"Best plays of the decade" candidates so far?
Usually as a pre-season ritural, I go back into the mgoblog archives and find some of my favorite articles. I re-read the "best and worst of the decade' article from 2010 recently, and I was wondering, which plays from 2010-2015 will probably show up on a "best of" and "worst of" list come 2020?
"Best of" -- I'm thinking...
Denard's 90-yarder against Notre Dame
Denard completing a long pass to Junior Hemmingway with a guy draped around his leg.
Jeremy Gallon cloaking device
Jehu Chesson goes bowling for Domers
Jehu Chesson sets the Florida DB's pants on fire
Deveon Smith teleporting through the pile of bodies to run for a TD against BYU
Stuffing Minnesota on the 1-yard line at the end of the 2015 game.
Hopefully, many more to come in the next four years. Denard deserves so much more but you can only have so many 50+ yard runs on the list.
"Worst of", unfortunately, has a lot of candidates...
That horrible pass play against PSU in 2010 where J.T. Floyd gets completely turned around
Gardner's pick six against ND
Gardner's pick six against Akron
Gardner's QB sneak fumble against UConn
The 10-man punt TD against Utah
2015 MSU -- duh
The failed 2-point conversion against OSU
Vincent Smith's pass getting intercepted by ND
The failed 4th down conversion against MSU in the trash tornado game.
The South Carolina QB spinning out of a Jibreel Black sack attempt that would have put South Carolina into third and very long.
What else could be on the list when all is said and done?
August 16th, 2016 at 10:54 AM ^
was a great run but the touchdown at ND from 2010 was epic.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
Particularly given the situation. Choosing the best Denard run is like picking your favorite child. It changes every day ;)
August 16th, 2016 at 11:47 AM ^
2012 one right? At Ohio State?
August 16th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
Down by 3, Gardner's heave to Roundtree with about 13 seconds on the clock, where Roy tipped the ball to himself and caught it at the 9 yard line, setting up a tying field goal -- and Michigan would eventually win in OT, of course.
That's gotta be right up there with best plays of the decade.
August 16th, 2016 at 1:39 PM ^
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August 16th, 2016 at 3:29 PM ^
I live in San Francisco, but was at this game with my son, his first live M game ever at 7 years old.
Not only was it an amazing win, but I kept telling him not to give up, that the game isn't over until it is over (even knowing inside that it was probably over).
Watching them pull that one out was such a great teaching moment as a Dad, I have referred to it often since then.
August 16th, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
That was this decade right?
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August 16th, 2016 at 10:47 AM ^
August 16th, 2016 at 11:36 AM ^
I will always be jealous of anyone who saw that game in person. That would have been epic.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
Great senior year after the pain of Rich Rod years. ND night game + OSU win.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
Worth every penny
August 16th, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
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August 16th, 2016 at 4:37 PM ^
Only thing is, I fear I may never see a game that good in person ever again.
But...
Harbaugh.
Anything's possible. :-)
August 16th, 2016 at 7:38 PM ^
The Roundtree touchdown was right in front of me. I was on the goal line in that corner of the stadium. I remember walking around a few minutes later and letting out a primal scream of joy and this elderly couple looked so amused by me.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:58 PM ^
Had a damn good look at it from Section 17. I absolutely lost my mind, as did everyone around me.
August 16th, 2016 at 10:47 AM ^
We had 2 block punt attempts that lead to penalties and 1st downs when the game was 0-0..Maryland and osu....osu gets 1st down and scored a couple plays, or we would've returned a punt from the 50...
August 16th, 2016 at 2:51 PM ^
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August 16th, 2016 at 10:49 AM ^
August 16th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^
Honestly, was amazed that V. Smith got up, laughed it off, and walked away from that hit like nothing ever happened. That hit would've knocked most people unconscious.
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August 16th, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^
If I live to be 100, I will never forget Denard finding Gallon down the sideline against ND and then hanging one up to Roundtree for the win. That was absolutely amazing! Hard to believe that's already been 5 years ago!
August 16th, 2016 at 11:06 AM ^
I think we had a similar play call/design/situation in the 2009 Iowa game.
There was an underneath guy wide open and likely gets us into position to win.
