Retro Best & Worst: 1998 Rose Bowl

Submitted by bronxblue on

So I’ve always written these diaries as close to the actual event as possible, to capture my in-the-moment thoughts on the games.  But with a bit of a down period on the horizon, I figured I’d take a crack at trying to recap games from the past.  So this is the first in what I hope will be a semi-regular “Retro” diary series of famous Michigan games in the past.  While I have my list, I welcome any suggestions in the comments.  They can be football, basketball, hockey, anything you want, provided I can find a video of it somewhere online.

A Little History

Ah 1997, when Puffy was considered new on the scene...

As I’ve come to realize recently, there are LOTS of UM fans who were not born/young’ins when Michigan last won a national championship.  Me, I was a junior in HS, so for some of you this is probably a baby talking to a slightly younger baby.  But with these retro posts, I’m going to provide a bit of context, both as I remember it as well as from history, surrounding these games.

At the start of the season, expectations for Michigan were pretty tempered.  Lloyd Carr was entering his third year, his first two seasons being 4-loss affairs that continued matching 8-4 years during Gary Moeller’s last two seasons.  They were coming off a 3-point loss in the Outback Bowl to Alabama, played at Houlihan’s Stadium, known at the time as the “Big Sombrero” and now as a shameless attempt to capitalize on the lasting legacy of Patches O’Houlihan.

Anyway, Michigan seemed mired in an extended post-Bo doldrums, good enough to finish toward the bottom of the top-25 but certainly not an elite national team.  Honestly, the one notable thing Carr’s teams did consistently was upset OSU on their way to undefeated seasons, twice beating OSU when the Buckeyes were ranked #2 in the country.  Carr absolutely owned John Cooper, which on one hand was glorious to watch when it happened but also infuriating given how Michigan was still usually headed to some crappy mid-Florida bowl each year.

Michigan entered the year ranked #14, one of those gentleman rankings bluebloods like UM got each season because sports writers were REALLY lazy in the 90’s and apparently every season started with a hit of the old reset button on the Playstation.  Their first game was against Colorado, returning to the scene of the crime.  But Kordell Stewart, Rashaan Salaam, and Michael Westbrook were long gone, and Michigan absolutely shut down the Buffs 27-3.  Baylor was equally plastered the following week, and then Notre Dame put up an admirable fight before falling. 

Michigan finally was on the road to open the B1G season against IU, and the less said about that game the better for the Hoosiers.  Northwestern followed with similar results, and all of a sudden Michigan was 5-0 having given up a total of 26 points(!), 14 of which came against ND. 

And then Iowa happened.  If Twitter had existed during this era, it would have been a bloodbath in that first half.  Iowa had a solid offense and an underrated defense, and ended the first half with a flourish, picking off a Griese pass with a bit over 2 minutes to go, scoring quickly, and then pinning UM deep again.  With about 20 seconds to go, everyone just hoped Michigan would go into the half down 6 and regroup.  Then Tim Dwight caught a deep punt at midfield, made basically everyone miss twice, and scored a TD to send Iowa into the half up 14.  It was dinosaur punting when those beasts plodded across the Midwest in droves, but for the rest of the half every time Dwight touched the ball (he nearly took a kickoff back as well) you could hear diamonds being made in the tightened sphincters of UM fans in the stands.  Luckily, Michigan’s defensive line really stiffened and the offense did just enough to pull that game off.  But Iowa was the type of game Michigan seemed to blow every year, and after that escape you could see the excitement really start to build around this squad.

MSU came next and, got, well…

Minnesota was steamrolled the following week, and then came the huge showdown at #2 Penn State.  The Nittany Lions had joined the conference in 1992, went undefeated in 1994, and began 1997 as the #1 team in the country.  They entered the game undefeated as well, and while the Fightin’ Paternos hadn’t looked dominant all year, it was still a team with a number of NFL picks (though they all had disappointing careers to varying degrees), including the #1 and #2 selections in 2000 (Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington) and the #5 in 1998 (Curtis Enis). 

Michigan absolutely demolished them, to a degree that was, honestly, shocking given the opponent and the fact the game was at Beaver Stadium.  Michigan led 24-0 at halftime, 34-0 heading into the 4th, and it probably wasn’t even that close.  To say fans were excited after the win would be a bit of an understatement.  With that win, Michigan ascended to #1 in the country, and followed it up with another quality win at Wisconsin, who were without 1999 Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne due to injury, though Michigan had consistently stymied Dayne during his collegiate years.

