Into the Frying pan

Wolverines must look at history against Iowa

FILE PHOTO The Michigan football team might look at history when they tackle Iowa tomorrow. After beating Michigan State two seasons ago, Michigan fell to Purdue one game later in one of its poorest performances of that season.

By Mark Snyder
Daily Sports Editor

After weeks of defending - or trying to defend - its home turf, the Michigan football team is hitting the road.

The Wolverines (1-0 Big Ten, 2-2 overall) will try to put any thoughts of their last road game - a 36-20 debacle at Notre Dame on Sept. 5 - far out of mind when they travel to Iowa City.

Though Lloyd Carr may not readily admit it, tomorrow's 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Iowa (1-0, 2-2) at Kinnick Stadium has devastating possibilitites.

A defeat to Iowa would set Michigan back a game in the Big Ten standings, leaving Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State still in the distance.

Despite giving Michigan as much trouble as anyone did last season in Ann Arbor, the Hawkeyes are not quite the outfit who picked off Brian Griese three times last year and led most of the game.

Last season, they showed off All-America kick returner Tim Dwight, all-Big Ten tailback Tavian Banks and quarterback Matt Sherman.

This year's team watched those guys play from their high school towns - on television.

Iowa coach Hayden Fry's concern for his team has dominated his speeches all season. Iowa's starting roster is loaded with true freshmen who know little of the great Hawkeye days of yore.

And boy have Michigan and Iowa played some big games.

For those who need a refresher course in Michigan football history (i.e. any student on this campus), here's a crash course.

In 1985, Iowa sat atop the national rankings. The quarterback was curly blond named Chuck Long, a bona-fide Heisman candidate who was carrying the weight of a state on his shoulders as No. 2 Michigan came to Kinnick.

Michigan fell on the final play of the game, a 29-yard field goal that incited a field-rushing frenzy and the obligatory goalpost trashing.

The freshmen on this year's Iowa team, who entered kindergarten that fall, probably know little of that history or the origin of the Kinnick name (incidentally, it is for their sole Heisman winner/war hero Nile Kinnick).

But one of these freshmen separated himself from the rest of the pack by setting his own standards.

In their first game this season, as Hawkeye fans lamented their heroes departure, freshman Kahlil Hill returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the Hawkeyes' trouncing of Northern Iowa.

Since then, he leads the team in receiving yards. Iowa fans now have a player to cheer for.

That surprise factor, even in what was projected as a rebuilding year, has Carr shaking in his Nikes.

"I never feel like we're prepared to play Iowa," he said.

Part of that daunting task is attempting to guess when and where Fry will pull a rabbit from his bag of tricks. As the longest-tenured Big Ten coach, Fry has gained a reputation for unconventional play-calling.

"It's impossible to prepare for all the things that he's done down through the years," said Carr of the 20-year Big Ten veteran.

And so Michigan is left to wonder about the game plan.

So Carr has done the only thing he can, by using the past as his ally.

"The last time we beat Michigan State at home (1996), we went down to Purdue and got beat," he said. "We weren't prepared (for the next game). So hopefully we can learn a few lessons like that one."

Carr was learning those lessons from Fry long before he was guiding the Michigan program, though. And Carr holds the Iowa leader in the highest esteem.

"Anybody in coaching has got to respect Hayden Fry and the job he's done at Iowa," Carr said. "As a defensive coordinator, I knew that to prepare for Fry's teams was always a nightmare."

Fortunately for Michigan, Carr remembers 1985 and the excitement in Iowa City after the huge win. Even with less-than-perfect overall records, the two teams are still undefeated in the Big Ten and still have a chance at conference glory.

Remembering the history that his players don't may make Carr Michigan's most valuable asset.

10-02-98