Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 42

Bo and Duffy Talk About MSU Football Detroit ifreeresa The Inside of Sports And Themselves SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 1971 6-C. Bo Schembechler and Duffy Daugherty. Duffy Daugherty and Bo Schembechler. No matter how you rate them, football people will tell you that two of the finest coaches in the college game practice their trade bt the state of Michigan. Daugherty earned his reputation over 17 seasons at Michigan State.

He has coached two Big Ten champions and one national champion. Twice he was Coach of the Year and until a couple years ago had never endured two consecutive losing seasons. Schembechler burst into prominence two years ago in his very first season at Michigan, guiding the Wolverines to an upset of top-ranked Ohio State and taking them to the Rose Bowl. He was the near-unanimous choice for Coach of the Year on his first try. Daugherty and Schembechler talk about their successes and failures, their 1971 teams and their chances in the upcoming Big Ten football season in this week's two-sided Sports Quiz with Free Press Sports Writer Curt Sylvester.

Sylvester Bo Duffy yggpa Mim i i ii ww r-mammimmi-iiy A BO SCHEMBECHLER:" "I think the NCAA made a mistake in going to 11 games that's one too many." years when I haven't been held up in that lofty position. I suppose now there are people who wonder if I've lost my rest and enthusiasm for the game." QHow do you feel about It? A "On the contrary, I think now I'm a better coach than I've ever been in my career. When you're losing, it's so easy to be criticized for things you've been doing in all the years you've had great success. You do the same things but when you're losing these same things you do are pointed out as reasons why you're losing." Do you feel you have to have a winning season this year? A "The administration at Michigan State has never put any pressure on me. If you're talking about the alumni talking and saying 'Well, if Duff doesn't win we're going to get rid of I don't worry about that kind of talk.

If it ever came to a time when the ad- ministration says 'we think someone else could handle the job I would never want to coach." You've passed up a lot of offers to stay at MSU over the years, haven't you? A "Over the years I've had many, many opportunities to coach at a lot of different places on bom the college and pro level but -I've never used these jobs as a wedge to bet- ter my position here. I've never asked for a lifetime contract or a 10-y ear contract. There's an old story about a school that gave -a coach a lifetime contract, and, after several losing seasons they declared him legally dead and tried to hire a new coach." One of the last reports was that you were in line for the athletic director's job at Miami. Did you give it much thought? A "I didn't give it a great deal of thought. I have no desire to end my coaching career right now.

When you spend your adult life except for some time in the Army -doing something, you don't want to stop doing it on a losing note and you don't want to stop doing it when you feel you can dc- it as well as you've ever done." Who do you feel Is the team to beat in the Big Ten? A "Michigan, based on what they have back from last year, has to go as the preseason favorite. But 'that doesn't mean other teams can't come along and upset them. Their first game, with Northwestern, just like our game with Illinois, will be a key game." What do you think of the 11-game schedule? A "I'm for the 11-game schedule. I think it was a matter of economics. I think they needed the money.

I don't know if it was best to tack the 11th game on the front of the schedule I because of the weather it was best to do that. It could have gone on the end but they didn't want to tamper with these traditional closing dates." You don't feel the additional game is too much for the players? A "It's just like these exhibition games In -pro ball. If you weren't playing a game on Sept. 11, you'd be having an intra-squad scrimmage. Except, the Big Ten isn't giving us quite enough time to get ready for the opener.

We start Aug. 23 when teams like Georgia Tech are starting practice three days ahead of us." A "I don't think Ohio State is going to be down that much. I think they're going to be a young team and by the time we play them in the 11th game, it means they're a veteran team. I think they'll be a real tough team to beat." With the addition of the 11th game to the schedule, you open with a conference game (Northwestern). How tough is that? A "Your high schools always have scrimmages before they play a game and your pros play six exhibitions.

We have less time and here it is a conference game with a contending team, plus the fact we go in with rookie quarterbacks, means it's a tough opener and a key game for us. All our practice has to be stepped up. What it boils down to is that we'll have one game-type scrimmage before the game." Do you feel the U-game schedule Is the maximum for colleges? A "I thought the maximum was 10. 1 think the NCAA made a mistake in going to 11 games. Now they talk about playoffs to determine the national champion.

That's ridiculous. When we play 11 games, in my opinion, that's one too many. We start earlier every year. The team that wins and goes on to the Rose Bowl is going to be playing 12 games and be playing football from the middle of August until after the first of January." Why were you against the 11th game? A "I love the game and I love to coach it but I also realize that in college they still have to go to school. It's 10 percent more pressure, 10 percent more time and effort it does take away somewhat from their academic pursuits.

I was concerned about that." The reason they added the game was financial, right? A "Yes, but that is the fallacy in the whole thing. Football can handle itself financially. It's the burdens we have to carry in terms of all the facilities and all the other sports. It's ironic to me that we would continue to put more pressure on football and then talk about putting a need factor on grant-in-aids." What you're saying is that they're putting the burden of earning the money on football and then penalizing football on scholarships. A "That's right.

