ROSE BOWL NOTEBOOK : If USC Can’t Tripp Him, It Must Find a Way to Stop Welborne

Sullivan Anthony Welborne III, better known as Tripp, for triple, is one of the nation’s premier defensive backs.

Yet, the Michigan strong safety insists that basketball is his first love.

In fact, the ever-smiling, personable Welborne likes to tell the story about being recruited by Bo Schembechler.

The Michigan coach watched Welborne play for his high school basketball team in Greensboro, N.C.

“My heart belongs to Michigan, but basketball is my favorite sport. I used to shoot a lot. No shot is a bad shot. If you’re off, you got to shoot until you’re on. If you’re on, you got to keep shooting because you’re on,” Welborne reasoned.

After a non-stop shooting spree, Welborne recalled that Schembechler told him he’d have to ice his elbow.

“I said, ‘I always shoot like that.’ He said, ‘You shot it every time.’ ”

Now, Welborne, a junior All-American, is shooting down quarterbacks as Michigan’s designated blitzer.

In this year’s 22-14 Rose Bowl victory over USC he made 10 tackles, intercepted a pass and forced a fumble.

He was also prominent in his team’s come-from-behind, 24-23 win over UCLA earlier this season with a 63-yard punt return.

That was the turning-point game for Michigan, Welborne said, after a season-opening loss to Notre Dame.

“We showed our character, showed we could come back, and I think UCLA played the best game it played all year,” Welborne said. “We didn’t play our best game, but to come out with a win showed that we hung together. We never thought we were going to lose. It showed we can come back from adversity. The lesson is, never quit.”

The Rose Bowl game will showcase two of the nation’s best defensive backs--Welborne and USC’s Mark Carrier, a finalist for the Jim Thorpe award.

Welborne and Carrier were roommates in a hotel during the taping of the Bob Hope television show, featuring 1989 All-American players.

“We talked about everything,” Welborne said. “We talked about the practices we had. Our practices are so similar. He told us what they did, and I said, ‘That’s the same thing we do.’ So it’s going to be a battle of the titans, everything is equal. The team with the fewest mistakes will win.”

As for Carrier, Welborne said: “I’ve seen him on film, and he’s a great, great player who makes big plays when you need them.”

Welborne has also been impressed by USC quarterback Todd Marinovich.

“It’s not that he can’t play the game because he’s young. He can throw the ball and do the things necessary to win. He has proved it during the season.

“So we have to go out and play as if he’s a veteran, and in our minds, he is. He is one of the toughest quarterbacks I’ve seen outside of our own (Michael Taylor). He throws passes and gets hit in the chest, and he’ll get right back up. That’s the mark of a true competitor.”

“But, hopefully, he’ll make some mistakes in the game and give us a break.”

The ongoing theme of the 76th Rose Bowl game is Schembechler’s retirement. He said he’s enjoying his last week of coaching and will be more cognizant of his health when he retires

Schembechler had a heart attack before the 1970 Rose Bowl game with USC and has had two bypass operations.

“I’m not into my new life yet,” he said. “But as soon as this is over I’m going to the treadmill, watch what I eat and lose weight. I figure this is my last fling.”

Schembechler has been accommodating and seemingly relaxed during news conferences at his team’s hotel in Newport Beach.

He didn’t even get irritated when someone suggested that there would be a hole in his career if he doesn’t win a national championship.

“It’s not a hole in my career, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “It may be for other people. There’s nothing I would have done any differently in my coaching career. I won some games, won some (Big Ten) championships, made a lot of friends, what the hell else do you want?”

Schembechler also discounts the emotional factor of his team trying to win one final game for their coach. “We don’t need that. We’re playing in the Rose Bowl. We don’t need any added incentive.”

Fritz Crisler was the last Michigan lame-duck coach to bring a team to the Rose Bowl. The Wolverines responded, beating USC, 49-0, in 1948.

USC Coach Larry Smith is in favor of sudden-death overtime in college football games as a tiebreaking procedure.

He doesn’t believe that teams should battle for 60 minutes just to end up in a tie.

Perhaps that season-ending 10-10 tie with UCLA is still frustrating.

Rose Bowl Notes

USC defensive tackle Dan Owens has started every game in his four years at the school, and the Rose Bowl will be his 48th in a row. . . . Marinovich, who was named freshman of the year by UPI and the Sporting News, is already seventh on USC’s career passing list.