With all the preliminaries out of the way, #4 OSU came to the Big House looking to return the favor as spoiler of Michigan’s perfect season, themselves riding high after having only lost to then-#1 PSU, and featuring one of the best WRs in college football in David “proto-HGH enthusiast” Boston.  The war of words started early between him and Woodson, culminating in one of those on-field fights where guys threw hands but nobody was ejected because people understood that human beings can get some aggression out on a football field without worrying how it would affect the children

Oh yeah, and Woodson also cemented his Heisman Trophy season with an iconic return.

It also led to one of my favorite Sports Illustrated covers ever.

With that win, it was on to Pasadena and the Washington State Cougars, which is where I start doling out the Bests and the Worsts.

Best:  Past With a Blast

I'll start off by saying that this was one of the weirdest f*cking Michigan games to watch, especially 17-odd years later.*  I’ll obviously get into particular elements in greater detail, but watching these older games, you are struck with just how much the college game has evolved even in the last 10-15 years.  Now, I know that is a pretty obvious statement, so let me explain.

Take, for example, the speed of the game.  Initially I thought everyone was just slow because they were less athletic, that college football was still trying to escape the vortex of “traditional” football gameplans that were closer to attrition than strategy, like two warring armies meeting in the middle of a field and the side with more functioning limbs left at the end was the victor.  But that isn’t precisely true, at least in this game; both Michigan and Washington State had gamechangers on both sides of the field, and on a per-play basis there didn’t seem to be some massive athleticism gap (the players did seem smaller than today’s athletes, though at least part could be due to optical differences from weird camera angles and the style of uniforms).

But the difference between this championship game and the one we just saw between Oregon and OSU was how deliberate everyone played.  The Cougars oftentimes lined up with 4+ WRs in the game, and Michigan’s base defense was typically a 4-2-5 with liberal amounts of blitzing.  But at no point did WSU really push the pace, instead huddling after most plays, allowing Michigan’s defense to get in the necessary substitutions and get set.  Ryan Leaf did look to the sidelines and made adjustments at various points, but after a steady diet of Oregon, Baylor, Rich Rod, and Urban these past 10 years, it’s kind of weird to watch a high-powered offense (WSU was #2 in scoring, #4 in passing) just walk up to the line.

And don’t get me started on Michigan’s offense in this game (and really all year).  I kind of glossed over it in the recap, but this team ran an offense I could best describe as “don’t screw this up”, which was a little weird given how much talent the team actually had on that side of the ball.  It was Mike DeBord’s first year as OC, so if you thought he was innovative in his later years you’d be even more surprised how conservative his playcalling was.  Chris Howard led the team in rushing and receiving, and Jerame Tuman and Tai Streets tied for the non-backfield lead in catches and TDs at 24 and 4, respectively.  Michigan ran the ball, ran it again, and then either threw a pass out to a RB or Tuman on third down.  Once defenses started sucking in, maybe they’d try to beat you deep on playaction or with a bootleg (as they did twice this game).  But this team had 17 scoring drives (15 TDs and 2 FGs) of 70+ yards this year, and with few exceptions you could have timed them with a sundial.  Yes, Griese set passing records in terms of attempts and completions this year, but with a YPA of 7.4 and a 14:5 TD/INT ratio, it’s safe to assume those weren’t directed very far downfield.  In other words, this was a Cialis commercial for the blue beards who grew up praising “3 yards and a cloud of dust”. 

And Michigan’s defense, as it had done all year, just ground WSU down throughout the game.  I’ll get to it in a bit more detail below, but I thought this was one of the finest defensive lines Michigan has fielded in recent history; not the most talented, but just a bunch of guys who complemented each other perfectly.  Couple that with an incredibly speedy LB core (including Dhani Jones and Ian Gold) and that terrifyingly-good secondary, and it was a surreal game to watch given just how fast college football has become.

* Oh, and on a 6-inch phone screen with super-grainy "ripped-from-VHS-to-Youtube" quality, on the 2/3 trains during my commute both to and from work, with a notepad in my hand while a guy with a pet rat hanging out in his jacket is looking at me with an expression that loosely translates to "what's up with THIS weirdo" as I furiously scribbled into said notebook about an AOL commercial (oh yeah, we'll get there).

