Odds Favor Michigan, but History Doesn't

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

Jan. 1, 1998 12 AM PT

The problem with the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl is that it does not snow here. If it snowed here, Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes might have never lost in Pasadena.

Big Ten teams, out of necessity, are built like combines, equipped with the low gears required to win grind-it-out, foul-weather games at Ann Arbor, Mich., in late November.

Pacific 10 teams are race cars, engineered for high speed and tight turns.

“The Pac-10 and Big Ten are two totally different styles,” Michigan quarterback Brian Griese said this week. “We have more of a smash-mouth style, they throw a lot more.”

Hayes said three things happen when you pass the ball, two of them being bad.

A sign still hangs at Michigan’s Schembechler Hall that reads: “Offense wins games, defense wins championships.”

In the first Rose Bowl game, in 1902, contrasting styles were not a factor because the forward pass was illegal.

Michigan smashed Stanford, 49-0, in a game deemed so brutal the Rose Bowl was not revived until 1916.

Now that was Big Ten football.

The Big Ten won 12 of the first 13 Rose Bowls after the conferences signed a pact for their champions to play each annually beginning in 1947.

But beginning in 1970, a demarcation we’ll identify as the dawn of the modern passing era--the retort here is: There are lies, damn lies and statistics--the Pac-10 owns a 20-8 record against the Big Ten.

The reason?

Basically, the Big Ten, performing on perfectly manicured Rose Bowl lawns, has not been able to adjust to Pac-10 passing attacks.

Who can forget coaches Schembechler of Michigan and Ohio State’s Hayes coming West with punishing teams built on a ground attack and defense, only to be undone by a Pac-10 quarterback (Jim Plunkett, Warren Moon, Pat Haden, John Sciarra, Tom Ramsey) deft at the art of the forward pass.

Schembechler and Hayes, two of the greatest coaches in college football history, were a combined 6-12 in Rose Bowl games.

Which brings us to today’s 84th game, one of the most intriguing matchups in Rose Bowl history and perhaps the most classic confrontation of Pac-10/Big Ten styles.

Michigan has the nation’s No. 1 defense, as stonewalled a group as ever assembled. Washington State has the nation’s second-ranked offense, averaging 502 yards per game.

Washington State, led by 6-foot-5, 240-pound quarterback Ryan Leaf--probably a descendant of Paul Bunyan--averages 42 points per game. Michigan gave up a nation-low of 8.9 points per game.

No. 1 Michigan has been installed as a 7 1/2-point favorite and is one victory shy of securing its first national title since 1948.

But haven’t we seen this before?

In the 1976 game, Ohio State was ranked No. 1, needing only to defeat No. 11 UCLA to win the national title. But the Buckeyes were caught flat-footed by Sciarra, who threw second-half scoring strikes of 16 and 67 yards to Wally Henry to lead UCLA to a 23-10 upset.

Sciarra thinks Michigan might be in for a similar surprise.

“They’re not used to what they’re going to see,” Sciarra said this week of the Michigan defense. “This is culture shock. I think Michigan is getting prepared for culture shock, but it’s culture shock.”

The Wolverines, in short, have not seen the likes of Ryan Leaf.

As great as Michigan’s defense has been, consider the competition.

The best starting quarterback the Wolverines faced this year was. . . ? Notre Dame’s Ron Powlus?

Ohio State’s Joe Germaine, the Big Ten’s best pure passer and last year’s Rose Bowl MVP, in fact might have defeated Michigan in November if not for Coach John Cooper’s strange platoon system at quarterback. Remember, it was two critical interceptions thrown by Stanley Jackson, the Buckeye’s “running” quarterback, that ensured Michigan’s 20-14 victory.

Michigan did beat Colorado, a pass-oriented offense, but Colorado was a bad team this year.

The only Big Ten offense that compared to Washington State’s was Purdue’s, revamped under first-year Coach Joe Tiller.

Michigan did not play Purdue.

Why is this an advantage for Washington State?

Because the Cougars’ spread offense forces Michigan to adjust.

To counter the Cougars’ Fab Five receiving corps, the Wolverines will have to stray from their base defense by employing extra defensive backs.

“Every time they bring an extra DB in, they’re not used to that,” Cougar receiver Kevin McKenzie said. “We are. We have five wide receivers that do that on a daily basis. Someone’s going to make a mistake, there’s going to be blown coverages.”

Yes, the Wolverines have a Heisman Trophy winner in cornerback Charles Woodson, but the responsibility for hawking additional Washington State receivers will fall on two freshmen corners, James Whitley and William Peterson.

“It gets into playing people that haven’t played in the past,” Sciarra said. “They’ve got Woodson, but he can’t cover all those receivers.”

To win, Michigan must apply unrelenting pressure on Leaf, particularly up the middle. Arizona State, the only team to defeat Washington State, used up-the-gut blitzes to force two Leaf fumbles late in the game.

The downside to the strategy was that Leaf threw for 447 yards and three touchdowns, and that Washington State scored 31 points in defeat.

Michigan scored more than 31 points in only three of its 11 victories.

“If they do what ASU did to us, I guess I’ll throw for 450 yards,” Leaf said. “I’m not much worried about that.”

Michigan is also showing classic Big Ten, bunker-mentality tendencies.

Hayes and Schembechler were notorious for their boot-camp approaches to the Rose Bowl: closed mouths, closed practices. Hayes prohibited his players from speaking to reporters.

Michigan under Lloyd Carr, a Schembechler disciple, followed a similar course. Michigan’s practices have been closed. Curfews have been imposed.

Carr, for the record, is 0-2 in bowl games.

Washington State Coach Mike Price is taking full advantage of his team’s underdog position.

“They should be feeling a little bit of pressure,” Price said of Michigan. “They’re No. 1. They definitely need the win for the national championship.”

Not only were all but one of Washington State’s workouts at the Coliseum open to the public, but visitors were greeted by a sign that read “Welcome to Practice!”

Price is renowned for keeping things loose, once dressing up as Sparky Sun Devil, the Arizona State mascot, before a game.

“Loose” for Michigan’s Carr is allowing his players Popsicles between two-a-day practices.

If Michigan prevails despite all these ominous historical signs, it deserves to be ranked as one of the great teams in college football history.

If Washington State wins, you might just call it the same old story.

THE ROSE BOWL

No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 8 Washington St.

Time: 2 p.m.

TV: Channel 7

Radio:

AM 1150

XTRA 690

Records: