Michigan Night Game Success
Before I begin, this in not another thread advocating night games, rawk music or black jerseys.
I was wondering how Michigan has fared in the past in night games. I remember couple people telling me at the Holiday Bowl when we played Colorado St. that Michigan has had difficulty with night games. I was also there for the Rose Bowl losses to USC and Texas and both were evening games.
Lets hope for a big win this Saturday!
October 7th, 2009 at 2:21 PM ^
was @ PSU in '06
October 7th, 2009 at 2:52 PM ^
I remember that game, or atleast the last couple minutes of that game.
I miss Mario Mannigham and Adrian Arrington. I wish they would have stayed.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:55 PM ^
I would have liked to seen Mario spread and shred in Rich Rod's offense.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:43 PM ^
would have been SWEET in RichRod's offense.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:41 PM ^
..would have been SWEET in Barwis' program. He would have gained speed between his freshman and senior years instead of losing it. Of all players, Breaston was the most damning evidence that something needed to be changed in the S&C program.
Thankfully, it has, and we are just starting to see the benefits.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:05 AM ^
Anthony Morelli.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:08 AM ^
Ostensibly, this reply is a clarification for other readers.
Really, though, I take any excuse to post this:
October 8th, 2009 at 11:52 AM ^
is still better than Anthony Morelli's.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:42 PM ^
At Rosebowl-bound Illinois in '07.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:12 PM ^
That was a hell of a game. Badass pass from Arrington for a TD. Absolutely bat-shit crazy awesome
October 7th, 2009 at 5:08 PM ^
We were undefeated going into that game whereas PSU was 4-3. I wouldn't consider it a big win.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:49 PM ^
I remember we beat Illinois, night game, in 2007. I don't remember if it was a big night game or not.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:23 AM ^
Well, Illini fans thought it was a big game, FWIW.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
The Rose Bowl was a 2PM start locally, which, according to my sundial, is earlier than many of the 3:30 starts Michigan already schedules at home. Get your facts straight.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
Rose Bowls are afternoon games that the sun typically sets during the 3rd or 4th quarter. Not terribly different than a long game that starts at 3:30pm in November.
Night games quickly off of the top of my head (I'd defer to jamiemac on this):
ND 1988 (loss -- Reggie Ho game and Gillette missed FG as time expired)
ND 1990 (loss -- Late Elvis INT in the endzone and a deflected pass that went for a long ND gain)
Minnesota 1991 (win -- game wasn't televised as I recall)
Syracuse 1998 (win -- way too close. Henson got the bulk of the snaps. Came down to a failed hail mary by Syracuse)
Illinois 2000 (win -- Henson comes back from the broken foot to spell Navarre. Questionable call on A. Thomas fumble. a lot of Illini bitching following)
Minnesota 2003 (win -- Halloween (friday night) huge 4th quarter comeback, water buffalo stampede)
Northwestern 1998(?) (win -- the rain game with Fargas going over 100 yards. I think this was a night game)
Minnesota 2006 (win -- got out to a big lead and let the lolphers back into it)
Penn State 2006 (win -- good night Mr. Morelli)
Illinois 2007 (win -- Henne separates his shoulder and plays through the pain)
I can't recall many from the mid 1990s, but it seems like Michigan tends to do well in night games against teams other than ND.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:41 PM ^
That for that info.
I was wrong about the Rose Bowl being night games. I just remembered both times being upset walking back to the my car in the dark surrounded by stupid SC fans or Texans singing "I've been working on the rail road."
October 8th, 2009 at 2:08 AM ^
yah i was there too... it was like 3:30 or 4:00 wen it started... i sat in the texas side.... very annoying... it ended late at like 7 or 8 or so... not sure few years back vs texas.... annoying as hell ending... all the texas fans were like "why the hell do we keep punting to him (edwards)" every time was a 20 yrd punt/kick return...
its eyes of texas not ive been working on the rail road (my dad made me sit through it.... its basicly their fightsong... like hail to the victors)
October 7th, 2009 at 3:04 PM ^
2000 illinois game i remember a-train throwing a fit on the field after navarre over threw a pass to him when he was wide open. next set of downs henson was in.
1998 NW game was the only game where fargas had 100 yards rushing for michigan. IIRC i think that game started at 6pm or 7pm it was one of those espn 2 night games.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:17 PM ^
was that over throw chalked up to "too much crown on the field"? I seem to recall that being a common excuse used by Carr to explain Navarre's tendency to throw high.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:34 PM ^
The "crown game" was at Oregon in 2003. Johnny Wheels threw a late INT due to that unusual shape of the field (known as a "crown" to you and me).
