OT: If you had a time machine

Submitted by Lil boy blue on
Where would you go? 1997? 1865? 1963? 1985? Or would you stand pat? Go

Jasper

May 13th, 2017 at 1:23 AM ^

I'd tell Michigan fans to stop agonizing over the Crable play. That was *not* a national championship team. Look at what happened to OSU ... and us, against USC.

I'd bat away that lucky completion that Nebraska had against Mizzou so Lloyd et al. Wouldn't have to "share" the championship.

Frank Chuck

May 13th, 2017 at 2:20 AM ^

We were tied 3-3 with USC at halftime in a "neutral" site game. Pete Carroll's staff made better adjustments than Carr's staff did. And iirc, Mario Manningham didn't play in that game.

Florida clowning Ohio State doesn't mean anything for a hypothetical Michigan/Florida game. Styles make fights.

I recall a Michigan team with many of the same players moving the ball at will up and down the field against Florida the following year. (Part of our success can be attributed to changing our offense for the bowl game...which reinforces my point above.)

setblue81

May 13th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^

From that game was the bad luck Michigan seemed to have. John Navarre threw an interception that had deflected off of the intended receivers cleat, and bounced straight up Into the defenders hands.

Bando Calrissian

May 13th, 2017 at 2:33 AM ^

I went to every game that season save Indiana, and something just didn't feel right end-to-end about that Rose Bowl trip. After that slugfest of an OSU game, that team was drained, mentally and physically. Lloyd was also pretty much sleepwalking in the leadup to Pasadena. Losing Bo was a much bigger hit on him than a lot of people believe, particularly with the timing and the way it happened. 

1VaBlue1

May 13th, 2017 at 8:37 AM ^

This ^^^

And I'll add that the "slugfest" would not have been close had Bo not died the day before that game.  Michigan would have beat the snot out of OSU had they not had a program altering death to deal with.  You say the players didn't know Bo, but I'm sure most of them had spoken to him at some point - if even just to say 'Hi' going past each other in a hall.  He was always around that team, and kept an office in his building.  That the team, and coaches, performed as well as they did against OSU is a credit to them.  The RB game was just too much to ask after losing out on the MNC game.

Wolfman

May 13th, 2017 at 5:33 AM ^

That adjustment by USC was so damn simple and we could have countered it just as simply. You know their "complex" adjustment was having Booty roll away from Woodley. That was it. One of the true barometers of great coaching is, of course adjusments - and no one did it better than UM under Bo. So damn many people tend to forget, except for his first 4-5 years, he worked with far less talent than both Mo and Lloyd. He lost 3 games his first season, as everyone knows. Over the next four season, UM lost a total of 4 games. Mo wasn't around long enough to get a proper gauge of how effective he would have been over sixty minutes. And that was fun, watching game winning/losing decisions over the course of the entire game. 1972 - kick a damn fg, Bo. He was around long enough, however, to usher in a new era of Michigan football. 

Lloyd certainly didn't ask for the job, and overall he did surprisingly well, and just as surprising were some of the things he did and did not do. Except for a few seasons, we really didn't know when UM was going to start playing. Some of our preseason OOC performances were freakishly terrible. It was almost as if his switch was not engaged until conference play began. I mean the differences in team perfornance was dramatic and obvious. 

You do correctly recall we had a lot of players return to face FL in 2007. FL, however, could not claim the same, especially on defense. Also, was an offense that probably made 8 out of 10 UM fans ask, "Just where the hell has this been and why now?" That was a very young FL defense we rolled and even though we employed a spread passing attack, there is no way to know how successful that would have been against thein NC defense of a year earlier. 

