AFTER A FEW TOUGH YEARS AT MICHIGAN, ROSE BOWL QUARTERBACK BRIAN GRIESE AND HIS HALL OF FAME DAD ARE... : ENJOYING THE SON SHINE

It is easy being Bob Griese’s son now, but that wasn’t always the case.

It wasn’t so easy in 1993 when, three years after his dad was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Brian Griese couldn’t get a scholarship to the University of Michigan.

The coaches were nice enough about it, suggesting Brian walk on and maybe something would open up. Sure enough, on the first day of practice someone quit and Brian got his free ride--certainly not “The Peyton Manning Story.”

“When Brian Griese came to Michigan with that name, the expectations were enormous,” Wolverine Coach Lloyd Carr says.

It wasn’t so easy being Bob Griese’s son when Brian took over the starting job for the injured Scott Dreisbach in 1995 and went 5-4.

It wasn’t so terrific when Brian got arrested the next spring after an altercation in a bar, performed horribly at spring practice and lost the starting job to Dreisbach.

It wasn’t so great when ABC initially wouldn’t allow Keith Jackson to bellow “Whoa, Nellie” at Michigan games because his partner in the booth was Brian’s conflict-of-interested father.

It wasn’t easy when Bob’s wife and Brian’s mother, Judith Ann, died in 1988 of cancer, leaving dad and 12-year-old son alone at their Coral Cables, Fla., home to stare at each other over breakfast.

It’s incredible, in retrospect, how close Brian Griese came to not being the star quarterback on Michigan’s undefeated and No. 1-ranked Rose Bowl team; how close he came to chucking this once-in-a-lifetime moment away.

Decision day has been pinned down to a dinner Brian had with his older brother Jeff a few days after Michigan lost last year’s Outback Bowl to Alabama.

Brian knew where his father stood.

“I knew he was frustrated, but I wanted him to go back,” Bob Griese says. “Your college experience is something special. He had nothing else to do. He just didn’t want to go back and go through the frustration that he’d gone through before. But I think he knew I wanted him to come back.”

So, Brian sat down with Jeff, a 27-year-old banker, and ordered appetizers and advice.

“The bottom line was [Jeff] shook his hand and said, ‘Brian, you’re crazy,’ ” Bob recalls of the dinner. “ ‘Here, you have a chance to go back and help Michigan get to the Rose Bowl, compete for the job, and you’re wanting to come out here and start working?’ I think that’s what kind of sold Brian.”

The rest is Big Ten history. Brian returned, beat Dreisbach out for the job and has crouched behind center on a storybook ride that will culminate with Michigan’s first national title since 1948 provided the Wolverines defeat Washington State in the Rose Bowl.

Along the way, Griese has completed 63.2% of his passes for 2,042 yards and 14 touchdowns and was named first team, all-Big Ten.

Brian stood at the podium Sunday, bulbs flashing, a make-shift, Pasadena-hotel conference room stuffed with reporters hanging on his every word.

Wow, was that a great dinner decision or what?

“I’d probably be in grad school right now,” Griese, a philosophy major, says when asked where’d he be had he decided not to return.

“I was planning on going to graduate school anyway, even after the season. If I hadn’t come back, I’d probably be out here at the game, I wouldn’t miss this game for the world, but I would have been kicking myself all year, sitting at home watching Michigan football on TV knowing I could have been a part of something special.”

The seed of Griese’s comeback was planted last year, as he sat on the bench behind Dreisbach on a team that would lose four games for a fourth consecutive season.

“Not my most memorable experience at Michigan,” Brian says. “It was tough for me at times. But I said to myself no matter what happens I’m going to be an example for the younger guys. I think my career here could be an example for guys that don’t always come in as the most highly recruited athlete.”

Instead of moping, Griese became a sure-handed holder on place kicks and Michigan’s secret weapon as a “pooch” punter.

He got his second chance in November 1996 at Ohio State, entering the game for an injured Dreisbach with the Wolverines trailing, 9-0.

