The Teams: 1991
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Previously: 1879, 1901, 1918, 1925, 1932, 1947, 1950, 1964, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1988, 1999
Special Guests: We've got both defensive captain/Butkus winner Erick Anderson, and 1991 scout team running back of the year Tyrone Wheatley!
1. SETUP AND PAYOFF
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Year 2 of Gary Moeller, coming off a year Iowa went to the Rose Bowl after Michigan lost to them and MSU by a point in consecutive weeks. Stadium renovated, back to grass! This one's personal.
2. THE TEAM
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Offense: Elvis Grbac is Dr. Touch. Stacked backfield; Ricky was the cutter, Jesse had the feet, Wheatley had the speed, Legette had no neck. Desmond went into the season #2 to Derrick Alexander, who got hurt and walk-on Yale Van Dyne stepped up. Big, mean, versatile OL. Ty Wheatley's recruiting story.
Defense: Mike Evans is a walk-on from Massachusetts, Lance Dottin's another big time athlete from there. Hutchinson makes everyone look good, Buster Stanley and Tony Henderson were young for NG but great. Athletes in Brian Townsend and Neil Simpson rotate with big Martin Davis. Young corners Dwayne Ware and Alfie Burch and new safeties Otis Williams and Corwin Brown replacing longtime starters. J.D. Carlson's XP streak.
3. THE NONCONFERENCE
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Slow BC start and constant big plays getting called back: no panic, just a setup for the Massachusetts guys to shine. Two big-time games: not gonna lose a 5th in a row to Notre Dame, total confidence even on the 4th and 1 call, but ND was full of talent. FSU threw out all the trick plays, including the Transcontinental, had some All-Americans, but Michigan was just as good.
4. THE BIG TEN AND ROSE BOWL
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Team finds itself, offense redesigned not just for Desmond but for scoring quickly so they don't have another FSU. Dangerous MSU and more dangerous Indiana, which needs a goal line stand (suck it Erick's brother!). Sleepy midseason—freshmen hit a wall, coaches keep them motivated for blowouts of Minnesota, Purdue, Northwestern, and Illinois. Ready for everything Ohio State had. Washington was another story—most talented team they played. Cornerbacks playing linebacker, linebacker playing end, and one of the best players of the era at DT.
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MUSIC:
- "Scenario"—A Tribe Called Quest
- "Lithium"—Nirvana
- "Breakdown"—Guns 'n Roses
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Download link. (right-click, download)
- What's with the theme music?
How many times have you been mistaken for Eddie Azcona, Tyrone?
It's worth sitting through just to hear Wheatley comparing himself to algae.
UWash had some great teams from 1990-1992. Still, I still believe if Alexander was healthy, the Rose Bowl would've been competitive for 4 quarters.
At the time, everybody thought Wash was 'roided up big time.
Everett, Elliott and Skrepenak got the accolades, and rightly so, but Joe Cocozzo was an absolute mauler, and he had a really fun name to say.
P.S. Great choice of album covers.
I bought Blood Sex Sugar Magik with a Harmony House gift certificate in December 1992 because the girl I liked said I gotta listen to them and I just got my first CD player. I made her a tape copy of my CD and drew the album cover on cassette label. Won me a roller skating date.
Go on . . .
Skene wasn't a starter his junior year? For all of his non-stop criticism on one of the other sites I assumed he was at least a multi year AA.
I've been able to speak to offensive linemen from a lot of different ages and let me tell you the one constant in offensive line play is that since *WE* played the new kids are soft and don't know the first thing about technique. Also they are most definitely on our lawns.
There's some truth to it--guys who spent four years learning how to block power from Bo Schembechler and Jerry Hanlon before seeing the field are going to find fault with 99% of NFL offensive linemen, because literally nobody has ever gotten better OL coaching than you could from those two guys in a time when they weren't restricted to so little of it. Of course a guy who spent 40 hours a week with Hanlon and Les Miles thinks a guy who gets half of that with Warinner doesn't have good technique. It is what it is.
Great, great stuff. You're in pretty good shape if Tyrone Wheatley is just another option in your backfield.
Regarding that FSU bit: Virginia Tech people said the same thing after their national-title game. They just hit the big plays! That's what the vintage Bowden teams were all about.
I was at the '91 FSU game. Michigan was NOT just as good.
They were certainly better that they had been, and it's a credit to them to be in the same discussion as FSU, but FSU had talent and speed everywhere.
Michigan still only had it at an FSU-level in certain spots and still lagged in key spots, especially DL and LB.
You could really see it watching that Transcontinental from the endzone. The zigs and zags of it had M defenders chasing - and never catching - FSU ghosts, once assignment and contain broke down and pure athleticism needed to take over.
Sadly, I agree with this.
I didn't watch the game live. It was a *great* autumn day in Michigan and I went for a long bike ride instead. Watched later on the VCR(!) ... Michigan looked like a second-tier (still very good) team next to FSU.
I was a grad student at FSU that year and I have to agree that we were not just a few trick plays worse than FSU. I remember thinking that Michigan's plays seemed so much slower to develop than FSU's. FSU players also went to concession stands after the game to buy Michigan hats and were wearing them for interviews on TV for a few weeks after that. FSU coaches commented that Weldon did a good job of reading coverages and explained that Michigan had done a good job of disguising them.
December 24th, 2020 at 5:03 PM ^
FSU was just better. Didn’t Grbac throw a pick 6 to Terrell Buckley on our first series? Of all the “worst losses” I’ve seen listed on the blog over the years, I don’t recall seeing the 31-30 heartbreaker to Miami (YTM) in ‘88? We led 30-14, lost on a game ending FG. That was a crusher for me. Among too many others.
More of these please!!!!!!
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