Wolfman

May 13th, 2017 at 9:49 PM ^

and that 80 yd? screen pass to beat us was the best possible example of why Bo should have recruited him, if for no other reason, just to set him on the bench so he could never beat us. I mean that was SOP for he and Woody both. "We have three men on our roster we consider better than him at that position(spot didn't matter), but we really don't want to face him." I think this was even truer when it came to instate players. Although I'd later purchase a home in the Reeths-Puffer district and it is the alma mater of both my late wife and my son, we attended Friday Night football games to watch Johnny Williams. He was recruited by a few Big X schools - the lightweights,PUR, NW and well we see where he ended up. But damn, he was exciting to watch as a h.s. rb. Two years later, another Muskegon area RB appeared on the scene, Curtis Adams from Muskegon Orchard View. Because he chose Central, where he'd become an AA, I doubt he had any offers from the Big X. Different type of runner than Johnny - combination of speed and power, Curtis was the one cut and gone type. It's only natural for the locals to want this kid to go to UM but his career highlight in AA probably would have been meeting a freshman qb by the name of Jim Harbaugh his senior year. 

Both did go on to have NFL careers so they were decent, but looking at UM RBs during that period, Butch Woolfolk, Stanley Edwards, Ricks, Wilcher...... yeah, if he had been offered, I'm sure he still would have gone to Madison. I was debating, after your question, where and when am I going? Do I go back and try to convince Johnny to listen to Bo if he did, indeed, offer? That would be the course I'd take if he did receive a UM offer because he would have received the UM degree, but not sure if he would have seen enough time to get the NFL offer. So your suggestion is probably best. As happy as I was for local boy, heartbreaking is the proper word. BTW, I did get to watch him and A.C. during their championship USFL season in 1983. 

ATC

May 19th, 2017 at 12:57 AM ^

That's Muskegon county. It's somewhere around 2-3% of Michigans population yet it disproportionately yields superior HS Championship Football decade after decade. Two great conferences ..... the old LMACC and the old Seaway Conference. (The best small school conference in the state is the West Michigan Conference as well)

I moved out west a few moons ago and went to (what was billed as) a varsity H.S. Football game which turned out to be representative over the years.... I had no connection to the schools, I just enjoy football. Turned out...... hit, stick and deliver was replaced with bump, touch and roll around..... it was romper room football....still is. I was shocked, there were less than 500 people in the stands of these so-called powers of state HS football. I'm not saying there ain't talent out here.... but holy shit, the lack of laying pads low and driving the snot out of someone and putting their ass into the nickel seats is glaring to the trained eye. The term "pulling guard" seems to mean getting pulled from the lineup out here. Talk about contrast in style.... hs snowflake linemen missing the snap count in Oregon are "counseled"....... miss the snap count at practice on a Chiaverini coached Muskegon squad and your ass is picking up the tackling dummy for a lap around the track, NOT fun but it makes you learn fast, develop grit and you live.

I'm fortunate and sincerely grateful to share the love of fishing with my wife. (who is my better half in every cliched sense) She once thought I was nuts when I suggested we go out for dinner on a Friday and catch a HS Football game. I had her at "dinner" but almost lost her at "hs football game". We were dating then and I knew she was the one. I needed help educating her and fast..... competition ya know. My mentors had passed away so I substituted with a visit to Hackley Stadium... mission accomplished.

Anyway..... take the best from Muskegon county (as well as the Western U.P. thrown in) against any candy ass powder puff HS team in the Pacific Northwest and an education would be provided on what it means to leave the field in pain (win or lose).... said another way bluntly, what it feels like to wake up Saturday morning with early onset osteoarthritis. Hell, everyone gets arthritis.... what's a couple years early, smdh.

My time machine? I'd go back and watch Muskegon HS football. You might be familiar with Muskegon County great, Russ Damm (Muskegon '28; Michigan '32... may he Rest In Peace) Mr. Damm played Tackle for Harry Kipke on the same squad as Gerald Ford. He along with another Muskegon HS football captain educated me in my youth on Michigan football equating Greatness. (I once posted about a gent who told me stories about a guy named Oosterbaand... well, Mr. Damm was that man) As much as Mr. Damm intensely loved Michigan football, he'd always refer to his glory days playing for Muskegon. Anyway, I'd go back and attend every game from Muskegon HS 1928 state championship season (practices included).

