4 Tuesday September 21, 2004 sports.michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com OR TiSidfg n IDU g 10 .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... . .. - . . . . . . . .......................... 4 Watson emergmg as force in trenches By Chris Burke Daily Sports Editor If you've seen 6-foot-4, probably-bigger-than-listed 333-pound defensive lineman Gabe Watson punishing opponents week after week for Michigan, there's one activity that you definitely wouldn't expect to see him participating in. Breakdancing. But, according to Watson's cousin-in-law, lineback- er Roy Manning, that's exactly the skill that Watson added to his repertoire over the summer. During summer workouts, Watson began to show off his moves, and all his teammates went nuts follow- ing his performance. Watson's collection of talents also includes a profi- ciency at impressions - and the list of targets includes Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "It's not that hard" to do a Carr impression, Man- ning insisted, before quickly claiming that he had never attempted to imitate the Wolverines' head man. "It's good to have guys like (Watson)," Manning said. "He's making jokes all the time, doing (his) lit- tle funny voices and things like that. It's good for the team, keeping guys not so serious." Still, while Watson, now in his junior season, may be a walking Comedy Central special off the field, he's all business on it. That has become apparent this year, as the Novi native has constantly disrupted opponents' plans to run the ball up the middle or sit a quarterback in the pocket. And while Watson's sack numbers - he has yet to record one this season - are far from overwhelming, he has recorded 11 tackles and has numerous quarter- back pressures. His play up front has left Manning impressed with more' than just Watson's ability to bust a move. "I think this is (the best he's played at Michigan), most definitely," Manning said. "He's focusing a lot more and going out there and being the player that he should be. He's a great athlete, he's very talented and he's going to be a great player here." This season marks the first time that Watson has been able to crack the starting lineup - he came off the bench in every game last year. He entered Michi- Back to the drawing board for my column JASON COOPER/Daily Multi-talented junior defensive end Gabe Watson has found his niche on Michigan's defensive line after coming off the bench in the past two seasons. DANIEL BREMMER Garden State of Mind 'll let you all in on a little secret - writing a sports column isn't as easy as you might think. Every other week, I have one simple job: pump out 20 inches of text to be featured right here, as a column in the sports section. The problem is, this week, I had no idea what to write about. Does Rick Reilly ever have this problem at Sports Illustrated? What about the Detroit Free Press's Mitch Albom? Well, since I'm obviously less talented than those guys (and am handicapped by a full-time class schedule and no personal research staff), I have no idea what to write about this week. I've been thinking long and hard about my column. I came up with an idea to write about diehard tail- gaters before a Michigan football game. Have you ever been driv- ing past the Big House on a Friday afternoon, and noticed the line of RVs already packing the Pioneer High School parking lot? I drove by one day and thought this could make an interesting column, so I spent last Friday afternoon hanging out and talking with some of Michigan's most intense fans. These guys have a few stories worth noting. It's interesting that some of the RV owners live just 15 or 20 minutes away from the sta- dium, but camp out overnight just because they have fun doing it. But a few interesting stories isn't enough to drive an entire column. Now my first, and seemingly best, column idea was a bust. I needed a plan B, and I needed one quickly. But much like Chad: Henne when faced with a blitz on Saturday, I didn't do a great job adjusting. I thought during the football game and afterwards for another column idea, but I still had nothing by the time the game ended on Saturday. I considered other things I could write about. I thought about Mich- igan's quarterback situation. I still support Henne taking the snaps, and I didn't like Lloyd Carr's decision to give Clayton Richard playing time on Saturday. I also thought the rota- tion of players on and off the field on Saturday was crazier than Gary Busey - did Jermaine Gonzales really catch a pass on Saturday? At times, it was like Carr and company were spinning a roulette wheel and sending out every player whose number came up. Then, I thought about my column again. Can I really fill up a page with reasons why Carr is coaching Michigan like a dad coaching Pop Warner football - just making sure everyone gets in the game? This football column idea lasted about as long as the XFL. So I started wracking my brain for other column ideas. What else could I write about that people would find interesting? I took a look at this week's Best Buy flier. Tiger Woods 2005 and NHL 2005 are coming out this week for PS2, Gamecube and Xbox (ironically enough, after the NHL owner's lockout last week). I thought about devoting this column space to sports video games. Maybe I'd write bout Tiger and the NHL. Then it hit me: maybe I should write about the King of all Video Games, Madden 2005. Heck, I own the game. I know that there is a Madden Monday Tournament at Scorekeepers during every Mon- day Night Football game. I thought maybe I would head down there and check it out. YES! I finally found my column idea. I felt like Tommy must have felt after the postseason ban was lifted. See BREMMER, Page 11 4 gan as one of the most highly-touted recruits in the country, but was played sparingly his freshman year, sitting out five games and registering a mere two tackles. Unable to live up to his seemingly endless potential in his first two years in Ann Arbor, Watson was eager to grab a starting spot in 2004. "I believe I have a lot to offer," Watson said when asked about his struggles during Michigan's preseason media day. "The last couple of years, I was behind two good defensive linemen (Grant Bowman and Norman Heuer), but this is a big year and I hope to do real good things." So far, so good for Watson this season. Now an unchallenged fixture on the Michigan front, he has anchored the Wolverines in their move to a 3-4 defense, often proving immovable for opposing offen- sive lineman. In one of the more obvious examples of his domi- nance this season, Watson was at the center of Michi- gan's dramatic goal-line stand in the first half at Notre Dame. He drove the Irish line back on fourth down, allowing his teammates to stuff running back Ryan Grant shy of the goal line. But the lack of sacks has frustrated Watson this year and left him aiming his goals skyward, again. "I know I can play a lot better," Watson said. And regardless of how well he may have played in Michigan's first three games, the big man knows he'll have to crank it up again when the Wolverines host a physical Iowa team on Saturday. "Whenever you're in the stadium, you want to go hard, hard, hard, so that's what I try to do," Watson said after Michigan's win over San Diego State last weekend. "And if I push the pocket in, I push the pock- et in. If I don't, then I have to do something different to push it." As for Michigan, Watson believes his personal improvement is just as critical as the unit's as a whole. "We're not great, but we're good," Watson said. "Every week, we're trying to improve and, if we con- tinue to do so, we can make a run at the Big Ten cham- pionship." 4 A