NCAA Football Preview (Notre Dame-Michigan)
Posted: Sat September 27, 1997 at 6:45 a.m EDT
Notre Dame (1-2) at Michigan (2-0) 3:30 pm EDT
As they try to avoid their first three-game regular-season
losing streak in almost 12 years, Notre Dame and first-year
coach Bob Davie have a tough task ahead of them -- a date at
Michigan.
Not since the final three games of the Gerry Faust Era in 1985
has Notre Dame (1-2) lost three consecutive regular-season
games. That team, which finished 5-6, dropped games to Penn
State, LSU and Miami by a combined 104-20 to end the season. The
Fighting Irish lost their final three games in 1987, but their
finale that season was a 35-10 defeat to Texas A&M in the Cotton
Bowl.
The Irish will try to avoid their first 1-3 start since 1985 as
well. Last week, Notre Dame fell to 0-2 against Big Ten
Conference opponents after being manhandled at home by Michigan
State, 23-7. That was on the heels of a 28-17 setback to
Purdue.
Quarterback Ron Powlus has completed 66.1 percent of his passes,
but has only two touchdown tosses. The running game, supposedly
a strength entering the season, has averaged just 3.6 yards per
carry. It may not get better as starting fullback Joey
Goodspeed will not play due to a separated right shoulder.
Junior flanker Bobby Brown has been a bright spot thus far,
catching 21 passes for 201 yards. He had a seven-yard TD catch
last week.
Meanwhile, Michigan (2-0) enters the game like gangbusters. The
Wolverines have yet to allow a touchdown and are coming off a
38-3 demolition of Baylor last week. The last Division I-A
school to begin its schedule, Michigan opened with an impressive
27-3 rout of Colorado.
Brian Griese again played well, completing 13-of-22 passes for
169 yards and a touchdown. Chris Howard added 112 rushing yards
and two scores. The Wolverines have picked off five passes and
have held opponents to 378 total yards in the two contests.
Griese has completed 68 percent of his passes for 427 yards and
three touchdowns with one interception. Howard, Anthony Thomas
and Clarence Williams have split the running chores and all have
surpassed 100 yards. Michigan also will have the services of
Chris Floyd, who served a one-game suspension against Baylor for
a violation of team rules.
This marks the first time since 1986 that one of the schools
enters the game unranked. Notre Dame was not ranked when it
lost to the Wolverines, 24-23, in its first game
under Lou Holtz.
Michigan, the only school that leads Notre Dame in a football
series, has a 15-10-1 advantage in a rivalry that dates to 1887.
This will be the first meeting between the schools since 1994,
when Remy Hamilton booted a 42-yard field goal with two seconds
remaining to give the Wolverines the win. The teams had met
every year from 1985-94 before the two-year hiatus.
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