8701010164
DETROIT FREE PRESS
870102
Friday, January 02, 1987
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM
SEE ALSO STATE EDITION 1D
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
ROSES ARE DEAD, AND WOLVERINES ARE BLUE
PASADENA, Calif. -- Suddenly the magic was gone, dried up in the
California wind and blown out to sea. Jim Harbaugh took his first snap of the
third quarter -- and how many of those had signaled fireworks for Michigan
this season? -- and, look out, he overthrew Greg McMurtry by a mile. Second
snap. Harbaugh was sacked. Third snap. Harbaugh scrambled, dumped the simplest
of lobs to Jamie Morris.
Morris dropped it.
Michigan punted away.
Roses are dead. They began dying with the coin toss of this New Year's Day
showdown and they didn't stop until the final minute of this 22-15 defeat --
when Harbaugh's last pass as a Wolverine was intercepted on fourth down,
killing the last U-M drive and the spirit and hope of every maize-and-blue
supporter in this half-mad sellout crowd.
Roses are dead. But just which team was which here? Doesn't Michigan have
the hot senior quarterback? But it was Arizona State's passer who won the most
valuable player award. Isn't Michigan the shut-'em-down second-half team?
But it was ASU that allowed no points after halftime.
Isn't it Michigan that traditionally likes to kick off first -- so its
offense can open the second half, rested and recharged? But here was Arizona
State winning the coin flip, taking the kickoff option, stealing the
second-half heroics, and finally claiming the crown.
"Did they do anything you didn't expect?" someone would ask Bo
Schembechler in the crowded hallway after the game.
"Yes," he said, his bitterness apparent. "We didn't expect them to be so
successful."
Roses are dead.
Michigan led this game at halftime, 15-13. But something happened in that
midway break. The afternoon sun disappeared and it became night, West Coast
night, and this neutral site was suddenly Arizona State territory, with ASU
fans screaming thunder and the ASU players attacking like destiny.
How many times has Michigan sprung from the halftime locker room to march
downfield? But here was ASU moving to start that third quarter, using nearly
six minutes, and scoring a touchdown to go ahead, 19-15.
"The problem," Schembechler would say, "was when their offense was against
our defense they had the advantage." Yes. Exactly. And the image that will
endure from this Rose Bowl is the Michigan defensive line slamming into the
Arizona State offensive line and getting nowhere, while Jeff Van Raaphorst,
the ASU quarterback, stood cool as breeze, picking a receiver and hitting him
in the hands.
How many times did the Wolverines try to get to Van Raaphorst -- and just
miss? How many times did he find a receiver just underneath the Michigan
coverage? His numbers (16-30, 193 yards, two touchdowns) are not indicative of
his impact. For while Harbaugh was the more celebrated passer coming in to
this game, Van Raaphorst was the name on people's lips coming out.
"He's the quarterback of the Pac-10 champions!" ASU coach John Cooper would
holler after the game. "And now . . . the Rose Bowl champions!"
Rose Bowl champions. Yes. It was the one thing left for Harbaugh, Andy
Moeller, Garland Rivers and the other seniors on this Michigan squad. But the
only thing certain in college sports is that your time is marked. And their
time is up.
"There's no coming back here next week," said a tight-lipped Harbaugh after
the game. "That's what hurts so much about this."
Perhaps no U-M player bleeds today more than Harbaugh, partly because, on
paper anyway, he made the most mistakes (three interceptions) and partly
because this was to be the culmination of his years with Schembechler, a coach
he adores. "I feel like I let him down," Harbaugh said. "Now he's going to be
maligned again for not being able to win a Rose Bowl."
Well. Know this. Whatever will be said of Bo and his bowl record (and most
of it is just garbage anyhow), Harbaugh is not solely to blame for this one.
"Anybody who knows football knows a quarterback can't do anything when
defenders are in his face all day," Schembechler said. "You want to blame
somebody, blame the offensive line. They were lousy."
And as a result, the fluid Wolverines offense, which had carried the team
most of the season, was suddenly clanking. U- M's second-half drives ended,
in order, in a punt, an interception, a punt, a punt and an interception.
Jamie Morris, the break-away tailback, was not breaking away at all. On a
fourth-quarter drive he took the ball and actually had to go backward to
avoid the ASU defenders. He lost 11 yards.
But enough. The play-by-play will only reveal this: Arizona State was
quicker, better defensively, and better at protecting its quarterback. That
should be enough to win by seven points, no?
The highlight films will be of Van Raaphorst -- not Harbaugh -- and plays
like third-and-seven for ASU late in the fourth quarter, when Van Raaphorst
backpedaled, with a Michigan defender in his face, and still unloaded a pass
to tight end Jeff Gallimore for the critical first down.
It was his excellence, and his team's lack of mistakes -- no fumbles, no
interceptions, few penalties -- that enabled the Sun Devils to go home with a
Rose Bowl title in their first try.
And for Michigan? It is simply another bowl defeat, the hidden wire that
seems to trip Schembechler at the end of most of his successful U-M seasons.
There is no jinx, no voodoo, just some excellent teams waiting on Jan. 1.
Arizona State was excellent.
One should remember that a Rose Bowl loss does not in any way diminish the
fine regular season the Wolverines enjoyed, does not erase the Ohio State
come-from-behind victory, the rack-up yardage of Harbaugh and Morris. All
that stuff is already hardened in concrete memory.
But no one in a Michigan uniform wants to hear that today. "I hurt," said
Harbaugh afterward, as honest as he could be. "I hurt for the seniors, I hurt
for Bo. I hurt for myself. . . . "
He swallowed, and looked away briefly from the cameras and microphones.
"And I'm probably gonna hurt for a while."
Roses are dead, Wolverines are blue. Somewhere in the California wind
blows the could-haves and should-haves and the might-have-beens of this Rose
Bowl.
They don't matter now.
ROSE BOWL;U-M;FOOTBALL;COLUMN