Auspicious beginning

Michigan hopes win sparks season worth celebrating

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- They celebrated as if they’d just won the Rose Bowl, these Michigan Wolverines. Besides the customary gathering at midfield to hop, hoot and holler, one group of players dashed to the corner of the field nearest the student section, leading their jubilant peers in an extra round of cheers.

That Saturday’s last-second, 31-29 win over Washington was dramatic and memorable, there can be no question. That it was a pleasing way for Michigan to open its 2002 season, there is also little debate.

But whether it will be a sparkplug to the type of epic season the Wolverines appeared to be celebrating remains a question. Because as much as this game between purported Rose Bowl contenders was electrifying, it was also ugly.

In the seasons since its 1997 co-national championship, Michigan has been continually stagnated in the state of a good-but-not-great program. In that time, there have been one BCS bowl -- the Orange Bowl in ’99 -- and three Citrus Bowls. Enviable accomplishments for a majority of the teams across the country, but not up to Michigan standards.

Fans pining for a different outcome this fall pinned their hopes largely on their strong and experienced defense. They knew there would be many questions to answer, including whether QB John Navarre would prove a capable leader, whether the running game would improve and whether the kicking situation would be settled.

Some of those questions were answered Saturday against a decent Washington team. But most were not.

In his first game since two season-ending disasters against Ohio State and Tennessee, which drew the ire of Wolverine faithful everywhere, Navarre proved more than adequate, completing 22 of 38 passes for a career-high 268 yards.

“I’m not defending John Navarre ever again,” said Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr. “I don’t think he needs it.”

Whether the third-year starter truly will become great, however, may depend on a few other players.

For the first time in what seems like eons, there is no go-to gamebreaker in the Wolverines' receiving corps, no David Terrell, no Marquise Walker, no Tai Streets, no Amani Toomer. Sophomore Braylon Edwards, who caught five passes for 80 yards, appears headed in that direction, but for now it’s a hodgepodge of on-the-brink type guys, including Ronald Bellamy, Tyrece Butler and Calvin Bell. Fullback B.J. Askew caught seven passes as well.

“We’re the type of team where we don’t have one superstar on offense,” said Navarre. “We got 11 average Joes out there playing football. We want to use everybody on the field.”

Michigan’s running game, which was uncharacteristically poor a year ago, showed flashes of improvement Saturday, with Chris Perry gaining 120 yards and scoring three touchdowns. However, take away his 57-yard dash on the team’s second offensive play, and the Wolverines -- who will face far more imposing defensive fronts than Washington’s (read: Ohio State's) -- averaged an unenviable 2.7 yards per carry.

“It was [better] in some ways, but we can still improve,” Perry said. “We could have run the ball a lot better.”

Even the Wolverines’ vaunted defense had its lapses, though much of that can be chalked up to Washington’s talented skill players. (Tailback Rich Alexis gained 98 yards; receivers Reggie Williams and Charles Frederick and tight end Kevin Ware combined for 198 yards on 15 catches.)

In many ways, the two teams aren’t that different. Both are clearly extremely talented, but their youth shows in many areas.

That’s especially true of Washington, which suffered from several mind-numbing mistakes, not the least of which was allowing the Wolverines to get into field goal range on a 12-men-on-the-field penalty -- following a timeout, no less! -- in the final seconds. The Huskies also were guilty of missing several key blocks on the line and turning every punt into an adventure.

“Our youth unfortunately showed up at a time when it couldn’t,” said Washington coach Rick Neuheisel. “I just said to our team, "There are a thousand things we need to correct. But we’re going to move on; we’ve got 11 games left in our season.'”

As for the Wolverines, it’s clear they have the athletes on defense, especially CB Marlin Jackson and LB Victor Hobson, to contain most people they’ll face. The question is, will they be able to score enough points? The questions on offense aren’t entirely resolved, and Phillip Brabbs’ game-winning field goal doesn’t necessarily cancel out their prior kicking woes.

The good news is, most of the Big Ten is not that good. The bad news is, Michigan’s two biggest rivals, Ohio State and Michigan State, are.

If a few things come together, this could be the year the Wolverines finally make that jump back into the realm of champions.

If not, at least for a day they got to celebrate like one.

Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com

 

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