Worst:  The Luck of the Wolverines

It’s always hard to tell looking back how much of it was cosmic forces and how much of it was good defense and the inherent vagaries of the sport, but UM was very lucky they didn’t fall behind WSU early on in this game.  This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who watched Carr’s teams throughout the years, but all-everything Michael Black + 4+ WRs wasn’t an equation he was good at solving.  Though WSU only scored 7 points in the first half, it could have been much worse had Woodson not had a nice pick of Leaf in the endzone to halt a drive, and then Leaf miss another wide-open TD by inches.  WSU WRs also suffered from a number of drops early on, and there were a number of plays where multiple WSU guys where open deep in the middle of the field as the Michigan secondary lost track of them.  In fact, I think one of the biggest breaks in the game was Black going off the field late in the first half with a thigh injury, as he never really returned (he had one carry I believe in the 3rd quarter before shutting it down) and WSU’s offense definitely took a step back with Gilmore as the lead back.

And on offense, Griese looked very frazzled to start, throwing a pick and generally looking out of sorts, while the playcalling was basically run, run, don’t turn it over, punt.  Michigan scored on a beautiful pass 53-yard pass to Tai Street off playaction, but otherwise that first half was one that could have gotten away from Michigan pretty quickly, and you could sense they knew they had dodged a bullet late in the half and into the second as the team calmed down and started to impose its will on both sides of the ball. 

Best:  Easily Football-Offended Lloyd Carr

To say that Carr was unhappy with the offense Mike Price was running, at least based on the numerous snarls and dismissive looks ABC cut to on the sidelines, would be an understatement.  We all know how Carr had a very specific view of how football should be played and bristled at the notion of deviating significantly from that, but watching Carr try to process the idea WSU would go 5-wide and no backs and reflexively recoil was mesmerizing.  I don’t know how to describe it beyond the physical manifestation of every person online who says “the spread won’t work in the Big 10!”, plastered on the head of one of the most successful coaches in college football history.

Now, Lloyd Carr would never be described as having a particularly warm demeanor on the sidelines, whether it be during handshakes with other coaches or answering dumb questions from sideline reporters, so on one hand it shouldn’t be surprising he seemed bothered by it all.  And this isn’t a judgment call on him; sure, in 2015 you see an immense amount of offensive nuance, especially in the passing game, but in 1997 nobody was really pushing the pace of the game consistently, especially throwing the ball.  Sure, you had your BYU’s and Florida’s finding success through the air throughout the years, but only second-tier teams like Kentucky and Purdue were beginning to exploit speed mismatches in addition to using 4+ receiver formations. 

I remember watching this game and being amazed WSU had a 1,000 yard rusher AND Ryan Freaking Leaf on the same team, but it definitely seemed like an outlier situation and not the direction offenses were going.  The conventional wisdom was you won with talent and execution.  Hell, Nebraska went undefeated this year with a QB barely completing 50% of his passes for a 5:4 TD:INT ratio because they averaged 5.5 rushing TDs A GAME!  And while he’d never say it publicly, I’m sure the word “gimmick” popped quite a few times in the video sessions leading up to this game.  Carr’s view of acceptable offenses expanded somewhat as his career unfolded, but this was definitely one that seemed to take Carr back a bit.

Worst:  And Easily Offensive-Playcalling-Offended BronxBlue

I’m going to provide a list of notable offensive players on UM’s roster in 1997.

  1. Jeff Backus
  2. Steve Hutchinson
  3. Jon Jansen
  4. Brian Griese
  5. Chris Howard
  6. Anthony Thomas
  7. Tai Streets
  8. Jerame Tuman
  9. Aaron Shea
  10. Charles Woodson
  11. Tom Brady**

Now, I know all those guys weren’t THOSE GUYS at the same time in 1997, but one of the hallmarks of Carr’s offenses was playing sound, low-variability football whenever possible.  When the stakes got higher or the team was trailing, he would oftentimes loosen the reigns a bit, resulting in games like New Math and his final game.  But despite oftentimes having an overwhelming talent advantage, the offenses seemed pathologically incapable of putting it on the opponent’s face except in rare circumstances.  Hell, look at the 2000 Michigan roster and then remember that that team put up 20 points to 6-6 UCLA, 14 on 5-6 MSU, and a last-second 13 against 9-4 Wiscy.  Yes, they scored 51 in a losing effort to NW, but…

So yeah, watching this game I was reminded how infuriating it was to follow this team at times.  While Michigan’s defenses were typically some of the best in the country, the offenses found ever-more-stupefying ways to waste elite talent, or at the very least not beat the doors off of non-baby seals most years.  On both of Michigan’s long TD passes, it was because WSU’s suspect corners couldn’t keep up with Michigan’s WRs.  It was clear to me, to the people watching at home and stands, to Bob and Keith in the booth, that Michigan could throw against WSU, and yet it was only when the Cougars took a 13-7 lead in the second half did Michigan start to loosen up a bit on offense.  And once they did, they went from a team that couldn’t move the ball for a half to one that converted 9/11 3rd-downs in the 2nd half and racked up close to 250 yards.

