8A - Tuesday, April 20, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Alumni weigh inon this year's team ESPN analyst Howard and Super Bowl winner Woodley see good things for 'M' By TIM ROHAN Daily Sports Writer Fielding Yost's pride still drips off of the Michigan football pro- gram as if he was coaching the team. It's that confidence that made Yost so legendary and the play- ers who step foot in the Big House each and every year, especially the former ones, carry a least a little bit of the swagger that Yost had. It's no differentnow, despite the Wolverines' 8-16 record through coach Rich Rodriguez's first two years. Former Michigan All-American defensive end LaMarr Woodley, who was in town for the spring game festivities, certainly has a little bit of Yost's fire in his veins. "Not to lose at all," Woodley said of his expectations for next year. "That's reasonable for me, not to lose at all. I hate to say, 'Oh, yeah we're going to lose, it's going to be 11-1.' No, go all the way. That's always my thing, take one game at a time and you can do that." When Woodley was pursuing quarterbacks in the Big House from 2003-2006, Michigan was 37-13 in his four years. Other former Michigan play- ers have voiced their displeasure with Rodriguez recently, Dhani Jones spoke out and so did Amani Toomer. To Woodley, the slow start was almost expected. But now, in Rodriguez's third year, he's leav- ing less room for excuses. "I tell everybody, the year Jake Long left, we lost everybody on offense," Woodley said. "I mean all the weapons, all the top guys, *I Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez speaks with members of the media, alumni (including former Wolverine Desmond Howard) and various others before Saturday's spring game. we lost everybody. So when he came in with his new offense, he didn't really have anything. Now he has the opportunity to turn that around and he's getting the guys he needs in the right spots and things will change up." The offense was a strong suit for the Wolverines last season, and Michigan would be forced into shootouts, trying to score as much as possible to stay in game. "They know they have to get improved," Desmond Howard, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Michigan and current ESPN college football analyst, said of the defense. And from his point of view, as an am all abi spring. "1 gul an c "Eve quarte be (lik alyst, Howard knows it's petition makes all three better. out the quarterbacks this Tate Forcier obviously had a good first half of the season, struggled in the second half of the season. Hopefully he learned from his mistakes last year, but he's going He's getting to have another spring under his belt. Denard Robinson didn't have ys he needs ... a spring under his belt, he came in fresh in the fall and tried to par- d things will ticipate when he could. And then you got Devin (Gardner), who's :hange up. talented, and everyone's aware of his talent, and to see how he's able to run the system too. "So we'll see if these three will rryone wants to what the push each other and get each rback situation is going to other better. I think competition e)," Howard said. "The com- is good." In the spring game, Robin- son played primarily with what could be considered the first-team offense against the second-team defense, while Forcier played with the second-team offense against the first-team defense. Robinson was the quarterback receiving the hype this spring, despite the fact that Forcier started every game in 2009. Howard said he wasn't one to make predictions on Michigan's 2010 season in April - there are more than four months until Michigan's first game against Connecticut. Though wins and losses aren't official until the fall, Rodriguez can build towards success by building on experience, like Sat- urday's spring game. The Wolverines are certainly working to improve all over the field, not just at the quarterback position. And Howard knows Rodriguez isn't the only coach feeling the pressure to win this fall. "Nick Saban's trying to make progress, and he just won a national championship," Howard said. "That's just the nature of the sport, and I think that's the honest answer. You can't rest when you won, and you can't rest when you haven't won big yet. ... Each coach wants to get better." The Michigan Daily would like to thank and congratulate those graduating seniors that made the paper everyone loves possible. Some devoted 4 years, some 3, and others only a year, but they all combined to make the Michigan Daily a success. Thank you! Dan Newman Vivian Lee Ryan Businski Kayla LaFata Molly Twigg Michael Schrotenboer Brittany Morales Allie Santacreu Courtney Byrd Jennifer Lo Carol Im Yuning Zhang Siwei Wang Eric Radist Yvonne Louis-Prescott Kate Muelle 0I ARIEL eOND/Daily Michigan coach Carol Hutchins thinks that the college softball mercy rule is not ideal for coaches or teams A 'M' makes full use of softball's mercy rule rig the tacebook [-I th anda goat, hard. uvitamins, easy. introducing. Connect (caffeine + 8 key nutrients) spark (vitamin e+ choine) vitainwater By ALEX HERMANN Daily Sports Writer Going into the fourth inning of Saturday's game, the Michigan softball team held an 8-0 lead over Northwestern. For college softball teams around the country, eight is the magic number - it's the amount of runs needed to end a game after the fifth inning as part of softball's eight-run mercy rule. But then, something rare occurred. The Wildcats clawed back into the game to force a full seven inning - just the third time for the Wolverines since the begin- ning of Big Ten play more than three weeks ago. But after holding off Northwest- ern's comeback attempt, Michi- gan trotted out again the next day, whipping the Wildcats into submis- sion with a 15-0 victory that was finalized in the top of the fifth. It's something Michigan has done time and time again this season. For most, including the players, the eight-run rule has been a blessing. "That's not frustrating at all - we want to be done," senior third base- man Maggie Viefhaus said on April 11th after the team's weekend series against Minnesota, in which both games ended in early Wolverine vic- tories. "We are never going to give up, we are going to keep hitting and keep scoring runs until that game is over. And if it's overearly, good." During Michigan's current 12-game winning streak, the Wol- verines have ended games in the fifth inning a total of eight times. The potent combination of domi- nant pitching and timely hitting has allowed the team to finish games early in six of its nine conference games. In Michigan's matchup against Central Michigan last Wednesday, the Wolverines went into the fifth up just 2-0 and six shy of reaching the magic eight run lead. Follow- ing a quick scoring barrage, senior Molly Bausher smacked a hit into center field, driving two runs across and effectively sealingthe game. "I looked at the scoreboard and was like, 'It's the fifth inning. If we score six runs here, the game will be over, and that would be sweet,' " Bausher said after the game. "We did, and I didn't even expect that to happen but it happened." Bausher conceded that the team was at least in partmotivatedto end games early because it leaves play- ers more time for other things. "You got school, finals," she joked. Though a number of the advan- tages are obvious, the rule certainly has its detractors - and one needs to look no further than Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. "Sm one of the advocates to have it removed or changed to a 15-run limit," Hutchins said. "In what other sport do you stop play- ing because you're ahead? Eight runs isn't out of reach. You lose the opportunity to give some younger kids playing time. I don't think it's good for softball, and I don't think it's good for the season-ticket hold- ers that have to rush out to the field before the game is stopped." In the 15-run win against North- western on Sunday, Hutchins was able to switch up the defensive rotation a bit and allow those who don't normally play to get some experience. Freshman Ashley Lane also saw a rare plate appearance in the fourth inning, and though she struck out swinging, on a team with six seniors as everyday starters, any time in the spotlight can be valu- able. And without a mercy rule, that time would grow. "It's a rule that was put in place in the 1970s when I played, when the average pitcher had a 0.2 ERA and games were being won 1-0," Hutchins said. "Back then if a team got up by eight runs then there was no way there would be a comeback. That's not the case anymore."