Is Alabama the best team you've seen play Michigan?

Yes.

I do not think that Alabama had the best set of skill position players that I have seen Michigan play in 25 years, but they did have the best offensive and defensive lines.

If ever there were a game that proved the concept that football is won in the trenches, this was the game.

Three from my lifetime that stick out are the 91 Florida State team, 95 Ohio State, and 03 USC. Too hard to really compare given how far apart they are on terms of time.

2002 Citrus vs. Tennessee was a worse beatdown than 1991 FSU, but the FSU game is the one that that I always remember as the day Michigan was completely outclassed.

Defensively, it is Alabama.  But as a whole it was that 1991 FSU team.  Although, they threw some gimmick plays in there.  They had so much speed and we looked much slower, but we were out physicaled.  Bama just looked like a NFL team and we were a good college team. 

But I've only really started paying attention in the early 90's.

across eras, but I think this team (and maybe last year's Bama squad) could compete with the best teams from any era.  The athleticism of their defense (from the big men up front to the secondary) is incredible, and their big ugglies on offense are all very, very good, with a few being all-american candidates.  The team may be lacking on big play ability in the passing game (when going up against guys not named Avery), but McCarron is a very solid QB who kept their offense humming.  Not to mention their three headed moster at RB.

I like the comparison to the '03 USC team, a squad that was very balanced on both sides.

Yes, these guys are very, very good, and we'll see how the rest of the SEC matches up to them this year.  This past weekend, IMO, showed more of how good Alabama was rather than what state our team is in (which is better than average B1G, nowhere near nationally elite).

I think this Alabama team is indeed the best one.  The 1991 FSU team is probably #2.  A few others some others (not mentioned yet) that might come close are 1994 Penn State, 1991 Washington, and 2001 Tennessee.  SUNY-Columbus has also had a number of teams that might qualify.

Alabama is a really good team this year (and last) however I believe some Michigan teams in the past could take them like the 97 squad.

The 97 squad had a better defense - Steel, Sword, Woodson, Hendricks, Hall, Jones, Peterson, Gold were all NFLers.

I would have said no, because last year I thought Bama's offense was so-so. I still think it is not the level of USC 2006, but that defense .... woah. Those guys came in like it was Tuesday at the office, and just executed with very few mistakes. They clearly did not overlook us, and Nick Saban put a heck of a gameplan together.

To me the funny thing is the all so polite fans were taunting us with S-E-C, S-E-C, when I think they should just be shout ROLL TIDE, or ALABAMA. Most of the SEC looks good but flawed and therefore beatable with a decent game plan and execution. Alabama was impressive.

It will be interesting to see if a team like USC can keep it close, cause some mistakes and beat Alabama. But they don't have the dual threat at QB. If our offense had more game time under their belts, and Denard could connect on more of his passes / Devin could haul them in, it would have opened the game up more. Enough? Not without a similar near flawless game by our defense.

Bottom line: end of season (with the injury caveat), this game looks different and we at least feel better coming out of it. After playing a few warm ups, maybe a little better. We just weren't ready, because practicing against each other, is nothing like playing a hard hitting team at full speed. I am glad by the way that the coaching staff "blooded" some of the Freshment. They will remember that experience and draw on it down the road.

So, long story short, this is the best team, that was fully prepared, we have come up against in a long time. (I think the '69 Buckeyes did not mentally prepare like Bama did. I also think the 2006 Wolverines did not mentally prepare for USC like Bama did.)

FSU was dominant

The first Rose Bowl vs Washington in 91, I think

This Bama game

And Syracuse in 98. That was one of the worst games I ever witnessed at Michigan Stadium

I remember that game well because we got absolutely smoked  -- at the Big House, no less. It was another game that felt "over" before most people had even found their seats. 

As it turned out, we had a pretty good season in '91, FSU notwithstanding. That's why I'm not yet particularly worried about Team 133. Now, if AFA gives us trouble (if it's even all that "close" regardless of the scoreboard) then I might feel a bit more uncomfortable than I do right now.

