COLLEGE FOOTBALL / BOWL GAMES REPORT : ROSE : Moeller Isn’t Too Hot on the Weather

Michigan Coach Gary Moeller doesn’t like the weather that has greeted his Wolverines in their preparations for the Rose Bowl game against Washington on Wednesday.

“I don’t mind the rain so much, but I wanted it hot. I wanted the boys to work up a sweat.” Pasadena was still more than 20 degrees warmer than it was in Ann Arbor, where it was 42 degrees Saturday.

Center Steve Everitt is the only Michigan player on the injured list. The 275-pound senior, a second-team all-Big Ten selection, suffered a bruised leg and ankle during workouts at Citrus College Thursday and was on crutches Saturday. Moeller said he expected Everitt to be ready by game time. Everitt sat out the Florida State game--Michigan’s only defeat--because of a broken jaw.

Corwin Brown, Michigan’s free safety, will bear most of the responsibility for shadowing Mario Bailey, Washington’s pass-catching end. Told by reporters that Bailey’s statistics (62 catches for 1,037 yards to 61 for 950 for Desmond Howard) are better than those of his Heisman Trophy teammate, Brown said: “If he’s as good as Magic (Howard), I don’t want to play against him.”

Howard said that the bitter taste of giving up 51 points to Florida State helped the defensive team focus on the job at hand for the remainder of the season. “It made us look around at ourselves and realize if we gave up 51 points that we couldn’t win over anybody. We didn’t like it, but I think we got the most out of it as a lesson. We are a totally different team today than we were back in September.”