jerry hanlon

2 hours and 52 minutes

Michigan historian Dr. Sap and I have started a new podcast on the lore of Michigan football. And this time we were extraordinarily lucky to have as our guests the defensive captain of the 1976 Wolverines, Calvin O’Neal, and Bo Schembechler’s right hand man and greatest offensive line coach in football history (@ me!) Jerry Hanlon.

Previously: 1980, 1999, 1901, 1964

THE SPONSOR:

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1. GIMMICKY TOP FIVE: YOU KNOW IT’S A BO SEASON WHEN…

(starts at 1:00)

Seth & Sap set the stage for the Most Bo season of the Bo era. Lots of running, and a loss on natural grass to a future Big Ten West team. Nationally: Pitt had Tony Dorsett, USC, Alabama, and Ohio State were the other contenders. Oklahoma and Texas were great teams too.

2. SETTING THE STAGE

(starts at 11:22)

Preseason #1 to some. Bring back most of the offense, and a fair bit of the defense too, though there’s concern on the defensive line. Bo has open heart surgery in the spring. Coming off the disappointment of 1975. Run through the roster. Story of Mike Kenn: had to wait most of a week after signing day for his LOI because he was 6’6"/205—tried to make him a tight end but according to Hanlon: “It was like throwing the ball against that wall.” Story of O’Neal’s recruitment: Moeller worked him out of heading to MSU, MSU showed up with a limo.

3. THE GAMES PART I

(starts at 48:19)

We go through every game, from the one that Calvin O’Neal got an interception on to the many, many, many games when he did not. Sap plays us some clips from inside the locker room at halftime of the Wake Forest game. Bo gets hollered at for running up the score by putting 70 on the President’s Navy the week after the President visits. Fake punt takes the air out of MSU.

4. THE GAMES PART II

(starts at 1:34:06)

What happened against Purdue? What happened to Illinois when they came for senior day after that? What happened to all the record books after that game, and what was the record for passing touchdowns in a season before? Which Michigan player told Jerry Hanlon he guaranteed not just a win but a shoutout over Ohio State? Which quarterback did they have in Columbus anyway? Who took Ufer’s horn?

5. ROSE BOWL & WRAP

(starts at 2:09:21)

The players are all given hideous blue jerseys to go on the Tonight Show. Also hideous injuries during that game. Hanlon wonders what they could have done to better prepare their teams for those Rose Bowls, because they never had a good performance—Sap suggests it was getting an indoor facility so they could, you know, practice before the bowl games. We talk about where this team fits in the pantheon of teams, MVPs, most overlooked players, and how the players felt when the maize (not yellow) pants came back.

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MUSIC

• "The Rubberband Man"—The Spinners
• "The Boys Are Back in Town"—Thin Lizzy
• "Tie Your Mother Down"—Queen
• “Something He Can Feel”—Aretha Franklin
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• Direct download link (right-click/save-as)
• What's with the theme music?

You want to beat your friends

Special Guests: Hall of Fame coach and 1969 Michigan defensive coordinator Jim Young, 1969 Michigan person who coordinated the offense but did not have the title of offensive coordinator Jerry Hanlon, Michigan historian Steve "Dr. Sap" Sapardanis, and MGoBlog super-genius Seth Fisher.

Not appearing: Craig Ross & Ed Feng because this was a special episode: 1/2 where we discuss Hail to the Victors 2019, which is now available from the MGoStore, UGP, The Bo Store, Nicola's, Literati, and Amazon Kindle. And Flinties (or people coming home from up north): we plan to have it at The Split Mitt by Wednesday next week.

Things discussed:

• The 1969 Michigan-Ohio State gameplan: "Veer plug" defense to contain Rex Kern, Ohio State's own fullback dive, play-action, and their basic reverse-pivot handoffs to the running back and power gap blocking. Young recalled the special punt return package "right middle return" was a counter to the standard edge blocking.
• Woody playing up the "Greatest team in a century"
• "50" on everything
• Jim Young's "Those who stay…" sign
• Jim Young's other sign "Will you bow down…"
• Woody Hayes on the sideline
• That time Jerry Hanlon asked out Debbie Reynolds
• The fact that Debbie married a Jewish guy named Fisher (just saying)

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Podbean.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• Direct download link (right-click/save as)
• What's with the theme music?

"What happened is we got our kids to block and tackle better than their kids, and that's how you win football games." –Jerry Hanlon

[COOL NEWS: MGoBlog will be at WTKA this Thursday, July 13, starting at 8:30 a.m. The first hour we’ll have Billy Taylor, Fritz Seyferth, Dr. Sap, and possibly Jim Brandstatter and Larry Cipa on to talk about BT’s TD and the early Bo years. Afterward Ace and Brian and I will talk about the stuff in HTTV, which is basically this football season.]

