Big Ten Roundup : Touchdown on Fake Punt Helps Michigan Defeat Michigan State

Mike Gillette raced 40 yards for a touchdown on a fake punt late in the third quarter, and 17th-ranked Michigan went on to beat Michigan State, 17-3, Saturday in a Big Ten game at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Michigan had 5 sacks and 1 interception as the Wolverines improved to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play. The Spartans, the defending Rose Bowl champions, fell to 0-3-2 and 0-1-1.

Michigan, leading 10-3 in the third quarter, had a fourth-and-4 at the Spartans’ 40-yard line. Gillette, a high school quarterback and the catcher on the Michigan baseball team, took the snap and ran left, bowling over referee Tom Quinn.

The call came on a silent signal.

“Bo gave me his thumbs up and that’s when I knew,” said Gillette, who also kicked a 30-yard field goal. “We’ve done it in practice, so it’s not like a new thing. But we’ve never done it in a game before.

“I was nervous to get the referee out of my way and told him to move out of the way before the play started.”

Schembechler, on Quinn’s role in the play, said: “The referee stood in the way and darned near tackled Gillette. I would have killed him.”

Michigan State Coach George Perles said: “That was the play that broke our back. He was so wide open because we didn’t have an outside contain man.”

The touchdown and extra point made Gillette the school’s all-time scoring leader with 247 points, eclipsing the mark of 244 by Anthony Carter.

Tony Boles scored Michigan’s other touchdown on a 5-yard run in the second quarter.

The game drew 106,208 fans, second-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.

Michigan quarterback Michael Taylor completed 12 of 22 passes for 115 yards with 2 interceptions. He ran for 56 yards on option plays.

Boles, who entered the game ranked third nationally in rushing with a 151-yard-per-game average, was held to 81 yards by the Spartans, but that still was high for the game. The Spartans’ Blake Ezor was held to 68 yards.

Indiana 41, Ohio State 7--Anthony Thompson scored 4 times in the first half in leading the Hoosiers (4-0-1 and 2-0) to a rout of the Buckeyes (2-3 and 0-2) at Bloomington, Ind.

Thompson, the nation’s No. 2 rusher, finished with 190 yards and also caught 3 passes for 25 yards.

It was Indiana’s first victory over the Buckeyes at Bloomington since 1904 and marked the first time the Hoosiers have beaten Ohio State in consecutive games since 1913. The margin was the biggest ever in the series for Indiana, which trails the Buckeyes, 50-12-4.

The Buckeyes avoided a shutout on Jaymes Bryant’s 8-yard touchdown run in the third quarter after the Hoosiers had built a 35-0 lead.

Iowa 31, Wisconsin 6--Chuck Hartlieb completed 23 of 33 passes for 297 yards and a touchdown while guiding the Hawkeyes on three long second-half scoring drives, and Jeff Skillett kicked 3 field goals to lead the Hawkeyes (3-2-1 and 1-0-1) over the Badgers (0-5 and 0-2) at Iowa City, Iowa.

Skillett, who missed a 51-yard field goal attempt that would have beaten Michigan State last Saturday, staked Iowa to a 9-0 lead with field goals of 48, 33 and 37 yards to make it 9-3 at halftime.

Illinois 20, Purdue 0--Quarterback Jeff George threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Dan Donovan in the first quarter and the Illini defense stymied the Boilermakers at Champaign, Ill.

Doug Higgins kicked a pair of second-quarter field goals in a little more than a minute--from 33 and 34 yards--and Keith Jones plunged for a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter to complete the Illini scoring against the Boilermakers.

Illinois is 3-2 and 2-0, Purdue is 2-3 and 1-1.

Minnesota 28, Northwestern 28--The Golden Gophers’ Sean Lumpkin blocked Ira Adler’s 39-yard field-goal attempt with 3 seconds remaining to preserve a tie with the Wildcats at Minneapolis.

Greg Bradshaw threw for 2 touchdowns, and Byron Sanders ran for 2 more to lead the Wildcats. Darrell Thompson scored 3 first-quarter touchdowns and redshirt freshman Scott Schaffner, making his first start at quarterback, ran for a fourth-quarter score for Minnesota.

Minnesota (2-2-1 and 0-1-1) jumped to a 21-0 lead on Thompson’s scoring runs of 7, 17 and 54 yards, but Northwestern shut him down in the second and third quarters.

Northwestern’s Sanders finished with 34 carries for 161 yards. Minnesota’s Thompson had 156 yards in 26 rushes.