Ties That Bind : Moeller Is Disappointed, but Proud of His Wolverines

Three strikes and you’re out. Three ties and you’re in--the Rose Bowl, that is.

“Hey, we’re still undefeated,” Michigan Coach Gary Moeller said when asked how three ties in a season compare, say with a 10-1 season such as the Wolverines had last year before being defeated in the Rose Bowl by Washington, 34-14.

“I’m very proud of my football team, and if we can beat a very good Washington team next Friday in the Rose Bowl, it will be Michigan’s first undefeated season since 1973. Considering the injuries we had (eight starters sat out a combined 22 games), our team stood up very well.”

But what about those three ties?

The first one came in the season opener, 17-17, against Notre Dame.

Moeller: “I was really disappointed. In no way did I expect to lose, and in no way was I satisfied with the tie.”

Then came eight consecutive victories before a 22-22 deadlock with Illinois at Ann Arbor as Michigan clinched its fifth consecutive Big Ten championship and fourth Rose Bowl invitation in five years.

Moeller: “We ran up and down the field all day and kept turning the ball over. It was a sad way to get an invitation to the big party, but in the end I just wanted to get in field goal range and play for the tie.”

One week later, the regular season closed with a 13-13 tie with rival Ohio State.

Moeller: “I got a little conservative after (quarterback) Elvis (Grbac) got hurt, and the team didn’t play at all as well as it should have. What we can’t do is let this thing hang over us and be a dark cloud.”

This isn’t the first time Michigan (8-0-3) has tied three games and still wound up undefeated.

In 1910, the Wolverines tied Case, 6-6; Ohio State, 3-3, and Pennsylvania, 0-0, en route to a 3-0-3 season.

In 1939, UCLA had four ties and an undefeated season, but it was two ties too many to get to the Rose Bowl. When UCLA tied USC, 0-0, in the final game, it earned the Trojans the New Year’s Day bid because USC--also unbeaten--had only two ties.

Four ties in one season is the NCAA record, shared by the Bruins of ‘39, Temple in 1937 and Central Michigan last year. Temple had a particularly frustrating season, as all four ties were scoreless.

“We set a lot of records (this season) and we did a lot of great things, but I’m disappointed because we all could have found a way to win those games,” Moeller said. How the three ties occurred:

--The Notre Dame disappointment:

It ended with most of the sellout crowd at Notre Dame Stadium booing Coach Lou Holtz with the same fervor extended Ara Parseghian in Notre Dame’s infamous 1966 tie with Michigan State. Holtz, like Parseghian, played for the tie at game’s end.

Michigan squandered a 17-7 lead during the fourth quarter. The key play was Notre Dame’s second interception of the game. The pickoff by linebacker Brian Ratigan set up the tying field goal by Craig Hentrich with five minutes remaining.

Grbac had a chance to redeem himself when he drove the Wolverines from their 20-yard line to the Irish 30 with little more than a minute to play. Pete Elezovic was poised on the sidelines waiting to kick the winning field goal when Grbac tried to throw the ball away and instead lofted it to free safety Jeff Burris.

Game films showed no Michigan player within 15 yards of Burris.

“Right after I threw it, I had this feeling like, ‘Oh, how could I have made such a stupid play?’ ” Grbac told Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. “You sit there, you hear the crowd roaring, I tell you, it’s the emptiest feeling in the world.

“I’ve run that play over in my mind 100 times. Sitting on the bus coming back, that’s all I thought about. If I could go back and erase it, I would. But I can’t.”

The game ended with two running plays and two incompletions by Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer and a crescendo of boos directed toward Holtz.

“It was a crazy game,” Holtz said. “It leaves me with a very empty feeling. It’s nothing, it’s like we never played.”

--The Illinois disappointment:

The story of the game was 10 Michigan fumbles, of which four were lost--one at the Illinois goal line--and two interceptions. Total: six turnovers. Michigan gained 309 yards during the first half but scored only one touchdown.

Although the Wolverines led, 13-6, during the third quarter, they had to come from behind to get the tie. Illinois led, 22-19, before Michigan drive from its 13 into field goal range. On fourth down with 15 yards to go for a first down, Moeller called on Elezovic to kick the tying 39-yard field goal.

The tie brought mixed reactions, including much booing from the Michigan fans, who wanted a victory more than a guaranteed trip to Pasadena. So did some of the players.

“Clinching the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl is good and all, but we didn’t want to tie,” said wide receiver Derrick Alexander, who has caught 11 touchdown passes this season. “We wanted to win. It’s hard to take. We always play to win.”

Strong safety Pat Maloney said: “Any (other) team would kill to go to the Rose Bowl. We’re going, but with mixed emotions. We’re Michigan, and we have higher expectations.”

Moeller explained his reasoning: “There was no doubt in my mind what I would do under the circumstances. I made up my mind the day before the game that if needed, I would go for a tie to clinch the championship and the Rose Bowl.

“I didn’t want to risk everything by throwing an interception. And if we had come up short and lost, it would have put all the pressure on the team in having to win against Ohio State to get in the Rose Bowl. I couldn’t take a chance on that happening.”

--The Ohio State disappointment:

This is the one that rankles. In tying Notre Dame, the Michigan players still had hopes of winning the national championship. In tying Illinois, they lost their hopes of becoming No. 1, but won the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl bid.

But Ohio State? The hated Buckeyes?

The situation was looking good when Grbac scored the first rushing touchdown of his career, a three-yard dash, to give the Wolverines a 7-3 lead during the second quarter. It turned out to be a negative turning point, however, as the quarterback began coughing up blood after the play.

Todd Collins, a second-year player with limited playing time, came in as Michigan’s quarterback, and Moller went conservative with his play-calling. For instance, Alexander, who had caught 47 passes in the first 10 games, did not catch a pass against Ohio State.

“It was tough, with a young quarterback and with all the noise from the (Ohio State) rooters, it was a difficult situation,” Moeller said. “Toward the end, I didn’t feel as comfortable with some of the play-calling, but conditions were very poor to take many chances with Todd.”

During the final four minutes, after Ohio State had tied the score, both Moeller and Buckeye Coach John Cooper played it close to the vest.

“After all we had done, I wasn’t going to ask them to do something foolish,” Moeller said. “Was I playing for a tie? Well, when the ball was back on my nine-yard line, I guarantee you, I was playing not to lose.”

Cooper took a lot of criticism for kicking the game-tying extra point instead of going for two points after the final touchdown.

“It’s easy for them to say, ‘Gamble, coach, gamble,’ but if it doesn’t work, all you hear is how many times you lost.”

The last time Michigan and Ohio State tied was 1973--the last season the Wolverines finished undefeated.