I guess my other pet peeve that came up during this game was the Thomas Edison-level telegraphing the offense did when they inserted certain players into the game, such as Woodson on offense (Calvin Bell in 2001 was the platonic ideal of this behavior).  Because Charles Woodson was an amazing football player, Carr wasn’t afraid to let him touch the ball a couple of times a game on offense, usually on end-arounds, reverses, or deep balls.  The problem lied in that when Woodson walked onto the field, it was rarely to do anything else but be the A1 focus of the play.  Not as a decoy, a blocker, anything other than the guy who was going to get the ball unless you triple-covered him.  As the season rolled on, defenses figured out that the guy killing them on defense was pretty good, and that when he walked out to catch a ball you might as well send two guys his way.  In this game, Woodson was on the field for something like 5 plays, resulting in 2 runs, 1 catch, one under-thrown bomb, and one sorta-in-his-vicinity incompletion. 

Again, I don’t want to crap too much on a guy who won a NC, but watching this janky offense in 1997 after having just lived through the Hoke era was jarring in how little had changed.

** Yeah, yeah, he was a freshman.  I know. 

Best:  Charles MF Woodson

I don’t need to tell you that Charles Woodson had swagger coming out of his ears.  Dude was the first primary-defensive player to win the Heisman, absolutely shut down halves of the field, and just was magical to watch.  You’d hear people talk up the merits of guys like Dre Bly, Champ Bailey, and Shawn Springs, and yet nobody could deny how dominant Woodson was as a defensive player.  He was fast enough to keep up with any WR, yet big enough to help on the run and serve as a devastating situational pass rusher.  Heck, he hit Leaf a couple times in this game, including one on a delayed blitz that nearly led to a pick.  He carried himself like a star but backed it up at every occasion.  When you watched him you saw a guy who was evolutionarily “better” than most of the guys on the field, and you could take 1997 Charles Woodson and drop him in 2015 and he’d still be one of the best corners in the game.  Just a dominant player.

Best:  The Rest of the Defense

Obviously Woodson is the name everyone remembers from that unit, plus the record-setting PPG allowed (6.18 before the bowl), but that entire defense was chock full of brilliance.  Marcus Ray was one of the better safeties in Michigan history, and on most other teams James Whitley would have been a #1 DB.  And while he did seem to have trouble at times in coverage, Tommy Hendricks tackled with a vengeance usually reserved for fathers looking for lost daughters in movies.  In particular, there was one tackle on a WSU WR that you seemed to wake up both sides of the field. 

The LBs were headlined by Sam Sword, Dhani Jones, and Ian Gold, the latter two having pretty good pro careers in addition to being great college players.  Gold and Jones were the type of sideline-to-sideline guys who could play in 2015 without much issue, and Sword currently sits #3 in career tackles at UM.  All three gave Michigan immense flexibility in how they ran their defense, highlighted by the fact Lloyd Carr and Jim Herrmann were willing to roll out a 4-2-5 in this game without batting an eye.

I mentioned this earlier, but the defensive line really was one of the best you’d see.  Rob Renes was a Sporting News AA at nose tackle as a senior, Josh Williams was stout against the run, and both Glenn Steele and James Hall could just squeeze the air out of a pocket.  Again, it wasn’t full of stars (though everyone save Renes has decent NFL careers), but they might as well have added a  “Right to Rush 4” patch on their jerseys because they absolutely disrupted offensive gameplans.  When Ryan Leaf really struggled in this game, it was when he was under intense pressure from 4-5 guys, and a major reason he never really got on track was because he was always picking Wolverines out of his teeth. 

Worst:  99-yards!

You know how I just gushed over this defense?  Well, to prove that nobody’s perfect, it also gave up a 99-yard TD drive in the 3rd quarter that was just one big WTF.  Leaf fumbled the snap on first down, yet WSU recovered.  On the next play, he threw a kinda-duck for a first down where the aforementioned Hendricks just smacked the WR moments after the ball got to him.  From that point on, it was Michigan jumping offsides, letting WRs get between coverages, and whiffing on a reverse that you could see coming as soon as the ball was snapped.  Overall I thought the defense looked pretty good in the second half, but for that one drive it was ugly.

