Terrell thinking Heisman after his perfect 10 By Rick Freeman Daily Sports Editor MIAMI - The chants started before he even got his trophy. Waiting to get his Orange Bowl most valuable player trophy after Saturday night's 35-34 Michigan victory, sophomore wide receiver David Terrell - and the rest of the national TV audience - heard it too. Ebullient chants of "Heis-man Tro-phy!" rose from Michigan's student section, letting the country in on something Michigan fans have noticed all year: Dave Terrell is a fast rising star in this game, and the Wolverines' fortunes next season seem to be closely tied to his own. Terrell will not argue with this sentiment. Showered and smiling after his three-touchdown evening on Saturday, Terrell at first tried to duck questions about his thoughts, but actually, he was just trying his shoe. Bent double, he equivocated. But standing up in the halogen glare of a TV camera, he came out and said it: He intends to come back to the Orange Bowl next year, with the Heisman Trophy in tow, and help the Wolverines win their second national title in four years. "Hey, I like the fact that he sets high goals," Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr said. "And I think he's capable of doing anything." With a few well-placed performances like Saturday's he might be able to reevaluate his goals again, in NFL terms. After a first half in which Michigan tried and failed to establish its running game, Carr and his assistants devised a plan that bordered on blasphemy - they abandoned the running game. No one could block the Crimson Tide's middle linebackers. Anthony Thomas, Michigan's workhorse back, was ineffective. Screen passes didn't fare much better. But the Tide simply had no answer for Terrell. He burned junior cornerback Milo Lewis for a 27-yard touchdown with less than a minute left in the first half. He blew past freshman cornerback Gerald Dixon for a 57-yard touchdown in the third quarter. He was, simply, Michigan's game plan. This is, of course, Michigan, home of three yards and a cloud of dust. The team that, while ranked number one in the nation two years ago, had a six-point lead on Ohio State with the Rose Bowl on the line, and was happy to hold off the Buckeyes with punts. Michigan coaches, who work in a building named for Bo Schembechler, do not lightly put a bowl game in the hands of just any sophomore wide receiver. But as Alabama found out - and the nation will almost certainly learn next season - Terrell, who will be a junior then, is not just any wide receiver whose mouth runs almost as fast as he does. Terrell, who right now seems to have an NFL destiny, also has an NFL pedigree. His uncle, Bruce Terrell, used his position as an assistant with the Chicago Bears to provide the budding Huguenot High School star with workouts he couldn't get anywhere else. He still tries to find time to work out with NFL corners. Before his freshman season, Terrell stayed in Ann Arbor in Charles Woodson's off-campus apartment. Woodson, who left after doing just what Terrell intends to do next year - winning the Heisman and a national championship - took the youngster under his wing. "Charles, I want to go up against you," he said. "Rookie, you can't go up against me," Woodson, the fourth pick in the 1998 draft, told the recent high school graduate. "I think we'll work out this summer." But he can try to be like Woodson. While Carr says the two players are not as similar as preseason magazines will no doubt make them out to be next season, Terrell said he doesn't mind the comparison. "He got his Heisman," Terrell said. "I'm looking to get mine next year. If I follow in his footsteps, hey, sky's the limit." JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily Daniel Karatharanasis, Brad Converse and a whole lot of body paint celebrate Michigan's 35-34 overtime victory in the 2000 Orange Bowl. Originally on page 1B in the 1-5-2000 issue of the Daily.