October 7th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^
We turned it over on downs.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:23 PM ^
I guess it was too painful and I blocked it out! Thanks for setting the record straight.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:44 PM ^
Great list...a few additions:
2002 At Minnesota (win 42-24 or some such, boring game)
And a slew of bowl games:
1976 Orange Bowl (lost to Oklahoma - first time Big Ten allows more than one team to go bowling, UM wears white pants)
1979 Gator Bowl (l5-17 loss to Lawrence Taylor's UNC squad - Wrangler gets knee blown out)
1981 Bluebonnet Bowl (beat UCLA, Bo's first bowl victory)
1984 Sugar Bowl (loss to Auburn 7-9 - Bo Jackson held in check)
1984 Holiday Bowl (loss to national champ BYU - gimpy Robbie Bosco - Bo's worst team still almost wins - blew a big lead)
1994 Holiday Bowl (beat an outmatched Colorado State but play to their level - boring game)
1995 Alamo Bowl (lose to Texas AM by 2 on a late FG? I think?)
2000 Orange Bowl (Brady's last game, goes nuts, OT Extra Point miss by Alabama)
2005 Alamo Bowl (unfortunate loss to Nebraska, gave it away late - unsuccessful Cal Band play at the end)
October 7th, 2009 at 7:11 PM ^
If you're old enough to remember the 1979 Gator Bowl and 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl, your memory has to be going, but I usually forget about the Gator Bowl.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:51 PM ^
Triando Markray catches ball that puts us in field goal range as clock winds down, steps out of bounds with 2 seconds left, refs don't stop the clock...we lose.
Argh.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:53 PM ^
Nothing more frustrating than keeping Bo Jackson completely out of the end zone, but still losing on field goals.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:10 PM ^
Damn him.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:44 PM ^
I think the Northwestern game in 2003 was also a night game. It might've just been a late afternoon start, though, but my recollection is that it was dark the entire game.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^
Nah...I was there. It was a 3:30 game after the clocks shifted back for the year, so it got dark quickly.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:40 PM ^
We played a night game at NW in 2005. Crable had a huge game blowing up screens and rushing the passer. I remember Lloyd was a lot more aggressive than usual on offense late in the game when we were trying to kill the clock.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:06 PM ^
Did we play Boston College at night on the road? In 1995, I think? I can't recall.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:45 PM ^
For 'cuse I think you mean 1999. In '98 that's when Donovan McNabb came into the Big House and began the meme that Michigan can't stop running QBs.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:53 PM ^
You are correct, it was 1999. I attended that game. Anyone who thinks Syracuse should join the Big Ten needs to go there at least once. think Flint or Gary, IN with a crappy dome.
I will say this, that was the single loudest venue I have ever attended, Horseshoe included.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:21 PM ^
Informative link:http://marcmwm.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/and-the-iowa-release-on-3-night…
"Iowa has played six night games in Kinnick Stadium (3-3 record). The Hawkeyes lost the first night game played in Kinnick Stadium to Miami (Fla.) (24-7) on Sept. 5, 1992. Iowa also lost to Iowa State (36-31) on Sept. 14, 2002, and Ohio State (38-17) on Sept. 30, 2006. The Hawkeyes defeated Northern Illinois (24-0) on Sept. 18, 1999, Arizona State (21-2) on Sept. 20, 2003, and Syracuse (35-0) on Sept 8, 2007.
The Michigan contest will be just the fourth true night game in Kinnick Stadium history. Iowa games against Northern Illinois (1999), Iowa State (2002) and Arizona State (2003) were 5 p.m. starts, while the Miami, Ohio State and Syracuse contests"kicked off at 7 p.m."
October 7th, 2009 at 3:22 PM ^
more because navarre couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat in his freshman year. thankfully he got better over time, but those first 3 games were hard to watch in 2000.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:00 PM ^
He was bad against UCLA and the first half at Illinois - but as I recall, he was better than expected in the two opening games.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:07 PM ^
He actually led the nation in passing efficiency after those first two games. Then his performance fell off a cliff.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:16 PM ^
What is with all the harmless comments having -1 on this thread? Someone have an quota to meet?
October 7th, 2009 at 4:51 PM ^
I wondered that too. Perhaps a kneejerker to the words "Night Game"?
I have seen blanket neg-bangs of entire threads a number of times here, but usually it's just the visiting Sparty fans negging away at anti-Sparty comments, (like when someone points out that their every utterance of "Walmart Wolverine" makes them slightly less worthy members of humanity).
Give it time -- this system is still young enough that nobody knows what the established protocol is.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:58 PM ^
Sparty fans will have the requisite points to actually neg anybody.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:31 PM ^
This has been pretty widespread for a few weeks now. I mentioned it in one of the thread that everyone was going nuts in after the Sparty loss.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:26 PM ^
I think you could solve this problem if there was a way that people couldn't anonymously negbang comments ... if people knew there was a public record of who the chronic negbangers were, it might cut down on some of the funny business.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:08 PM ^
According to MGoBlue.com, Michigan is 22-10 in night games all time (19-4 playing on the road and 3-6 at a neutral site).
Page 4 of this week's game notes includes a list of all the games played through the years and their results. It can be found here:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/mich/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/fbl-w…
Also of note, this weekend will be Michigan's 400th televised game.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:36 PM ^
I still feel bad for Anthony Thomas... one of the most inexplicable fumbles I've ever seen.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:44 PM ^
Will never forget it. Got into a huge fight with my (then-pregnant) wife. Not a good day in a lot of ways. We made up later (well, the next morning), but the sting of the loss lasted much longer.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:58 AM ^
I watched with a bunch of Northwestern fans at a small college just north of Evanston. When their guy dropped that pass in the end zone (first non-scoring drive of the night?) I jumped up and down and yelled "he dropped it! he dropped it!" at all the purple people around me.
Then A-Train got the winning 1st down without the football, and a guy looked up at me and said, calmly, "he dropped it."
bad bad day.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:02 AM ^
Michigan could be 40-0 or 0-40 all time in night games. Does this have any bearing on Saturday? Likely not.