That 1998 Syracuse team went 8-4, I believe.  They matched up well against Michigan during our Jim Hermann-doesn't-worry-about-mobile-QBs phase and caught us during our national championship hangover, but I don't think they merit consideration as one of our greatest all-time opponents.

I was at the Big House as a flabbergasted UM undergrad.   They beat us good at home, and we were a quality team.   Terrell Buckley INT returned for an early pick 6 set the tone for this game.

Some interesting tidbits about this game:

(1)  We played HOME against Florida St.  We never traveled to Tallahassee to reciprocate, at least to my knowledge.   This was a bygone era of being able to draw big-time non-conference opponents without having to play at a neutral site or sign up for a home & home series.   Strange.

(2)  WHY, CANHAM/SCHEMBECHLER/WEIDENBACH (don't know what AD of this era scheduled the game!) DID YOU SCHEDULE THIS GAME AGAINST A VASTLY SUPERIOR TEAM?  

I may correct myself to say 'Bama '12 >> FSU '91...we'll see how the season shakes out.   Washington '91 was also a phenomenal opponent on both sides of the ball.

This is the biggest discrepancy between a Michigan team and an oppenent when it comes to talent, speed, strength, size and youth.

Other teams mentioned were extrememly talented and a case can be made for all of them but we were much more physical of a team.

Yes, FSU had stallions vs our plow horses but they didn't beat us up like Bama did.  

At the top, I have to put the 1975-76 Oklahoma team that we played in the Orange Bowl.  We were ranked #4 and OK was #2 at 10-1.  Their defense was the best I have seen to this day.  The Alabama team has more offensive weapons than did Oklahoma, but overall toughness goes to the old guys.

As a point of perspective, Michigan had 33 yards passing while Oklahoma had 66.  Rick Leach was 2-16 passing and his two completions were for 17 and 16 yards.  Apparently our passing philosophy hasn't changed in 40 years - chuck it up!

The Oklahoma Boomer Sooner chants were no where near as annoying as Roll Tide however.

I've never personally seen the '91 FSU game, but it would be hard for me to imagine many teams being better, if any, than the one we faced on Saturday night. Every position on their team is packed with NFL talent. On a collegiate level, that was easily one of the most physical, brutal, punishing football teams I've ever seen play the game.

Don't want to imagine how bad it might have been if guys like Richardson, Barron, and Hightower all elected to return.

Others were USC in 07 and 04 Rose Bowls (06 and 03 seasons), Penn State in 94, FSU in 91, Washington in 92 Rose Bowl (91 season), Miami in 88. 

It is hard to compare somewhat this early with Alabama because we really dont know how good Michigan is.  But my guess is that Alabama is dominant like last year.

Florida State was probably the most shocking as our defense never let in points like that under Bo.  Unfortunately it was the beginning of a 20+ year trend of our defense not being what it was (with a few exception years).  People rationalize saying that college football is more wide open but I think the Bama's and the LSU's show you that defense can still reign supreme. 

Hopefully we return to being a top defense under Hoke and Mattison. 

Maybe we just suck. But from the eye test, they looked really good.  But it goes to the problem people are having in this thread...are we talking biggest discrepancy between a Michigan team and someone else? (a great team vs. an 8-4 Michigan team might look better than a great team vs. a 10-2 Michigan team)  Or just flat out the best team top to bottom?

Bama was good, and deserves to be on any list. But I don't think we're great, either. The best team I've ever sense was the '03 USC team. That team was at least close to this Bama team defensively (maybe better..they might have had more experience...could change by the end of the season), but lots better offensively.  That team had 52 players get a cup of coffee in the NFL, and two heisman winners on it. And back up quarterbacks who were NFL starters. Reggie Bush, Shawn Cody, Keary Colbert, Matt Leinart, Mike Williams, etc, etc.  

