Michigan Good Enough for Pasadena : Big Ten: But Wolverines are not good enough to beat Illinois, needing a last-minute field goal for a 22-22 tie.

Michigan, at its absolute worst, proved Saturday there is no better team in the Big Ten.

The third-ranked Wolverines committed six turnovers but won their second consecutive Big Ten championship when Peter Elezovic kicked a 39-yard field goal with 16 seconds remaining for a 22-22 tie with Illinois.

“I’ve made some game-winners in high school, so I knew I could do it,” said Elezovic, whose previous best was only 33 yards. “But this was definitely my biggest field goal. The one in the Notre Dame game was big, but it wasn’t at the end and it wasn’t that long.”

Michigan, 8-0-2 overall and 6-0-1 in the Big Ten, will play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day against Washington no matter what happens at Ohio State next week. However, it didn’t help the Wolverines’ chances of winning a national championship.

“This was a sad way to get into a big party,” Michigan Coach Gary Moeller said. “We just went out and self-destructed. We had 10 fumbles. That’s sickening. I can’t believe we handled the ball like that.”

Illinois (5-4-1, 3-3-1), which had been hoping for a bid to the Independence Bowl, intercepted two of Elvis Grbac’s passes and recovered four of Michigan’s 10 fumbles. Tyrone Wheatley of the Wolverines fumbled seven times.

“The turnovers certainly kept us in the game early,” Illinois Coach Lou Tepper said. “There’s no question that a tie helps us a lot more than it helps Michigan. It makes us more palatable to bowl scouts.

“I’m disappointed for our players, because we did everything we wanted to do to win. Our mission was to make a statement. We wanted to show that we could beat anybody in this league.”

Illinois took its first lead, 15-13, on a 40-yard field goal by Chris Richardson after an interception by Jeff Arneson early in the fourth quarter.

Michigan responded with a 62-yard drive that ended with Jesse Johnson’s 11-yard touchdown run, putting Michigan ahead, 19-15. Grbac’s pass to Burnie Legette for the two-point conversion was incomplete.

Illinois took the next kickoff and drove 65 yards in 10 plays. Jason Verduzco, who completed 25 of 38 passes for 192 yards, with one interception, for the Illini, capped the drive by diving in from two yards out. That gave Illinois a 22-19 lead.

Grbac, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 278 yards, then connected on six consecutive passes for 53 yards to the Illinois 43. Johnson got 17 more on a draw play and the Illini called time out.

When play resumed, Johnson lost six, Grbac threw an incompletion and Johnson gained a yard.

After taking its last two timeouts, and over the objections of Grbac, Michigan sent Elezovic onto the field to earn the trip to Pasadena.

“I really don’t understand,” Grbac said.

“But I’m sure Coach Moeller had a good reason. He and his staff have been around a lot longer than I have.”

Moeller said he made up his mind the day before to play for a tie if necessary.

“I just wanted to make sure of getting into field-goal range,” he said.

“I didn’t want to risk the Rose Bowl by throwing an interception. I wouldn’t play it any different, because it wouldn’t be fair to the fans.”

Johnson, who rushed for 121 yards in 23 carries, gave Michigan a 13-6 lead with a 15-yard scoring run in the third quarter. Darren Boyer, who gained 64 yards in 13 carries for the Illini, made it 13-12 with an eight-yard run.

Michigan had 309 of its 523 yards in the first half, during which the Wolverines held Illinois to 106 of its 314 yards.

Verduzco became only the eighth quarterback in Big Ten history to pass for more than 7,000 yards. He has 7,128 yards, , moving him past former Illini quarterback Tony Eason into seventh place on the Big Ten career passing chart.