Top Tackler Sword Moving Up Career Lists
9/24/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
The fifth-year senior from Saginaw, Mich., is scheduled to make his 31st career start Saturday, Sept. 26, as an inside linebacker, ready to harass the Michigan State quarterbacks, running backs and just about any green-and-white shirted player.
But before he even lines up behind the Wolverine defensive line, Sword offers his first challenge of the day to Michigan Stadium announcer Howard King. "At inside linebacker, number 93, Sam Swore-d," King's voice will thunder from the sound system. Fans will bellow back, "it's sore-d!"
Score one for No. 93. You see, this Sword -- the one who is quickly approaching 300 career tackles and a spot among the top 14 all-time Wolverine tacklers -- does go by "swore-d," a change he made over the off-season.
The next challenge is centered on the Michigan Stadium turf where Sword is a leader on the Wolverine defense.
"This season, I have a larger role as far as leadership responsibilities go," Sword said. "There are going to be some young guys out there at times who need to know what to do. I also communicate with Coach (Jim) Herrmann to get the signals in, passing them to the defensive line and secondary so they can make the proper checks.
"Whatever way the coaches want to use me, I'm willing to go out and do it."
A 1997 All-Big Ten First-Team selection by the conference media, Sword has twice led U-M in tackles, finishing with 91 a year ago and 109 in 1996. Touted as both an All-America and all-conference candidate this season, Sword is again leading the team's tackle statistics, this time sharing the top spot (23 tackles) with Tommy Hendricks.
Sword begins the Michigan State game with 276 career tackles, 21 shy of tying Steve Strinko (297, 1972-74) for No. 14 on the all-time list. He is a mere 24 tackles away from 300 and will be just the 14th Michigan player to reach that milestone. Sword is also within reach of a top 10 placing in career tackles for loss, six away from tying Trent Zenkewicz (34, 1992-95) at No. 10.
A student in the U-M Division of Kinesiology studying sports management and communications, Sword best manages to communicate with the opposition via bruising tackles. His career-best is 15 tackles -- 13 solo -- in the 1997 win vs. Notre Dame. He led the Wolverines, naturally, with 12 tackles (11 solo) against Michigan State last season, bettering his total of 11 vs. the Spartans in 1996. The 1997 Minnesota backfield became quite friendly with Sword as he tallied a career game-best 5 tackles for loss against the Gophers.
