Coach Hanlon Scores Billy Taylor’s Touchdown
[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.
-----------------------------
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).
-----------------------------
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”
Seriously. I misread his line, and thought the comment for Seymour was actually for Rather. I watched him 10 times, trying to figure out how knocking his guy down, into a second OSU player, should have been "sustained." I was very amused when I reread the scoring and realized my error.
That block to take out 2 guys was legit!
Agreed. It took out two guys and opened the field for Taylor!
AC
Cipa coached me in High School and i got to play alongside his sons. Cipa is the man plain and simple. That guy made some huge plays for Michigan. Ufer said so.
This type of analysis shows how intricate and exacting football can be. The nuts and bolts of a single play can be talked about for hours. Love the analysis and attention to detail.
This is great content, but I'd like it more if you guys drafted all the players on the field for that play and then hypothesized about how your respective squads would do against each other.
(I'm just kidding, don't get your briefs in a bunch.)
It took years of great coaching to make this play happen.
The block by Seyferth is a thing of beauty,
but the play call by the BACKUP quarterback Seyferth, his execution of the pitch and his block are just excellent execution.
Well done by all concerned!
Looking forward to seeing more blocking like that (by the whole team) in the upcoming season!
It's funny to think of Brandstatter as just another player to be graded (and not that well).
Brandy earned plenty of good grades...
I went to this game, and never saw a reason to go to another until I could afford really good seats. I still don't think I've attended a UM game that could top it.
Slade was in my German class. He was so beat up on Monday, he practically crawled into the classroom. That's what I remember best about UM/OSU.
I was there.
I'm giving Fritz Seyfourth a 5.
That's one bonus point because ..... Buckeyes.
please do many more.
Can you include Coach Hanlon's first round Draftageddon picks?
The first thing that jumped out at me were a couple of fantastic blocks. You know you're an old school Michigan fan, when blocks get you excited.
Taylor’s 1971 game-winning touchdown at Ohio State.This game was in Ann Arbor.
By modern standards, that's an absolutely amazing defensive alignment. I had to go and find the play-by play. Michigan had just converted fourth and short -- so, on first down, from the 21 yard line, with a four point lead, Ohio State had ten -- count 'em -- men in the box.
The forward pass had been legal for some 66 years, and yet Ohio State put ten in the box on the 21 yard line. And Michigan's automatic check was to an option. Not, say, a downfield pass. Man, football was crazy back then.
PS: For added enjoyment, read the remainder of the play-by-play (linked above) after Touchdown Billy Taylor. :-) Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6G4XolI2zQ
The play - both defense and offense - tells you exactly where Bo and Woody's head's were in 1971. There was no way either was going to throw the ball in that situation, especially with a backup QB in the game. Bo knew he wasn't going to throw, and Woody knew damn well Bo wouldn't throw the ball. God, I miss that Ten Year War!!!
When you watch the video, there is a link to another video when it ends. It's a video of the play where Ohio State tried to throw to make a come back at the end of the game, the one where Michigan picked it off and Woody thought it was PI and tore up the yard markers in anger.
When you look at that throw, you know why Ohio State and Michigan did not like to throw in crucial situations. They both sucked at it.
All of college football sucked at it until the 80's when teams like Miami and UCLA and BYU began to emphasize it as the foundation of their offense, not just something you did as a trick play or when you were desperate.
EDIT: Don posted it below.
As Woody said, there are only three things that can happen when you pass the ball. And two of them are bad...
Pure M football. Execution by every Man.
Great exucution has always been the key to success in football. If everyone excutes their assignment the way any offensive play is is drawn up then every play would go for a touchdown.
Touchdown Billy Taylor put us ahead, but Darden's interception sealed the deal. The bonus is Woody going apeshit.
No the best part is after Darden's interception Woody went off on the refs trying to make up an interference call, got tossed out, and had to go sit alone in the visitor's locker room listening to the Michigan fans celebrating.
My freshman year. What a game!
on the fourth and one----michigan gave the ball to senior fb fritz seyferth-----rather than bigger/faster/but younger fb ed shuttlesworth--------i know it's only one play but using the more experienced player rather than the more talented player seems like something that it discussed on this board even now
Ufer was the bset.
You can tell he grew up in pre-television radio where you had to continuously paint the picture for your audience, not just do the play by play.
It's a lost art. Even today's radio-only announcers don't have it like Ufer did.
Thanks!---I remember the 4th down conversion. From the endzone we had a great view of Seyfirth going over the line to pick it up.
Fred Jackson, the RB coach (a holdover from Bump Elliott going back to Fielding Yost) was quoted as saying Billy Taylor was, "Like Elroy Hirsch, but fast."
ESPN added, "Nice play, but will it work against SEC speed?"
Watching clips from this game I'm reminded of how much I hated Randy Gradishar. Fantastic linebacker which explains my hate.
Thanks for sharing - it reinforces how integrated football is with every guy playing a role and the attention to detail that the coaching staff had.
I was a freshman Engineering student, freezing my butt off in the North endzone. I'd love to see the Darden INT that sealed the game and drove Woody bonkers.
I don't believe Hayes was tossd from game.OSU received 2 unsportsmanlike penalties.I can't find any mention of the Big 10 disciplining Hayes.Commishioner Wayne Duke had no comment the next day.I did find several article condemning Hayes behavior,including one from the OSU Student Newspaper & The Cleveland Plain Dealer.I welcome any links showing hayes was disciplined by Big 10 and/or thrown out of the game.Woody refused to speak with reporters after the game.The only non-OSU person to get in locker room was Gov.of Ohio.
Man if the camera would just pan a smidge more to the right you'd see ten year old me right behind the wall in the firs t2 or 3 rows, right there on the side of the endzone, going nuts! Almost the exact spot I was in for Desmond's Heisman pose! He pretty much positioned himself to do the pose almost just for me!
The great Shuttlesworth, mentioned above, was my 7th grade math tutor in '73, the year of the famous 10-10 tie (M beats Ohio 10 to 10). I sat dead in the same endzone that year and watched Easy Ed "Run through that Ohio State line like a hot knife through butter" in the words of Ufer in our 10-10 domination!
Somewhere there must be a photo or video of me sticking my arm out & aiming my camera down right over the heads of the mob smothering Woodson in the corner of that endzone after he scored on the punt return in The Game in '97
Man, I was right in the right spot for a ton of great or famous plays!
I had the perfect view of the Phantom touchdown, about 20/25 rows up at the 5 yardline on the press box side... but I didn't see the fumble in live action, it just looked like he scored a touchdown & I didn't find out until later what really happened! Many more too!
and I have been coming here since 2010. Hats off!
Comments