Michigan day on BTN

Submitted by MGoGrendel on

A little late in the day, but good Michigan content on BTN.

Michigan - Indiana basketball (2014 in Ann Arbor) is currently on.

Big Ten Icons - Charles Woodson is next (9:30 EST)

Perseverance: The Story of Dr. Billy Taylor (10:00 EST)

1997 Michigan - Ohio State, with the Woodson punt return and interception (11:00 EST)

AR-15

July 17th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^

earlier in the day I saw Timmy B torch ohio and the wtf comeback against Wisconsin in 09. I got my picture with Brad Nessler that day and he said my dad was handsome.

Mr. Yost

July 17th, 2014 at 10:14 PM ^

In fact, that Michigan/Texas Rose Bowl matchup was the last game a sane Keith Jackson ever called. It was the beginning of the end. After that, you just felt sorry for him. In fact the year before when we beat OSU, Braylon caught a 90+ yard TD pass and he did his "OOOH TOUCHDOWN!!! NO FLAAAGS!" There were literally 3 flags on different parts of the field. The TD was called back and we never blew the doors off OSU like we could've. That's when I knew. Anyway, the next Rose Bowl was the USC/Texas game and it was just downhill from that point.

Not surprising that Musberger and Herbie replaced him the follow year.

He was amazing, but he stayed about 5 years too long.

I also thought they should've preserved his career by having him study the B10 and Pac10 and just focus on that one single Rose Bowl game a year. Instead he'd do random games and be all over the place and get to the Rose Bowl and it would be more of the same.

Nonetheless, 90s Keith Jackson is up there with anyone, ever.

WolverineHistorian

July 18th, 2014 at 12:54 AM ^

Keith was used to saying "No flags!" so many times over the years I think it just became habit.  It took Dan Fouts just as long to notice the flags on the Braylon catch because he and Keith, after an eternity, said, "Yes there is!" simultaneously.  Keith struggled with names that day and he was not his vintage self.  It was kind of depressing to hear. 

The most confused Keith ever sounded, however, was during WSU's last drive against us in the 98 Rose Bowl when they got 50 yards on a blatant pushoff on Woodson who would have easily intercepted the pass to end the game.  Keith's call on that was...

"And there is goes.  It's...inference?  No.  Intercepted?  Yes.  Woodson inter...did Taylor catch it?  Did he really?"

I think that's when it started. 

stephenrjking

July 17th, 2014 at 11:39 PM ^

Saw the highlight of the Woodson to return during his "Icons" episode. Still let out a shout. I've seen/heard it at least 100 times. Still chills.

Hey, Michigan just scored its first TD against OSU. The crowd is going bananas. I wonder what happens next? I think I'll watch and find out.

GoBLUinTX

July 17th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^

Greise and company rolled up 189 yards of total offense against OSU, just 42 of those yards on the ground.  Greise was also sacked a few times, hurried a number of times, and was blindsided by a runaway safety and Michigan totaled just 45 yards in the entire 2nd half.  Nobody ever speaks about the OL not being able to get push thus the inability of running the ball nor about the poor protection the OL was giving the QB, hence only 11 completions.

What everyone talks about is the win.  That and Sir Charles.

stephenrjking

July 18th, 2014 at 12:50 AM ^

Some observations:

1. Michigan's offense in '96 and '97 was quite mediocre. '95 was no picnic either, but Tim Biakabatuka was a playmaker that couldn't be regularly replaced in subsequent seasons. Griese became an effective quarterback, but he was never a world-beater and his solid '97 performance was a surprise after two years of a mediocre Driesbach-Griese lazy Susan.

2. Michigan's Oline was (relatively) young in '97 and expected to be a weak point going into the season.

3. The offense's main job in '97 was to not mess up things for the defense. Punting was ok, big mistakes were not. Note the way Griese throws the ball away in tight spots.

