BROWN DELIVERS SOUND ADVICE Hall of Fame coach Hubie PAGE Brown visits Crisler Arena 6B for Tommy Amaker's clinic. IAN HERBERT: Varsity goes streaking, and it's more than just back-to-back wins. PAGE 3B The SportsMonday Column WIN SOME, LOSE SOME Both Michigan soccer teams were in action this weekend, but only one came away with a victory PAGE 8B October 24, 2005 gabe i3,n TiwAii 2I( T Michigan 23, IowA 20 (OT) lB Cardiac Kids Defense bears down to seal late-game win I OWA CITY - Considering Michi- they had Herrmann's mantra in their minds. gan's current string of close games, "We went out there and everybody it's hard to believe nose tackle Gabe was yelling, 'Finish,' " defensive lineman Watson thought it was "funny" that Iowa Alan Branch said. "We all knew what we got the ball back with 2:42 left in the had to do." fourth quarter. Herrmann's lesson worked. Of the first At least, that's not what I six plays of Iowa's final drive was thinking. in regulation, three went for My thought process went more than 10 yards, and the something like this: Michi- Wolverines looked as if they gan's defense wasn't able to were going to let this game stop Wisconsin or Minnesota, F turn into a repeat of Wisconsin and it took last-second heroics or Minnesota. Then Michigan, from Chad Henne and Mario woke up. It stopped the Hawk- Manningham to overcome its eyes on second-and-four and collapse against Penn State. I third-and-two, and Iowa coach almost expected Michigan to Kirk Ferentz decided to kick a lose - all I was thinking was STEPHANIE 32-yard field goal and send the "not again." WRIGHT game into overtime. Watson felt a distinct sense Wright On Target In all, the defense's perfor- of d6ja vu in the contest's final mance on that drive was less minutes. But he wasn't thinking about the than impressive. Iowa amassed 74 yards on Wolverines' losses to Wisconsin and Min- eight plays; it was in position to look to the nesota. end zone for the game-winning score, and, All last week in practice, defensive coor- in retrospect, it probably should have. But dinator Jim Herrmann focused on teach- the Wolverines dug in and wouldn't let Iowa ing his players how to finish games. Rush win. I'm convinced that Michigan would linebacker Tim Jamison said the defense have stopped the Hawkeyes even if they had spent extra time in practice working on a decided to go for the touchdown. "finish drill" to simulate late-game defen- And then they did it again. Stopping sive stands. It was a much-needed point Iowa in regulation - that was the Hawk- of emphasis. In all the excitement about eyes' fault as much as it was Michigan's Michigan last-second win over Penn State triumph. But the Wolverines' defense was a week ago, it was easy to overlook how the determined to keep Iowa out of the end defense let the Nittany Lions' offense march zone a second time. Aside from a 10-yard down the field to take the lead. holding penalty called against Michigan, According to Watson, Herrmann told the Hawkeyes gained just six yards in five the defense that it has to be able to keep plays in overtime. opponents out of the end zone with less than The Wolverines finally proved they can three minutes left in games. The exact time finish a game on defense. Herrmann used was 2:53 - eerily similar This comes a week after the Wolver- to the 2:42 that Iowa had left on Saturday. ines' offense drove 53 yards in 53 seconds When the Wolverines' defenders ran to silence its critics. In practice leading up onto the field for Iowa's last offensive drive, See WRIGHT, page 5B HEART ATTACKS Here's a look at how Michigan's defense has performed on its final series of regulation in each of the Wolverines' Big Ten games this season: Game Distance Time Result Wisconsin 52 yards 4:05 Touchdown Michigan State 38 yards 0:48 End of game Minnesota 75 yards 2:48 Field goal Penn State 81 yards 1:53 Touchdown Iowa 74 yards 2:42 Field goal Michigan taliback Jerome Jackson scored the game-winning touchdown from the half-yard line to give the Wolverines' a 23-20 overtime win on Saturday. Blue pulls out another last-second wn By Matt Venegoni Daily Sports Editor IOWA CITY - How does it go? Third time's a charm? After losing two games 23-20, Michigan finally came out on top of a game by the same score. Saturday's win over Iowa featured more than just a familiar score. Mike Hart was injured again, but a couple unexpected faces gave Michigan a lift, while a couple old ones also came up with big plays