But Don't Tell Michigan

Second best? What's with this second best, Michigan would like to know. Up in Ann Arbor, some 175 miles north of Columbus, the Wolverines were staking their own claim to the national championship, disposing easily of traditional rival Michigan State. Sure, the score was not nearly as eye-popping as the Buckeyes', but 21-7 might easily have been, say, doubled. Second best? Michigan begs to differ.

It was apparent almost immediately that Michigan State was no real match for Michigan in speed, size or skill. The Spartans are a young, lively team, but Michigan had more of everything, including incentive. Burt Smith, the Michigan State athletic director, provided the latter at the end of the 1973 season when he voted to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl instead of Michigan; this was particularly galling to Michigan since the final vote for Ohio State, which had tied Michigan for the conference championship in the final game of the season, was six to four. Had it been five and five, Michigan would have gone, because Ohio State had been to Pasadena the previous year.

Coach Bo Schembechler was understandably upset. Dennis Franklin, the Michigan quarterback, had suffered a broken collarbone in the Ohio State game, and Smith, like the other athletic directors who sided with him, wanted a victory after four consecutive Big Ten defeats in the Rose Bowl.

"I thought the Bowl trip was a reward for the team, win or lose," Schembechler said then. "Why penalize the whole team for one injury?"

"We remember," one Wolverine player said. "We don't talk about it, but we remember." Bumper stickers on the Michigan campus suggested BURT SMITH FOR QUARTERBACK with a nail through the name.

But the Wolverines really did not require that incentive. The first time they got their hands on the ball, Franklin took them 48 yards on a neatly put together drive that ended with a pitchout to one of the few small men on the team, Tailback Gordon Bell. Bell, 5'9" and 175, skipped down the sideline for 13 yards and a touchdown as the formidable Michigan blockers worked over would-be Spartan tacklers.

By halftime Michigan led 21-0. Franklin, whom Schembechler has called the best quarterback in collegiate football, had gone a long way toward proving it. He is quiet and self-contained, with enough confidence to argue with Schembechler about football philosophy and enough discipline to yield to his coach's wisdom. On the option play, which is the backbone of the Wolverine attack, Franklin's preference is to pass, something Schembechler looks on with about as much enthusiasm as does Woody Hayes. But, although he is given considerable freedom in play selection, Franklin uses the pass with admirable prudence. In this game he threw only nine times and completed five.

One of the completions was on a rare long throw, a gamble Schembechler felt justified in taking with only six seconds left in the half and Michigan on the State 44-yard line. Franklin, who has an exceptionally strong arm, dropped back and hit Split End Jim Smith, who had been overlooked by the Spartan defense, on the five-yard line. Easy touchdown.

After the game, breathing painfully from bruised ribs which forced him out in the fourth period, Franklin seemed almost apologetic for having scored on so atypical a play.

"Usually there's no use in a play like that," he said. "You just put it out there, and hope some one runs under it. I did, and he caught it."