Monday
August 15, 2005
sports.michigandaily.com
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SPORTS
Wolverines stay close N *
to home to start season
By Stephanie Wright
Daily Sports Editor
If the Michigan football team were cast as a character in "The
Wizard of Oz," it would play Dorothy - because both under-
stand that sometimes there's just no place like home.
For the seventh straight year, the Michigan football team will
open its season at home, taking on Northern Illinois on Sept. 3.
According to Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, that pattern seems to
be by design rather than coincidence.
"I think any time you can play at home you like to do that," Carr
said. "That's something across the country that's happening more
and more for those teams that can get that type of schedule."
As Carr asserted, Michigan is not alone in preferring to
begin the season at home. Of the teams ranked in the top 25
by Sports Illustrated, only eight will kick off their season on
the road, including defending national champion Southern Cal.
It's even more common for top programs to play lower-ranked
teams from non-BCS conferences. Just three teams in Sports
Illustrated's top 25 take on a higher-ranked opponent their first
time out - Florida State, Boise State and Wyoming.
These schedules reflect a widespread trend in college foot-
ball. In recent years, fewer elite programs from different con-
ferences have met during the season. The Sept. 10 meeting
between Texas and Ohio State - the first of a two-game series
to be continued next year - breaks from this trend. But with
the exception of historic rivalries like that between Michigan
and Notre Dame, most battles of top nonconference foes have
been reserved for bowl games.
While the prefer starting the season at home, few top-
ranked teams will head into conference play without a road
trip or a game against a highly ranked opponent. Michigan
is one of the exceptions. After opening the season against
Northern Illinois, the Wolverines play Notre Dame and East-
ern Michigan - both at Michigan Stadium - to round out
their nonconference schedule. Sports Illustrated ranks none
of these teams higher than No. 44.
Braylon Edwards L
ends holdout and
signs with Browns
Last Thursday the Cleveland
Browns signed their first round pick
and former Michigan standout Braylon
Edwards to a five-year deal. Edwards
had been holding out and missed 22
practices - 18 of them full-squad.
The third overall pick in April's
NFL Draft, Edwards ended his career
at Michigan by winning the Biletnikoff
Award, given to college football's annu-
al award to the nation's best receiver.
He set single-season school records
with his 97 catches for 1,330 yards and
15 touchdowns. None of those touch-
downs were as important as his game-
winning one against rival Michigan :p
State in the third overtime of Michigan's
come-from-behind win last October.
Edwards is expected to fully partici-
pate in team practices today.
"I've been really anxious to get back ' I
on the football field," Edwards said.
"The main thing now is its over with."
The Browns will take on the
Detroit Lions Saturday in their next
preseason game.
Carr recognizes the danger of not playing a road game before
the conference season begins, calling his team's early-season
home stand a "double-edged sword."
"I've always felt that going on the road in the preseason -
there's something about that experience that prepares you for the
Big Ten championship," Carr said. "It's great to play at home, and
yet now we're going to face the Big Ten schedule without having
been on the road."
That double-edged sword has the potential to be even sharper
than usual for the Wolverines this season. Michigan hasn't won
on its first trip away from the Big House since 1999, when the
Wolverines beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. While noncon-
ference losses to teams like Oregon in 2003 and Notre Dame
in 2004 have prevented Michigan from making a run at its 12th
national championship, they have no effect on the Big Ten title,
which the Wolverines have won each of the past two seasons.
But if Michigan wants to make it three in a row, it will
have to find a way to win on the road. For the first time
since 1995, the Wolverines' first road game is also their Big
Ten season opener - a Sept. 24 night game against Wis-
consin at increasingly hostile Camp Randall Stadium.
That game looms as a difficult test for a Michigan team
that has lost four of its last 10 road games - the Wolverines'
only regular-season losses the past two seasons. But Carr
remains confident in his team, brushing aside the criticism of
an anonymous Big Ten coach who called Michigan's players
and style of play soft in The Sporting News' college football
season preview earlier this summer.
"It's probably one of those guys that hasn't had a lot of suc-
cess against Michigan," Carr said.
With two straight Big Ten titles - and two seasons worth
of wins in Ann Arbor - it's hard to argue with the Wolver-
ines' success. While Carr would probably like to notch a win in
Madison and quiet the critics, he is first focused on making it
through the home stand with an unblemished record.
"The schedule is what it is; it's that way for everybody," Carr
said. "You play them one at a time and hope for the best."
Michigan hopes to celebrate three more nonconference home wins this season.
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