Worst:  Concussions?  Nah!

This being 1997, you saw (a) a bunch of really stiff shots on WRs and QBs that would absolutely have been flagged in the game today, and (b) lots of homespun references to slobberknockers and bell-ringing that, yeah, feels kinda icky given what we now know about concussions.  In particular, Glenn Steele absolutely obliterated Ryan Leaf on one play, yet nobody seemed particularly worried about Leaf’s health or current capacity to tie his shoes.  I’m not saying Ryan Leaf’s subsequent life struggles are due to anything that happened in this game, but seeing how hard some of these guys were hitting him, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out at least some of his issues trace back to the beatings he took on the field.  It was just weird to see some of these borderline-dangerous hits on both sides get glossed over. 

Best:  Chris Howard

He’ll never be remembered as a particularly great back at UM, but Chris Howard was the perfect player for Lloyd Carr’s offense.  For large swaths of this game, it was Howard busting out first-down runs with Cougars bearing down, or turning simple swing passes into big gains.  As I noted earlier he led the team in both rushing and receiving on the year, and in this game he rushed for 70 yards and added another 13 on two catches, including a nifty pickup on 3rd down in the first half that helped Michigan get back some field position.  He was also a pretty solid blocker as far as I could tell, picking up blitzes and helping to give Griese some time on a couple of big throws in the 4th quarter. 

Worst:  Bad Anthony Thomas

I’m honestly not sure how widespread this sentiment was in 1997, but Anthony Thomas was one of the most infuriating backs for me to watch early on in his career.  He had a tantalizing amount of talent; just a brute who could outrun you as well as (seemingly) run you over.  And yet he had some missing trait, some fatal flaw that seemed to hold him back.  Much like Derrick Green now, Thomas was a load who somehow still went down at first contact.  In this game, he had one nice run for something like 10 yards and then 6 more rushes that went for 0-2 yards.  Runs where a LB would clip his legs and he’d go down in a heap.  I’m not sure if it was his running style (he was pretty upright), balance issues, lower-body strength, Michigan RB Disliking Gods, or what, but it really wasn’t until his senior year in 2000 when he put it all together, at which point he absolutely demolished guys and was, briefly, a star in the NFL.  Chris Perry followed a similar trajectory while he in A2, and so if you are one of those people bothered by Green’s inability to be the Mooseback he seemed destined for a couple years ago, Thomas looms out there as the potential upside to a guy Figuring It Out.  But yeah, watching this game brought back some bad memories for me.

Worst:  Come On Man

At one point in the first half of this game, Lloyd Carr punted from the WSU 38.  The resulting kick netted him 15 yards.  That is all.

Best:  No 1997 News Cycle

So Bob Griese, father of Brian Griese, and Keith Jackson,  WSU alum and former Cougars radio announcer, were calling the Rose Bowl.  In 1997, this was noted in a couple reports leading up to the game  but that was it.  In 2015, I can’t imagine how many talking heads would have chimed in about the potential “conflicts of interest” involved in two grown men calling a game in which they might have very minor rooting interests.  Remember Larry Fitzgerald’s semi-biased coverage of his son in a pretty obscure publication leading up to the Super Bowl some years ago, and how big a deal that became relative to its importance?  If one of  Kirk Herbstreit’s sons ever winds up playing for an NC and he’s on the call, I fully expect Twitter to just melt down under the deluge of complaints.

In this game, Jackson made one quip to Griese about him not knowing Brian could throw the ball that far on a deep completion to (I believe) Street, but otherwise they acted like two professionals, capable of calling a game objectively despite rooting interests in certain outcomes.  It was refreshing.

Best:  Quick Hits

Here are a couple of quick points that don’t need their own section.

  1. This was the internet in 1997.  You went to AOL and entered a keyword to search because the idea of dedicated URLs was still pretty “new”.  I was amazed Prodigy hadn’t gotten the business first.
  2. Ryan Leaf was terrifying in college.  I know he was a colossal bust in the pros, but he had a cannon of an arm, was reasonably accurate for the time, and was deceptively fast for a guy his size.  It’s crazy in retrospect, but he looked like like a worthy challenger to Peyton Manning as the #1 overall draft selection, and even in this game he played with a fearlessness and toughness that really helped keep WSU in the game against a more talented UM squad.
  3. Apparently both of these teams were some of the most-penalized teams in the country that season.  It amazes me that any Lloyd Carr team would play that cavalierly, but I guess it was a different era in more ways than one.
  4. Russell Athletics were the official jersey sponsor of Washington State.  I can only imagine that they bought their warm-ups from Eastbay.