Early in the third quarter, Griese and receiver Tai Streets, who beat All-American cornerback Shawn Springs on a slant route, teamed up on a 69-yard touchdown pass play that ignited a 13-9 comeback victory.

“That said a lot about him,” Carr says of Brian.

The game turned Griese’s career around.

If he had not fully won his teammates over in that game, he would do so last Oct. 18 in Ann Arbor, when beloved Michigan trailed Iowa, 21-7, at the half.

Griese tossed three of his five interceptions this season in the first half of that game.

“I would say it was a turning point for me, I don’t know about the team,” Griese said Sunday. “I knew going into halftime, the sole reason we were down, losing, was because I had thrown three interceptions. It was a time for me to make a decision whether I was going to be a good quarterback here or just another quarterback that lost four games. At that point, I made a point to throw out everything that happened in the first half and just come out and play like I knew I could play.”

Griese threw two second-half scoring passes and Michigan won, 28-24.

Brian Griese has been a steady, calming influence, much the way his father was to the Miami Dolphins.

Not only do father and son look alike, their style of play is remarkably similar: Don’t be flashy, don’t turn the ball over, make a big play when you need to and let a dominating defense dictate.

In Miami’s 14-7 victory over Washington in Super Bowl VII, capping the Dolphins’ historic 17-0 season, Bob Griese completed six of seven passes for 73 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions.

Twenty-five years later, defense-dominated Michigan could ride similar numbers from Brian to the national title.

“In a lot of ways we are a lot alike,” Bob says of his son. “Brian’s strength is his intelligence, his decision-making, the way he approaches the game, very few turnovers, leadership, that’s pretty much the way I was.”

Bob had a different relationship with Brian, the youngest of his three sons.

Brian was only 5 when his father retired from the NFL in 1980.

“I really didn’t see him play,” Brian says. “And he doesn’t have much film. All I’ve seen is highlights of the ’72 season. Even if he did have film, there would be no comparison. The level he played at and I played at are different.”

Bob’s older sons, Jeff and Scott, were out of the house in the painful days following Judith Ann’s death in 1988.

“When she was gone, I had to grow up a lot faster than a normal kid,” Brian told the Detroit News last September. “My brothers had gone away to college, so I was the only one left there with my father. . . .”

In a controversial move, ABC last year changed its decision not to allow Bob to broadcast Brian’s games. This year, Griese has been a commentator on four Michigan broadcasts and will be in the booth for Thursday’s Rose Bowl telecast.

The situation is anything but ideal for a game analyst--Bob acknowledges he has to temper his comments--but Griese would not get to see his son play otherwise.

Bob says that’s worth any negative trade-off.

Michigan’s 11-0 record and Brian’s near-flawless season have made things easier--ABC didn’t do Brian’s three-interception game against Iowa.

“Brian understands the position I’m in and the way I have to handle it,” Bob says. “I think he’s just happy when I can come to the ball game and see him play. If I have to underplay maybe a good play he made, I think he understands that. It’s worth just having the father and son there at the ball game, being there afterward for him.”

Bob says he has not received one public complaint about broadcasting his son’s game, although Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez raised the conflict-of-interest issue before his team faced Michigan this year.

Griese says coaches wouldn’t give away their game plans “whether my son is playing or not.”

Griese did feel uneasy before this year’s Penn State-Michigan game when he met with Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, a longtime friend of Griese’s.

“We kind of laughed about it when we sat down,” Bob says, “and we talked about some things. When I was getting ready to leave, he said, ‘Tell the quarterback on the other team that we’re going to be after him.’ ”

Oh yeah?

Michigan won, 34-8.

So, which Griese will be more nervous for the Rose Bowl?

“Oh, definitely him,” Brian says, laughing. “He might have to wear some gloves because his hands might be sweating too much. I’ll be relaxed. I’ve been relaxed all season. I look forward to playing my last game at Michigan with no worries.”

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ROSE BOWL

Michigan vs. Washington State

When: Thursday

Time: 2 p.m.

Where: Pasadena

TV: Channel 7