September 26th, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^
I'd like to buy a vowel.
September 26th, 2023 at 6:34 PM ^
Looking back at the first night game in 2011 vs ND.
What a glorious comeback- Denard to Roundtree for the game winning TD.
At ND 16 with 8 seconds to go, who would've thought we would go for the win. I certainly thought field goal for sure. One of the best games I can recall live- antithesis of Colorado '94.
September 26th, 2023 at 6:46 PM ^
Herbie sure thought Michigan was going to kick the field goal too. Somehow he still thought that as the actual non-field-goal play was being executed right in front of him.
Also in this is the classic Tommy Rees “me no have the football no more how that happen” play.
September 26th, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^
Just watched - interesting tie in with older M and ND fans that were in the stands. I liked this sidebar story.
September 26th, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^
That was a fun watch. I definitely forgot about the fumble TD that Denard scored, and the long Hemingway play.
September 26th, 2023 at 7:11 PM ^
That Hemingway play was a huge relief at the time. It looked like we were just going to get rolled until that. (And even after that)
September 26th, 2023 at 7:38 PM ^
Rolled into the lumber yard parking lot at 7am. Set up camp and satellite dish to watch the noon and 3:30 games. Ate lunch and dinner with numerous guests.
About 7pm told my buddy "We need to pack this shit up, it's time to go to the Big House!!!"
First ever night game was surreal.
The ending was even more surreal!!!
Fuck notre dame 🖕🖕🖕
Forgot to add that I didn't leave the Big House for almost an hour after the game ended.
Absolutely a-maizing!!!!!
September 26th, 2023 at 7:45 PM ^
My seats for the game were in the South End Zone where Michigan scored all 3 TD’s in the 4th quarter. The game had everything that was right and wrong about Michigan football at the time. The good was Denard, Gallion, Roundtree, Lewan, and Hokes general love for Michigan. The bad was the bumblebee uniforms, the Jersey retirements, and the over promotion of the game by Brandon.
I am traveling tonight but look forward to watching the special on my DVR later this week.
September 26th, 2023 at 7:55 PM ^
I try to forget every single game in the Brady Hoke era. A comedy of errors with some games that we lucked into a win
September 26th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
That's a shame. 2011 was one of the great Michigan seasons of this century.
Beat Notre Dame in one of the rivalry's greatest games.
Beat Ohio State.
Beat Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl in an incredible thriller, including the Spartan Tears Taste Like Sugar sign.
You can go on and explain how our win against Notre Dame was not the thorough and methodical annihilation of 2006 and the Ohio State win was not a #1 vs #2 matchup and the win against VaTech was not the Rose Bowl.
But, you know, it was really fun.
September 26th, 2023 at 11:03 PM ^
As I was watching that this afternoon I was reminded that Hoke had a huge horseshoe up his butt his first year in Ann Arbor!!
September 27th, 2023 at 12:19 AM ^
Shitting gold nuggets that first year.
September 27th, 2023 at 9:16 AM ^
2011 was like an Adam Samdler movie on Netflix that shouldn't be good bur turned out to be pretty fun.
September 27th, 2023 at 9:23 AM ^
That season gave us false hope for the future that's for damn sure.
September 26th, 2023 at 8:44 PM ^
What a fun game to be at and I took the famous Tommy Rees picture that night.
September 26th, 2023 at 11:02 PM ^
It was a great story - I'm glad they chose the maize and blue for the inaugural episode of this series. It was my daughter's first game as a Michigan student so we have our own family stories of the game.
September 27th, 2023 at 12:07 AM ^
Definitely the most insane game I have attended in 35+ years of going to games.
If you want to jump right in to the insanity, I have watched this video more times than I would like to admit, although I thought I remember the quality being better.
Steps away from the pressure, FiresDownFieldWideOpen'sGallon! THEY LEFT HIM ALOOOONE! NEEDS A BLOCK! NOW HE'S IN A FOOTRACE!!*
And then Brady Hoke sticks the dagger right in Brian Kelly's chest.
*I mean, it's football. Everybody's always in a footrace.
September 27th, 2023 at 8:23 AM ^
Could Herbie work Hemmingway any harder? Really vapid commentary by Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstriet. I prefer the sad NBC crew. Boom, Don Criqui'ed. I'll tune in, the scene in the stadium that night was like no other game I've attended in over 50 years.
September 27th, 2023 at 12:33 AM ^
Our very own CjGrape is among those featured in this BTN special.
September 27th, 2023 at 8:02 AM ^
There is a video somewhere that matches up ND radio announcer Don Criqui's call, to the action. It is priceless. First he says something like Mich has 80 yards and 30 seconds and Denard Robinson can't throw very well. Then on the TD, Don refused to see it, or recognize that it was a TD, till his analyst finally points it out.
September 27th, 2023 at 9:57 AM ^
"Incomplete," he said wishfully. LOLTDMF!
