Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 59

tVf t'? I M1 Detroit 4frce Sports SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1975 In This Section Sports on Television Page 3 -The Inside of Sports Page 6 Outdoors with Opre Page 8 BEARS MISS 39-YARD FG IN LAST 6 SECONDS Underdog Baylor Ties U-M, 1444 SECTION 1975 Wolverines Are No Powerhouse ANN ARBOR Hail to the victors vanquished BY CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sport Writer ANN ARBOR With defeat only a few yards and a few precious seconds away, Michigan swallowed its badly battered pride Saturday and humbly accepted a 14-14 tie with Baylor. It was, of course, the Wolverines' second straight tie, but this time they couldn't lay the blame on anything so fickle as a passing quarterback, as they did in the 19-19 tossup with Stanford. Playing before a Band Day crowd of 104,248 fans, proceeded to demonstrate that the Big Ten is not the only football conference that can throw its weight around. And it wasn't until the defending Southwest Conference champs were finally stopped at the U-M 22 and Bubba Hicks had misguided his 39-yard field goal attempt with six seconds left in the game, that Michigan could even count on getting out with a tie. The deadlock left both teams undefeated with a win and two ties and who ever heard of a 10-10 season? Considering the Wolverines' performance Saturday, though, a tie was probably the most they could expect.

Offensively, they sputtered behind both young quarterbacks junior Mark Elzinga, who started, and freshman Rick Leach, who played the second half. WHILE THE U-M DEFENSE worked out of some unsavory predicaments, Bears tailback Cleveland Fanklin and quarterback Mark Jackson certainly deflated any notions of Wolverine invincibility. And at the end, just about everybody in the stadium had the notion that the favored Wolverines were fortunate to escape without a loss. "We were fortunate to get a tie, unlike last week when we should have won," confessed U-M coach Bo Schembech-ler, who is still waiting for victory No. 100 in his coaching career.

"Console me," groaned Baylor coach Grant Teaff, "we should have won the game." Except for the opening drive of the game, when U-M walked down the field for a touchdown with hardly a protest from Baylor, the Bears were the dominant force throughout. Even when the Wolverines scored the final TD of the game to erase a 14-7 Baylor lead early in the fourth quarter, they had to struggle going 37 yards in 11 plays with little Gordon Bell hurdling the final yard for the TD. So it wound up a standoff: Michigan scoring the first and last touchdowns, both on runs by Bell, and Baylor taking its two in between on a one-yard run by Jackson and a two-yarder by Franklin. Franklin, who played the final quarter with a badly bruised shoulder, hurt the Wolverines more than any running hack has In some time, picking up 135 yards in 37 carries. And with Jackson picking up bits and pieces of yardage by completing 11 of 20 passes for 117 yards, the Bears had fAJw, jjil Ju UPI Phots Those last two weeks will go into the books forever as tie ballgames for the University of Michigan football team.

But we're not fooled by that are we, Bo? Both of the games Stanford week ago and Baylor on Saturday are losses. Hard, tough-to-swallow losses. The Big was supposed to win both handily. They were favored by three touchdowns each time, and each time the Wolverines had to hang on by their fingernails just to come out even. And if it's true what Duffy Daughterly once said that playing a tie is like kissing your sister, Bo Schemhechler must feel like he's been smooching his brother these past few weeks.

What's wrong around here? The first thing, I think, is that we're all spoiled. We're accustomed to coming into the big stadium and watching Michigan perform like a machine and a scoreboard spew out the results like a computer; 7-0, 14-0, 21-0, 28-0, 35-0. You remember it. The old routine. Dull and boring.

Now we've got something entirely new: Close and exciting. I'm sure my boy Bo doesn't think much of these tie games. And no matter what he had to say to the press after Saturday's second straight deadlock, you had to know his guts were grinding inside him. He can't settle for anything less than the best. So, really, what's happened to his Big Blue Machine? At the risk of sounding too simple, he just doesn't have the same players as he's had in the past.

I mean his juniors and seniors, who have always formed the heart of his teams. So-So Recruiting Begins to Slioiv Just consider the way he's been going with his freshmen and his sophomores. There was a time when he might let them carry the water buckets onto the field and watch from the sidelines while the big boys went at it. Now he's leaning on them more and more because the upper-classmen are just not doing the job. That means only one thing: Bo and his staff had two bad recruiting years, as far as Michigan standards are concerned.

That's where we've been spoiled. We expect faultless robots to be performing down there click, click, whirrrr touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. That just isn't happening, and what we have is a bunch of kids who are giving it all they have, but they just don't have as much as their predecessors. Wolverine Gordon Bell (5) scampers six yards for first U-M touchdown all of the offense they needed against U-M's vaunted defense. TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, however, the Wolverines insisted on hurting themselves with amazing regularity.

