What Year were we closest to playing for a National Championship...but didn't?
Talking of near misses in the Henson thread got me to thinking of some of our near misses. 06 will come to everyone's mind recently. But I think we forget but for a game or two here and there, how many other times we could have had a shot. (Especially when you take into consideration that there have been many a time where 1 loss teams played for the title, so we would have had a shot).
I was specifically thinking of 99, where we lost because Henson had a horrid first half against MSU, and the "I like them both" experiment ended in the second half for the season, and Illinois, blowing that huge lead, then killing the comeback with a high snap. Either one would have put us in the title game, IIRC. And Alabama was probably as good a team in the country, so we would have had a shot in the game.
But there are many others....Stanford Rose Bowl losses, Bo's last game, if you want to go historic...one or two less ties in '92....you can go backwards or forwards. So, what do you think was our best shot to be playing in the title game, if things had just been a little different?
1973
2006. You don't get much closer than that.
CRABLE!!!!!! (Shaking fist)
If he hadn't pursued so strongly, he might have missed him all together.
I have watched that play a hundred times. It was a poor call. No way should Crable be blamed at all.
Please don't neg me for this but I am going to take a second to defend myself. Analysts who have watched the play over and over again said that Troy Smith was inbounds BUT Crable did lead with his helmet. So it was fifteen no matter what.
I just can't get that worked up about that call. Honestly, I didn't feel like we went toe-to-toe with OSU that day. I felt like they outplayed us and a +3 turnover margin kept us in the game. That was one of the only 3rd-down stops we got all game. Even if we'd have gotten the ball back and scored, I wouldn't have felt that confident about us getting a stop. We just had a horrible defensive gameplan that day. Had we not gotten the three takeaways, it could have been NW 2000-esque.
I can't even blame Crable. It looked like Smith was running, and you had to respect his scrambling ability. It was a weak call in a huge moment, but if I were in Shawn Crable's shoes I would have made the same play.
I always thought Crable got way too much blame for losing that game. The play he made is the play I would expect my LB to make on the sideline against a QB with Troy Smith's scrambling ability. The penalty call/no call could've gone either way, but unfortunately it went against us. After the penalty, Michigan still had a chance to hold OSU to a field goal and get the ball back with only a 7 point deficit and over 5 minutes left, but they failed.
Michigan had a lot of plays that were much worse than the Crable penalty IMO. Terrible angles by our safeties gave OSU 2 50+ yard TD runs. Henne also overthrew a wide-open Manningham downfield a few times that day. Unfortunaltely for Crable, people tend to blame him for the loss because his penalty was the final nail in the coffin.
While I would have loved to play for it... I was so happy at Lloyd not whining his way into the National Title Game. I still remember watching ESPN that day, Lloyd saying things like "I'm not going to demean myself to posturing and politics, I think our play on the field says it all."
Then Urban "Whiny Bitch" Meyer started whining and bitching to the ESPN talking heads about why Florida should go to the game instead of us.
Lloyd had class, and the Cap 1 bowl had to be great for Lloyd.
Lloyd's response made me very proud to be associated with the University of Michigan
(edit: my association with M Football is as a fan... but a guy can dream)
My sentiments exactly.
Lloyd:
"The BCS is a system that governs and will take care of all that," Carr said. "I think it will be very interesting to see what transpires in the polls as we go forward. But I don't care to speculate. I know it will probably be very controversial either way. So that's what we like."
Urban:
"If that does happen," Meyer said about a possible rematch between Ohio State and Michigan in the national title game, "all the (university) presidents need to get together immediately and put together a playoff system.
"I mean like now," he added, "January or whenever to get that done."
We played USC in the Rose Bowl that year. We played in the Capital One Bowl against Florida the following year.
pretty sure he knew that. He was stating that it was sweet to beat their ass the following year and Lloyd must have felt pretty good about it too.
Thanks
I was pretty young for most of what you said, but I'd say 2006. We lost a tight game to OSU, and Florida got picked to go play OSU over us. I would say that's the closest that I remember. We win that game and we were in. It was as simple as that. It didn't happen, though, and I think we all remember that season with a little bit of disappointment.
...when we lost 12-10 in Ames to Iowa in a #1 vs #2 matchup on a game ending field goal then inexplicably tied Illinois 3-3 in Champaign. We defeated Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl and finished ranked #2 in the nation.
