0 8 - Tuesday, September 15, 2009 THE GREAT RATE ................I The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0 6 6 T ,.: ,UWAI t 'M' players from Florida and Texas are battling to see which talent-rich state is the fastest. By ANDY REID 40-yard dash speed Saturday, split- Daily Sports Editor ting the Notre Dame kickoff unit and racing 92 yards for the Wolver- There's a new rivalry brewing on ines' first kick-return touchdown the Michigan football team, and it since former Michigan return has nothing to do with Columbus, specialist Steve Breaston took one South Bend or East Lansing. back in 2005. In fact, it's a chasm that's been For the electrifying touchdown, widening within the team as Stonum received Big Ten Special coach Rich Rodriguez continues Teams Player of the Week Honors. to recruit heavily in talent-rich "I know where the wedge is Southern states. But before you supposed to open up, and the kick start thinking about any rumors of return guys did an excellent job of team disharmony like those raised opening up that wedge," he said. "I in Detroit Free Press allegations - just knew I had to make one guy this is actually quite the opposite. miss, the kicker, and if I got tackled States like Florida and Texas by the kicker, then I didn't need to are known for producing some of be out there." the fastest recruits in the coun- The wide receiver laughed after try. And Wolverine athletes from his pseudo-dig on the 10 Wol- those respective states are locked verines from the Sunshine State. in a battle to prove that their native Senior punter Zoltan Mesko said brethren are faster. the team is much closer and feels "Texas has speed," sopho- more camaraderie this year - and more Darryl Stonum, a native of this "rivalry" is an example of that. Stafford, Texas, said after Satur- Junior safety and Sugar Land, day's game. "All these Florida boys Texas native Troy Woolfolk said up here talking about speed, Texas the rivalry used to be a three-state has some too." race, but Texas, which boasts five Stonum showcased his own 4.4 players on the Michigan roster, and Florida have clearly distanced themselves. "There's the top three fastest states in the nation: there's Califor- nia, Texas and Florida," Woolfolk said. "And California, we already beat all them, so now there's Texas and Florida, and you got all the Florida boys up here claiming they're the fastest, and the Texas boys know the truth." The competition also turns to the track, because most if not all of the Texas and Florida teammates ran track in high school. Woolfolk is also a sprinter on the Michigan track and field team. "There's some fast guys from Florida, and there's some fast guys from Texas," said sopho- more wideout Martavious Odoms, who hails from Pahokee, Fla. "You know, there's one in each position group, so there's always someone who thinks he's the fastest guy on the team." Odoms, who runs a 4.5 40-yard dash, also added that he should probably be one of the fastest guys on the team when asked if he was high on the list. One inevitable result of the Texas-Florida battle is a footrace between freshman quarterback Denard Robinson and Woolfolk, who was arguably the fastest man on the roster before Robinson came to Ann Arbor from his home in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "Yeah, that's something I would like to see," Odoms said. Back in March, Robinson, who was still in high school at the time, had Michigan fans all giddy when he ran a 10.44 in the 100-meter dash, the second-fastest time recorded in the country. "I was kind of disappointed in myself to run a 10.44, but I will accept that," Robinson told the Miami Herald after the race. "Run- ning the No. 2 time in the nation is pretty good. I was trying to run a 10.3, but there was strong wind. I'm working harder on it and expect to hit a10.3 by states." He did reach the sub-10.3 mark at states, but that time is in dispute, because it was allegedly hand- timed. And of course, there was also that 43-yard sprint to the end zone in the Western Michigan game, the one where Robinson picked up his fumble, broke to the sideline, slipped a tackle, cut back in and slipped through two defenders on his way to a touchdown - all in under 10 seconds. "He's fast," quarterbacks coach Rod Smith uttered at Michigan Media Day. "He, well, he's, he's fast." So it sounds like Woolfolk has every reason to be worried. After all, Woolfolk, a 2008 First Team All-Big Ten honoree in track, boasts a personal-best 10.58 in the 100-meter dash. That's a whopping .14 seconds slower than Robinson's official personal best. When asked if the race had hap- pened yet, Woolfolk sighed, and said, "Man, I knew that would come up eventually." No matter how hesitant Wool- folk sounded, the safety's cockiness eventually made an appearance. "I tell the linebackers every day in practice to let him loose so I can try and catch him to prove a point, but they're too aggressive, and that never happens," Woolfolk said. "But I'd love to race him, and one day we're going to plan a day for us to race, to clear all the questions and doubts. "I'm not sure (who'd win) - he's fast. I'm not going to say I'll beat him. I'm not gonna say I'll lose. Put it like that." Woolfolk couldn't help adding a little quip about Robinson, who's known for playing with his shoes untied. "I