Worst: The Pass Interference that Wasn’t Called

If you hear people complaining about this game, what they usually argue about is the weird clock management at the end of the game wherein the clock ran out as WSU spiked the ball with 2 second left on the clock.  What tends to come up less often is the absolutely terrible offensive PI that allowed the Cougars to even get to midfield.  It was third down, under 30 seconds to go in the game, and WSU is deep in their own territory.  Ryan Leaf drops back to pass, scrambles a bit, and then just heaves the ball downfield.  Look at the screenshot above, and understand that as the ball started to descend it was coming up short.  Woodson slowed down to pick it off, and Taylor just shoved him out of the way, in front of at least 1 official, and pulled it in.  Jackson thought it was a pick, and then both him and Griese vocally complained that it was obvious offensive PI.  It was insanity when it happened, and on review is even more amazing that it wasn’t called or that Woodson didn’t absolutely lose his mind.

Had Michigan lost this game, that would have gone down as one of the worst calls in Michigan history.  As it is, it is just an amazingly incompetent one.

Worst:  Hucking Fornhuskers

We all know what happened following this game.  Nebraska plastered Peyton Manning’s Tennessee Volunteers in the Orange Bowl the next day, one of the many arrows in the “Peyton Manning couldn’t win the big one” quiver that people had against him for most of his early career.  Coupled with Tom Osborne’s retirement, the Cornhuskers somehow leapfrogged Michigan to split the national title, winning the Coach’s Poll in what felt like a retirement gift to Osborne.  Discussion of the Flea Kicker against Mizzou is treated as sour grapes for some reason, but let it be said that Nebraska was a very good team that chewed people up on the ground but was a pretty terrible team throwing the ball.  It would have been a great game to see, and the controversy led to the creation of the BCS championship game. 

****

So I hope you enjoyed this diary.  If you have a game you’d like to see me review, by all means post it below.

Comments

atrain

February 23rd, 2015 at 1:18 AM ^

I was at the game, and here is what I am upset about:

What was even worse than the lack of offensive pass interference on that play with 9 seconds left was that the receiver fell out of bounds on the catch, got up-  LIMPED BACK ONTO THE STINKING FIELD, FELL DOWN and gave his team a free time out when they didn't have any left.  I don't think that the foolishness that followed with the hook and ladder play and the attempted spike would have even happened without the "injury" time out. 

Some of the worst sportsmanship that I have ever seen, and neither announcer even mentioned it.

uminks

February 23rd, 2015 at 3:50 AM ^

the worse part of the '97 season was Osborne's coaching buddies voting NE over Michigan in the coaches poll, as a fine farewell gift. I guarantee if Osborne did not announce his retirement Michigan would have been the unanimous number 1 team. I consider them as the number one team! I was kind of hoping that Bo would win an NC while I was attending school at Michigan '81-'85. Both the '85 and '86 teams came close!

bronxblue

February 24th, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^

It was pretty bad when it happened, though that was a weird year all around - as noted, Nebraska went to OT against Mizzou but also blew the doors off lots of people, in a way that I can't even fathom today (5 TDs throwing!).  And FSU might have been the shoot best team in the country, at least based on offensive/defensive splits, but lost late to Florida.  

But yeah, the argument that they gave it to Michigan because they hadn't won it in a while (which is something I remember Nebraska players saying) rings a bit hollow considering NE basically got a gold watch from the coaches.

enlightenedbum

February 23rd, 2015 at 5:43 AM ^

The '99 and '00 offenses (in particular, really the whole Brady and beyond Carr era) are the ones you complain about.  When you have the single best college defense I've ever seen (VERY close second: the 2001 Hurricanes), playing proto-Tressel ball is acceptable.

'99 was particularly infuriating because my memory is that we fell behind a lot and then broke out a shotgun offense in the fourth quarter that was just completely unstoppable, a foreshadowing of what Brady would do in the pros.

MadMatt

February 23rd, 2015 at 8:22 AM ^

Thanks for that trip to glories past.  Your best & worst captures the 90s as well as the '97 season.  If I could, I'd like to add a few of my own:

Best: the Game of Thrones Defense.  In the mid-90s Michigan had three starters on defense named Sword, Steele and Irons.  Maybe not the ’97 season, but yowsers, talk about appropriate names.  It remains a lost opportunity that the Steelers never got those three guys on their roster at the same time.