Since I would be there for the season, I'd also spend time fly fishing with my Grandad who was the captain of that Muskegon squad. HS football was on Saturday then so we'd fish after Friday's short practice in waters that, in the time, abundantly once held the almighty Brook Trout. Time would be fleeting, I'd be in agony as the sun was setting on my visit and there would be certain deliberate urgency so we'd skip church and fish on Sundays.... I'd be eating coffee grinds to stay awake and sleep as little as possible. Finaly, I'd fit in one last glorious pheasant hunt with him on a bright n golden Michigan indian summer fall heyday of another Michigan sport from a bygone era...(and dawn of a partially unwelcome other).

PS sorry about the late post/reply Wolfman. I was fishing with my wife today. Your comment (as the youngsters say today) triggered me.... positively.

OwenGoBlue

May 13th, 2017 at 2:21 PM ^

In regards to the USC game adjustment I recall a story where Carroll told his offensive coaches to stop running the football at halftime. That 2006 defense was a monster against the run but had its vulnerabilities in the passing game.

You're right that there's no way to know how the hypothetical national championship game plays out but I do think Florida would have been a marginally better matchup for the 2006 team. Plus if we can time travel I'm bringing 2017 OSU film to show Ron English how teams learned to stop/slow Meyer's scheme.

The Fan in Fargo

May 13th, 2017 at 8:46 AM ^

Yeah Michigan had swag that year and talent to boot. The USC game was so dumb. USC was good but weren't a better team I thought. Michigan shit the bed that game. The defense could only hold those talented kids for so long from Cali. Offense sucked that day. As for Florida and Ohio State game that year, OSU shit the bed because that is what they do 99% of the time. They can get up for Michigan because they are dangerously obsessed but pretty much suck in the big games out of conference. Even with the top recruiting classes that Urban has brought in the past 5 or 6 years. They aren't really that impressive of a program. Exception being their last national title. Anyway, I think Michigan would've handled Florida. The game is about (matchups) and Michigan matched up really well with them everyone always said. That said, the 2006 team was not elite by any means. Jake Long and Manningham were talented studs on offense but the rest were pretty much okay. Yeah Hart and Henne were great at times but weren't the guys to take over a game ever when it mattered. Don't believe me? Proof is in the pudding. The defense is what made that team but even against a descent bucks team, still coudln't hold them.

befuggled

May 13th, 2017 at 3:06 PM ^

6 catches for 78 yards and a 2-yard run (see here). According to the box score and play-by-play they had 3 turnovers to UCS's 1 and turned the ball over on downs inside the red zone (in addition to be being outgained by 118 yards).

That team needed another playmaker in the secondary. With my time machine I'd put Jourdan Lewis or Jabrill Peppers on that team, and talk Lloyd into retiring after the Rose Bowl.

BursleyBaitsBus

May 13th, 2017 at 1:03 AM ^

2016 to tell the Michigan defense that Curtis Samuel was going to get the ball to win it all in OT after the controversial Barrett run. 

twohooks

May 13th, 2017 at 1:04 AM ^

1865 and 1963

Foil two assassination attempts

Stay in Dallas for the weekend

Pick who I want at Ruby's

Come back and share experience on MGoBlog

Get Negbang'd

kdhoffma

May 13th, 2017 at 1:11 AM ^

30 mins ago to tell myself not to have that last beer... I think I'm fucking drunk now. Yep fuvking drunk.

Maybe go back 1.5 years to start my divorce then instead of a few months ago so I can be past all the bullshit that's going on right now. Fuck divorce... it sucks... but it has to be be better than staying unhappily married. Wait I change my answer, if I had a time machine e I'd simply travel 6 months in the future when im happy... though I might be drunk then, banging cheapnhookers and collecting stds like 10 year old me collected baseball cards. Ok, I'm going to change my answe again and go back 10 years and not get fucking married. Am I playing this game right? Can you get a dui while operating a time machine?

711 Arbor

May 13th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^

because a judge can throw out a prenup if he/she feels like it.  I know a guy who had his thrown out because the ex wife's therapist claimed she wasn't in a good mental state when she signed it.  Complete bullshit. The court system is very very unfair to men.