Michigan-ND 1992: Lou Holtz plays for the tie

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Just acquired this recently and decided to upload it. The only tie in the history of Michigan-ND.

This game is full of epic. 

  • ND's Reggie Brooks unconscious touchdown
  • The chaos in the endzone when Michigan scores a TD. Michigan fans were seated on the field in the corner. At one point fans are running in front of the camera and one jumps onto Elvis Grbac's back after a TD.
  • Lou Holtz getting the ball with 1 minute left but running out the clock and playing for the tie because he is afraid of Michigan's offense with 3 timeouts.
  • The hilarious postgame interview where he tries to explain why he ran the ball but fails to mention why he didn't use a timeout while the clock was running, but used the TO after an incomplete pass with little time left.

 


1992: Michigan 17 Notre Dame 17 by WolverineDevotee

In reply to by Wolverine Devotee

snarling wolverine

August 15th, 2013 at 5:45 PM ^

Nice work on the compilation!  

Boy did we have a good team that year.   ND was stacked on offense and our D held them in check.  It took a superhuman effort from Brooks and a really questionable pass interference for them to get their two TDs.  On offense, I believe that was the year all five OL went on to the NFL (and all 11 starters?).  It's hard to complain about a Rose Bowl-winning team but they could have done even more - they were really close to being 12-0.

We should have won that game.  Elvis, man, what was he thinking on that last pass?

 

Brimley

August 15th, 2013 at 2:00 PM ^

Watched that game with my good friend and NW alum Steve, who eloquently summed up Holtz's decision-making: "Well, that was a wet fart of an ending."

Thorin

August 15th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^

I have a few games from him from when I was starting mgovideo in 2007 and he flipped out when I shared them for free. His audio is better than the torrent but the video looks about the same.

Wolverine Devotee

August 15th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^

I went to WolverineHistorian to see if he was legit and they have done trades that he has uploaded. The coaches films on his channel are ones he got.

I've been looking for 92 ND for quite awhile since Vuolo doesn't have it. I just learned how to do torrents the other day and have used MGoVideo. But for some reason some of the games aren't working like 1994 Purdue. That game is really rare since it wasn't televised. The torrent is film from the pressbox. 

mGrowOld

August 15th, 2013 at 3:50 PM ^

Thanks for that link.  He does have a ton of games from my era I'd love to see again.

Is it just my imagination or did you become really informative and dare I say it....kinda fun to have around lately?  The entire tone and type of content you've been bringing here seems to have really changed over the past month or two.

Anyways....thank you.

stephenrjking

August 15th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^

I have to say, the way Notre Dame used to have bands and fans sitting right on the field next to the end zone was awesome. Just splendid atmosphere and visuals, a brilliant scene for college football. I wish Michigan hadn't stopped parking the band down on the field.

stephenrjking

August 15th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^

Now you're going all practical and realistic on me. And just when I thought I had you writhing in the crushing grip of my logic.

It's too bad, because the visuals are incredible--one of the great images of Michigan Stadium history (naturally, from one of the great games) is Braylon Edwards snatching a touchdown out of the air in an endzone surrounded by cheering band members against MSU in 2004. 

Brimley

August 15th, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^

Our own John Kolesar broke his collar bone when he dove into the Illinois band which was lined up in the corner of the end zone in Michigan Stadium in 1986. He was done for the year. We were undefeated at the time of the injury and lost two close games the rest of the way in.  With Kolesar in...well, who knows.  Ever since, I've hated seeing anything too close to the field of play.

Bando Calrissian

August 15th, 2013 at 6:07 PM ^

I'm normally all for this from the atmosphere point of view, but having seen the negatives up close and personal, it's dangerous. Those guys move fast, and if they're coming your way and you're five feet from the corner pylon... Manningham just about killed about half the clarinet section at ND in '06. It's scary as hell. And a legitimate safety concern.

Wolverine Devotee

August 15th, 2013 at 2:28 PM ^

http://www.michiganfootballgames.com/games.html These are $10 per game. They have original audio and video. 

http://vuolovideo.com/u-mfootball.html $18 per game. All games have the Michigan Football Radio Network audio over the video broadcast. Sometimes for games that weren't televised, the video is shot on top of the press box. These DVDs have postgame footage and sometimes pregame. 

