Friday, September 15, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 9

STAFF PICKSe
Predictions against the
spread for Sept. 16
Scott Matt Kevin Stephanie J. Brady McCo
Bell Singer Wright Wright Kansas City Sta
No. 1iMichigan (+6.5) at No. 2 Notre Dame Notre Dame Michigan Michigan Notre Dame Michigan
Maryland (+16.5) at No. 5 West Virginia West Virginia Maryland Maryland West Virginia West Virginia
Cincinnati (+29.5) at No. 1 Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State
Duke (+34.5) at No. 14 Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Tech
Iowa State (+13.5) at No. 16 Iowa Iowa State Iowa State Iowa Iowa State Iowa State
UAB (+17) at No. 10 Georgia Georgia UAB Georgia Georgia Georgia
No. 6 Louisiana State (+3.5) at No. 3 Auburn Auburn Auburn Auburn Louisiana State Auburn
No. 17 Miami (FL) (+4) at No. 12 Louisville Louisville Louisville Louisville Louisville Louisville
Youngstown State (+35) at No. 25 Penn State Penn State Penn State Penn State Penn State Penn State
No. 15 Oklahoma (+4.5) at No. 18 Oregon Oklahoma Oregon Oklahoma Oklahoma Oregon
No. 8Texas (-31.5) at Rice Texas Rice Texas Texas Texas
Portland State (+35) at No. 21 California California California California California California
No. 24 Texas Tech (-1.5) at No. 20 Texas Christian Texas Christian Texas Tech Texas Tech Texas Tech Texas Tech
No. 22 Arizona State (-10.5) at Colorado Arizona State Arizona State Arizona State Arizona State Arizona State.
BYU (+7) at No. 23 Boston College Boston College Boston College Boston College Boston College BYU
Clemson (+4.5) at No. 9 Florida State Florida State Clemson Florida State Florida State Clemson
No. 19 Nebraska at (+18.5) at No. 4 Southern Cal Southern Cal Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Southern Cal
No. 7 Florida (-4) at No. 13 Tennessee Florida Florida Tennessee Florida Florida
Best Bet West Virginia Oregon California Arizona State Virginia Tech

ar reporter

McCollough returns, hopes to bring celebrities to top
It's only fitting that former managing sports editor and two-time football beat reporter J. Brady McCollough is returning to Staff Picks as this week's celebrity - it
was his idea to have a celebrity pick while he was still a writer for the Daily in the fall of 2003. McCollough, now a reporter for the Kansas City Star, still fits Michigan
football into his repertoire as a correspondent for the blog "The Realests," which can be found at http://therealests.blogspot.com.
FOOTBALL
'M' self-destructs in loss Buckeye coaches beware

J. Brady McCollough
Daily Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND - The Michigan
football team appears to have started
a new tradition.
With its 25-23 loss to Notre
Dame Saturday, Michigan severed
its faint national title hopes on the
road in September for the third-
straight season.
The Irish (3-0) and Wolverines
(2-1) met up for the first time since
1999, rekindling one of the most
intense and entertaining rivalries in
the nation.
"I've been waiting to play this
game for a long time" said Michigan
tight end Bennie Joppru, who caught
seven passes for 80 yards. "I grew up
watching this game, and it just kills
me for us to play so hard but make so
many mistakes."
The mistakes that Joppru
lamented came in the form of four
turnovers (three fumbles and an
interception), countless drops from
Michigan wide receivers and 10
penalties for 88 yards.
"It was a hard-fought football
game" Michigan coach Lloyd Carr
said. "And certainly for us a lot of
turnovers, and you can't beat a good
football team when you turn the
football over like we did. There were
far too many penalties, and we gave
up too many plays on defense."
The last two minutes shaped up
to be a mirror image of Michigan's
31-29 win over Washington just two
weeks ago - except for the final
result.
After a great individual effort by
Michigan safety Cato June to stop a
bootleg by Notre Dame quarterback
Carlyle Holiday with just over two
minutes to play, the Wolverines got
the ball back down 25-23 at their
own 30-yard line. They were right
where they wanted to be.
"Nevernot one second, did I think
we were going to lose this game,"
Joppru said.
But Michigan's execution on the
final two-minute drill greatly resem-
bled its sloppy performance for most
of the game. After a first-down run
by quarterback John Navarre, wide
receiver Tyrece Butler dropped two
consecutive passes - one on the
numbers and one behind him - on
first and second down that would
have put the Wolverines near field
goal range.
"As a receiver, I'm supposed to
make big plays, and I didn't make big
plays," a subdued Butler said. "That's
what I'm here to do."
On third down, Navarre dropped
back to pass, but as he began to
throw, Notre Dame nose guard Ced-
ric Hilliard touched his elbow, forc-
ing an errant pass right into the hands
of Irish cornerback Shane Walton to
win the game for Notre Dame.
"I sawlthe ball go flying and looked
up nsaw bhane pick it;' Billiard
said. "My freshman year, we lost to
Michigan, and I've been waiting to
beat them since that day. I saw their
fans celebrating,being rude to us, and
I thought, 'I can't wait to beat these
guys down the road.' "
The Wolverines had a chance to
tie the game with 2:49 left after a
pristine scoring drive to bring the
score within 25-23. Navarre, who
hit 19-of-42 passes for 230 yards,
caught fire, connecting with Braylon
Edwards twice and Joppru twice,
including an eight-yard toss for the