1985 and 06 SOOOOOO close :(
grrrrrrrrr damn ref calling a personal foul on Crable JUST LET THEM PLAY YOU CAN'T CALL THAT IT WAS IN THE HEAT OF THE PLAY
I haven't been able to bring myself to re-watch it, but wasn't Crable's penalty a helmet-to-helmet hit instead of a late hit?
I don't remember if they called it helmet to helmet but I don't think there's any way they would have called that a penalty (late hit or otherwise) if Crable hadn't come in with his head down. Crable launched while Smith still had the ball, and Smith still had a foot in bounds when Crable hit him. If he would have led with his shoulder or gotten his hands up I don't think it would have been called.
Sigh.
Ames. Sad thing was Iowa got destroyed in the Rose Bowl later that year. Ronnie Harmon fumbled all day long.
Sad thing was Iowa got destroyed in the Rose Bowl later that year. Ronnie Harmon fumbled all day long.
Yeah. Weird how that kept happening.
...good correction.
1985 was the first football season where my Dad would routinely take me to home games. Before this point I usually got to go to one meh game a season, because I was young and not too focused on sports. This was the season when I became completely invested in Michigan football and this game was the first gut punch game I ever suffered. Rob {*BLEEPING*} Houghtlin!
Strange that we were playing Iowa in Ames instead of Iowa City that year. Was it a bizzaro season?
Maybe not quite as recent as you were thinking, but the 1964 team came within two feet of probably winning an even-more-fictitious-than-the-goofy-ass-system-we-have-today national championship.
My father was on that team and my early childhood was peppered with his Vietnam-esque flashbacks of the loss to Purdue.
It's always good to remind everyone that there was football before the last ten years. And we've felt the same pain, at various points. Michigan has been having games of horror for a long time. Though you have to go past the year you mentioned to match the last couple of years.....
I was a freshman in 1964 and that was the year that I fell in love with Michigan football (and at least four gorgeous girls as I remember). The expectations for that team were tepid a best, but after we beat Roger Staubach (yes Navy was still a power) and then upset a good MSU team in East Lansing hope was running high. As I recall Purdue outplayed us for the first half but then we came storming back to tie.... no wait... cautious Bump shocked everyone by going for two down 20-21 at home. The conversion failed, but we got the ball back with enough time for a drive and our offense found its groove for the first time all day. Several gashing plays had us in Purdue territory, but then we slowed down and were faced with a fourth and one. I will always remember the deflation in the crowd upon hearing the announcer say: "Seger and Volk in for Michigan". That meant a long field goal try was coming, and given our kicking game it was a virtual surrender. There was still time left and we had a great fullback in Mel Anthony, but I guess Bump had used up his one gamble for the day. It was a crushing defeat, but no one at that time could have imagined that it would cost the Wolverines a National Championship.
When did the University of Iowa move to Ames? Last I checked the Hawkeyes call Iowa City home and Iowa State is in Ames.... LOL....
Didn't the Iowa FG hit the crossbar and go in? It was a raining day in Iowa City too, neither team could get much going, but I thought out 10-9 lead was gonna hold.
...of course, not Ames. No, the FG cleared the crossbar without incident. It was only a 29 yarder.
We were 10-0 and #3 in the polls going into the Ohio State game. The Buckeyes were #4, and the only teams ahead of us were Oklahoma and USC. We would have played the Trojans in the Rose Bowl, and if we managed to beat them we probably would have at least shared the NC with OK. USC was the UPI national champion and OK was declared the champion by AP.
I still think Lantry's kick was good.
The 2003 team was ranked first after we drubbed Notre Dame 38-0 at home. We were the toast of college football at that point, but then we went into that midseason funk where we lost close games to Oregon and Iowa in 3 weeks. The next week we were trailing Minnesota by 21 points before we finally snapped out of it and put on that epic comeback (thank you Jacob Stewart). We rolled through the rest of the conference schedule, won the Big 10 outright and by the end of the season, even at 10-2, we had a slim chance of sliding up to the #2 spot in the BCS rankings.
Of all of Lloyd's great Michigan teams, that 2003 squad seems to get overlooked. Whenever I play the "what if?" game, that's usually the first squad I go back to, because they were really good.