Alabama may have the line and running backs to match with that (as a group), but the QB and WR match up isn't close. That team was a great defensive team...and they were better on offense. It's just because we were darn good that it didn't look worse. We actually held them to the fewest points they scored after their opening game (which they shut out Auburn in, so they didn't need that many points). They did they annual blow one to Cal game, but that was the best team I've seen (us play).

91-FSU

91 -Washington

03- USC

Remember Bama hasnt been this BAMA for that long, they were sucking canal water after the 2000 season until Saban's 2nd year in 08. Ohio, USC, FSU, Oklahoma, all of the aformentioned programs have have multi-year periods where they were not world beaters. We'll be fine and we will get to the point where we can compete and win with any program in the Country very shortly. 

Go Blue!

91 Washington in the rosebowl is the best imo.............(but I preface that one because Steve Everrit didn't play and that messed up our oline)

91 Fsu, remember Grbac had 2 int's returned for td's...  that's at least a 14pt swing given to fsu.....   their offense was no more unstoppable then ours was.  They had a slightly better defense...and didn't Lance Dottin miss that game as well...  I know Everitt played with a broken jaw which was amazing...

2000 Orange Bowl...  that team was tough...one of the most physical games I remember..Brady/Terrell was the difference

03/06 usc, I thought were great but when their program immediatly took a drop off after balco got exposed through the Ting Brothers there....

You guys are overreacting. 2007 Oregon and 2006 would beat this Bama squad. Notre Dame last year could have easily beat us the same way this Bama squad beat us if they hadn't choked it up... And @ the Big House to boot. We scored two TDs on that mighty Alabama defense and Denard's crappy arm got us 200 yards on the air.

You guys just don't want to accept that both of our lines are terrible and this is going to be a long year. It's easier to say that Bama is the best team we've ever played and leave it at that.

AppSt was pretty darn good.  2 blocks.  Unheard of.

Miami in 88 was amazing. Michigan played great that day and was a Rose Bowl winning team that season in it's own right.  

That was a tweener year for Miami as they missed out on the National Title because of a very controversial 1 point loss at Notre Dame. That Miami team beat no. 1 Florida State by 30, No. 11 LSU by 40 in Baton Rouge, and No. 6 Nebraska by 20 in the Orange Bowl.

I thought the 2011 Michigan State Spartans also just on the basis of being the toughest in the history of the game maybe. No one's mentioned them.

the '68 OSU team was as well-put-together as the '69 team, which makes the upset all the more surprising. '68 OSU had several key games by which they slithered to the MNC; '69 OSU was never in a close game until they lost to UM. So I would put the '69 team over the '68 team. It just so happens that Bo was able to get ready for them with mostly Bump's team while staying under the radar; I think Woody overlooked us.

Across-the-board talent and execution-wise, Albama is the best.

But they are not the best overall.  With Alabama, we knew what we had to do to compete, we just could not do it with the players at hand.

The best teams that I've seen play Michigan were ones that not only outclassed us in talent and execution, but also outclassed us in scheme and coaching.  In these games, we were completely flummoxed across the board:

- Washington 1991 season Rose Bowl.  This was the worst I've ever seen, even worse than FSU that year.  The Huskies employed a blitzing 1985-Chicago Bears defense that compeletely ovewhelmed us.  We just did not know what to do.  We had Grbac and Desmond but it still did not matter.  Our response turned out to be the worst thing we could do - rather than spreading them out and hitting short passes and screens and draws, we bunched our O_line into extremely tight splits, making our QB and RB a static sitting duck target.  By the third quarter, I just wanted it to be over.

- Oregon 2007.  Another flummox.  We already established against App State that we did not know how to defend the spread, now we had to do it against elite talent.  We were chasing ghosts.  The epitome of this was their sand-lot Statue of Liberty play, probably the most humilitating play I ever saw against Michigan. 