It began just moments after U-M had taken the lead 7-0 on a 75-yard drive, when Bobby Wood got off a 17-yard kickoff, giving Baylor the ball on its own 43. When middle guard Ricx Koschalk recovered a Bear fumble four plays later, Elzinga, who looked sharp in the operhng drive, returned the ball by fumbling on the Baylor 47. Jackson completed three passes in three attempts as tht Bears effortlessly went the 53 yards to tie the game, 7-7. That's the way it stood until the third quarter, when Leach came into the game and proceeded to get U-M into bad field position by throwing an interception to linebacker Johnny Slaughter at the U-M 23 on his first try. The Wolverines made a gallant goal-line stand, running Jackson out of bounds inches short of a TD on fourth down and one, but the offense couldn't escape the bad field tion.

Please turn to Page 4E, Col. 4 CI 37-15 Rip Wolfpack, ans JL --a iT' tomtom -jMte Red Sox WinAL East Flag Free Press Win Services Although theylost Saturday, 5-2, the Boston Red Sox won the American League East pennant and will play Oakland in the best-of-five AL playoffs, which are scheduled to begin at Fenway Park next Saturday, Oct. 4. The National League playoffs are scheduled to begin the same day with AL East champion Pittsburgh battling West winner Cincinnati at River The program has also suffered from its own success. The more the Wolverines won, the more national attention they got.

And the more attention they got, the more other schools began eying their coaching staffs. Bo, you know, put together quite a staff of assistants and he has been losing them, one by one, with each succeeding and successful season. He has lost five of his best in the last six years Jim Young, who was Bp's, offensive coordinator; Frank Maloney, who handled the interior defensive line; George Mans, big, likeable George, who worked with the defensive ends; Elliot Uzlac, the gifted guy who handled the defensive guards and centers; and Dick Hunter, who spent all his waking hours, it seemed, with the defensive hacks. This is no knock at Bo's present coaches, but you just don't lose men of their caliber and not feel it. On top of that, the Wolverines have been playing much tougher teams in these first three weeks than they have been accustomed to in (he past.

Bo is the first to admit this. In the past, he could almost use these games as exhibitions for the regular Big Ten campaign. This season, he's had to go out there and fight for his life. The result is that we've been seeing mistakes we haven't seen in six or seven years, back to those days when Bump Elliot was struggling around here. Bump even spoiled us in his last year by putting such a stylish team on the field.

We now see Michigan players dropping the ball, failing to open those gaping holes and heavens forbid even running into each other. You can see this on any Sunday afternoon the pros are playing in Detroit (now Pontiac), but we became accustomed to perfection around here. Bo Faces Mountainous Task Too, the Michigan team has been hurt by injuries, losing its two best offensive guards in fall practice, and then losing its best offensive tackle, Steve King, in the Wisconsin game when he banged up his knee. Normally, a good team is expected to and can play over these "kinds of injuries. But the Wolverines just don't have that front Stadium.

The World Series is scheduled to begin Saturday, Oct. BY CHARLIE VINCENT Free Presi Sports Writer EAST LANSING Michigan State, left for dead by Ohio, State two weeks ago, proved there is still plenty of life beating in its Spartan chest Saturday by bringing the North Carolina State Wolfpack to its knees, 37-15. A brutal defense that recovered five fumbles three of i them in the first six minutes and intercepted a pair of passes, and an offense that moved with ease and precision for the first' time this season, resurrected Spartan hopes of making a thret team race out of the Big Ten, after all. "This thing is evening out," coach Denny Stolz beamed after- -wards. "Hey, I hear those scores on the sidelines, too," he said, referring to Michigan's 14-14 tie with Baylor.

"We're really. looking forward to Notre Dame and Michigan now." The Spartans, embarrassed by Ohio State and scared nearly to death by Miami of Ohio, wasted no time on a cool, sunny. Saturday in establishing just who was to be the bass. The game was less than a minute old when Larry Bethea recovered a North Carolina State fumble at the Wolfpck 23." And three plays later, fullback Levi Jackson bulled into theend zone from eight yards out his first of three first-period touch- downs and the die was cast. That was a pattern that was repeated with uncanny fre- quency during the next 15 minutes.

THE SPARTANS FORCED fumbles on both of N.C. State's next two possessions. Tom Hannon recovered on the visitors' 40 I and Paul Rudzinski fell on the other at the 26, and Jackson capped each of the short drives, scoring from the 12 and the one. And, on cue, MSU's little Danish placekicker Hans Nielsen converted after each, giving the Spartans a 21-0 bulge with the game only six minutes and 28 seconds old. "We put the ball on the ground four times (in the first 5 l.

minutes) and they recovered four fumbles," said Wolfpack coach Lou Holtz. "No way can you put the ball on the ground like that and expect to win. When you put the ball on the ground In your own territory like that, it's ridiculous." Happily for the 59,111 Michigan State fans who showed up for this regionally televised game, the Spartan offense knew what to do when the defense turned the ball over to it. After just one quarter, the Spartans had 12 first downs. And after averaging just 203 yards a game in total offense Please turn to Page 4E, Column 2 Hoiv Top 20 Fared Here's how the Top Twenty teams in the Associated Press poll fared this weekend: I 1 Oklahoma ''(S-O-O) just nipped Miami, 20-17.