4. This is classic Lloyd-ball, what became Tressel-ball in the following decade. Play dominant defense, run the ball, avoid mistakes, win games. Lloyd wasn't against changing things up when the times moved forward, but he still liked this basic philosophy and given how well it worked in '97 (and, for example, in Baltimore in 2000 and Ohio State in 2002) it's hard to blame him for keeping a finger on that button.

5. Michigan never again produced teams capable of winning with this philosophy. It's not that they weren't talented enough (they were loaded for another 10 years, and the offense was almost always better than in '97). Instead, the defense just never seemed to put it all together, and in some years other areas like special teams betrayed them. I suspect coaching was an issue here; it is worth noting that the players on this dominant '97 team had received significant coaching from Greg Mattison, who left only the year before.

WolverineHistorian

July 18th, 2014 at 1:11 AM ^

We struggled to stop mobile quarterbacks in the following years.  Although we also had our fair share of wins against them as well, it was a problem that never seemed to go away.  Jim Herrman eventually got on my shit list.  In the 2005 season opener, I remember being pissed that Northern Illinois was able to score 17 on us which included a 70 yard TD run by their QB. 

Boy did I feel like a moron 3 years later when we started seeing the defenses on RichRod's teams.  I never missed Jim Herrman more at that point. 

rob f

July 18th, 2014 at 3:46 AM ^

I should be sleeping, to be honest.  But the last couple comments remind me of something I read last summer during the offseason in one of the books i picked up about Bo. 

I don't recall which one this was in, but Bo himself said that he spotted a couple of flaws late in the '97 season with the scheme of Jim Herrmann's defense that he predicted privately would soon be spotted and exploited by opposing coaches.  I wish I had the time and inclination to look it up at this hour, but he went on to say that it had to do with how Michigan overcommitted  with their defensive ends in such a way that a team with a mobile QB could exploit such a defense.

  He finished by saying that his own nightmare came true early in the '98 season vs. Syracuse when their QB, Donavan McNabb, did exactly that and picked Herrmann's defense apart (a task made easier because of no Charles, of course).

GoBLUinTX

July 18th, 2014 at 8:28 AM ^

I remember at the time the talk was that Michigan was poised to repeat because they would return essentially the same team in '98 less Woodson, Steele, and Griese.  Even then, as I recall, Brady under center was a consensus net plus especially since the OL would return except for Adami.

The loss to ND, while never good, was at least palatable because it was in South Bend, it was Brady's first start, and that's how rivalry games go.  Syracuse, OTOH, was a shocker, what was going on here?

 

victorsvaliant01

July 18th, 2014 at 12:29 AM ^

Is the Michigan Football and Michigan Stadium I miss so much that it physically hurts sometimes.



Will we ever get back there?

Lampuki22

July 18th, 2014 at 7:34 AM ^

Is it me or does BTN hate Michigan.



Not a big conspiracy theorist but I tend to think our coverage for successes (eg hoops) is weak and the analysts are too negative in football and basketball.



GoBLUinTX

July 18th, 2014 at 8:37 AM ^

that ties in with the Negative Recruiting thread about U Meyer.  If you watch the BTN replay commentary from that game the Columbus Dispatch sports writer blames the loss on....Stanley Jackson, specifically the two interceptions.  He could have said that Michigan's defensive line was disprupting the OSU offense and he could have said that Sir Charles was a playmaker that had a knack for being in the right spot at the right time, but he didn't, he said that the reason they lost was because of Stanley Jackson.

That was almost 17 years ago and it had nothing to do with Urban Meyer, but it does have everything to do with the mindset in Columbus.  So, when Urban says that Michigan calls out players by name and blames them for losses, I think what we're seeing is a bad case of projection.

stephenrjking

July 18th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^

Well, let's be fair, we blame Michigan's failures last year on in-house problems. That's nature. And Jackson did throw a pick in the Michigan end zone and another, execrable pick right to Weathers that was returned for a TD. Sure we forced it, but he didn't exactly cover himself in glory.