Defense Brushes Off Benson’s Remark

Mickey Mouse “officially” welcomed the Wolverines to Southern California on Monday, but they seemed distracted by the presence of other characters sitting opposite them on the Disneyland stage.

Perhaps most notable among them was Texas running back Cedric Benson, the lone Longhorn to receive a fist-bump greeting from Mickey during the ceremony.

Benson, whose 1,764-yard, 19-touchdown rushing effort helped him win the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s best tailback, apparently has done some running off at the mouth, telling reporters that the Wolverine front line looked slow to him on film.

Benson downplayed the situation, calling it overblown. And the Wolverines refused to take the bait when asked whether the comments fueled their desire to stop Benson.

“Depending on what film you watch, everybody looks slow on film,” Wolverine senior linebacker Roy Manning said. “It’s always a different thing when you’re in the game.

“We don’t do any talking or things like that. We just let our play speak for us, and that’s what we’re going to do: look forward to Jan. 1 and see who’s the best team on that day.”

Added Wolverine cornerback and co-captain Marlin Jackson, “[Benson] said what he said. That’s his personal opinion. That’s what he feels about our defensive front.

“There’s nothing we can do about that except go out there on Saturday and try to prove him wrong.”

Which, both players acknowledge, will be a difficult task.

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Manning on the dual threat posed by Benson and fleet-footed quarterback Vince Young, who has rushed for 887 yards:

“I think this is the best pair we’ve faced all year. He’s like another running back in the backfield, and then he has the ability to throw and run and scramble and things like that, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge for us.”

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This is Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr’s 10th trip to the Rose Bowl, and on Monday he was asked to share some of his fondest memories. One of the “most enduring,” he said, was being escorted into the stadium back when the trip began high in the Pasadena hills.

“All of a sudden you came out and you started to descend into the Arroyo Seco and you saw the stadium and you saw the crowds and you saw the colors,” he recalled, wistfully. “And to run onto that field and know that ... there are millions of kids across the country watching these games. So it’s the tradition of it.”