aaron shea

HTTV Note: The books are done and we're going to have copies in hand by the end of the week. If you backed the kickstarter and want to skip waiting for the mail (which is going to take longer than usual this year), we have socially distanced pickup options at Cultivate in Ypsilanti this Saturday, at Five Shores Brewing in Beulah next Saturday, and after I drive a few boxes out there, at Bryan Fuller's wife's Cheese Lady franchise in Kalamazoo. If you want to get your books there email me and let me know. If your address has changed email me and let me know.

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Are we starting to get desperate for content? Sure. But also I noticed we talk a lot about 3-stars versus 5-stars, when Michigan's classes have historically been filled primarily with standard 4-stars. And by that I mean "just" 4-stars—not top-150 players, and not high 3-stars either. They're the kind of players who would headline a Michigan State class, whom Ohio State would take but not fight too hard for, the constant subjects of Notre Dame-Michigan-Penn State battles with a hometown favorite thrown in.

Previously: Pro Offense/Pro Defense, 1879-Before Bo, 5-Stars, 3-Stars, Extracurriculars, Position-Switchers, Highlights, Numbers Offense/Numbers Defense, In-State, Names, Small Guys, Big Guys, Freshmen

Rules: Lower bound: must be a four-star to at least one major ranker of his era, and average over 4.0 stars on the Seth scale. Upper bound: cannot be ranked top-100 by anybody or higher than a 4.3 on the Seth scale. Since 1990 because data go back that far. College performance considered only.

The Mike Hart Thing: Hart was the equivalent of a solid four-star to places that didn't create a lasting online database of the 2004 class, and a high 3-star to Rivals and Scout, who did, forever after immortalizing him as a "3-star" (this is a well-known malfunction of the human brain). Just giving you fair warning that your brain is going to rebel. Also "bucket list" wasn't in the lexicon until the 2007 film.

Quarterback: Tom Brady (1995)

Rankings:

(Ranking is among Michigan recruits at his position, which has a sample roughly as large as an annual national class so I've included it. National Recruiting Advisor was proto-Rivals.)

This seems like an obvious answer but Brady really only narrowly won a competitive three-way competition with longtime starters who preceded him and proceeded him. That's a good summary of Tom Brady's Michigan career, which has been poured over by so many better journalists there's not a lot I can add to it.

The just-a-four-star rating is also representative of his recruitment. Brady had a few top schools after him as a #2 option behind some monster 5-star or close to it. He might have gone to USC if they didn't get their first two guys on the board, and Cade McNown committing to UCLA removed Michigan's main competition. Michigan waited until Florida won the battle for 5-star Bobby Sablehaus then pulled the trigger on Tom.

2nd Team: Todd Collins (1990)

The only data point I have on Todd is he was Tom Lemming's #8 Pro-Style QB. Well that and pick two guys out of these three:

Player B is Tom Brady. The guy with nearly identical college stats and vastly higher yards per attempt is the longtime starter who also had an extremely long NFL career. You also have to know that the two years of Collins starting were even more frustrating offensively than the Borges and DeBord offenses, and the Number 1 frustration was they weren't uncorking the passing game. Amani Toomer and Mecury Hayes were the Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell of the era, except when Michigan did deign to send them a pass Collins almost always put it on the money. Watching the semi-heralded Collins outperform Notre Dame golden boy Ron Powlus was one of the highlights of my young fandom.

The Field: Collins (4.24, 199), Scot Loeffler (4.20, 1993), Cade McNamara (4.12, 2019), Joe Milton (4.11, 2018), Nate Holdren (4.07, 1990), Alex Malzone (4.06, 2015), Spencer Brinton (4.05, 2001), John Navarre, who's Player A above (4.04, 1999)

[After THE JUMP: Guys who were dudes]

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Fourth Quarter

What was ostensibly the last quarter of the game got off to an excellent start for Michigan before quickly turning. A nearly 30-yard circus catch by Marquise Walker put Michigan at the 2-yard line, and first-and-goal from six feet out with Anthony Thomas on the roster meant handing the ball off. Michigan did just that, but Thomas was stripped as he dove for the goal line. Alabama recovered in the end zone for a touchback.

