derrick alexander

Previously: 2004 Michigan State

We're back to break down another vintage Michigan Football game. Last week we covered the Braylonfest, which earned generally strong reviews from the commenters (thanks to all those who gave feedback). This week we're turning back the clocks 12 years and looking at the 1992-93 Rose Bowl Game, a rematch between Michigan and Washington and one that would be remembered by many for the electrifying performance of Tyrone Wheatley. 

The team: 1992 was year #3 of the Gary Moeller era. After winning the Big Ten in each of his first two seasons, Moeller's '92 squad came into the year with the goal of making it a three-peat atop the league and most of all, hungry to avenge a beatdown in the Rose Bowl at the hands of Washington the previous year. Their 10-2 record and postseason ranking of 6th in the AP poll set them up for high expectations going into '92, especially with plenty of talent returning. 

On offense Michigan did lose the biggest piece of them all from '91, Desmond Howard. After winning the Heisman Trophy, Howard was picked 4th overall by the Washington Redskins in the 1992 NFL Draft. However, the majority of the talent on the offense besides Des did come back for the 1992 season, including starting QB Elvis Grbac, the RB trio of Ricky Powers, Jesse Johnson, and Tyrone Wheatley, FB Burnie Leggette, and 3/5ths of the OL (All-B1G C Steve Everitt and G Joe Cocozzo both returned). To fill in the holes on the team, returning LG Doug Skene kicked out to tackle to replace the departing Greg Skrepenak (though Skene was back at G in this game) while new starters in RS So Shawn Miller and Sr Rob Doherty slid into the LG and RT holes, respectively.

[Bentley Historical Library]

A new class of receivers were needed to replace Howard and Yale Van Dyne, Derrick Alexander and Walter Smith stepping up to take those gigs and getting support help from heralded true freshmen Mercury Hayes and Amani Toomer. Alexander would lead the team in receiving yards by a longshot, followed by TE Tony McGee, who had a breakout season by hauling in 38 catches for 467 yards. Alexander earned 1st Team All-Big Ten while McGee got second team honors, but the story of the offense was the emergence of Wheatley at running back, moving past Powers on the depth chart to run for 1,357 yards and 13 TDs, winning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.  Grbac's numbers, while worse than 1991, still earned him 1st Team All-Big Ten and when combined with an offensive line that saw four players earn honors, the Michigan offense scored 35.9 points per game, 5th most in the NCAA in 1992. 

Defensively Michigan was excellent as well. They allowed only 14.2 points per game on the year (7th best in the NCAA) and like the offense, returned plenty of starters. It was liftoff time for DL Chris Hutchinson, who won Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year. A team captain and a senior, Hutchinson was dominant most of the season next to fellow returning starter Buster Stanley. Ninef Aghakhan and Tony Henderson helped round out the group up front. The LB group had plenty of experience too, Steve Morrison and Marcus Walker in the middle (Morrison earning All-Big Ten honors) and Martin Davis returning on the outside. 

Returning FS Corwin Brown was the star of the secondary, a co-captain of the team and also an All-Big Ten First Team honoree. He started opposite SS Pat Maloney, who was new to the lineup after the graduation of Otis Williams. At corner, Dwayne Ware returned and was joined in the rotation by Coleman Wallace and true freshman Ty Law, who passed Alfie Burch on the depth chart rather early into the season. Two-year starter at P Eddie Azcona returned for 1992 but would be supplanted by Chris Stapleton, while first year starter at kicker Pete Elezovic took the reins. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the game]

Previously: Krushed By Stauskas (Illinois 2014), Introducing #ChaosTeam (Indiana 2009), Revenge is Terrifying (Colorado 1996), Four Games In September I (Boston College 1991), Four Games In September II (Boston College 1994), Four Games In September III (Boston College 1995), Four Games In September IV (Boston College 1996), Pac Ten After Dark Parts One and Two (UCLA 1989), Harbaugh's Grand Return Parts One and Two (Notre Dame 1985), Deceptive Speed Parts One and Two (Purdue 1999)

This Game: Full broadcast with original commercials(!), condensed every-snap video, WH highlights, box score

Welcome to the 2020 fall football season, as best we can provide it. I've put together a tentative schedule of classic games loosely based on Michigan's original slate for this season (and which videos can be found in full). I'll be writing these posts during the week, then streaming the games on my Twitch channel at noon each Saturday. The tentative schedule:

Sep. 5: Washington (1993 Rose Bowl)
Sep. 12: Notre Dame (2011)
Sep. 19: Miami (FL) (1984)
Sep. 26: Wisconsin (2008)
Oct. 3: Penn State (2005)
Oct. 10: Michigan State (2004)
Oct. 17: Minnesota (2003)
Oct. 24: Purdue (1992)
Oct. 31: Northwestern (M00N) — Halloween Bye Week Special
Nov. 7: Maryland (1990)
Nov. 14: Rutgers (2016)
Nov. 21: Indiana (1996)
Nov. 28: Ohio State (1997)

Yes, it's a little weird to start with a Rose Bowl, but I wasn't able to get a full copy of the Brabbs Game, which is surprisingly impossible to find online, in the midst of a move. (Oh, right, I moved last week, which is why you didn't hear from me.)

It's January 1st, 1993. For the second straight year, Michigan faces Washington in the Rose Bowl; the Huskies won handily the previous season on their way to a shared national championship. The Wolverines enter the Rose Bowl undefeated yet out of the national title picture after going 8-0-3 with ties against Notre Dame, an unranked Illinois squad, and Ohio State—the latter two in the regular season's final two games.

That's narrowed Michigan's focus to achieving one of the few goals they haven't marked off during a special five-year run of consecutive Big Ten titles: winning the Rose Bowl. From the Michigan Daily:

skewed goals? at Michigan? well, I never. 

Washington, meanwhile, ranked first or second in the polls for the first nine weeks of the season before dropping two of their final three games, capped by a 42-23 Apple Cup upset at the hands of Wazzu. Beyond the losses, this hasn't been the victory lap legendary coach Don James anticipated; starting quarterback Billy Joe Hobert was ruled ineligible in November because of a $50,000 loan, while reporters—and the NCAA—are looking into potential major violations by the program. 

ABC is carrying the Rose Bowl with Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil on the call. Before we get to any talk about the game, however, we get what's in essence a five-minute ABC News segment on the state of the Washington program:

We'll be circling back around to this after the game.

[After THE JUMP: Football!]

Six seconds left in a tie game, no timeouts remaining, and Anthony Carter runs an in-cutting route 20 yards short of the end zone for the game-winning catch-and-run. This is something that only Anthony Carter could do, and even then only in 1979 against a team coached by Lee Corso, because how do you let that happen?

[Hit THE JUMP for another play from that game that could only happen a long time ago, plus a few more GIFs from Indiana games past.]