There's no way it should be that way. I thrnk the NCAA has some very inconsistent thinking in that manner. We don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg and that is what we're doing when we put pressure on football to run the rest of the program." Do you see any way in which these minor sports can take the load off football? A "There's no way they can support themselves. I'm in favor of maintaining those sports and running excellent programs. To me, if they kept the grant-in-aid program for football and basketball the way it is and put the other sports on a need basis, it could be a pretty good program.

I just question whether we can afford to spend those astronomical figures in grant-in-aid that we do on those other sports." You've been on top, or near the top, of the Big Ten in both years at Michigan. How does this year's team compare to those two? is essentially a comparable team. We-have more problems with positions to fill particularity on defense where we've lost quite a few good players. On offense, although we didn't lose very many, we lost really key people like (quarterback) Don Moorhead, (receiver) Paul Staroba and (tackle) Dan Dier-dorf. It boils down to that we're not quite as deep as we were before defensively, we're inexperienced at quarterback and we have to havig offensive After having two outstanding seasons, a team would normally be ready for a rebuilding year.

Is this your situation? A "No, we can't consider it a rebuilding year. We have a well-established senior group. We have 15 double letterwinners. That means you have some game experience and some guys who know what it's all about. Those fellows, too, were in the Rose Bowl two years ago and have great incentive to go back because of the things that happened to us and the fact that we didn't win the game." Did you have any idea when you came here that you could have 17 wins in your first 20 regular season games A "You never can figure until you're here.

We got things going midway through that first year I was here and there were good football players on that team. Last year we had the nucleus of a very good team and they played very well, although the game we had to win we didn't win the darned thing. But still it was a good team. "I think this year's team is going to be similar to the other two. Now I'm not saying we're going to win the championship or that we'll have a better record, because 17 out of 20 in the regular season is not bad.

But it is going to be a good football team. I'm sure everybody is going to consider Michigan a strong contender for Big Ten honors this year." That 17-3 record almost puts you on the spot. What happens if you ever have an average season? I'd rather have it this way than coming off a couple of losing seasons and trying to have a winning one. I think winning breeds winning. I think our team feels that what we do is conducive to winning.

They believe in the way we play football, the way we teach it. Once you establish winning, it's much harder to lose. Once you've established losing, it's much harder to win." QMVhich Big Ten teams look like they'll be the toughest this year? A "I wouldn't want to pick the winner of the Big Ten this year because I think many teams have an opportunity. I think we're one of them. From our standpoint, we think the three real contenders are Northwestern, Michigan State and Ohio State.

I would not want to underestimate the possibility of Illinois having a great year. The same thing goes for Minnesota and I'd throw Purdue in that same category." A lot of people believe that since Ohio State lost so many great players, they will be a lot weaker. How do you feel? It's been four years since MSU has had a real good season. Going that long is rare for you. Will things be different this season? A "I think we'll have more of the ingredients necessary for success than we've had in recent years.

We'l? have better depth overall. Some of the injuries we've had in past years hurt us at the time to fellows like Ron Curl, Bill Dawson and Jesse Williams but getting them back this year is a bonus. We certainly have more stability at quarterback and we have more depth at the skilled positions." You had a horrible run of Injuries In those years didn't you? A "It was' pointed out last June that in the last four years we've had 33 knee operations. That may not be a record but it's a darned good average. It's hard to understand why you get these things.

In our great years we were fortunate to keep everybody healthy. I think we lost only one man Bob Apisa in the ninth game of his sophomore year and the sixth game of his junior year but he was the only man we lost in those two years." Are Injuries the main cause of your recent problems? A "We never did successfully replace the super players we had. I don't think any team ever lost as many great players as we did that one year (1966). Ohio State has lost some but I don't think you could class them with George Webster, Clinton Jones, Gene Washington, Bubba Smith all in one year, This was such a great loss that until now we haven't had players of the same caliber. Now we have a few players who could follow in that super category.

This is what you have to have." I'm sure you've heard the rumors that the pressure is on you to have a good season. What's your feeling on this? A "I'm sure a lot of people are unhappy when you don't have success and I really don't think there is any other way to measure a team's success other than wins and losses. I suppose that's a tough yardstick but it's the only one available. We've been good enough to beat the average team in the past couple years and we upset Michigan and Notre Dame when we weren't supposed to, but I suppose you could say we lost a couple games we should have won. "I think all coaches are conscious of what people say about them, what is written about them.

But the pressures that bother you the most are the pressures you build up within yourself because of your innate desire to win, to have success, to do well. "Our fans and alumni feel badly but if you could multiply that 10,000 fold maybe that would be some idea of how I feel and how our coaches feel when we lose a game." It really hasn't been this way often for you has it? A "You might say in my career I have run the gamut from every level. I've had great success or our team has had great success, I haven't done it personally. But we've had, during my head coaching years, great success, we've had good teams, we've had average teams and we've had a couple below average. There have been years when I was hailed as a great coach that was probably an exaggeration.

