2004 UM/MSU on BTN right now

Submitted by Le_Blue on

Looking for something to do this Friday night? Flip on BTN, the 2004 battle for Paul Bunyan is on.

WingsNWolverines

July 5th, 2013 at 11:09 PM ^

it actually gets old deposits of how great that win was. All the other games they show with us are losses "classics" my ass

stephenrjking

July 5th, 2013 at 11:14 PM ^

Deandre Cobb just scored up the middle, horrible angle by the safety. Makes me ill watching it nine years later having been there for the win--just hard to see the talent at Michigan used poorly, as it often was.

That defensive backfield was "just-a-guy" Ryan Mundy playing next to three top-line talents. They were good, but should've been great.

stephenrjking

July 5th, 2013 at 11:18 PM ^

Wow, this team was loaded. Young but loaded. That '05 and '07 could happen is a travesty. This team should never have lost more than twice, other than perhaps '04 when the key guys were freshmen.

stephenrjking

July 6th, 2013 at 12:51 AM ^

I defended Carr tirelessly during his career, and I still appreciate what he meant for Michigan--not having any embarrassing ethical problems in the closet from his era is a huge, huge plus. And he recruited well and genuinely cared about his players.

The problem was that his staff stagnated and covered its shortcomings with talent, playing just well enough to avoid thinking that there was any real problem with what they did. It's not that they embraced bad philosophies, fielded inferior players, or refused to adapt--they weren't capable of executing their vision properly.

Perhaps the best example of this was the special teams debacle in 2003 that cost Michigan the Oregon and Iowa games and nearly caused disaster in others. They showed a willingness to adapt--they adopted the spread punt to try to fix things--but they proved incapable of coaching anything other than what they knew.

And what they knew could have worked if they had executed it well. Carr liked run-first, strong defense game management. And the thing is, you can win that way--Jim Tressel ate our lunch with that plan, and Nick Saban has won three of the last four titles with the same idea. But you need good players (Jake Long, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, LaMar Woodley, Leon Hall... we're good there) and you need to do everything well.

Michigan in the mid-00s did not do everything well. And they consistently lost games they shouldn't have.

Carr was a B or B-plus coach, but the staff was below-par and he had the misfortune of coaching in an era of rapid coaching escalation. The second half of his head coaching career was a time when A/A-plus coaches like Stoops, Carroll, Saban and Meyer were moving the goalposts, and he didn't keep up.

Hoke has taken Carr's "real," gained new and needed financial support to employ an above-average staff, and looks ready to bring it. The circle is completing.

Fifth-Stringer

July 6th, 2013 at 12:14 AM ^

Couple of really bad pass interference calls, one just on Marlin Jackson and one earlier on #13.

Freshman Henne is... a freshman, forgot he was so inaccurate and unable to throw the ball away before getting sacked.

Stanton is even better than I remembered, the run defense is subpar. I guess to set up a great comeback you have to get down haha.

John L Smith... Hilarious

stephenrjking

July 6th, 2013 at 12:38 AM ^

Freshman Henne had a nice season, but you can't really expect a freshman to have everything together. I actually think the 2004 team, despite my griping, performed pretty close to its potential. The Texas team they nearly beat in Pasadena turned out to be pretty good.

LSAClassOf2000

July 6th, 2013 at 6:34 AM ^

BTN features a Michigan-laden day today as well when it comes to Michigan games of the past, although a fair number of these are also typical selections for their Classic College Football series. In the 1999 game anyway, I remember one Brooks Bollinger leading a comeback effort by the Badgers, but alas, we recovered the onside kick. The Rose Bowl in 1993, as most here know, contains a beautiful performance by Tyrone Wheatley (15 carries for 235 yards, I believe) - if you haven't seen this one before, do watch it. 

9 AM - 1995 Northwestern at Michigan

11 AM - 1999  Michigan at Wisconsin

4 PM - 1990 Michigan State at Michigan

6 PM - 1993 Rose Bowl

 

Baba Booey

July 6th, 2013 at 8:52 AM ^

I think I'll skip the 9am and 4pm showings and DVR the 11am and 6pm games. The '93 Rose Bowl is still my favorite UM bowl game, with the 2000 Orange Bowl a very close second. Wheatley might have flirted with 300 yards rushing if not for the back spasms he was dealing with.