Purdue aerial attack awaits 'M' defense

When No. 11 Purdue enters Michigan Stadium on Saturday afternoon, it will bring with it something the Wolverines haven't seen in a few years.

The spread offense.

Michigan has seen its share of running attacks throughout the first month of the season.

From the option trickery of Notre Dame and Syracuse, the smash-mouth thuggery of Wisconsin and the pitch-and-fall down offense of Rice, the Wolverines have the run covered.

But the Boilermakers don't run. They put the ball in the air with great frequency, and Michigan realizes that it will be hard to prepare for them.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily For the first time this season, safety Cato June (2) and the rest of the Michigan defense will face a pass-oriented offense. After being labeled the weak link in the Wolverines defense, Michigan's secondary will get a chance to prove otherwise against Purdue.

"Two weeks couldn't fully prepare us for this offense," safety DeWayne Patmon joked.

To help prepare for the aerial assault that quarterback Drew Brees will unleash on the Wolverines this weekend, Michigan will look to the final game of the 1997 national championship season for assistance in containing the Boilermakers.

Purdue "is a huge difference from who we have been playing," Michigan safety Tommy Hendricks said. "We haven't seen an offense like this since Washington State and Ryan Leaf."

While the spread offense is more familiar in the western reaches of the United States, its presence in West Lafayette shouldn't be a shocker.

Purdue coach Joe Tiller - who coached Wyoming in the pass-happy Western Athletic Conference before arriving in West Lafayette three seasons ago - was an assistant under current Washington State coach Mike Price in the early '90's.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr knows that the Michigan defense, while solid thus far, has its work cut out for itself against the Purdue passing attack.

The Wolverines concede that perhaps even their best efforts might not totally bottle up the Boilermakers.

"I don't know if you can stop (the aerial attack) fully," Carr said. "Our goal is to contain it. You could have a perfect ballgame on defense and even then I don't know if you could stop it."

Predictably, there will be a lot of attention on the secondary this week. The most maligned part of the Michigan defense, the secondary knows that this will be a defining moment in gauging its skill.

"We know that Drew Brees is a Heisman Trophy candidate," Patmon said. "So if we shut him down, people will say that we are a good secondary.

"But a secondary is only as good as its front seven and likewise, a front seven is only as good as its secondary."

As most coaches do, Carr is well aware of the public's perception of his secondary. Carr also knows how to push his defensive backs' buttons as well.

"I ask the secondary to describe themselves and they talk about how they are a skilled, hard-hitting secondary," Carr said. "Then I ask them if they want to know what I think of them and they say 'Sure.'

"I tell them that they are suspect, because that's what everyone has called them. They are the Suspects."

Behind center: Despite a brutal hit from Wisconsin linebacker Chris Ghidorzi that knocked him out of Saturday's game, Michigan quarterback Tom Brady should be ready and able to start against Purdue.

"I think he's fine," Carr said. "He took a real shot on the turf but he should be ready to go."

Before being sidelined in the fourth quarter, Brady had one of his better games in a Michigan uniform, completing 17 of 27 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns - his first two touchdown passes of this season.

With yesterday's announcement of Brady's status, questions soon arose about what the quarterback rotation would be.

When asked if the rotation of Brady in the first quarter and Henson in the second quarter would be the plan again, Carr simply nodded his head and smiled.

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