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Tuesday
September 28, 2004
sports.michigandaily.com
sports@michigandaily. com

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Receptions or not,
Avant helping Blue

Violence becoming
epidemic in sports

By Chris Burke
Daily Sports Editor
One of the lasting images in the
minds of most Michigan fans from
last season's Rose Bowl run is of
Jason Avant.
But it's not of Avant making a
sprawling catch or celebrating a
touchdown. It's of the junior - after
suffering a knee injury early in the
Wolverines' win over Ohio State,
being carted off the field - tears
flowing, waving his arms in an
effort to spur the Michigan Stadium
crowd on.
And while it was far from the way
Avant wanted to end his 2003 regu-
lar season, it was a perfect example
of why the wide receiver is such a
valuable member of the Wolverines
- Avant always puts the team first.
That attitude has become prevalent
again this season. With Michigan
breaking in true freshman quarter-
back Chad Henne, Avant's numbers
have suffered - he has just eight
catches and no touchdowns for 99
yards in four games.
But, as long as Michigan's win-
ning, that's just fine.
"It's not frustrating," said Avant
of his meager early-season numbers.
"It's not that I disappeared from the
offense or anything. It has a lot to
do with the younger quarterback and
different things of that nature - it's
going to take time."
Avant had his best game of the
young season on Saturday in Michi-
gan's 30-17 win over Iowa, snatching
three balls for 42 yards.
Those numbers were significant
for Michigan. Even though Avant
refuses to concern himself with indi-
vidual statistics, the Wolverines have
made it an emphasis to get Henne to
utilize the highly-talented receiving
corps surrounding go-to-guy Braylon
Edwards.
Against the Hawkeyes, six differ-
ent Wolverines caught passes, with
Avant finishing second to Edwards
in receiving yards for Michigan on
the day.
"It felt good to get the three (catch-
es), but not for me," Avant said. "I
felt pretty good about getting those
three because it helped (the team)

and Braylon a lot.
"They had to respect my side of the
field, so it allowed other guys to go
down the field a little more."
Last season, with fifth-year senior
John Navarre quarterbacking the
Michigan offense, Avant finished as
Michigan's second-leading receiver
with 47 grabs for 772 yards and two
touchdowns.
That led to the expectation for big-
ger things this season.
But with the switch from the vet-
eran Navarre to the untested Henne,
Avant and the rest of Michigan's
receivers have had to deal with the
growing pains. Still, Avant refuses
to place any blame on Henne for his
lack of catches.
"It's not just Chad, there's a lot of
things that go on," Avant said. "Little
things can stop a guy from getting
the ball or catching the ball. You
can't get mad at those type of things
- if everybody does their job, we'll
get it.
"You've got to keep in mind that
you've messed up sometimes, too,
so you can't get mad when another
(player) messes up."
Henne and the passing attack have
received much of the attention so far
this season, but when it comes to
Michigan football, the gameplan usu-
ally begins and ends with the running
game.
And that means everyone on the
field needs to focus on opening up
holes for Michigan's backs.
"If you can't block, you can't get on
the field here," Avant said. "It's good
to be known as the best pass-catching
receivers, but if anything, we want
to be known as the most-feared and
most-physical receivers. That's what
all of us try to go out there and do.
"Even little, bitty old Steve
(Breaston) goes out there and knocks
people down."
The focus on run blocking is yet
another sign that Avant is willing to
sacrifice to help Michigan return to
the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champi-
ons.
But Avant admits that the, offense
- himself included - still has lots
of room for improvement.
"We have a ways to go. (But) we're
moving at a good rate now."

Jason Avant's blocking has been stellar so far this season.
THE MICHIGAN INFIRMARY
Here are Lloyd Carr's comments at yesterday's media luncheon
on some injured Wolverines:
So. QB Matt Gutierrez - "Matt Gutierrez last week had an MRI
arthroscope where they put the dye in and where they can get a very,
very good look at what's going on in that shoulder. Our doctors, Dr'
(James) Carpenter, has visited with Matt's father and they have talked
about the injury. Matt and his father are going to make a decision at
some point here on what options they are choosing to explore."'
Sr. RB David Underwood - "David is fine, and we'll just have to see
how practice goes. But I expect him to play this week."
Sr. CB Markus Curry - "Markus Curry had an injury that really ham-
pered him. He maybe could have played in an emergency last week."
Fr. DE Tim Jamison - "He had some problems (with his knee) early in
training camp. He did something - he had some treatment of a knee,
responded and then he came back. But he has re-injured it and he's going
to miss the rest of the year, but ... he will be eligible for a medical redshirt."
Jr. S Jacob Stewart - "(Jacob) had been hampered a year ago, missed
some playing time with a pulled hamstring, he has re-injured it. I don't
know what his status will be."'

