gary moeller

[Big Ten Network]

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]

Coach Moeller with his players. [Eric Upchurch]

My icebreaker question when I meet a football coach is to ask what's his signature drill. They all have them, they all have a point, and the point that the coach wants to emphasize will tell you a lot about what he values.

Via former Michigan linebacker Jim Scarcelli, Gary Moeller's drill was called "The Perfect Play" and here's how Scarcelli described it:

So it started with a sprint to Coach Moeller. He would stand somewhere and give you a formation. … and the sprint has to be perfect. The adjustment and the alignments have to be perfect. The communication has to be perfect. So when all that it is done, Coach Moeller is going to drop back and the defense is going to drop into a pass coverage, and then he's going to throw the ball. Now we're just playing on air. One of the eleven defensive players has to intercept the ball at its highest point. And then the other ten guys got to run and block, and the player has to score a touchdown, and then all eleven guys gotta go crazy in the endzone.

The point of the drill was to get back to playing the game with intelligence, energy and passion. This is how every guy who ever played for Gary Moeller would describe him as well.

They're all over at Michigan events, these Moeller guys: old men who played for him at Bellefontaine High, men in their 40s who played for him with the Lions, Jaguars, Bengals or Bears, men in their 60s whom he recruited to Illinois, men in their 80s who remember him as an Ohio State captain. They show up at Michigan events with an odd pin or tie that doesn't match the occasion, eager to seek out someone who knows of the Perfect Drill from a vast sea of Gary's maize and blue sons.

Those sons played all over the field too. The young assistant who followed Bo after two years at Miami (not That Miami) would coach the ends, the defense, the quarterbacks, the defense again, the offense, and then the whole damn team for the last five seasons of 23 in Ann Arbor. His Michigan winning percentage of 75.8 is better than that of any man to coach here since. The Arthurian comedy that ended his Michigan career seems more ridiculous with each passing season of college football, his subsequent alienation from the program surely just recompense for any role he might have played in the real tragedy of his time. His final act was a front row seat to the return of Jim Harbaugh, but fittingly the last time we saw him was on the sideline cheering for Michigan against his alma mater, flanked by two of those sons from two different generations, over a rivalry he deserves as much credit for as anyone.

To children of the 90s like myself, the brand of football played under Gary Moeller feels like a moment unappreciated until well after its time, an exhale after the stubborn irascibility of his predecessor and mentor, a breath before the venerable solemnity of his friend and successor. For half a decade, Michigan recruited with the elites, threw the ball downfield, crushed Ohio State, then laughed about it on Michigan Replay. Howard passed into Alexander, Ricky Powers gave way to Tyrone Wheatley, and Elvis entered the building, pursued by a line of pro arms still represented in the NFL today.

Spoiled as we were, this was never mourned in its time. Young Alex Drain asked me once what Michigan fans thought then, and after answering truthfully—back-to-back 8-4 seasons were "unacceptable"—it struck me that we lost something…jejune…about Michigan when we lost Moeller. There was a kidness to early '90s Michigan, a sort of "Let's see what they think of this…" insanity of a man who'd call a sight read fade to Desmond Howard on 4th and 1 of a three-point game then ask Jerry "should I be kicking a field goal?"

His final years were a sufferance of aging's worst indignities, when the surest sign you were at a Michigan event was two men greeting with smiles turning to solemnity and two words: "How's Gary?" Well Gary's fine now, and Michigan plays on, with intelligence, energy, and passion, committed to running it back until we get it perfect, and remembering to end it with a cheer.

goodbye

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 videoWH highlightsbox score

Part One: Click here

REMINDER: We will be streaming this game with commentary on my Twitch channel tomorrow at noon. So, uh, I guess spoiler alert for these posts?

Enjoy.

Washington comes out of the half holding a 21-17 lead, then pin Michigan on their own 12-yard line when Mercury Hayes can't find any space returning the second-half kickoff. In one play, that lead is gone, and Tyrone Wheatley is threatening the Rose Bowl single-game rushing record.

Wheatley's 88-yard touchdown run is the longest in Rose Bowl history. (The record wouldn't be broken until Oregon's De'Anthony Thomas ripped off a 91-yarder against Wisconsin in 2012.)

Washington's response is near-instantaneous. Napoleon Kaufman, bottled up in the running game all afternoon, gets loose on the ensuing kickoff; only a questionable angle and cornerback Dwayne Ware prevent a touchdown and the Huskies start the drive in Wolverine territory. Mark Brunell does most of the work from there, scrambling for a first down and throwing for another to set up a one-yard Kaufman touchdown plunge. 28-24, Huskies.

[Hit THE JUMP for the MAYBE-TOO-EXCITING CONCLUSION]