Coach Hanlon deserves a helmet sticker for this one. [Dr Sap]

In this year’s edition of Hail to the Victors (now sold in our online store, at Ann Arbor Underground Printing locations, at Literati, and on Kindle) Michigan historian Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis—known to many of you as the author of Dr. Sap’s Decals—spoke with all the key guys involved in Billy Taylor’s 1971 game-winning touchdown on Ohio State. If you, like me, weren’t even a glimmer in some miscreant college students’ eyes at the time, here’s that play.

Coach Jerry Hanlon, Bo’s right hand man and definitively untitled guy who happened to do a lot of offensive coordination, was kind enough to go over the playcall with Dr. Sap for his article. The short version is it was a crack option sweep that they had prepared in case Ohio State showed an 8-man (goal line) front. The playbook—which Coach shared with us—had the exact eventuality planned and practiced. In fact the notes from Hanlon’s copy explicitly called for his quarterback to check—“Recognition 8 call possiblity”—into this if Ohio State went to a goal line.

Always prepared.

That is exactly what (backup) QB Larry Cipa did. So to all you UFR scorers at home, this play is definitely some kind of RPS. But there’s an older scoring system. Coach Hanlon was also the guy responsible for giving out helmet decals. So Dr. Sap asked who got one for this play, and after joking everybody did, Coach realized the kindly answer simply wouldn’t do. Not at Bo’s Schembechler’s Michigan. No, we demanded the actual scoring system. He unsurprisingly didn’t remember exactly, so Coach went over every guy’s assignment and re-scored it for us.

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Here’s the criteria the coaches used back in the day to award decals to each of their position players:

1) Was the correct assignment carried out by the player?
2) Did the player execute the proper technique?
3) Did the player follow-through on his assignment?
4) Did the player “get” his man?

If you scored 3 or higher, you were awarded a helmet sticker, but if you didn’t “get” your man, “NO STICKER FOR YOU!”

Here is the play (click to open in a different window to read):

And here are the position assignments for play 58/59:

Back-Side TE (Paul Seal): Release shallow along Line of Scrimmage; Throw and Roll 3 times.

Back-Side tackle (Jim Coode): Lead inside #2 cross-field; Peel or Turn upfield.

Back-Side Guard (Reggie McKenzie): Lead block to play-side; Head up middle guard if exposed.

Center (Guy Murdock): Lead Block “0” in odd defense; Lead with front foot to front-side; scramble and sustain; Seal backside. Even defense – lead front-side gap and pick up back-side linebacker.

Front-Side Guard (Tom Coyle): Lead block ready to pick up angle in tackle when #1 is LB; Fire hard with head up; Do not get body turned; Sustain.

Front-Side Tackle (Jim Brandstatter): Lead block #2; Get head and arms beyond; Scramble and sustain; Keep long axis of body upfield; Be ready to pick up LB on angle in.

Front-Side Tight End (Paul Seymour): Seal man in tackle area; If not needed, seal LB; Release deeper; Ready to block man crossing your face; Prevent penetration; Block #3(DE) if #4(CB) is on Line of Scrimmage.

Front-Side Split-Out (Bo Rather): Use Rooster or Crack block; On corner coverage, bump corner.

Quarterback (Larry Cipa): Open and sprint to the end; Option End; Pitch ball whenever possible. Look pitch to tailback.

Fullback (Fritz Seyferth): Sprint to play-side gaining one yard to end-of-line area; Do not turn up too soon; Sprint to widest defender and overthrow on him; Block any defender who crosses your path.

Tailback (Billy Taylor): Sprint to play-side; Keeping phase (4 yards away) on FB; Keep eyes on QB; Look ball in on pitch; Cut off the FB’s block (never cut upfield until FB blocks).

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So without further ado, here’s how he’d score it:

Seal: “Released inside. Not a great block. Made contact. Changed course of defender. (3)”

Coode: “Led inside, but did not get upfield. Don’t really want to give him a two…(reluctant 2)”

McKenzie: “4”

Murdock: “4”

Coyle: “4”

Brandstatter: “Led technically on 2-Call. Did not “get” man, changed his course enough…(2, borderline 3)”

Seymour: “Did not sustain, but did seal inside. (3)”

Rather: “Good position & technique. Should have followed-through more. (4)”

Cipa: “Pretty good optioning of end, but does end up blocking him. (4)”

Seyferth: “Great open-field block. Just a wonderful block. (4)”

Taylor: “4”