Denard tried to hit the deeper man and the pass was cut off and intercepted.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^
None of these can top Christopher Martin. Best Play Ever.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
Gallon's bubble screen play vs Bucks to get us down to the 2.
Throwback screen to Vince Smith vs ND
Gibbons game winner vs State
Denard's pass to Dileo to set up Gibbons game winner
Gibbons game winner in Sugar Bowl
So many to choose from...
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August 16th, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
Gibbons game against State was like seriously the worst "revenge game" in history. I remember trying to be really pumped about it but feeling empty.
August 16th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^
Note: was this the m00n game ?
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August 16th, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
don't think so. I think moon was one year later, IIRC. We played there back to back years. And both games were very hard on the eyes.
August 16th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^
August 16th, 2016 at 3:42 PM ^
If you were in the stadium it was still really exciting. We were avoiding losing 5 in a row to them (MSU has never won more than 4 in a row against Michigan) and with the way MSU's 2012 ended up (6-6) it seemed as if the tide was shifting. Oh how wrong we were.
August 16th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^
the field goal was exciting, but it actually was a little sad seeing a Michigan team wildly celebrating a 2 point win over a bad Michigan State team like it had just won the Superbowl.
August 16th, 2016 at 3:58 PM ^
At the time MSU had only lost 3 times. Two of them were to Top 10 OSU and ND teams (the OSU loss was only by 1 point) and the other one was in double overtime to Iowa.
We didn't know that they were "bad" at that point. Remember, they had played in the Big Ten Championship game the year prior and won the Big Ten the year before that. Going into that game it was still likely that either of us could represent the Legends division in Indy. It was an exciting win.
August 17th, 2016 at 1:30 AM ^
It was the 900th win in school history.
Also, there was no wild celebration on the field. Michigan celebrates the trophy in the lockerroom.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
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August 16th, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
Or who can forget Gardner's jump-ball pass to Funchess for the game winning 2 point conversion against OSU....oh wait...they came back out in the same damn formation....
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August 16th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
August 16th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
On the field after he was wobbling around. I think that was the ultimate low point.
Edit: His leg was also basically wrecked and he was left out there.
I also forgot that he was put out there AGAIN after they couldn't find a helmet for Bellomy.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
feel like it was Hoke's low point as a coach and person quite frankly. First, if Morris was as ill prepared as he was, he never should have been put into the game despite the mounting pressure on Hoke. Second, he left him in long after he should have been taken out due to poor performance alone seemingly to "stick it to" fans and media who had been calling for Morris to play. Morris was in over his head and rest of the team had quit. It actually created a legitimately dangerous situation. It was the point when I went passed simply understanding that Hoke was not a good coach and actually began not liking him. I know that Shane has never been painted in an overly sympathetic way, but he was done wrong on that day and Hoke and Brandon's fate were absolutely sealed the moment all that went down. (In truth, Hoke's fate was likely sealed against Utah and possibly as early as the ND drubbing).
August 16th, 2016 at 1:34 PM ^
Knowing what we know in retrospect, I don't think Hoke's fate was sealed until the Minnesota game at the earliest. Part of this is the power of "what could be." We know now that Michigan was a horrible team in 2014. But, going into the season, we thought they'd be decent, and even going into the B1G schedule the possibility technically existed for Michigan to win the conference title, or at least compete for it.
So even the Utah loss, while clearly a sign of trouble, was not actually bad enough to close the door. After all, hadn't Michigan recovered from a disastrous non-conference season to look pretty good in 2007?
Of course, it was never going to happen. But we didn't know that.
And, much more importantly, Dave Brandon didn't know that. Hoke was DB's guy. And it seems apparent now that much of the appeal to DB was the ability for DB to meddle in the operation of the football team, something he would be unlikely to be willing to give up even if it meant the team had a chance to improve on its coach.
It's possible that had Brandon handled the Morris situation well enough to hold onto his job he would still have fired Hoke. But that would have been a reluctant, sacrificial firing at the end of a disastrous losing season. A 7-5 or 8-4 Hoke with DB probably (shamefully) keeps his job.
And firing Brandon was no sure thing. Athletic Directors are not generally held accountable for the poor records of a single sports program.