- 1991 FSU.  We had just beaten Notre Dame on Grbac-to-Howard on 4th and 1.  We were riding high and ready for a shootout.  We actually hung with them pretty well for the first half in a shoot out.  But in the second half, they just kept coming.  They passed over and around us, they ran through us, they fooled us with trick plays, over and over.  We had never seen this kind of relentless onslaught before.

The key takeaway from these games, though, is that we learned from them.  We beat Washington a year later in the Rose Bowl with a more dynamic offense.  We used the Washington defense as one of our role models for our own 1997 defense.  We beat Urban Meyer's and Tim Tebow's Florida spread team by utilizing a better contain defense and by taking the handcuffs off of our offense.  

Blowouts are painful, but not permanent.

the season.  Alabama could fall flat and lose a couple or they could run the table.  Who knows 14 points might be the most Alabama gives up all year.

This Bama team probably is the best I've seen U of M play.  The Texas and USC teams we played in the Rose Bowls in the early/mid 2000's were pretty good but not quite there, and I honestly wasn't too impressed with OSU's national championship team.

A surprise pick for a team that may have been better that I remember (I was only 6 when we played FSU, so I can't say I remember that) is Oregon in '07.  Before they lost Dennis Dixon later in the season and nose dived, they were most likely on their way to a National Championship and a Heisman trophy winner.  Only OSU held us to fewer points that year, but they only put up a 1/3 of the points that Oregon did against us.  At the time the Ducks didn't seem that great because of how we had done the week before, but in retrospect after the decent season we ended up having, I was definitely impressed with that team when Dixon was at the helm.

The 2004 Ohio team had something like five first-round NFL draft picks. That team also had two other guys that would get drafted the next year.

Was it the 2002 team that had 14 players drafted?

I'm 23, so yes.  I thought of the 1991 FSU team that seems to have delivered a legendary ass-whooping, but I don't remember them, being 2 at the time.  This might be the first time I have seen a good Michigan team (not the 2008 version) in a game where I can't rationalize a way it cold have been close (usually I can convince myself that if we got this call, and this bounce and one more block here, things could have turned out differently).  I don't know if I've ever seen a top-25 defensive line get blown up all day like that.

Best defense I can remember going back to 1991, period.

The offense was great, but not historically great. Let's not forget 2007 Oregon, as hard as we've tried.

I wouldn't really put 2006 USC in the same class as 2012 Alabama. They were good but relative to other USC teams around that time, it was actually sort of a down year. I am still surprised that they beat us so comfortably in the Rose Bowl.

2007 Oregon would get demolished by Alabama IMO.

To answer the OP's question, yeah I think Alabama will prove to be the best team I've seen us play, though my memory doesn't go back much beyond 2006.

Indiana is the probably one of the best offenses we'll see in the B1G this year..

/2010'd

/Small sample size

I think people are overestimating how good this Alabama team really is.  Last year, they were elite (though the OOC competition still brings questions up in my book).  I think Alabama's strengths just matched up really well with Michigan's weaknesses.  I think Alabama is a top 5 team because of their OFFENSE and that they have a good defense but they're still vunerable for 21 points if facing a good offensive team.  They might be better than top 5 this year because a lot of teams had problems in week 1 and only a couple teams actually impressed, despite pretty much everybody playing weak competition.

Yes, you can make a case that part of this was a hangover from The Horror, but still, I can't remember a more thorough dismantling. I wonder if this was the game that made Lloyd decide to quit, even more than App State.

Yes.  98 OSU being second.

Beat 4 teams in the top 7 of the final AP poll the year... # 2 Miami, #4 Michigan  #5 West Virginia and  #7 Southern Cal. 

The best team I can remember was the 1991 ('92 Rose Bowl) Washington team. Michigan was loaded with Desmond, Weatley, Elvis, Erik Anderson, Derick Anderson, Skrep...

They wooped us. 

I think that 2007 Oregon team gets overrated a bit.  Mike Hart put up 130 yards or so on the ground at 5.1 a carry.  Does 2007 Michigan get 5.1 per carry against this Alabama team? 

