Big Ten Conference

Sporting News, The, August 21, 1995 by Bruce Hooley

It has happened at Texas, Alabama, Ohio State and elsewhere, but Coach Lloyd Carr vows there won't be a dip in the success at Michigan that accompanied coaching changes at other venerable programs.

"We're not regrouping and we're not rebuilding," says Carr, a 15-year Wolverines assistant pressed into the job by Gary Moeller's firing. "We're going after this championship like every other Michigan team. We make no apologies for that."

Six Big Ten titles have gone the Wolverines' way over the past decade, but none of those teams labored under the pressure to win immediately that will follow Carr this season. Whether the job is now his for the taking, or whether he's simply keeping the seat warm for Bill McCartney could be clear within the first month.

But if alternate home and road games with Virginia, Illinois, Memphis and Boston College by mid-September don't decide the issue, closing games with Penn State and Ohio State will.

"The greatest challenge facing our staff and our players is focusing on the season," Carr says. "We have to leave all the conjecture and speculation about what might happen to the coaching staff to (the media). We have to take care of the season."

Doing that with a redshirt freshman quarterback in Scott Dreisbach and without Tyrone Wheatley or any experienced cornerbacks could portend a Carr crash.

"It's hard to tell what will happen," Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez says. "The kind of adversity they've had can tear a program apart. But if it's handled properly, that same adversity can be a positive and really bring them together."

A chance to shine

Tailback Carl McCullough was the gem in a Wisconsin recruiting class rated among the best in the nation three years ago, but Brent Moss and Terrell Fletcher kept him on the sideline. "It's up to him to step up and play," Coach Barry Alvarez says of the 6-foot-3, 220-pound redshirt sophomore. "He's very capable of being a great player."

McCullough rushed for more than 1,900 yards as a high school senior and averaged 5.2 yards per carry two years ago as a freshman. An injury in the fall led to a redshirt season last year, but he figures to get most of the playing time that Moss and Fletcher split.

"It wouldn't have been fair to sit either one of those two guys," Alvarez says. "That's not my ideal way of doing it. I'd rather have one guy get 80 percent of the carries, and right now that guy looks like Carl."

The out clause

Cheeky though it may be, the Big Ten is actually exploring ways to modify the final six years of its Rose Bowl contract to prevent an unbeaten conference champion from being closed out of a chance to play for the national championship.

"If there is a way to maintain the special relationship we have with the Rose Bowl, we would investigate the possibility of enhancing the bowl environment," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany says. "If we would have to pull away from the Rose Bowl and that spot be open, that would not appeal to us."

That's lawyerspeak for this Utopian scenario:

An out clause permitting a league unbeaten to skip the Rose Bowl, play in the Alliance for the $12-million national-championship payoff and still slip a second Big Ten team into the Rose Bowl for its $8.1-million payout.

This from a conference that has sent exactly two unbeaten teams to the Rose Bowl since 1975 -- Ohio State in 1979 and Penn State last year.

Second and Long

There will be a traitor in the Iowa secondary this season, and Coach Hayden Fry couldn't be happier.

After spending his entire career tying to embarrass defensive backs, former Iowa All-America quarterback Chuck Long has returned to coach the Hawkeyes' secondary.

"I couldn't have found a better guy," says Fry, whose teams went to four bowls, including the Rose, during Long's career from 1982 through '85. "He knows exactly what quarterbacks are looking for, because he's spent his whole life trying to pick apart defensive backs."

Long remains the Big Ten career leader with 74 touchdown passes and 10,461 passing yards.

RELATED ARTICLE: ORDER OF FINISH

1 PENN STATE: The Nittany Lions return four of five offensive-line starters, so their offense shouldn't be much worse than the unit that obliterated all comers last season. Sure, Ki-Jana Carter is gone, but Mike Archie is almost as good.

2 OHIO STATE: Coach John Cooper had the pieces in position for the Buckeyes' first Big Ten title in a decade until juniors Korey Stringer, Craig Powell and Lorenzo Styles skipped to the NFL. That and a killer start to the Big Ten relegates OSU to second once again.

3 MICHIGAN: The Wolverines got lucky once with an interim coach (remember Steve Fisher in 1989?), so it's hard to believe they'll do so again. Career assistant Lloyd Carr finds out how hot the seat was under Gary Moeller.

4 ILLINOIS: Quarterback Johnny Johnson would be one of the league's most exciting players if he could just get Coach Lou Tepper to lighten up on his quick hook. Leaving J.J. on the field and backup Scott Weaver on the sideline would guarantee Illinois a bowl bid.