2 Ohio State (3-0-0) blasted North Carolina, 32-7. 3 Southern Cal (3-0-0) handled Purdue, 194. 4 Nebraska (3-0-0) rolled over Texas Christian, 56-14. 5 Missouri (3-0-0) slipped by Wisconsin, 27-21. 6 Texas (3-0-0) blitzed Texas Tech, 42-18.

7 Notre Dame (3-0-0) trounced Northwestern, 31-7. 8 Texas (3-0-0) mangled Illinois, 43-13. 9 Michigan (1-0-2) tied Baylor, 14-14. 10 U.C.L.A. (2-0-1) tied Air Force, 20-20.

11 Alabama (2-1-0) creamed Vanderbilt, 40-7. 12 Penn State (3-1-0) humbled Iowa, 30-10. I 13 Arizona State (2-0-0) vs. Brigham Young, night. 14 West Virginia (3-0-0) dumped Boston College, 33-18.

15 Arizona (2-0-0) blanked Wyoming, 14-d. i 16 Tennessee (2-1-0) deafeated Auburn, 21-17. 17 Oklahoma St. (3-0-0) demolished N. Texas 61-7.

18 Stanford (0-2-1) was stunned by San Jose, 36-34. 19 Florida (2-1-0) belted Mississippi 27-10. I 20 Maryland (2-1-1) tied Kentucky, 10-10. II. The Red Sox first clinched a tie for the pennant when, despite their loss to Cleveland in a single game at Boston, the Orioles lost to New York, 3-2, on a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning of the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium.

Then, trailing 3-1 in the second game, New York rallied for four runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth to defeat Baltimore, 7-3, and eliminate the defending AL East champion Orioles. The winning pitcher for New York in the first game Saturday was. Catfish Hunter. Details of all three games are in the American League roundup on Page 3E. AP Photo MSU's Levi Jackson (40) goes over for his third TD of day sort of depth anymore.

They will in a couple of years, and they could be a hellish team again next season when these young kids get the necessary experience. In the meantime, Bo is faced with one of the greatest challenges of his coaching career. He has Missouri next week and that's not going to be easy, and you just know Michigan State will give everything it's got the week after in East Lansing. The Spartans still have to be seething over their inept performance against Ohio State and a victory over Michigan, b.efore their own fans, could do much to turn the season around, inot save it entirely. Bo has been pushing his players hard in practice, almost trying to force-feed them on the fundamentals of how to play this game.

But you don't learn to play championship football in one season or even two. He has even taken to playing psychological games with the media, leading us on, for example, that he'd go with rookie Rick Leach as his starting quarterback this week and then coming out with Mark Elzinga. He is looking for any edge he can get. What's so strange is that more people than ever are watching the Wolverines. They may not like the results and some of them were booing when Saturday's game ended.

That seems a little unfair, but that's the way it goes. It's the old "what have you done for me lately?" bit. Perhaps, as the weeks pass (and if the Wolverines can avoid getting banged up badly in the next two weeks), Bo can still make this a reasonably successful season. But it's hard to see how we're going to have that Ohio State hysteria this year, unless the Buckeyes start having troubles of their own. I just can't imagine Bo finishing in fourth place and going to the Tangerine Bowl.

Royal Glint Wins HP Stakes lengths behind. ROYAL GLINT and Proper Bostonian turned Hazel Park's big race into a two-horse show. It was 13 lengths back to Canadian G. R. Gardiner's stretch-runner, Carney's Point, in the slim field of six.

At the end he had 11 lengths Please tur nto Page 7E, Col. 3 Proper Bostonian took a run at Royal Glint. Each time the odds-on favorite shook him off on his way to a S3 payoff. But, in contrast to their previous meeting in the $109,150 Amory Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park last month, Royal Glint didn't turn it into a runaway. In their New Jersey confrontation he left Proper Bostonian eight start of the track's richest race ever and breezed home by three lengths.

Proper Bostonian, winner of the $39,650 Hazel Park trial two weeks ago, ran his heart out, but there was no catching a flyer like Dan Lasater's five-year-old gelding. On three different occasions during the 1 1-8 mile run, BY AL COFFMAN Pre Press Racra Writer Detroit racing tans got a rare look at thoroughbred royalty Saturday and the much-acclaimed Royal Glint gave a regal performance to win the $65,700 Hazel Park Stakes before a crowd of 14,465. With jockey Jorge Tejetra riding with utmost confidence, Royal Glint took charge at the.