Let's also not forget that Michigan led that game 7-3 at one point and easily could have been up 14-3 if not for a Henne pick on the goalline on the first drive.  Plus If I remember correctly (and it's very possible I do not) Michigan was only down 18-7 when Henne went out.  Mallet played the entire second half of that game plus a good portion of the second quarter.  I still think Oregon wins, as their offense was absolutely deadly, but Michigan probably could have kept it a little closer.

We won't know until we find out if this year's Michigan team is any good or not.  There is a possiblity that the 2011 team significantly overachieved and that this year's team is not that great.  Only time will tell.

The 2 '91 teams mentioned (FSU and Washington) will always get my vote because they both totally dominated a stacked Michigan team that went to the Rose Bowl and sent tons to talent to the NFL.  FSU in particular was a wakeup call that Michigan had to start recruiting more speed because they just ran us off the field.  I don't think I had ever seen that happen before that game. 

The '69 Buckeyes were an awesome team, but in The Game even they could'nt overcome six turnovers against a very decent M team. So under those circumstances you couldn't really call them one of the best teams M has ever faced.

The '91 FSU team had, among other great players, a CB named Terrell Buckley who returned one Grbak pass for a TD. That team was good, but M kinda let that game get out of hand.

The '89 USC team that M faced in the 1990 Rose Bowl was an excellent team both on O and D. Definitely one of the better teams M has ever played.

The '94 Penn State team was one of the best ever to play in M Stadium. That they did not play for the national title was a national tragedy.

But today even the '69 Buckeyes are ancient history. And going back any farther to the Army or ND teams of the 30s and 40s is completely apples and oranges. So I'd vote for the '94 Penn State team as among the best M has faced in modern times. My recollection is that their O-line was all 5th-year seniors, they had Kerry (?) Collins at QB, good RBs, and one very good WR (Scott?) from Michigan. The D was very solid as well.
 

To answer the OP's question, I would have to say, "Yes, in recent memory".

It's been a while, I believe, since we played a team that was deep, technically sound and physically dominating at the level of this Alabama team. We managed to put up what would amount to a middling performance in comparison to their opponents last year, which bodes well for the rest of the year in a way, but we did seem outclassed.

That being said, I don't know if we were outschemed, and as someone above mentioned, it's been the combination of those two things which have made certain games especially painful in the past. Actually, I would even perhaps go as far as to say that just being outschemed by a team that we could likely beat in another scenario has been painful as well.

2007 Oregon definitely comes to mind as a game where we were basically outschemed by the spread - watching Dennis Dixon essentially have his way with the defense to the tune of almost 400 yards by himself was heart-wrenching, especially so after what had happened the week before against a similar offense packed with lesser talent.

I would also cast a vote for 1991 FSU as being one of the best teams we ever faced - looking at that year's roster and the talent that we had (and how much went to the NFL of this roster), you wouldn't think a 51-31 loss at home was likely, but if I remember, Michigan threw 4 INTs, two of which werre returned for TDs, one of them by a defensive end. Seven different FSU players scored TDs actually in what was an offense that was sound, fast and stacked just about everywhere (granted, this one has had a while to mutate in memory). Especially in the second half, they literally ran away from us.

This Alabama team is tough and very good on the line of scrimmage.  Their offense is very limited and their defense has yet to play a good team that passes the ball effectively.  I think that the Miami teams we played in the 80's, the FSU team of early 90's and several OSU teams were better.  I think the reason this question is asked is how they dominated us.  That was because they were better, and that we have serious issues all across the board on offense and defense.

I love Denard and what he does for this team, but he  struggles greatly in the passing game.  Whether it is reading the D or just knowing when to scramble.  He seems to lack the necessary intuition on when to leave or move within the pocket.  Our running game is very average due to the lack of a dominating Oline and or great RB.  Our Dline is 2 years away, our LB's are 1 year away and our DB's are 2 years away.  JMHO 

We just have to weather another year or so before we are back to where we want to be.  I love how BH is recruiting and addressing the team issues. 