BRIAN SCHICK
Schick Happens
There's a fine line between
home field advantage and
player intimidation, and it
seems that it's blurring with each
passing day. Spectators at sport-
ing events used to be civilized
- have you ever seen pictures of
baseball games from the 1950s?
Every man in the crowd wore a hat
and his Sunday finest and cheered
respectfully for his team. Now it
seems that a season doesn't go by
in professional sports without a fan
getting involved with the play on
the field, and it's happening with
increasing frequency.
Take an incident from a few weeks
ago. Texas Rangers relief pitcher
Frank Francisco threw a chair from
the bullpen into the crowd in Oak-
land. Depending on whom you ask, it
was either an unprovoked display of
violence, or retaliation for insulting
remarks directed at Francisco and his
family. A fan left with a broken nose
and pressed charges on Francisco.
Aggression has always been part
of the very nature of professional
sports (basically one team try-
ing to be tougher than the other)
and the way fans describe them.
Every player wants to "kill" the
opposition, and the game is going
to be a "war" on the "battlefield."
But in recent years, it seems that
incidents between fans and players
have been on the rise.
Of course, every sports league
wants to distance itself from outbreaks
of violence, since it gives the entire
sport a black eye (sorry, I couldn't
resist). Going back to Francisco,
Major League Baseball suspended him
16 games for his attack on the fan, but
yesterday Francisco agreed to drop
his appeal if the league would drop a
game from his suspension. I guess the
reasoning is that the shorter the sus-

pension, the quicker people will forget
about it.
But the darker side of the Fran-
cisco incident is that fans are
becoming increasingly belliger-
ent. The victim's husband, Craig
Bueno, was supposedly harassing
the Rangers bullpen all night, and
finally, in the eighth inning, Fran-
cisco snapped.
The same thing happened two
years ago, when a fan provoked
a player into violent retaliation.
Notorious Toronto Maple Leafs
thug Tie Domi sprayed water on a
fan after he was harassed while sit-
ting in the penalty box.
Domi and the fan had to be
separated by the linesman, but Domi
played the rest of the game and never
missed a game due to suspension.
So, are fans going out of their
way to provoke players, or are the
players just less tolerant to fan
rantings? Well, both sides need to
take a step back and look at the
situation. In the age of ESPN and
24-hour sports on the Internet,
professional sports have never had
more prominence than they do
right now, and fans live and die
with every game. In the age of free
agency and advertising dollars,
players think they should be treat-
ed as royalty and shouldn't have to
interact with the fans.
In America, we always seem to
snicker at our friends across the
pond, whom we stereotype as hooli-
gans because they riot during soccer
games. I've always thought it's a joke
that people take their teams seriously
enough to pick fights with fans for
simply supporting the rival club. But
are we that different than European
and Latin American soccer fans,
where club owners sometimes need to
build fences around the field to keeps
fans from harming the players? With
violence on the rise in American
spors, that doesn't seem like such a
crazy idea anymore.
Fan violence goes back for
decades, beginning with the infa-
mous promotions of the 1970s,
such as 10-cent beer night in
Cleveland and Disco Demolition
Night in Chicago that forced both
See SCHICK, page 11

a


'M' not yet ready to challenge

By Dan Ketchel
For the Daily
Each year, 70 runners representing ten different
schools wait for the sound of a gun to explode into a
rigorous run of 10,000 meters.
All of these remarkably conditioned men stand
poised at the starting line, immeasurably anxious for
the race ahead.
This is the scene at the beginning of the men's
cross country Big Ten Championships, though North-
western, which does not field a team, is absent. Each
individual athlete-is looking to push himself harder
than the person next to him, while simultaneously
pushing his teammates to do well with him.
But on Oct. 31 - when the Big Ten Championships
will be held in Iowa City - there will be seven run-
ners from Michigan's cross country team who won't
be competing for first place in the team standings.
They'll be counting on second.
Why not go for first? Go for the gold? Shoot for
the stars? One word - Badgers. Wisconsin has taken
first in the Big Ten Championships for the past five
years.
In that span of tipe, the Michigan cross country
team has come up just short all too often - finishing
in second place to Wisconsin on three of those five
occasions.
But what about being an underdog? What about the
come-from-behind, miracle win like in all of every
famous sports movies? Not this year, says Michigan
coach Ron Warhurst, who - in his 31st year as Mich-
igan's head coach - may be a motivator, but is also
a realist.
"Wisconsin is loaded." Warhurst said. "We'll take
second place in the Big Ten and second in our NCAA
region."
Everyone around the Michigan program expresses
excitement about how great the team can be and how
much potential it has if some key guys step up.
But, according to the Wolverines, the gap between
themselves and Wisconsin might be too large to close
this season - no matter how quickly Michigan's ath-
letes are able to develop.
See BADGERS, page 11

TONY DING/Daily
Michigan sophomore Andrew Ellerton finished 11th at the
Spartan Invitational on Sept. 17.

NOTES
Cagers land another
recruit for class of '05
Coach Tommy Amaker and the Mich-

ham Browne & Nichols School, Price aver-
aged 24 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks
and two assists in his junior season.
Michigan landed just one recruit for
the class of 2004: forward Ronald Cole-
man. But the Wolverines also have just one
senior on its roster in forward J.C. Mathis.

preseason poll and landed the No. 2 spot
in the USA Today/USA Hockey Maga-
zine rankings behind Boston College
- despite Michigan recording 16 of the
poll's 34 first-place votes.
In the USCHO poll, Michigan
received 17 of 40 first-place votes, and

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