to sal- vage the win and end Iowa's 22-game home winning streak. At the beginning of the season, the Michigan backfield was all about three players - Hart, soph- omore Max Martin and freshman Kevin Grady. But in overtime Saturday, there was just one player run- ning for the Wolverines - junior Jerome Jackson. With Michigan on the half-yard line and the game in the balance, the Michigan coaching staff called on the little-used Jackson. He has not seen game action since the Wisconsin loss, but he was ready to go when Michigan needed him most. Despite not playing until the fourth quarter and overtime, the Saginaw native had 44 yards on 11 carries, includ- ing the touchdown that ended Iowa's streak at Kin- nick Stadium. "I'm a strong believer," Jackson said. "I always knew that my time was going to come. Coach (Lloyd) Carr said in the locker room before the game, 'Some- body is going to have to step up today.' I just thank my coaches for giving me the opportunity and just believing in me to put me in the game in a tight situ- ation." Jackson didn't initially come in when Hart injured his ankle early in the first quarter. Freshman Kevin Grady carried the ball the majority of the next three quarters, but it was Jackson who rose to the occasion at the end of the game. "I think Jerome Jackson really gave us a lift there," Carrsaid. "But I think a measure of a team is, if you have some people who are banged up, somebody steps up. And we had that today." Jackson had a little help on the game-winning touchdown. Redshirt sophomore Jake Long returned from injury and made the hole for Jackson to notch the winning score. Long - who has not played all season - was given the responsibility of making sure Jackson got in the end zone. But before the play, the offensive line knew it was up to them to make See IOWA, page 5B lcers tie Spartans in tough *'battle' By Daniel Levy Daily Sports Writer For anyone who remembers last year's late- season games between Michigan and Michigan State, the drama of Saturday night's showdown between No. 1 Michigan and No. 10 Michigan State at Yost Ice Arena probably didn't come as much of a surprise. The Wolverines tied the Spartans on consecutive nights last year, and after three grueling periods on Saturday, the two teams were dead- locked at three and headed toward anoth- er overtime game. Michigan came out strong in the extra period, keeping the puck in Michigan State's offensive zone for the majority of the period. Wolverines center T.J. Hensick was able to wiggle through a few Spartans defenders on two different occasions, but neither play result- * VOLLEYBALL 'M' knocks off Badgers n a five-game thriller By Nate Sandals Daily Sports Writer As Michigan and No. 7 Wisconsin talk- ed strategy before the deciding fifth game of their volleyball match on Saturday, Wisconsin looked like a team ready to seal a comeback vic- tory. The Badgers were loose and loud: as the team dancedH to House of Pain's "Jump Around." Meanwhile, the Wolverines sat rigidly and looked like a defeated team. But the pep-talk is not the game, and it was Michigan who ended up jumping around. The Wolverines played confident- ly and dictated the flow of the last game. After the Badgers (8-2 Big Ten, 16-3 overall) fought back to tie the game at 14- 14, sophomore Katie Bruzdzinski placed a kill just inside the sideline to give the Wolverines a match-point opportunity at 15-14. Then the Wolverines sealed the win event, which brought the largest crowd of the season to Cliff Keen Arena - over 1,300 fans. But by beating Wisconsin 3-2, the Wol- verines snapped a four-game losing streak and gave coach Mark Rosen his first vic- tory over the Badgers in his seven years at Michigan. The win also marked the 500th in the program's history. "We were ready to win," Miller said. "We had a long talk on Friday night about sticking with it as a team. That's exactly what we did (Saturday)." Michigan played with a cohesive style that allowed it to knock off a more talented Wisconsin team. The Wolverines took the first game 30- 24 behind Miller's .571 hitting percentage and solid all-around play. "We did a great job keeping them off balance with our serving and our block- ing," Rosen said. Wisconsin responded in the next game with a strong 30-18 victory. Maria Carlini led the Badgers, recording six kills in the game and 29 on the match. RYAN WEINER/Daily Senin n.antain Andrew EhhAtt notched one naI and one assist in Michigan's 3-3 tie on Saturday.