OT (Sort of): Answers to Hump Day Quiz -- Michigan vs. the $EC

Submitted by M Ascending on

The number of responses to this week's quiz was way up from last week's.  Obviously, anything to do with the SEC gets our juices flowing. Nobody get everything right, but there were some pretty close submissions.  And thank you to all of those who didn't cheat. To the few who apparently did, how did you still get some answers wrong?

Question 1:  The responses were fairly well-bunched; and nobody had us with a sub-.500 record against the SEC.  Michigan's record against the SEC is 25-11-1, for a .689 winning percentage.  10 of those wins, however, came against Vandy (as well as the tie); against the rest of the conference, we are 15-11 all-time.  (Most of the Vandy wins came in the early 20th century when Vandy was actually a very strong team, so those wins are not to be too esily discounted.)

It's hard to believe how few games Michigan has played against the SEC in over 135 years of football.  And a larger percentage have occurred more recently due to the expansion of the bowl system.  First meeting an SEC team in a bowl game in 1984 (losing to Auburn 9-7), Michigan has played a total of 15 bowl games against SEC opponents, compiling a record of 9 wins and 6 losses.  And 5 of Michigan's last 7 bowl games have been against SEC opponents.

Question 2:  Michigan has played against all but one current SEC team.  The responses were pretty well split between Georgia, Kentucky, and LSU.  We have actually played Georgia twice -- when they came to the Big House in 1957 and 1965 -- splitting the two games.   We have played Kentucky just once, in 1908, pulling out a squeaker by a 62-0 score.  And, we have never played LSU, which is somewhat hard to believe given the blue blood nature of both programs.  A home-and-home sometime in the '20s might be something to shoot for.

A couple of respondents said Mississippi State, which even our youngest fans would know is not correct.  But I do give those respondents credit for successfully undergoing hypnotherapy to blot out all memory of the 52-14 pasting we received from MSU in Rich Rod's last game.  (So, there was something positive to take from that game in the end.)

Question 3:  Here is a list of all SEC teams that Michigan has beaten, including the number of Michigan victories:

Auburn (1)

Alabama (2)

Arkansas (1)

Florida (3)

Georgia (1)

Kentucky (1)

Mississippi (1)

Missouri (2)

South Carolina (1)

Texas A&M (2)

Vanderbilt (10)

Thus, we have beaten 11 of the current SEC schools (although wins against T A&M and Mizzou came before they joined the conference).  Many of you assumed we had beaten Tennessee at some point in the past, but not the case.  We have played them just once -- another game we would all like to forget.  A home-and-home between these schools would be a great matchup for the future.

Question 4:  Michigan has lost games to 8 SEC opponents:

Alabama (2)

Auburn (1)

Georgia (1)

Missouri (2)

Mississippi State (1)

South Carolina (2)

Tennessee (1)

Texas A&M (1)

One final note:  Florida is not on the list for Question 4.  We are 3-0 against the Gators, all in major bowl games and all within the past 13 years.  Michigan has never scored fewer than 38 points in any game against the Gators, with the final scores being:

2003 Outback Bowl:                    Michigan 38    Florida 30  

2008 Capital One Bowl:              Michigan 41    Florida 35  (suck on this Tebow and Meyer)

2016 Citrus Bowl                         Michigan 41    Florida 7

This record must remain intact.  GO BLUE!  CHOMP THE GATORS!  And thank you all for playing.

 

 

Everyone Murders

August 10th, 2017 at 8:20 AM ^

I'm among those who didn't recall the recent game against Mississippi St, but the (well-deserved) snark sent my way reminded me of that debacle.  I recall going into that having mixed feelings - on one hand, you always want to see the team do well, especially for the departing seniors. 

On the other hand, RichRod simply was not going to work here (and I'm in the camp that feels he was not really given the institutional support he needed to succeed), so I was hoping that game would be the final nail in his coffin and push us to our next coach who certainly could not fail.

And the cowbells.  I remember the cowbells.

BlueMan80

August 10th, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^

that clinched bowl eligibility.  Lots of celebrating going on, but like most of the people around me in the stands, it felt like a horrible way to win.  It was very clear that Rich Rod appeared to have no clue how to run a defense in the Big Ten.  I did feel a bit guilty that I was hoping going to a bowl would not be enough to save his job.  We needed to turn the page.  Then we got stomped in the bowl game, by MSU so I no longer felt bad.  Problem solved.

MGoPoe

August 10th, 2017 at 9:32 AM ^

That '03 Outback bowl was Carr's last game as HC too.  I remember watching that in my house seeing Mike Hart fumble not once but twice in the redzone and upending my world as well.

One particular play sticks out to me though: 3 wide, Hart lined up in the backfield with Henne under center, Hart motions out to the outside WR position Henne backs up into the shotgun.  Everyone in Florida's LB corp and secondary started pushing panic wildly.  I think we ended up with a deep completion on that play but oh man.  My roommates and I were jumping up and down screaming "WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?" at the TV, we had never seen half the plays our offense executed that day.

The score does not do justice to just how hard we killed Florida that day.  Final score was only a TD and a 2 pt conversion away but that may as well have been 50 pts.  We throttled them all day, should've put up at least 14-21 more pts on them.

aMAIZEinBLUEinTX

August 10th, 2017 at 10:17 AM ^

I was curious as to what constituted the '36 games' other than the tie, as I've been purporting Michigan is 26-8-1 (34 non-ties) all-time against the $EC down south to all their slappies...

 

I guess the difference in our computation is that I included Tulane (Michigan 3-0) and Georgia Tech (Michigan 1-0), as both schools were in the $EC at the time the games were played; I excluded Mizzou (2-2) using the same criteria...

I guess it all comes down to how one stipulates games played against the $EC - either a school in the conference at the time the game is played (how I define by default) or current conference members.

Either way, adding a notch to the dubya total in 23 days - cant wait to see it live, 8 rows from the field! GO BLUE!

M Ascending

August 10th, 2017 at 11:49 AM ^

Using your criteria, you should have also excluded T A&M, against whom we are 2-1.  My quiz was based on all-time records against CURRENT SEC teams, including games prior to their joining the conference.  OTOH, I'm not sure the SEC even existed back when we were pummelling Vandy and Ky.  If changing the criteria makes our record look better, however, I'm all for it.

I notice that you joined the blog in 2011 and only have 2 MGoPoints.  I upvoted you for keeping your mouth shut for so long -- an attribute that many of us, including me, could aspire to.

RedPandaCmmanda

August 10th, 2017 at 3:20 PM ^

Thanks M Ascending! Though I didn't see this quiz yesterday, it was fun to read along. Good work!



One slight correction, and I didn't see anybody mention this, but I think only 4 out of our last 7 bowl games have come against SEC opponents. Since 2008, we've played FLA 2x, Mississippi State, and SC; opponents outside of the SEC have been FSU, Kansas State, and VT. Anyway, thanks again!!