GO BLUE,

While they ended up fizzling, that team was unstoppable with Dennis Dixon at the helm, and in hindisight a mark of Oregon's dominant future. That game was also the ultimate kick when you're down, coming when it did an all. However, it did come against a team that was missing their starting QB, RB and LT. I still think they ought to be in the conversation.

As for this year's 'Bama - they looked very good. But (and I hate this) I don't know how good we are. The most impressive thing was their O-line, but we knew our D line was a weakness, and I'm not sure how much of that was them being good and us being bad. I guess we'll find out.

Otherwise,  I think they are beatable. We did have some success on them on offense, and I do think we didn't exploit what their D gave us as well as we should have. Herbie and Musberger were lauding McCarron, but I thought our pass D did okay - not good, but we had our moments on them when they dropped back. A team with a better passer and a running game not reliant on only their quarterback will have success on this D. A team with a better front seven may not stop their running game, but can force McCarron to win the game. He didn't win the game against Michigan - his numbers were comparable to Denard's.

I certainly think there's an arugment that this is the greatest talent deficit I've seen between Michigan and an opponent on the field (of course 2008 and 2009 may make that not true either), but I don't think this is the best team we've played. Team 133 is not as good as, say, team 127 or even team 132. The fact that the '06 Trojans thoroughly dominated what I thought at the time was the best Michigan football team I'd ever seen in the Rose Bowl makes me want to say they are better.

Alabama may prove me wrong. And they certainly deserve the benefit of the doubt. But I'd like to see how both of our seasons turn out before calling them the best I've seen Michigan play.

Alabama has the best collection of personnel I have ever seen on a college football field.  They don't have a QB who is going to put up gaudy numbers, but they are so big and fast at every position that they don't need one.  

This team would push the FSU '91 team up and down the field almost as badly as they did Michigan.  Considering how training methods have changed in the last ten years, I think this team would physically overpower any college team in the 1900's, and the closest one I've seen to this one is the USC team that trounced Michigan in the 2007 Rose Bowl, providing a crushing end to what had been a good season.

Although I wouldn't argue with anyone who says this Bama team is tops, I can't help thinking that the last two USC teams M faced in the Rose Bowl (2004 and 2007) were as good as any team we've faced. I realize the final scores didn't look so bad. But, jeez, those USC teams were like mini-NFL squads. They were in complete control, and both teams knew it.

But of course the answer to the OP's question can't really be answered until after this season. I assume the question isn't really about single-game dominance, which isn't the best barometer -- Mississippi State, despite its dominance in the Gator Bowl, was hardly the best team M has faced. Context matters. If this Bama team runs the table, then they may well be the best opponent ever; if Bama ends up going 9-3, perhaps Saturday's loss will say more about Michigan's weakness than Bama's strength.

USC in the 07 Rose Bowl. We may have been upset we were not in the MNC game but they still totally dismantled us.

For now, I'm going to say '91 Washington. That was probably the best team in the history of Washington Football. Steve Emtman was a beast, and he was named co-MVP of that game. He also finished fourth in the Heisman voting and got an invite to the ceremony, which is rare for a non-skill position player.  

It's tempting to say FSU '91, but they fizzled toward the end of the season and lost to both of their in-state rivals. Alabama may very well turn out to be the best, but we won't know until the end of the season. 

I don't think anyone has mentioned the '05 Rose Bowl loss to Texas. No, it wasn't a beatdown but that was a loaded Texas team with Vince Young running all over us. 2006 USC was also extremely good, and a better team than 2007 Oregon. Hope I'm getting my years correct.

Even though I was young that '91 FSU game sticks out. Whew what a team.

For one game, it is the most complete and physical team I have ever seen them play

He was the best offensive player I have ever seen and the only reason we were close was because we were good.

jdon

Actually, screw that ALabama this year is just so loaded in the trenches...

