8902220102
DETROIT FREE PRESS
891229
Friday, December 29, 1989
METRO FINAL
1D
Photo Color
:
Gary Moeller
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1989, Detroit Free Press
LISTEN CLOSELY - MO SOUNDS A LOT LIKE BO
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Gary Moeller is wearing a tie these days.
Pretty soon, the jacket will follow. He'll develop that special walk, the
brisk pace that discourages autograph hounds. His eyes will focus straight
ahead. His mind will work a mile a minute. He inevitably will have someone on
his right or left, a PR guy, an assistant, and he'll turn and say, "How much
time do I got?"
He will be the Head Coach, soon, very soon, 100 hours from now and
counting. Already, he has one foot on the stage, like an Academy Award nominee
who has been told the results. People slap him on the back. Old friends are
calling for jobs. Thursday, for the first time in the years that Bo
Schembechler has taken Michigan to Rose Bowls, Moeller took Bo's place in the
morning press conference. "Might as well get used to it," Bo seemed to be
saying.
"Are you studying how Bo does things this final week?" I asked Moeller
Thursday in his hotel room.
"Well, yeah, a little," he admitted. "He's really good at that stuff,
like meeting Mickey Mouse at Disneyland and talking to the media. But people
have to remember. The biggest difference between Bo and me is all the years
that he's had to get used to this head coach stuff."
Twenty-one years, to be exact, at Michigan. And six before that at Miami
(Ohio). How do you replace a legend, they ask? Ha! Gary Moeller -- "Coach Mo"
to rhyme with "Coach Bo" -- was there when Schembechler was mere flesh and
blood.
Remember?
Bo was once the nice coach
It was Ohio State, 1959. Moeller was a hard-nosed freshman lineman from
Lima, Ohio, the son of a creamery worker. Bo was an crew-cutted assistant to
Woody Hayes. Back then, Schembechler was actually the nice one, the friendly
"players' " coach. Woody was the tyrant. He once ripped Moeller for
chewing gum in a nationally televised game against UCLA. "All I did was move
my jaw a little while the camera was on me. And hoooee! Woody was all over me.
'HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS THE UNIVERSITY THAT WAY?' "
Bo was a pussycat by comparison. He and Moeller grew close. When Bo got
his own team, he gave Mo his first job in college coaching -- as an assistant
at Miami (Ohio).
So it began. They were together when Bo got the job at Michigan. They were
together for the ride to Ann Arbor, when Bo got lost and had to ask for
directions.
They were together when the Wolverines beat Ohio State in the biggest
upset of the decade. They were together, chuckling, when Hayes ripped up the
yard markers and threw a temper tantrum.
They were together when Moeller was offered the head coaching job at
Illinois, and Bo said, "Take it, but be careful. Make sure they know you need
five years to build a program there."
They were together when Moeller was fired after only three years.
"I want you back," Schembechler said.
"But Bo, you always said never take a guy back once he's left your staff."
"Aw, hell. You're different."
They never separated again. They were together for Dierdorf, O'Neal,
Carter, Harbaugh. They were together for the bomb that beat Ohio State, and
the crazy onside kick that gave the game to Miami. They would hibernate in the
football rooms for hours, arguing and smoking cigars.
And when Bo called Moeller into his office a month ago and said, "Mo, I'm
giving it up," his friend said, "Hey, Bo, don't do it. You're tired? Let me do
the work. You take the credit. Stay."
"Nuh-uh. I'm turning it over. To you."
Remember the Woody factor And now the hours pass until their final game
together. Moeller admits the Michigan offense is "probably 50 percent me, 50
percent Bo." He has already coached the defense. He's got three decades of
experience. He is prepared. And yet. . . .
"I sort of like the way it is right now, knowing I'll be the coach, but
still having Bo here in charge. . . . I know I can't be him. I won't have the
same effect when I first meet people. But I want the same kind of program.
Heck, I've been in it long enough." He laughed, a different laugh from
Schembechler's, deeper, louder. But then, nothing stays the same. Or does it?
People whisper that Coach Mo may never be another Coach Bo. But look at the
facts: Woody coached Bo. Woody coached Mo. Bo was Woody's assistant. Mo was
Bo's assistant. Bo coached against Woody. Mo coached against Bo.
How much symmetry do you want?
"I can get mad," Mo says of his temper. And the media? "I can deal with
it." Biggest frustration? "When a kid who knows better still makes mistakes.
That really bugs me."
Remind you of anyone?
He is wearing the tie. Soon he gets the whistle. They say U-M will never
be the same. But you think of Bo and Mo, two crew-cut dreamers from Ohio, and
how much they have endured together, and you know what? Something tells me
not to worry.