if you could change one Michigan event in the past what would it be?

Submitted by cargo on

For me 2006 OSU vs  Michigan.  Anytime I stumble upon anything relating to it I end up having to watch highlights to torture myself again.  I remember every single event i did during that game.  From the feeling that we were going to lose when I went down high st for halftime dinner.  To the late hit Crable delivered and how even if it didnt happen it felt like the 2004 rosebowl where there was no stopping the QB only hope of messing up.   Any how what event would you change in Michigan history and it has to be a single event.  Be it something like a game you wish we won, or wishing drew henson did not leave to play baseball.

VictorsValiant09

July 10th, 2010 at 4:09 AM ^

2008 Frozen Four outcome versus the Irish.  We were ranked #1 all year, my junior year, only to lose in gut-wrenching fashion.  Hockey should've won at least 3 National Championships this past decade.

Honorable mention is 1973 versus Ohio State.  We all know what did--or didn't--happen there.  I'll ammend this to most of the early seventies against the Buckeyes.

South Bend Wolverine

July 10th, 2010 at 4:24 AM ^

Correct choice, and a pretty easy one for me.  That was senior year, with two senior super-stars, the run-away Hobey winner, the debut of BORKBORKBORK.  So many great games that year, CCHA titles, GLI, Showcase, everything was barreling head first down towards a national title and then it just died.  Add to that the fact that, while watching the game, I already knew I was going to spend the next two years of my life studying for a Master's Degree at ND.  Ugh.

RickH

July 10th, 2010 at 4:30 AM ^

App State or Toledo maybe.  Both were down right embarrassing...

I still think Florida would've won in 06 if we played them.  I believe we were #2 going into that game though so OSU would've had a good chance of a rematch.

It's really late so I'm not exactly thinking but I'll take the easy route and say anytime we choked for a national championship...

Litt1e Rhino

July 10th, 2010 at 9:27 AM ^

We would have beat Florida in 06 no doubt in my mind. We were so stacked with talent and incredibly dominant all year. Ohio state played the game of there life and we just didn't care for USC after that. It was a heartbreaking season.

Vandy even agreed that we were the best team in the country not Florida.

TXWolverine44

July 10th, 2010 at 4:30 AM ^

2006 game for me as well. I was the only one in an entire room of people going for michigan and we would've still been in it if it wasn't for that late hit

Also, from the same game, any of the two runs where the linebackers could not wrap up wells.... such a painful loss

pullin4blue

July 10th, 2010 at 6:02 AM ^

For me it would definitely have to be the loss to App State. Although our team was not good, they still should not have lost this game. Immediately following, there was a crisis of confidence that permeated through the entire team. Everyone began to second guess what they were doing. A good football team is like the military. They rely on instinct and training. When all else is going crazy, the instinct and training take over. Unfortunately, this never happened in 08 and we suffered badly for it in many ways.

Seth

July 10th, 2010 at 6:49 AM ^

App State was a symptom. Some of the OSU losses were expected.

Really, any Ohio State result from 2006 to 2009 would have been ideal. 2006 and we go to the Nat. Championship, and probably win. 2008 and RR's on the Bo path. 2009 and RR's vindicated a bit, we go to a bowl game, and this whole offseason goes much easier.

2007 though. Hart and Henne and Long and Arrington and Manningham and Lloyd....these men deserved to go out with a win against Ohio. It was a crime against humanity that they didn't.

Next would be 2006 -- but at least when we lost that game, we lost it with the kind of honor that people still thought we were the 2nd best team in the country. But more than that, it was for Bo.

learmanj

July 10th, 2010 at 7:09 AM ^

The Fab Five getting a title or two (or four if they all stayed).  Two heartbreaking trips to the finals and nothing to show for it.  And yes, I don't care at all that their records "don't count."

weasel3216

July 10th, 2010 at 7:24 AM ^

It was the first game i ever took my dad to.  Needless to say it was a quite car ride home.  A close second is 2006 OSU, at the time i lived with my best friend who happened to be an OSU fan.  He bragged about that game for three damn weeks.

jim4blue

July 10th, 2010 at 7:51 AM ^

For me, it would be LC choosing to retire after the 2003 tOSU game.  Maybe the team would have been inspired to beat USC in that Rose Bowl (catch the bomb, Braylon), and we just may have been spared the drama of the last few years.

