M Fullback Quietly Making Offense Purr

M FULLBACK QUIETLY MAKING OFFENSE PURR

By Wayne DeNeff

Yes, it’s true, statistics do lie.

The statistics on Michigan’s 45-7 victory over Washington last Saturday show Wolverine fullback Garvie Craw with just 17 yards gained rushing.

But the statistics don’t come close to telling the story of the contributions from the 6-2, 220-pound senior fullback from Montclair, N.J.

Craw, a battle-hardened veteran of three seasons as a starter, had another great day blocking—paving the way for tailback Glenn Doughty and quarterback Don Moorhead with the prostrate bodies of Huskies who had been knocked down.

Statisticians haven’t yet come around to including the important category on key blocks but if they had one last Saturday, Craw’s name would be right at the top. Perhaps it’s more than a coincidence that Michigan is getting great running at tailback one year on top of the other. Craw did much of the blocking for Ron Johnson for two seasons and now he’s clearing the way for Doughty.

Nobody has added up Craw’s yardage when he didn’t actually carry the ball Saturday but he was drawing Huskies like a magnet when charging into the center of the line—without the ball. Moorhead had deftly put the ball into Craw’s midsection and pulled it out again, fooling the visiting team, the fans and the TV cameraman.

When Bo Schembechler arrived on the Michigan scene last Christmas he indicated that he would go more to an offense with the fullback as key ballcarrier.

There’ll probably be games in the future when Craw will be featured as runner but right now the offense is perking along nicely on Moorhead’s passing and running and Doughty’s hard running. Craw has the less glamorous, but nonetheless satisfying, task of knocking over would-be tacklers.

And it’ll not pay an opponent to disregard Craw’s threat as a runner because he has the ability to hit into the line and keep moving once in the secondary. Washington elected to defend Michigan heavily up the middle and was weakened against the runs at the flanks and couldn’t cope with the passing attack.

As a runner, Craw picked up two important first downs and scored one touchdown.