8702250371
DETROIT FREE PRESS
871122
Sunday, November 22, 1987
METRO FINAL
1D
Photo MARY SCHROEDER
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
DREAM ELUDES SENIORS
ANN ARBOR -- It ended with a Michigan receiver leaping desperately into a
sandwich of Ohio State defenders, the ball out of reach, the party over. The
Buckeyes fans poured onto the field. The Buckeyes players hoisted their coach
on their shoulders. It was not the finish the Wolverines dreamed about; more
like the nightmare they could not escape.
"Turnovers, fumbles, interceptions," Bo Schembechler would lament, after
his team dropped the annual November war with the Buckeyes, 23-20, to end a
dizzying regular season at 7-4. "We missed a field goal, we blew a touchdown.
We are a young team, we made young mistakes. . . . "
Down the hall, inside the U-M locker room, the senior players were dressing
slowly. They had just played their last game at their university. Jamie
Morris, the star tailback, twisted his tie and stuffed it under his sweater.
John Elliott, the offensive lineman nicknamed "Jumbo," grabbed his pants off a
hook and pulled them on slowly. Allen Bishop, the defensive back, was in the
trainers' room, having his ankle taped.
"It's funny," Elliott said into a TV camera's lens "for a while there, I
thought we were going to win by a rout. . . . "
Sometimes you win and sometimes you graduate. The shame at that moment did
not seem that the Wolverines fell to the Buckeyes Saturday, or that they
fumbled, bumbled, and ultimately gave the game away. Uh-uh.
The shame at that moment seemed that the senior guys wouldn't get to try
it again.
You know, my best memories have come out of this series," said Elliott,
the massive All-American lineman. "Like last year, when we came back, it was
the most satisfying win in my life. And in 1985, when John Kolesar made that
catch. . . .
"I was just thinking about the symmetry of this series. Last year we were
losing what, 14-3? And we came back to win it. This year we had them down,
13-0 and they come back."
Symmetry. Yes. From that perspective, this was a classic. Here were the
Buckeyes, playing their final game for coach Earle Bruce, who had been fired
last Monday in an ugly display of pressure. They had lost their last two
Wolverine showdowns. This coach had recruited them, believed in them. What
else could they do for him now but win?
So quarterback Tom Tupa sliced the Michigan defense like a razor, 219
yards, 18 of 26 completed, no interceptions. And Everett Ross, the flanker,
caught the most important passes, including a go-ahead touchdown. And Matt
Frantz -- who missed the last-minute field goal that would have won the game
in 1986 -- kicked the deciding one straight and true this time, sealing the
three-point victory.
Symetry.
And here was Michigan -- which came from behind to win last year, with a
senior Jim Harbaugh leading the way -- watching their inexperience now choke
now like a deadly snake. Freshman fullback Jarrod Bunch, in his first
Michigan-Ohio State game, fumbled in the second quarter, leading to an OSU
score. Demetrius Brown, the sophomore quarterback in his first Michigan-Ohio
State game, threw an off-balance interception in the third quarter that led to
another OSU score. And freshman fullback Leroy Hoard, playing in his first
Michigan Ohio-State game, fumbled into a swarm of scarlet jerseys late in the
fourth quarter. This year's fate was sealed.
Symmetry.
You know, it's sad at this moment, we feel bad, but in a way I have to
smile," said Morris, sitting by his locker, in no apparent hurry to leave. "I
see these younger players and I think of us. My freshman year, we were 6-6.
People were saying, 'God, we're the worst Michigan team ever. But last year we
won the Big Ten and went to the Rose Bowl. . . . "
He paused, and you could not help but wish him another curtain call. Here
is a tailback who turned his heart over when he put on a Michigan uniform, a
5-foot-7 fireball of energy who Schembechler once thought might only return
punts. Yet he now owns every important rushing record in Michigan history. He
ran in the first half Saturday like God's needle through scarlet and gray
threads. He gained 130 yards by days end. It seemed, for a while, like he
could beat any player out there. He just couldn't beat them all.
"Bo told us afterwards we played like a young team, and it's a shame that
we had to make so many young mistakes. I agree with him. We didn't really lose
this game to Ohio State as much as we lost it by ourselves. . . . "
"I guess this hasn't all hit me yet. I keep thinking 'We'll get 'em next
year.' It hasn't dawned on me that I won't be going down to Columbus with
these guys."
"It's not the way you wanted to end your career here is it?" he was asked.
"No," he said, sighing, "but I began in a rebuilding year, and I guess I'm
ending in one. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be."
And maybe it is. College football is as revolving as college itself. What
has made this Ohio State-Michigan rivalry great is that it always comes
around, and you never really know what's going to happen. Michigan has never
been a big turnover team. It will be Schembechler's challenge to wipe that
stuff out -- by the Hall of Fame bowl game Jan. 2, the final performance of
this squad. And you can bet you won't see the same thing next year in Ohio.
But that is the future. Here was the present. Morris, dressing slowly,
hugging a coach. Elliott, shaking hands with reporters who might not see him
again. Billy Harris, and Doug Mallory and Erik Campbell, all defensive
starters. All taking their last walk through the tunnel, to friends and family
who were waiting.
Not for a moment on this frozen afternoon did any of them play as if they
knew that the game technically meant very little. No bowls were determined his
time. No Big 10 championship was on the line. So? You think that mattered?
"What will you think of when you hear the words Michigan- Ohio State from
now on?" someone asked Elliott.
He crossed his thick arms and squared his feet.
"The greatest rivalry ever," he said.
Can you wait until next November?
CUTLINE:
U-M's Jamie Morris charges up the middle, breaking this tackle attempt by
Ohio State's Mike Sullivan.
U-M;COLLEGE;FOOTBALL;COLUMN