8701010226
DETROIT FREE PRESS
870102
Friday, January 02, 1987
STATE EDITION
1D
Photo Associated Press
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
U-M'S ROSY HOPES BLOWIN' IN THE WIND
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 -- how many first snaps of the third quarter had signaled Wolverine
fireworks this year? -- and he overthrew Greg McMurtry. By a mile. Harbaugh
took the second snap and tried to run. He was stuffed. He took the third snap,
scrambled around, and dumped the simplest of lobs to Jamie Morris.
Morris dropped it.
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 gun of this 22-15 defeat.
Michigan traditionally likes to kick off so it can receive in the third
quarter, rested and recharged, but Arizona State won the flip, took the
kickoff option, and, although no one knew it then, it was the first sap of
Wolverine strength.
There would be plenty more.
ASU drove downfield to start that third quarter, used nearly six minutes,
and scored a touchdown to make it 19-15. The drive was a virtual still-life
painting of what went wrong for Michigan in this Rose Bowl.
This was a titanic struggle, but the image that endures is a Michigan
defensive line slamming into an Arizona State offensive line and getting
nowhere. And behind the rock'em-sock'em action stood ASU quarterback Jeff Van
Raaphorst, cool as the California 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?
And meanwhile, the potent Wolverine offense, which had carried the team
most of the year, was suddenly just out of sync. Jamie Morris, a 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.
And Harbaugh was suddenly unpredictable.
Remember that Harbaugh was the quarterback of celebration coming into this
game. He was the All-America, third in the Heisman voting, the subject of all
those pre-game hype features. One can barely imagine the despair he must feel
this morning, not only because his college career ends with a loss, but
because he so wanted to deliver for Bo Schembechler, the coach he has known
since he was a nine-year-old kid running around his Michigan office.
But endings are not always happy, even here in the shadow of tinsel town.
And on Thursday it was Van Raaphorst, who did not ride in on such headlines,
who rode out on them when the game was over.
The highlight films will be of him -- not Harbaugh -- and plays like
third-and-seven for ASU late in the fourth quarter. Van Raaphorst backpedaled,
a Michigan defender was in his face, grabbing his torso, and he still unloaded
a pass to tight end Jeff Gallimore for the crucial 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
their first Rose Bowl title in their first try.
And for Michigan, it is another bowl defeat, the hidden wire that seems to
trip Bo 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
come-from-behind victory over Ohio State, 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.
Roses are dead, Wolverines are blue. Somewhere in the California wind blows
the could-haves and should-haves and the might-have-beens.
They don't matter now.
Or anymore.
CUTLINE
Michigan' Jamie Morris evades Arizona State's Eric Allen and scores Michigan's
first-quarter touchdown.
COLUMN