MICHIGAN VS.
NOTRE DAME
WEEK N

All week long, Daily Sports has run
its original coverage of one of the 33
games in the historical series between
the NCAA's two winningest programs.
The series finishes today with
coverage from the 2002 season. After
score. But Walton deflected the two-
point conversion attempt to Edwards,
making a last-ditch effort necessary
for the Wolverines.
"We felt like Michigan didn't
want it badly enough;' Hilliard said.
"It took them a few tries to score,
and we knew we were going to stop
them."
Hilliard and the Irish defense
showed how anxious they were to
beat Michigan in the first half, hold-
ing the Wolverines' offense score-
less with 73 yards of total offense.
Thanks to fumbles by fullback B.J.
Askew and Butler, the Wolverines
spent the first half searching for their
rhythm. Michigan went into the half
down 16-7 with a 19-yard Marlin
Jackson interception return as its
only score.
"We put our defense on the short
end of the field;' Joppru said. "They
played a tough game all game, but
we just put them in really bad situ-
ations."
Notre Dame scored its first
offensive touchdown of the season
by driving 80 yards right down the
Wolverines' throat to start the game.
After Butler's fumble in the final two
minutes of the half, the Irish had to
go just 27 yards to increase their lead
to 16-7 on a controversial three-yard
touchdown run by Holiday. Replays
showed that the ball never broke the
plane of the end zone.

losing to Notre Dame 25-23, Michigan
finished the season 10-3.
After reading former Daily staffer
McCollough's coverage of the 2002
game, you can see his pick for the
2006 edition in the Staff Picks box.
Notre Dame running back Ryan
Grant set a career high with 28 car-
ries for 132 yards against a suppos-
edly staunch Michigan run defense.
Carr said the most disappointing
series of plays for his team was his
defense's meltdown after Michigan
took its first lead, 17-16, at the end of
the third quarter.I
The Irish immediately struck
back with a five-play, 76-yard drive.
Holiday hit two long passes to
receiver Omar Jenkins, including
one for 47 yards down to the three-
yard line. The Michigan safeties bit
on a perfect play-action fake and
left Jenkins with nothing but green
in front of him.
"It was super" Hilliard said.
"Because at the time when we fell
behind, I was a little down. But that
lifted everybody's spirits."

By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Editor
The Big Ten was poised to be
the most dominant conference
in college football after the first
week of the season. Thank you
Illinois, Northwestern and Min-
nesota for proving to the rest of
the nation that week one was an
exception.
On an unrelated note, two Big
Ten games finished with scores
of 41-17 and another with a score
of 42-17. Spooky. Will it happen
again? Stay tuned. And now the
picks;
Cincinnati at No. 1 Ohio
State, Saturday, September 16
- noon
Surprisingly,Cincinnati's defense
is ranked higher than Ohio State's
after two games. But the Bearcats
sure looked weak last week against
Pittsburgh when they quickly fell
behind 23-0 en route to a 33-15
thumping. TheBuckeyes can't look
ahead to next week's Penn State
game or they may be tripped up. In
2002, the Bearcats almost derailed
Ohio State's national-title season
in a hard-fought 23-19 loss. But as
Brandy said,"almost doesn't count."
(Is it still the late '90s?) Ohio State

rolls over Cincinnati and Buckeye's fans; you wouldn't be the only Big
fans have another reason to go out Ten team to lose at home against a
and burn some couches. nonconference rival.
Ohio State 41, Cincinnati 17 Iowa State 28, Iowa 20

at . m BO .
Across the Big Ten
with H. Jose Bosch
Iowa State at No.16 Iowa,Sat-
urday, September 16 - noon,
ESPN
Even though the Cyclones
haven't won in this series since
2002, Iowahas never had an easy
time dispatching their intrastate
rival. Making matters worse for
the Hawkeyes, Drew Tate was
listed as questionable on Sept.
12, meaning his abdominal strain
isn't completely healed. Backup
Jason Manson is serviceable for
a few series, but last week he put
up numbers that would embarrass
your IM football team (16-for-32,
202 yards, one touchdown and
four interceptions).Iowa State fans
fondly remember 2002 when the
Cyclones marched into Kinnick
Stadium and defeated then-No. 3
Iowa 36-31. Expect to see it again
tomorrow folks. It's OK Hawkeye

Michigan State at Pitts-
burgh, Saturday, September 16
- noon, ESPN2
The Spartans have put up good
numbers offensively, but they
haven't proven anything in their
first two games. Michigan State
struggled against Idaho in the
season opener and allowed East-
ern Michigan to pull within four
points (24-20) before running
away 52-20. The pressure will
be on quarterback Drew Stanton
since starting running back Javon
Ringer is questionable with an
injured ankle. The Panthers will
feel like a boxer fighting an oppo-
nent with an arm tied behind his
back. Quarterback Tyler Palko
has looked impressive in wins
over Virginia and Cincinnati (28-
for-43,550 yards, six touchdowns,
one interception). Spartans vs.
Panthers has a Roman coliseum
feel to it, but as history majors can
tell you, the man almost always
loses to the beast.
Pittsburgh 31, Michigan State 24

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CONSTITUTION DAY
at the University of Michigan
September 18, 2006
Rackham Assembly Hall
4:00pm
Congressman John Dingell, Keynote Address
Introduction-Dean Terry McDonald, University of Michigan LS&A
5:15pm
A Conversation on the Constitution: Judicial Independence
Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and Sandra
Day O'Connor join high school students from California and Pennsyl-
vania to discuss why we need an independent judiciary in this DVD
presentation.
Panel Comments with
Evan H. Caminker, Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, Moderator
Justice Marilyn Kelly, Michigan Supreme Court
Matt Lassiter, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan
Judge David W. McKeague, United States Court ofAppeals for the Sixth Circuit
Richard A. Primus, Professor, University of Michigan Law School
This event isgenerousy sponsored ly John B. Kemp and The University of Michigan Ofice of the Provost