That Iowa game was miserable
but we weren't actually "ranked first" after the Notre Dame game. IIRC we were ranked #3 after that game in both polls (not ambitious enough to verify this right now though).
But yeah, if it wasn't for our HORRENDOUS special teams play in both the Oregon game (gave up a punt return for a TD and a blocked punt)* and the Iowa game (2 blocked punts)*, we would have rolled through the regular season undefeated.
* - Again, IIRC
You can pin the Iowa loss on special teams, but Oregon was a teamwide failure. We made a nice last-ditch comeback to make the final score respectable, but for about 55 of the game's 60 minutes they outplayed us.
That was the game at Oregon, right? My memory is a little shaky but I recall thinking that we ran into an absolute buzzsaw that day. The Oregon team and fans seemed to be drooling at the chance to play Michigan and they played out of their minds that day. We still managed to play hard and make it close, but I don't think anybody could have won in Oregon that day. Shit like that just happens sometimes.
IIRC we were ranked #3 after that game in both polls (not ambitious enough to verify this right now though).
Did the checking and you are correct. We were ranked third going into the Oregon game. I do recall Corso gushing over us after whipping the Irish and saying we were the number one team in the country, which is probably why my memory of the event is faulty. My bad.
The funny thing is didn't UM's first score come as a result of UM blocking a FG attempt by Oregon and running it back for a TD?
If I remember correctly Oregon then marched down the field again. When the first quarter ended, the UM offense had barely seen the field.
Actually yeah, you're right. We let them march down the field on their first possesion, stuffed them at the goal line, and then blocked a chip shot FG attempt (I think it was seriously a 20 yard attempt) and returned it for a TD. I think Marlin Jackson was the one who took it back. Anyway, it was downhill for us from there until a late comeback attempt.
Interestingly enough, not too long after that game (I think the next week, actually), Wazzou went into Eugene and DESTROYED Oregon, after they had lost to the same shitty Notre Dame team in their opener that we beat up on in Week 3. College football can be crazy-making...
....but Jeremy LeSueur is the first name that popped into my head for the blocked FG return.
I still have a tough time deciding which game I was more pissed off watching. That was a brutal three week stretch after so much promise...
My wife and I found out that morning that we were having identical twin boys and later that day we went to a Michigan party here in Atlanta and watched Chris Perry go ballistic over the ND defense.
I agree with 06. We were right on the doorstep...damn it...
2008. If only 9 of those games had gone differently...........
guy you are JG
last years team was closer as they only needed 7 games to go differently
So close. By my estimation, we only needed these few breaks to go Michigan's way:
Utah: get the two-point conversion, win in OT.
Notre Dame: eliminate a few of those turnovers and win handily.
Illinois: Juice transfers to Syracuse just before kickoff (Orange Juice. Get it?) and get the stops to squeak by.
Toledo: score a touchdown on that final possession to win.
Penn State: game called at halftime because of freak spontaneous October hurricane. In Pennsylvania.
Michigan State: shady bookie gets in touch with Hoyer and Ringer before game and pays them big money to throw it.
Purdue: Justin Siller ineligble prior to 2008 season instead of 2009 season; fourth-string QB has less success and UM wins 42-35.
Northwestern: force a couple incompletions instead of TD passes in the 3rd to win 14-10.
Ohio State: ... hmmm. I can't come up with anything. There is absolutely no scenario under which Michigan would have won this game.
I guess I was wrong. They were *this close* to being 11-1, though.
First, Stevie Brown returns his first quarter interception for a touchdown (he didn't and they missed a field goal).
Immediately afterwards a fluke snow storm dumps 31 inches of snow on the field. Neither team can do anything on offense afterwards, and Michigan holds on in a battle of punting mistakes to win 9-4.
9-0-3. One more score of any kind against two of the three (Notre Dame, Illinois and a crappy Ohio State team) and the Rose Bowl win over Washington would have gotten a national title.
1999, as someone else mentioned above...two very close losses.
2000, three losses by three, one and three points.
Then, of course, there's 1905. Michigan outscored 12 straight opponents by a combined 495...to nothing. Twelve straight wins...all shutouts. Beat Ohio State 40-zip. But the squad folded against Chicago. They lost 2-0.
The same kinda thing happened in 1907 against Penn.
William Clark, the tailback who cost Michigan the 1905 game against Chicago ended up killing himself 27 years later over his fumble that caused a safety.