Marcus Knight, wide receiver: We had some instances where we had to do a little better job of ball protection, so it happens. Everybody could have done a little bit more. If you go back, everyone didn’t make the plays that they wanted or should have. If you go back in that year and you look at the Illinois game where we were up, we had no business losing that game but Illinois, to their credit, did an awesome job. Took advantage of things, mistakes that we made, and ended up coming back from a very, very big deficit to beat us by six and in that game we had a number of times where ball protection and not taking care of the football--you can’t win when you turn over the football.

Shawn Thompson, tight end: Anytime something like that happens where you’re knocking on the door there obviously it’s huge but I feel like we had the momentum on our side at that point. We’d come down with a drive again and you want to take it across the goal line in a situation like that but I think at that point our confidence was where we needed it to be where we knew we could get the ball back.

They did get the ball back, and quite a few times, too. As the offenses settled into a first quarter-like rhythm, early-game issues arose once again. Alabama was keeping Michigan’s defense on its toes with a drive featuring run-pass balance when the offense started to rack up penalties near midfield. The most critical, Alabama’s 17th of the night, came on 3rd and 9 with 3:25 remaining. Michigan defensive end James Hall timed the snap perfectly and was past the left tackle before he could even be chipped, which left blocking Hall the sole responsibility of Shaun Alexander. Hall’s presence flushed the quarterback from the pocket—at this point Alabama had switched once again to Tyler Watts—but Alexander held Hall’s jersey with his right hand as Hall went by to give his quarterback an extra second to escape. Instead of picking up a first down by about two yards, Alabama faced 3rd and 28 from their own 32.

Michigan defensive coordinator Jim Herrmann saw a perfect opportunity to bring pressure. He called for James Whitley to blitz from the nickel, looping inside James Hall into a cavernous opening between the left tackle, who was occupied with Hall, and the left guard, who chose incorrectly to pick up linebacker Ian Gold, who was headed for the same gap. Whitley led high but Watts wasn’t able to step out of the hit as Whitley came in with such speed that he knocked Watts’ helmet off.

Todd Howard, cornerback: I do remember we were getting after them. I know we went to a little bit more man-to-man in that game toward the end because of that. We had guys that were blitzing. James Whitley, they put him in at nickel and they liked bringing him from that nickel position. We were just loaded up front. James Hall played in the NFL, Frysinger might have signed a free-agent deal and then with Ian Gold, Dhani Jones and those guys, that was the strength of our team was the front seven for sure. We had a lot of young guys back in the secondary and we competed all year.

[After THE JUMP: two kicks, a few lobs, a switch, and waggles decide the game]

Previously: Part 1, Part 2

Third Quarter

Both coaching staffs may have made adjustments at halftime, but one thing remained consistent between halves: penalties. Michigan had six in the first half for 67 yards, while Alabama had eight for 56 yards. The second half opened with a Michigan penalty on the kickoff return. Then on Alabama’s first offensive snap of the half Michigan nose tackle Rob Renes jumped offsides. Alabama offensive lineman Dante Ellington got flagged for a false start on the very next play and the crowd began to boo.

Marcus Knight, wide receiver: As a player you don’t necessarily think about [penalties]. You just know you’ve got to clean it up. You don’t want to have a sloppy game and beat yourself. Things happen. It’s a big game. It was hot. It was muggy. I know the big boys were getting exhausted because of the humidity that was on the field at that time, so mentally we just had to lock in and I think both teams were feeling it at that time so that’s kind of why you got that happening at the beginning of the second half.