MGoVideo could hook you up for the more recent years like 2011/2012. 

eschaton811ydau

August 15th, 2013 at 2:42 PM ^

Fascinating. I wonder why UM doesnt sell these? Both of those sites have tons of disclaimer language, but I can't see that stopping a copyright holder from shutting them down. I wonder what the "official" archive looks like. Is there even an official archive? Sorry for the dumb questions, I imagine they've been asked before.

I'd probably drop some serious coin if an official, "All-22" style video was available for a whole season.

WolverineHistorian

August 15th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^

Lou Holtz playing for a tie was only set up thanks to that stupid interception thrown by Grbac. No clue who he was trying to throw to or WHY we threw at all in this point of the game. Just hand off to Wheatley a couple times and kick the field goal to win 20-17. Game.

Pete Elezovic was our kicker, though. Never knew what to expect from him.

The Barwis Effect

August 15th, 2013 at 4:02 PM ^

...but from the video, it appears Wheatley was injured with a little over a minute to go, which may have lead to Moeller's decision to pass the ball.  On the other hand, Moeller had a reputation as a bit of a riverboat gambler (e.g., 4th and 1 pass to Desmond in '91), so it's possible the injury had no bearing on the outcome.

Also, it seems to me that ND wasn't the only team that to be content with a tie that day.  Again, based on the video, it appears that U-M had three timeouts and chose not to use them after ND's running plays.

LSAClassOf2000

August 15th, 2013 at 3:24 PM ^

Strangely enough, I found the NYT writeup on the game online - HERE - and it seems that Lou Holtz managed to gather himself enough to say this:

"I made a mistake," said Lou Holtz, the Notre Dame coach, who admitted that he forgot that the clock is restarted after a penalty. "That was the only thing I regret. That was dumb on my part. But I am convinced if we do not have the penalty, and Lake catches it in bounds, we win the football game. No doubt about it."

There's also a summary of some of Rick Mirer too, how he thought it was the result of things which you simply can't account for in practice essentially. Supposedly, that was the first tie in the rivarly. 

UM Indy

August 15th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^

Awesome feeling to be ON THE FIELD watching a game and to get the opportunity to mob our guys in the end zone after a TD (Derrick Alexander?).  Tie was disappointing, but a great memory nonetheless.

Wolfman

August 15th, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^

Just as they did with MSU in the game of the century, Ara, and he publicly announced his reasoning after the game stating, "I knew if we played to a tie, the voters(read AP, full of Catholic Sports Writers) will vote us no. 1."    And sure enough, with a Bama team with an undefeated record, final votes for top three are ND, MSU and Bama.     ^Holtz knew that playing for a tie that early in the season would be nothing more than a road bump if they could finish the remainder of their schedule undefeated. They did not. They ended with the identical record as UM given the fact that ties count as 1/2s. ND ended 10-1-1 and UM 9-0-3. People really wanting to get into a pissing match could point out M went undefeated while ND didn't, but the 1 loss, one tie equals three ties, pure and simple, the way the rules are written.  And as happened in 66, ND ended one spot ahead of the team they tied that supported indentical won loss records with ND going 10-1-1.  This was par for the course back then. It was kind of nice seeing Bama finishing no. 1 that season and also last year when ND didn't belong on the field with them. ^Thankfully with the demise of unethical voters actually being taken over by results on the field, the only way ND wins another championship, just like all other teams will have to actually be decided on the field. And suffice it to say, I think we're all happy we'll never see a miscarriage of the type that resulted in Paul Hornung leading a 3 victory ND team somehow being thought of by all these like minded writers as somehow being better than Jim Brown in terms of Heisman voting.  ND was a partner of AP by virtue of an agreement reached between that service and Knute Rockne. Myth is a great word to use when discussing their program because so much of the shit that is now history is based on nothing more.    ^It also bolsters my argument that when this series resumes, and it will, it will be played later in the season when both teams will be at maximum efficiency. Easy to do. The BIG would have no problem substituting an IN or MD in what is now preseason and having this game played about the 7th week of the season. As much as it's watched now, the level of excitement generated for the '66 MSU vs. ND game would be more than equaled.

steve sharik

August 15th, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^

defined that season.  Elvis threw the ND game away with the pick in the end zone, the pick that set up their tying FG, and the colorblind pick to end the game.

And of course every year during the Moeller era there was at least one "WTF was that?" game per season, and in 1992 it happened to be Illinois.  Tie #2.

Ironically, Moeller played for the tie himself at Ohio State.  After being pretty wide open offensively all year, was extremely conservative at the 'Shoe.  Tie #3.