Dumb & Strange Request Re: Maryland 2014
Peak offseason post incoming:
I realized that the only Michigan game I have not seen (whether live or on tape delay) since becoming a diehard fan 15+ years ago is Maryland 2014. I was out in California on the day of the game, which was a perfect excuse to ignore the ignominious end to the Hoke era.
For no other reason than to see what happened, I'm interested in watching it, or at least the ostensible highlights. However, no video trace of this game seems to exist online. I've searched high and low and the closest I can get is a video of the MMB's halftime performance. It's strange to me that no Maryland fan or account has commemorated the team walking into the Big House and beating Michigan, but I digress.
If anyone has a lead on literally any footage of this game, I would be indebted to you. Alright, neg away!
I was actually at this game - only one I caught that year. It was a sad day.
Hoke era? What do you mean? We had a coach named Hoke?
Come on, don't you remember? He was DE/DL coach for the first half of Lloyd Carr's time as head coach (including the 1997 team).
He left to become head coach at a MAC school, but I don't know what happened to him after that.
Here's a better question: why do you want to remember anything about that season?
Watching them lose to a freaking Randy Edsall coached Maryland team? Losing to Rutgers? Getting punk'd by Minnesota? Getting humiliated by MSU and de-pantsed by ND 31-0, and then just watching OSU toy with us and dangling a possible victory in front of us for a half before snatching it away like they always did?
Unless watching them beat App State gave you some semblance of closure (which we all know it didn't), that season had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Even with beating Penn State, that was still a bad football game between two very bad football teams. Haven't watched a single highlight of that season since the season actually happened, and I probably never will again.
I have wiped this game from my memory. Things I remember of 2014, off the top of my head: being shutout by ND, our only shutout in the last 40 years; losing to Utah, with the conclusion after the rain delay and not on TV; losing the jug, and of course concussion-gate; the entire end of the Dave Brandon saga; losing to Sparty and the "controversy" of the tent stake; Norfleet and beating Penn State; the M00N game; being surprisingly competitive with Ohio State...who then snuck into the playoff and ended up winning the natty.
That may have been the most depressing season of my Michigan fandom. 2008 was rough but I knew it was a transition. 2020 was rough, but even then I knew it wasn't Harbaugh's MO, and it wasn't just the complete disorganized nonsense of 2014. And all of those seasons had moments of hope - 2008 we had the wiscy comeback, 2020 we won the Jug, but 2014 we got shut out in our 2nd game and the high point was Norfleet dancing against a sanctioned Penn State squad. Possibly the worst season since the Willis Ward saga in M football history.
Never heard of it.
That day has been scrubbed from history - the power of the Michigan difference!
All I remember is trailing by a touchdown late in the 4th quarter, Norfleet taking a return to the house (can't remember if it was a kickoff return or a punt return), which would have forced overtime.....but then, OF COURSE the flag comes out. Holding? Clipping? Who the crap knows.
That was the most 2014 thing that could have happened at that very moment. The game was not going to end any other way.