keep my shoelaces tied very tight, extra tight, (my) feet turn purple," he said. The rivalry that has sparked is, of course, all in good fun and a way for teammates to participate in a little extracurricular competition - but each side really does want to be the fastest. "It's a playful thing, but at the same time, we really mean it," Woolkfolk said. "So anytime they want to race, we'll put our runners on the block and we'll take that win (over the Florida guys) with ease." 0 Rodriguez hopeful for league-wide injury reports a Weekly NFL-style reports could potentially curb sports gambling By RUTH LINCOLN Daily Sports Editor Michigan coach Rich Rodri- guez's impact on the Big Ten could go beyond the playing field. At last spring's conference coaches' meeting, Rodriguez pro- posed the Big Ten come out with an NFL-style weekly injury report. "I didn't stand on the table and pound my fists or anything," Rodriguez recalled. "I just thought it was a good idea, and most of my colleagues did at the same time." Such reports are useful infor- mation for media and fans, but perhaps more importantly, they mitigate behind-the-scenes scheming in sports gambling. Rodriguez's suggestion didn't NOTEBOOK become league policy, but individual teams can adopt the measure on their own terms. The Wolverines released their first-ever injury report last Thurs- day before their game against the Fighting Irish. Northwestern adopted the pol- icy last season, and Indiana also currently releases weekly injury updates. Of the six major NCAA con- ferences, just the Atlantic Coast Conference releases a league-wide report. Conference bloggers for ESPN.com will often assemble lists from various news sources and collegeinjuryreport.com, a free service which compiles inju- ries from across the country. If gamblers manage to learn through unauthorized sources which athletes are injured and to what extent, they can gain an ill- gotten advantage. A 2003 USA Today story on online sports gambling cited a study conducted by the NCAA in 1998 that found that of 758 Michi- gan student-athletes surveyed, 35 percent had participated in sports gambling and five percent of male ae iC igan ail RPRESENTS college athletes "had either pro- vided inside information for gam- bling purposes, bet on their own games or accepted money to play poorly." As college football coverage has increased in recent years, so have the stakes. "That's a great fear for all of us coaches is people that don't have the best interest of the young men at heart, maybe they'll ask some- body, 'Hey, how's so and so doing?' " Rodriguez said. "And we've told our team, if it's outside our team and your family, outside your fam- ily asking about you, you don't talk about that, because of that very same reason. "I think the policy protects the young men, it protects the pro- gram, and to me there's not much you can do about it anyways. The guy's shoulder is dislocated - it's dislocated. It's not going to change from tomorrow to today." DENARD STAYING PUT: It might seem tempting, but fresh- man quarterback Denard Rob- inson won't be using his blazing speed on the Wolverines' return team. Although it seems his speed could be used elsewhere, like as it was at slot receiver on a couple occasions against Western Michi- gan, Rodriguez confirmed yester- day that Robinson will continue practicing at quarterback. Despite freshman signal caller Tate Forcier's dominance Satur- day, Forcier, Robinson and redshirt junior Nick Sheridan all still share the No. 1 spot on the Wolverines' depth chart. "Robinson's a quarterback, and he's going to play a big role for us at quarterback this year and prob- ably for several years to come," Rodriguez said. "Everybody wants to anoint someone after two weeks and, Tate played well, but Den- ard's played well, too, and he's had a chance." MOOSMAN OUT: The Wolver- ines will be without right guard David Moosman this Saturday 0 SAIDALSALAH/daily Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said that Denard Robinson will stay at quarterback. against Eastern Michigan. Against Notre Dame, the fifth-year senior left the game in the fourth quarter with a shoulder injury. Last Saturday, right tackle Mark Hugye slid over to cover Moos- man's spot and left tackle Perry Dorrestein replaced Hugye on the right side. Rodriguez mentioned right guard John Ferrara or left guards Elliott Mealer and Ricky Barnum as possible replacements or mov- ing Hugye over again. "We rep our twos as much as our ones on offense," Rodriguez said. "Lots of people give their first team maybe four or five reps and the second team two reps. We make it equal. Again, our pace allows us to do that. But I think it also helps develop our second team." AWARDS UPDATE: Forcier's 240 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-33 passing Saturday earned him the Davey O'Brien Founda- tion's Quarterback of the Week award. The award automatically adds Forcier to the O'Brien Watch List, which recognizes the nation's top quarterback. Six other quarterbacks received votes this week, including South- ern Cal's Matt Barkley and Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour. Forcier was also named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. 0f CAN'T FIND A PLACE TO LIVE? Also be sure to check out the Classified Pages for other great properties.