good spot to take a step back. As well as he played against Miami, and as poised as he appears to be both on and off the field, Henne has now played in one college football game. One." So perhaps it's too early to completely deem former Michigan quarterback John Navarre replaced. And while we're on the subject of Navarre ...t Around these parts, the habit is to point to Michigan's quarterback and let the Wolverines' fortunes rest squarely on him. Ask Navarre - he'll tell you all about that issue. When Michigan would win, Navarre was a hero. When Michigan would lose, people wouldn't want to walk with- in 10 feet of him for fear of having his misfortune rub off. There again is a spot where, maybe, we ought to slow down a bit. Look, Michigan lost Navarre, a record-breaking quar- terback. The Wolverines lost Chris Perry, a Heisman Trophy finalist. They lost defensive lineman, offensive lineman, linebackers. It's unfair to put Michigan's season completely on the freshman's shoulders. At the same time, though, that seems to be what people want to do with Michigan quarterbacks. What's a positive for Henne is that he's aware of that. "It's always going to be a big challenge," Henne said. "You just have to go out and you've got to win for Michi- gan. The quarterback position (comes with) great pressure, but you've just got to go out, handle it and just play the game." There's the belief around here that the Michigan quar- terback doesn't need to be great enough to win games by himself, but he needs to be good enough not to lose them. That's probably a good credo for Henne to live by these days.. The reason is that Michigan - the team, not just" Henne himself - has a huge road game at Notre Dame next week. Michigan still has to improve from what it did against Miami. Michigan, whether the quarterback is - V~ Gutierrez or Henne or Clayton Richard, is a national title contender. 1 19-year-old leads Blue ast iami By Gennaro Filce Daily Sports Editor When Lloyd Carr informed Chad Henne that he was going to be the first true freshman to start for Michigan since Rick Leach did so in 1975, the 19-year-old's reac- tion was understandable. "When I told him on Thursday, he tried to smile, but he could only get it halfway," Coach Lloyd Carr said. "He was nervous, there's no question about that." Henne received his opportunity to start because red- shirt sophomore Matt Gutierrez - whom Carr had named as Michigan's starter on Monday - was suffer- ing from a sore shoulder midway through last week. But Lloyd Carr says he never doubted the West Lawn, Penn., native. "You know, honestly I didn't," Carr said. "I felt very confident because I felt like, first of all, he had very good people around him on both sides of the football. And from what I had seen in practice, I felt very comfortable." As he ran out of the tunnel to hit the "Go Blue" ban- ner for the first time, Henne was in awe of the 110,815 on hand. "There's no words to describe it," Henne said. "It's just awesome, going out and seeing all those people out there. Nervousness was a big key there and you've just got to handle that well on the field and play like you practiced all week." After a slow start, Henne seemed to find his comfort zone - passing for 142 yards with two touchdowns and one pick on 14-24 - and led No. 8 Michigan past Miami (Ohio) 43-10. "The first quarter was rocky, but the last three quar- ters, we bounced back," Braylon Edwards said. "We played exceptionally well in the second and third." Michigan's offense was set up by a stifling defense that caused seven Miami turnovers. "Miami's a good football team," Carr said. "What our defense did is absolutely unbelievable. For an opening game, facing a one-back set, there was nothing out there that I saw that I didn't like. I think obviously you've got to look at the punt coverage." Miami punt returner Ryne Robinson burned the Wol- verines on multiple occasions and almost gave Miami a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter. After the Michigan offense went three-and-out for its second consecutive drive to start the game, Robinson took an Adam Finley punt at his own 48, juked and scampered 58 yards down the RedHawk sideline into the endzone. But Miami's Adam Ciborowski had clipped Pierre Woods, and the play came back. In total, Robinson returned four punts for 139 yards. "It wasn't by accident he was second in the nation a year ago (in punt returns)," Carr said. Five minutes into the second quarter, Henne threw into double coverage toward Edwards, and the ball was intercepted by Matt Pusateri. But just two plays later, free safety Ryan Mundy gave the Michigan offense the ball by grabbing a tipped pass for Wolverines' first turn- over. After a 38-yard return by Mundy, Michigan had the ball at the Miami 27. "Ryan Mundy is probably one of the greatest guys on the football team," strong safety Ernest Shazor said. "He picked up the package real well in the spring last year and he became a starter." The Wolverines gained one first down before Garrett Rivas put Michigan on the board with a 31-yard field goal. On the first play of Miami's ensuing drive, Markus Curry snagged his first of two interceptions and returned the ball 21 yards to the Miami nine-yard line. David Underwood carried the ball four straight times, diving over the pile and into the endzone from the one-yard line on fourth down to give Michigan a 10-0 lead. When Michigan came back on the field for the second half, both Marlin Jackson and LaMarr Woodley See REDHAWKS, Page 19A RYAN WEINER/Daily See BURKE, Page I8A Quarterback Chad Henne (7) celebrates his first career touchdown pass with receiver Braylon Edwards and center Mark Bih. Olympian Phelps tovolunteer for 'M' By Seth Gordon Daily Sports Writer Following an eight-medal performance at the Olympic Games in Athens, every- body knows who Michael Phelps is. Fol- lowing a promotional tour that will ensure that fact, Phelps will ioin his coach, Bob "Michael is going to be volunteer assis- tant for the program, which means that he will be helping and traveling with the team," Bowman said. "He will be able to train with the team and that's where he will be able to help the most. He will raise the expectations of everybody around him, so that will be his biggest contribution." "Klete and I had a great relationship because we were friends in and out of the pool," Vanderkaay said. "We had a good, healthy competitive relationship and I think it was positive for both of us. We pushed each other at practice everyday. Now that Klete is going to be out on the West Coast, and Michael is coming in, I 1 .. .. ,-