Best: Jackson and Griese: You marveled at how little attention was paid to their rooting interests and how professional they were during the game.  That is what made them the best on air team of an era, and it was intentional.  Keith Jackson was late in his career, and he was interviewed about his approach to play by play.  He stated his goal was to be as unobtrusive as possible and let the action on the field provide the drama; “just call the dag-gum game.”  What a breath of fresh air compared to all the TV personalities who have to call attention to themselves.

Best: Shared National Championships (hear me out): In the pre-BCS era, when you could have two major conference champions end the Bowl season at 12-0, splitting the National Title is the right way to handle it.  It was right in ’91 when Miami and Washington were undefeated, and I have no problem sharing a National Championship with 12-0 Nebraska.  The team that has a beef is ’94 Penn State.  They were 12-0 Rose Bowl Champions, but ended up #2 in both polls to Nebraska.  Yeah, the hypocrisy of Nebraska insisting they were the only #1 in ’94, but wanting a share of #1 in ’97 is rich, but the pollsters got it right in ’97.

Somewhat OT, but I can’t stress this enough: the most optimistic but still reasonable expectation for Harbaugh’s first regular season is 8-4, and if we get that, we should be happy and grateful.  I’ll take real progress over a lucky 11-2 every single time.

bronxblue

February 24th, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^

Sharing the title is fine historically, but the way Nebraska got there (needing that crazy sequence against Mizzou, the open politicking, etc.) just made them insufferable.  I also thought 1994 was a travesty in that both PSU and NE didn't share the title.  

Jackson remains one of my favorite announcers of all time.  My dream mash-up, which obviously could never happen, is him and Jim Ross from the WWE calling a game.  

Jarrett Irons remains my favorite name ever for a Michigan LB.  

Blue Durham

February 23rd, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^

That Iowa game was nuts that year, and looked like one of thoses losses that always seemed to ruin a potential national championship year for Bo.

When Michigan smoked Penn State, it was big, considering that Michigan had a loosing record against them at the time.  I think that win was the start of a big win streak against them.

Also, Nebraska had to go to overtime (which was brand new then) against Missouri, where Michigan did not that season.  Always thought that should have been a tie-braker in our favor.

bronxblue

February 24th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^

It was a weird season, and that game should have probably weighed heavier in the voters' minds, but I get splitting the title.  I watched a couple NE highlights from that season in writing this, and they were terrifying offensively.  It was a one-note offense, so perhaps they would have been shut down by Michigan's defense, but a non-screwy split with them would have been fine had it not played out so cynically as a gift to Osborne.

xxxxNateDaGreat

February 23rd, 2015 at 10:03 AM ^

"It’s crazy in retrospect, but he looked like like a worthy challenger to Peyton Manning as the #1 overall draft selection."

Even back during Y2K, most scouts and teams didn't really give much of a crap about personality quirks and off field issues. Shit, Al Davis was drafting like that til the day he died.

It's funny that we are talking about Leaf because I had read a story a few months ago (the link escapes me, sadly) that the Colts had STILL considered drafting Leaf over Manning despite his weight gain and skipping a team interview. But, as we all know now, they correctly concluded that Manning was the safer pick.

M-Dog

February 23rd, 2015 at 10:25 AM ^

The internet in 1997 was not quite as kerosene powered as you make it out to be.  It was slow and no MGoBlog, but it was still pretty functional for things like following/arguing about Michigan football.

jackrobert

February 23rd, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^

What made the PI non-call even more infuriating was the fact the official pulled his flag to call the obvious PI and then for some reason put it back in his pocket after the WSU receiver made the catch.  I noticed this in realtime from my seat (I was in the endzone stands that WSU was driving towards), but you can also see the official pocket the flag on the replay.  

I was not alone: a good chunk of the Michigan fans sitting in that endzone were livid with the non-call.  If WSU had scored on the subsequent hook and ladder, that official probably would not have made it to the tunnel.

Blueroller

February 23rd, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^

Extremely well written and entertaining as always. Just one quibble… The Marcus Ray Sports Illustrated cover is ONE of your favorites? I've had it framed on my bedroom wall since 98. The only SI cover I can recall that came even close was the Elle Macpherson one in the green one piece.

BroGreg

February 23rd, 2015 at 4:54 PM ^

What is interesting to me about that '97 defense is the mass celebrations after a big play..a group enthusiasm that seems to be missing from lads of the last  decade.