Were we done with Hoke after Notre Dame or Utah? Yeah. But Dave Brandon wasn't.
Hoke's fate was sealed when Brandon bungled the Morris injury, and then WD and Brian teamed up to demonstrate that he was an absolute jerk in emails. Not before.
August 16th, 2016 at 1:56 PM ^
with you that Brandon's fate was not sealed until the Minnesota game, but I think Hoke's was. The Utah game was really a debacle as well. Not on the same level as the Minnesota game, but that was the infamous 10 man punt, there was a lot of booing and people were leaving far before the weather delay. I guess it was theoretically possible that it could of turned around but I saw no evidence, absolutely none, that was leaving me to believe that it would. People were going to stop going to the games. Even if Brandon had kept his job he would have had to fire Hoke to keep selling tickets.
And in retrospect, why did we think they were going to be decent that year? Was it the Ohio State game the year before that gave us some confidence? But we got blown out by K-State after that. We sucked the year before, it is odd that we collectively thought that we would not suck with essentially the same roster one year later.
August 16th, 2016 at 2:19 PM ^
We thought we would be good because: 1. The OL couldn't possibly stay bad (yes it could). 2. Recruiting had been good and those recruits were going to step up (and they did... under Harbaugh). 3. Devin Gardner was not always consistent but he had real promise as a playmaking QB and a terrific QB wins games (unless he is totally destroyed by bad coaching and line play). 4. Al Borges was the scapegoat for everything that was wrong with the team and he got fired; in his place was a guy that was coordinating teams that made national championship runs (that the team was happy to see leave and that could not correct years of bad coaching, particularly on the OL). 5. Just on talent alone Michigan was better equipped than every other team in the B1G and should have been good enough to win most of those games (and they were a year later, once they got a real coach).
The simple fact that Hoke was there meant that the expectations were for improvement that season. The failure to gain that improvement demonstrated that Hoke was not capable of succeeding in the job.
Brandon would have had to fire Hoke after the 5-7 season, no question. But 5-7 was not a visible possibility after the Utah loss. The Shane Morris tinkering showed that there was panic in the upper reached, but it also showed that Brandon was flexing his muscle and that there was at least a hope on the part of him and Hoke that Hoke would survive the season, maybe finishing 7-5 or 8-4 with a surprise rivalry victory. (Seriously, flip Rutgers or Maryland, insert an upset against OSU, and imagine a secure Dave Brandon still in his position... an OSU win probably saves Hoke's job and ruins the football program forever).
August 16th, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^
the Borges firing. I remember now. We got rid of Borges and Hoke was once again springing eternal for the maize and blue. It is actually kind of funny now that we concluded that was the problem.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
Unfortunately, there have been too many....there was a stretch where I think we all just assumed bad things were going to happen, we were usually correct....
August 16th, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
Just flat out smoked them.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
The go for 2 playcall against OSU when Devin played his heart out on a broken foot. Why not give him a play that has a chance.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
Best play? "They left him alone!" or possibly little man Tate to Matthews vs ND, or every single Denard scramble ever played on a loop.
I'm not really sure which entire game was worse, Al Borges vs Alabama up the middle 87 times in a row for no gain, or the Al Borges Tackle-Over turnover marathon in South Bend.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
Borgess shitty playcalling the entire 2nd half vs OSU? Hoke could have been like 3-1 vs them.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
August 16th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
Did I miss the blocked punt against MSU last year as a worst play?
August 16th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
By far, it's the worst play against Michigan that's happened since I've been watching. I can't remember anything more heart-wrenching.
Colorado maybe, but I was kinda young at the time.
August 16th, 2016 at 11:45 AM ^
rings a bell....
August 16th, 2016 at 2:23 PM ^
I'm with Leo. This is the best I can explain why:
App State: Here we go boys, Um, Oh...No. Come on. What are you doing? Guys? Please? Aren't we supposed to be top 5? Don't lose. Oh my lord. Seriously, don't lose. This is embarrassing. We're gonna lose. ---
Crap.
MSU: Let's go. Come on. God I hate MSU. Beat these jackasses. Yes. Yes! Yes! YES! YEAAAAHHH!! WE DID IT!!! ---
F**K!!