There have been IS, br4 i i "lit? iiW Sis DUFFY DAUGHERTY: "I think now I'm a better coach than I've ever been in my career Hey, Colts, How About 80,000 Fans? 'qL A NICE ROUND FIGURE, THAT A NICE ROUND tlGJPZ. FIGURES HE SHOULD BE ABOUND Sunday to help VBK, Jimmy Walker and Bob Quick in four clinics in Kennedy Square. QUOTABLE QUOTES: Esteemed NY sports-cribe Arthur Daley in assessing Joe Namath's efforts to flag down Mike Lucci at Tampa: "He tackles like John Barrymore and acts like Dick Butkus" NY Giant rookie Wayne Walton on the difference between college and pro football: "When you whack a fellow up here, nothing happens. In college, they used to go down" Giant Coach Alex Webster: "All good defensive backs have to have some hostility in them" Oakland Raider Coach John Madden on exhibition games: "Sometimes winning the first one by a big score hurts you. You begin to think you're good" Tom Nissaike, Dallas Chapparal coach who formerly was an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks: "I wouldn't trade Lew Alcindor for an entire team.

There's not a single franchise in pro basketball that has 12 players I would take in exchange for him. And what a lot of people don't realize is that he's still three years or so away from his prime" And, for kicks, how do you like the appraisal of Bob Cousy, the original Fancy Dan, on the Cincinnati Royals' No. 2 draff choice, John Mengelt: "We feel Mengelt is going to do a fine job as soon as he gets rid of that behind-the-back pass." PARTING SHOT: If the Wimbledon champmar-ried a placekicker, she'd be Evonne Goolagong Gogolak (and would play tennis soccer style) and if Tuesday Weld married Oakland's Rick Monday and Lion equipment man Roy Friday Macklem, she'd be Tuesday Monday Friday and she'd also be a polygamist. said, "except that as a standup comedian you had to learn to dodge New pro coach Tommy Prothro draws on an old saw to justify his put-down of game plans for the Rams. "Game plans can get messed up pretty quick and you can't depend on them that much," said the ex-UCLA coach.

"I mean, when you're up to your rear in alligators, it's tough to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp." Harold Carmichael, the Philadelphia Eagles' rookie wide receiver, was driven into football as a high school junior by his musie teacher. The 6-foot-7 Carmichael played paino, trumpet and trombone and played in the school band. "Ev-erytime I missed a note the teacher would tap me on the head with the baton," he said. "I got tired of that tap, tap, tap, tap on the head. I figured there has to be something better than this, so I went out for sports." SOCIAL NOTES: Jim Fox, the former Piston center, now with the Chicago Bulls, is a recent bridegroom and visited Ourtown to see his new in-laws in Grosse Pointe.

And isn't the Lions' Frank Gallagher, one of the sports community's most eligible bachelors, thinking seriously about deserting the ranks? Piston coach Bill van Breda Kolff is entertaining Bob Lanier and his bride at the coach's summer home on the ocean in New Jersey VBK wants his 6-foot-ll center in good shape for the start of training camp and would you believe that camp opens (that's basketball camp!) in 2'2 weeks? Lanier doesn't have to report until the veterans', deadline of Sept. 13, but he's going to show up in rookie camp and, in fact, will be in Motown next SUNDAY'S BEST (and some of the worst) and whatever happened to Rufus Gentry, the greatest holdout of them all? 01' Rufe, who elected to sit out the Tigers 1945 Pennant season, may not make it to the Hall of Fame, but a whole lot of Lions have found their way into one select group or another in the past year- Roy (Father) Lumpkin, who scored the very first Detroit Lion touchdown in 1934, was inducted into the Texas High School Hall of Fame. Three ex-Lions Frank Christensen (1934-37), Jack Johnson (1934-40) and Kent Ryan (1938-40) became members of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. Ron Kramer and the late Les Bingaman were admitted to Michigan's honored group last spring and Terry Barr completed a vintage year by being named to the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame. Won't it frost the Baltimore Colt's Sunday to see the Lions draw a king-sized fans into the U-M Stadium and probably have room enough left over to accommodate a Colt home exhibition crowd? DISSA 'N' DATA: The Los Angeles Rams' new middle linebacker, Jack Reynolds, carries the nickname Hacksaw Reynolds as a collegian at Tennessee, he once sawed a.

jeep in two with a hacksaw. Question for Mike Lucci and Paul Nau-moff: Is that what linebackers do at Tennessee? George Plimpton, the former Harvard "Lampoon" editor who'll do his thing at halftime of Sunday's Lion-Colt game Sunday, says his recent training camp stint with the Colts was the most physically demanding thing he's ever undertaken. "The others weren't physical at all," Plimpton.