Fumbles and the sideline were the two key ingredients in the early third quarter stew. Albama quarterback Andrew Zow executed a jet action fake before pitching the ball to Shaun Alexander. Michigan had a corner blitz on, and James Whitley was already behind the line of scrimmage when the ball was pitched. It hit Alexander in the shoulder, then Whitley bounced off Alexander and dove at the loose ball. He collided with an Alabama player as he was about to land on the ball, which hit his knee instead of nestling into his stomach. Alexander scratched the ball out and threw it five yards further behind the line, at which point Michigan defenders Jake Frysinger and James Hall converged on the ball. Frysinger dove at the ball only to see if bounce off his facemask and out of bounds.

Alabama faced 2nd and 29, lost two yards on an Alexander carry, then ended up punting after an overthrow on a 3rd and 31 bomb. Michigan quarterback Tom Brady hit fullback Aaron Shea in the flat on the first play of the drive. Shea turned the corner and was met by Alabama defensive back Marcus Spencer, who got low and dove at Shea. His helmet knocked the ball loose as Shea went heels over head, the ball hitting the turf and bouncing once, then slowing and bouncing a second time before skittering past the sideline.

Michigan went back to the air on second down…kind of. Alabama had called a perfectly timed blitz for outside linebacker Saleem Rasheed, who got a free shot at Brady thanks to Michigan’s waggle call. Rasheed came in too high, which allowed Brady to step out of the hit. He avoided an arm tackle and heaved a downfield one-hopper in the general direction of David Terrell just as Rasheed had circled back and crushed Brady.

The ball made it to Terrell without hitting the turf on the next play. On 3rd and 8 from Michigan’s 42-yard line Brady found Terrell breaking in about 15 yards downfield. Terrell jumped to make the catch, then spun downfield as the corner lunged and missed. Terrell had no one within five yards of him from Alabama’s 40 to their 5-yard line. Terrell then slowed suddenly to get safety Marcus Spencer, who Marcus Knight almost blocked in the back before pulling his hands back at the last second, to time his tackle incorrectly. Spencer grabbed Terrell’s ankles, but Terrell but his left hand in the ground and stretched the ball past the line with his right.

Michigan 14 Alabama 14, 13:05

Knight: The second touchdown he ended up catching I want to say it was another post or a glance and the DB took a bad angle and he ended up taking it to the house and tying it up 14-14.

David Terrell, wide receiver: There’s no big egos. It’s not like Dave Terrell feels he’s about to come in here, like he’s so selfish—nah. We all got one common goal and we’re just trying to get to the end of it. If this is what it takes, then this is what it takes. If A-Train was rolling, believe me, we would have been handing the ball off and I would have been downfield blocking. Period. But the Train wasn’t rolling, so now y’all got to show off your pass protection. Aaron Shea, you’ve got to go dual because Aaron Shea was one of the best dual tight end/fullbacks I’ve seen. Aaron Shea was very big in this game as well, for real. Shea was like ‘DT, let’s go, baby. It’s me and you. We about to win this motherfucker right now, me and you.’ But then Shea is Tom Brady’s best man. It’s like one hand feeds the next.

Knight: One thing about that group that I played with in the wide receiver room: we were all there for each other. David had a great game but if you really study the film a lot of us were doing the extra [things] once he got the ball in his hands to make sure that he got an opportunity to do what he did with the ball. Not taking anything away from David because he was a great athlete and he did a lot of big things for the program and in that game in particular being the MVP, but you would see DiAllo [Johnson], Marquise [Walker], myself, KB [Kevin Bryant], once the ball was in the air and caught, we were working our butts off to find the secondary and third block to give him as much leeway as possible.

I didn’t have the best game; I dropped a number of balls in that game and I was frustrated with myself not being able to produce the way I thought I should but I found another way to contribute and I said, Okay, if it’s going to be that type of game I’m gonna block my butt off and that was what I was focused on.

Shawn Thompson, tight end: What an awesome play. There’s certain plays over the years that kind of get engraved in your mind but yeah, I can still picture that play. I think that was another one where it was an out route or a comeback route where he caught it and kind of shook him off. What an awesome play. And the fact that at that point it ties it up for us at 14-14, yeah, a play that I’ll always remember is that play.

[After THE JUMP: Alexander answers, Shea circles, and Terrell...I mean, you see the title]