War Of The Wideouts -- Desmond Howard: UW Defensive Scheme Made `Magic' Disappear

PASADENA, Calif. - Upon keen review of all circumstances and options, junior receiver Desmond Howard, the top player in college football, announced he was quitting.

Not the Michigan Wolverines.

Just the Rose Bowl game.

The message reached Dana Hall, the Washington cornerback marking him, in unmistakable code early in the fourth quarter yesterday.

"He got frustrated," Hall said. "When he wasn't getting the ball anymore, he stopped running his routes so fast."

The Huskies (12-0) crushed the Wolverines 34-14 with a dexterous offense that used two quarterbacks and a tight end who refused to be covered, and a defensive tackle who ignored blockers as adeptly as he did the flu.

But at the core of the Huskies' victory was a scheme to stop one player - Howard, the landslide Heisman Trophy winner. The plan involved risks no other Wolverine opponent had taken, and was predicated on the belief that without its top receiver, the entire Michigan attack collapses.

Let history note: Husky tacticians were right - Howard, nicknamed "Magic," made a season-low one catch.

"Was he even out there today?" said Ed Cunningham, Husky center.

UW defensive coordinator Jim Lambright divined that Howard receive bump-and-run coverage from Hall and Walter Bailey, the only cornerbacks this season to challenge the short, quick receiver in that fashion. Safety Shane Pahukoa provided double coverage when needed. To scare away passes designed for Howard, outside linebackers faked as if they would shadow him on short routes.

The combination of disguised coverages and unflappable cornerbacks bamboozled the Big Ten champions, who were held to season lows for points and net yards (205) and made just two of 15 third-down conversions.

"We've known the key since Nov. 23, when we learned we'd play Michigan," Hall said. "If you shut down Desmond Howard, they become one-dimensional."

Said Howard, "It wasn't like they just shut Desmond Howard down, they shut the whole offense down."

The Wolverines feigned interest in a running game early, handing off to Ricky Powers on five of their first seven plays. Quarterback Elvis Grbac finally went to Howard on the eighth play, overthrowing him to end the second drive.

Grbac persisted on the first play of the next drive, throwing deep after a Howard move on Bailey left him alone with Pahukoa on the sprint. But Pahukoa recovered, deflecting the pass that Bailey grabbed on the trailer. Interception in hand, Bailey struck a Heisman-like, Howard-dislike pose.

Howard outleaped Hall on a 35-yard reception in the second quarter, the key play in a Michigan scoring drive that tied the game at 7. But even with single coverage most of the time - Pahukoa had the option of helping out or not helping out - Howard was never a factor again, getting only one more pass thrown in his direction as the Huskies took a 21-7 lead.

Pahukoa said Howard, the only receiver ever to lead the Big Ten in scoring, seemed intimidated.

"He was going through the motions, just running his routes," he said.

The futility was palpable.

The Huskies' defense, ranked second in the nation in yards allowed and points allowed, held the Michigan rushing attack to 72 yards, its lowest output of the season and well below its average of 261 a game. Powers, who averaged 108 yards a game, gained just 10 yards on 10 carries. The Michigan defense could stop neither starting quarterback Billy Joe Hobert nor backup Mark Brunell.

Brunell drove the Huskies to a field goal and 10-7 lead after a 26-yard pass to tight end Aaron Pierce (seven catches for 86 yards).

Defensive tackle Steve Emtman, meanwhile, was relentless. He made only two tackles, but shared game most-valuable-player honors with Hobert for his presence and a second-quarter sack of Grbac that scuttled a Michigan scoring opportunity.

Only last week Emtman was hospitalized with a 103-degree fever from a flulike virus.

"I'm not sure what the (temperature) was before the game, but I didn't care," Emtman said. "Even if it's 110, how can you not be fired up to play in a game like this?"

Despite leg cramps and general fatigue, Emtman played the first three quarters except for one series. He benefited from the absence of injured Michigan center Steve Everitt but still plowed through double teams.

On the outside, linebacker Donald Jones further denied Grbac time to throw, making three of the Huskies' six sacks. Tackles by Dave Hoffmann and Jaime Fields on one fourth-quarter series were nominated by Emtman for hits of the game.

But the firmament of the Husky game plan was provided by the cornerbacks that were often left alone in man-to-man coverage with Howard. Where every other Michigan opponent was afraid to try bumping him at the line of scrimmage, the Huskies breathed fire in his face.

"It's always a gamble," Lambright said. "But I saw a lot of other teams that didn't bump and run.

"And they lost."