September 27th, 2023 at 9:56 AM ^
Jon Miller had a great story that I read once a long time ago, so I'm going to get some of the details wrong but essentially it's this:
Early in Miller's career, he was doing color on the radio for the Texas Rangers. The lead analyst, Miller said, would occasionally just announce blatantly incorrect things. One game, the batter hit a home run and the announcer said it was strike three.
Miller silently motioned to his colleague that the player did not strike out. The announcer obliged:
"Wait, now they're saying it's not a strike."
Miller motioned to the outfield fence and gave the HR signal.
"Now they're saying it's a home run!"
September 27th, 2023 at 8:45 AM ^
That Hoke year was his year of pooping golden horseshoes, no?
September 27th, 2023 at 8:51 AM ^
I remember being worried that they would say Roundtree lost possession of that last catch, and every time I rewatch it, I'm surprised they don't overturn it.
September 27th, 2023 at 9:20 AM ^
I'm not sure how there wasn't a block in the back on that long Gallon play.
September 27th, 2023 at 8:51 AM ^
September 27th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Of the 9 times Brent Musberger called a Michigan / Notre Dame game, we’ve won 8 of them. The lone loss came in 1988 when Mike Gillette’s game winning field goal attempt on the final play was just wide right. (Crushing loss from my childhood.)
I’m sorry I missed this special. I’m sure BTN will rerun again plenty of times.
September 27th, 2023 at 1:29 PM ^
This game has major significance for me. I missed the showing last night but will check it out on the rerun this evening.
My brother sent me an email saying he wanted our mutual brother's bachelor party to include going to this Michigan vs ND game. As I was the one with season tickets, he reached out to me first. "How hard will be to get tickets for everyone who wants to go?" After I stopped laughing...
I developed a plan. I already had my 2 season tickets. Our youngest brother was in grad school at Michigan at the time, so he had his student seat. That meant I only had to procure... 8 additional tickets. Oh, did I mention that we were also doing a family tailgate to the OSU game in 2011? So I needed 8 extra to that one too. As the first season after RichRod, however, ticket packs were the rage as folks were underwhelmed with the Hoke hire. Yet I still spent a TON of money buying up packs and having to sell off a bunch of extra EMU seats.
The bachelor party goes off wonderfully and I was able to get a pair of 50-yard-line seats for my brother who was getting married. This game was a classic and has been so important in our family's history. In fact, when I saw the promo for the B1G Moment special on this game, I cried.
You see, with this week's game at Nebraska, I've been going through some deep emotions. My brother Steve, whose bachelor party was at the 2011 UTL game vs ND, died in his sleep the night after the Michigan win at Nebraska in 2021. He was only 39 years old and left behind a wife and two young children.
I was in Nashville that weekend (I live a short distance away) celebrating my wife's sister's 40th birthday, and watched the game with my in-laws down there. Steve and our brothers had planned a similar Nashville weekend for his 40th a few weeks later in November.
Steve and I had not gone to a football game just the two of us since an ill-fated trip to Ann Arbor to see Michigan and MSU. In 2015. So when we planned to see Washington in 2021, we were excited. I needed to be back in southern Kentucky for church the next morning and when the game was announced as a night game, I told Steve we needed to rethink this. To his credit, he said, No Way. I arranged an early morning flight from Detroit to Nashville for Sunday, he was willing to get me to the airport by 5 am. We had a great time in a short turnaround, going to that game together, and having a big hug at the airport when I left.
It was the last time I saw him.
At his funeral in 2021, I gave his eulogy. A friend of the family, also a pastor and the person who officiated Steve's wedding, gave a message at the graveside service. He told how Steve had given him tickets to 2011's The Game v OSU as a thank you for the wedding ceremony. He told how that was the last time Michigan had won, and he said he thought this was the year that streak came to an end.
The casket was decked out in Maize and Blue and we sang the Victors at both the services in Royal Oak and the graveside on the west side of the state.
This week, as I prepare for the Nebraska game, as I watch the UTL Special, as I lean into my fandom of Michigan football, something I shared deeply with my brother Steve, I see both joy and sadness. Yet the memories of all of those events and many others, good and bad, show the gift that he was to me and his family, and the grand scale of this life that we have been blessed with.
Tell the folks who mean a lot to you that you love them. And cherish the moments you have.
Go Blue.
September 27th, 2023 at 2:00 PM ^
Hanging in my office - what a night.
September 28th, 2023 at 1:51 PM ^
I remember telling my brother-in-law when ND scored with 1:32 to take the lead, well we gane it a hell of an effort. Little did I know what would transpire in the next minute and twenty seconds.
The whole stadium was basking in the afterglow of that victory no one wanted to leave, I didn't get home until 2:30 AM.
One of the best victories that I've seen in the Big House in 27 years, ranks right up there with the 1995 OSU game, the '97 OSU game the 21 Game.
Denard would not be denied that night.