 

Another would be to change the timing of Bo's death by about 15 weeks, either way.  It must have had some detrimental effect on our team in a very big game.

 

If I had to choose an on-field event, I'd have Brad Cochran catch the interception that was basically thrown right to him in our 12-10 loss to Iowa in 1985 on their winning FG drive.  That may have been enough to win the National Championship for Bo that year.

Don

July 10th, 2010 at 8:04 AM ^

Amen to that, brother. The losses in '70, '72, '74, and the tie in '73 meant that we stayed home for the holidays. No bowl games for teams that went 39-3-1 over those years. There's no way that Bo would have had to wait until 1980 for his first bowl victory if we had been allowed by the criminally-stupid Big Ten bigshots to go to bowl games other than the Rose Bowl. Those teams would have gone to Sugar Bowls or Cotton Bowls or Orange Bowls and we would have beaten the crap out of Alabama or Texas or Arkansas or whoever was playing in those games back then.

markusr2007

July 10th, 2010 at 9:49 AM ^

Blocking Rod Garcia's FG in the 1972 Rose Bowl, then move to Stan Edwards catching Rick Leach's pass to tie or beat Washington in the 1978 Rose Bowl and Charles White's fumble in the 1979 Rose Bowl being called as such.

Steve in PA

July 10th, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^

Was searching for video, but it was too painful to post.  If he scores we're bowl eligible and most of the offseason conversations never happen.  The team never seemed to fully recover from that game the rest of the season.

 

The Horror is #2, but I don't think that changes the future of Wolverine Football as much as Roundtree getting caught.

befuggled

July 11th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^

Zook had Juice's backup warming up. If we score the touchdown to go up by 13, and Zook puts in the backup, I think we stand a pretty good chance of winning the game.

It's still iffy. It would not have surprised me if the backup had the game of his life against our D last year.

Blue in sec country

July 10th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^

I'd go with App State but that wouldn't have changed much in respect to the season as a whole. I have to go with the late hit in 06. We would have played Florida and I think we would have won. Which obviously gives us another NC and the Big Ten isn't a joke to SEC fans.

ntl002

July 10th, 2010 at 10:52 AM ^

I tend to believe that the loss to App State had a huge impact on the rest of the season. Like a previous poster said, we seemed to lose complete confidence after that game, somewhat resulting in our loss to Oregon. We then suffered through an injury plagued regular season with Henne and Hart seemingly never 100%. When the two of them were finally full strength in the bowl game... well we know what happened.

snowcrash

July 10th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^

I would have had Chris Webber tell Ed Martin in no uncertain terms that he wanted no part of his sleazy scheme, and then Steve Fisher tell Martin to stay the hell away from his players.

JimBobTressel-0

July 10th, 2010 at 11:03 AM ^

2007: Cortisone shot administered to Chad Henne fucks up his shoulder by hiting a vein (1 in 100 odds) making him sit against Wisky and still suffer lingering effects against Ohio State the next week.

PIJER

July 10th, 2010 at 11:25 AM ^

I wish that Jim Herrmann was replaced before theturn of the century. We had several teams that weren't great but good enough. Jim's inability to evolve as a coach hampered us more than you know. We have spent too much time in a nickel trying to defend the spread, it just doesn't work without freaks for LBs. Unfortunately we haven't had any of those for a while!

Steve Lorenz

July 10th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

Not to be that guy, but I don't really think I'd change anything. I enjoy the ups and downs as a fan....it keeps me on my toes as far as my allegiance is concerned and as Michigan fans we've been relatively spoiled for the last 50 years or so. Imagine if you were a State fan.