Have to admit I didn't really enjoy when Woodson would break out that little shimmy of his..

enlightenedbum

February 24th, 2015 at 3:30 AM ^

'97 had more depth on the line (though no world beater DT like Branch), a better third linebacker, and a MUCH better secondary.  Whitley was actually the nickel, with the also very good (and NFL player) Andre Weathers the other starting corner.  Bit better than Morgan Trent and no third option so that Chris Graham had to try to cover WRs against OSU's spread.

EDIT: Also, the '97 team had waaaaaay stronger competition.  '06 Big Ten was weak after the top three.  '97 Big Ten had a great PSU team, great OSU team, really good Iowa/Wisconsin/Sparty teams, and Colorado and ND were pretty good for non-conference games.

Gr1mlock

February 23rd, 2015 at 8:01 PM ^

I'd love  to read a diary of the 2005 Rose Bowl against Texas.  Even though we lost that game, it was one of the most fun football games I've ever watched.  

Mo Better Blues

February 24th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^

This is just about the best thing I've ever read on MGoBlog. Bravo, BronxBlue--you describe the 1997 season **exactly** as I remember it as a 15-year-old, (it's funny to get a sense of the collective memory of this hallowed season among the Michigan faithful, now nearing 20 years later.) Particularly, your description of the Iowa and Penn State games put me right back in the headspace of the moment. Tim Dwight's return game was like the strafing by those daring Messerschmitt pilots in the movie 'Patton'--give those sons of bitches a medal! Great job. Thank you!

Evil Empire

February 24th, 2015 at 10:20 PM ^

I graduated in 1996 so I was well into the post-UM phase by this game.  But I attended every home game except the close win against Iowa.  I can't remember where I watched the game.  Great win but very weird.  Kinda like the game against OSU.

That horse racing gif is, well, tremendous.

egrfree2rhyme

February 25th, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^

Really enjoyed this.  Man was that a different time.  This really was a well-written piece.  Thanks!  I also didn't realize that Keith Jackson had that connection to WSU.  That's crazy.

I had a couple of (small and unimportant) factual inaccuraccies to point out since we're reminscing about 1997:

1. Ron Dayne never ran for 100 yards against Michigan, but it's not true to say that Michigan had "consistently stymied Dayne" as of 1997.  His first game against us was in 1998.  I believe he went for something like 53 and 88 yards against us in '98 and '99 (with 0 coming in the second half in 1999).

2. Tom Brady was a redshirt sophomore, not a freshman, in 1997 and he supposedly came close to winning the starting job (I don't really remember that well but in the Brady 6, Aaron Shea claims that he and Griese were neck and neck).

 

Anyway, I'm sorry for nitpicking as your entire piece was insightful, well-written, and enjoyable but I figured that you'd want to know. 

Michigan4Harbaugh

February 26th, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^

This was an excellent diary. For me, the 1997 season is my benchmark for Michigan Football, and for how a season should be. Being 15 at the time, I can remember every game like they were playing yesterday. Going through the highly disappointing 93-96 seasons really made 97 so special. It would be really cool for someone to do a similar post recalling the 1986 season. It was some 7 years before knowing what Michigan Football was all about for me, but that season really intrigues me. Seemed like one that could have been a 1997 type of season if not for a couple missteps. Plus it's neat to hear from someone who can recall the 86 season to discuss what the general vibe was like back then in Harbaugh's last season. I am just generally enamored with everything 80s, especially the music and movies! What a great time that must have been to be a Michigan fan, and an American!

M-Dog

March 15th, 2015 at 3:47 AM ^

In short, '86 was supposed to finish the business that the '85 team started.  

1985 was a complete surprise (we were 6-6 in '84, but finished '85 ranked AP #2), but 1986 was supposed to be the year it al happened.

But we slipped up against Minny with lots of turnovers on a raw, cold day, and we lost to a steriod-laden AZ State team in the Rose Bowl.   Karma's a bitch though, and we got our revenge on John Cooper 10 times over.

 

ploeg

February 26th, 2015 at 3:21 PM ^

I was at that game, and the replay showed the official take his flag out of his pocket to make the call and then put it back into his pocket. Gutless officiating.

When the replay was shown on the big screen, the whole stadium booed the resulting non-call.

The 1997 beat-down of the Nittany Lions is the second best game in Michigan football history. Daydrion Taylor's tackle in front of the PSU bench will never be forgotten.

The BEST game in Michigan history is, of course, the 1969 upset of the "greatest college football team of all time"! (I was at that one too...)