Vince Young was the single most dominant college player I think Michigan has ever faced in a game.  The rest of his team?  Good, but not dominant.  He was a one-man wrecking-ball of a player.  Unstoppable. 

I think 1991 FSU and 1991 Washington (1992 Rose Bowl) would be next in line.

Alabama is the best opponent we've played, IMO.  I've never seen a Michigan team, *with so much promise*, get dominated the way we were dominated on Saturday.  I would then say that the 1991 Washington Huskies are a close second.  The 2003(?) Iowa Hawkeyes team was pretty good too.

And interesting to note that not one of my top 5 beatdowns came from a Big Ten foe:

1. Oregon and Dennis Dixon. 39-7.

A week after The Horror, Oregon toyed with a loaded, senior-laded Michigan team with Henne, Hart, Arrington, Manningham, Long, Graham, etc. to the point that Oregon mercifully stepped off the gas pedal in the third Q or it would have been far worse than 39-7.  This was the game that caused Bill Martin to consider it an acceptable option to throw all Michigan tradition out the window to bring in a spread guru, thinking Michigan would one day “Oregon” everyone.  What Martin failed to realize was the real reason Oregon destroyed us was due to the complete and utter incompetence Ron English displayed at scheming a defense to defend the spread.  In the spread neutralization scheming ethos, Pat Narduzzi would be at one end of the spectrum, and English and his massive incompetence would be at the other.  I give English 90% of the responsibility for The Horror, and for the ass pasting we received from Oregon.

2. Alabama Saturday.

Alabama “Michigans” Michigan.  For years Bo, Mo and Lloyd would run their conventional, bruising, pro attack where Michigan would beat 80% of the schedule on shear talent disparity alone, and then run into trouble facing more creative teams with equal or better talent (Tressel, USC, etc.).   The difference is that Saban is Lloyd 2.0 in that he is a better schemer, and he is getting better talent, but the principles are the same – conservative bruising style, and the talent will make the difference.  This gets #2 simply because Bama faced a broken Michigan team in transition, nowhere near its soon-to-be potential.

3. Syracuse and Donovan McNabb. 38-28.

One of the few times I felt utterly helpless watching a game. One player, McNabb, single-handedly toyed with an otherwise good Michigan defense.  It was at this time that I began to question Michigan as antiquated for not incorporating a running QB into their mix.

4. Washington '92 Rose. – Emtman and the Husky cheaters (they were found to have committed major violations during this period) exhibited the best defense I had ever seen Michigan face.

5. Tennessee bowl game. – We weren’t that great that year, but it was still a big beat down.

Alabama is obviously fantastic. 

We have a frame of reference as to other M teams from past years, because we can see how Michigan stacked up against other competition.

In the case of this 'Bama team, we have no frame of reference because neither team has had another game this season.

If you adjust for the different eras, that team might have been as good. They mauled opponents up front in a way much like what we saw on Saturday, and all of last year.

But if you time-transported their players to the present and lined them up against Atabama they'd get tossed around like rag dolls. They had what, for the time, was an enormous O-line--topped by Rufus Mayes at 260. Michigan that year only had one player on the entire roster over 240 (Dierdorf, of course).

So I guess it depends on what you mean. It's easy to forget what great athletes we're watching now, in pretty much every sport. Nutrition, training...there's no comparison even without the PEDs.

Hey, I found this place from a blog link stuck around thought I would join in. All the comparisons in this thread sound good but this is although very talented a young Bama team. If you follow recruiting it's easy to see why but Hoke is doing it amd you guys are M you'll be back. I admit I have SEC pride not enough to chant lol but if you hear a GO BLUE! from down south during ND, OSU, or PSU games it's me.

Again nothing to hang your head about... something I haven't even seen mentioned and lucky for us if Rich Rod doesn't turn Bama down.....ugh I don't even