Saturday Night Football: 2005 Michigan vs Northern Illinois
Michigan opens the 2005 season against Northern Illinois.
When Michigan plays Utah on September 3rd, this NIU game will have taken place 10 years prior to the day as the NIU game was on 9/3/2005.
You can hear lots of cheers for Kevin Grady when his name is announced on the PA. On his TD, the announcer said "the first of many".....
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That was a night game?
/s
My first game at the Big House!!
Sweet any chance u can get 2003 vs cmu and Indiana
and being livid about how terrible the defense was
Oh boy. I was at this game and my most vivid memory is being pissed off afterwards.
The year before may have been a Rose Bowl season but there were a handful of games where the defense was really bad. And of course, the season ended with the 1,000 missed tackles against Vince Young. So for the start of 2005, my biggest wish was for the defense to make a statement right out of the gate, play amazing, pound their chests, etc. And Northern Illinois ended up moving the ball on us rather well. The fact that they scored 17 points angered me to no end.
The entire walk from the stadium to our car, I bitched to my dad about Jim Herrman and the fact that he needs to be fired NOW.
Little did I know what would be in store three years later....where I longed for the days of only giving up 17 points to a MAC team.
It probably wasn't very many years (and, to be honest, I'm not even 100% that they ever coached at the same time), but I feel like the Terry Malone/Jim Hermann era lasted about a century.
Interestingly Northern Illinois has had a heckuva program for a while.
The biggest thing about this game was comparing our program to other national schools...how many of Michigan's peers have struggled against "warm up" teams like this? I think that's what really got me at the time.
Sounds like the same conversation I had with my dad and younger brother leaving the stadium.
Not only were we pissed, we also felt less than enthused about the ensuing weekend vs ND.
What a bizarre season.
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Sadly I was at the ND game, the first loss I ever witnessed in the Big House...
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Carr looked like he wanted to retire during '05! But he did a much better job coaching in '06!
Ugly, ugly game! As fun as the '04 team was, I remember the most frustrating part of that team was the defense constantly giving up big plays. Then '05 comes around and I'm holding my breath, but then the miniature N. Illinois back takes one to the house from about 80 yards out on 3rd and long. The whole Big House seemingly let out the same pained groan. It was a sign of the crappy season to come.*
(*This was back when a crappy season still included wins at MSU and Iowa and against an otherwise undefeated Penn State.)
It's so weird seeing a #4 ranking by our name. I forgot about those days
Thanks for posting. Mike Hart was my favorite running back and still is. There are a ton of others, but that dude was just gritty and had absolutely no quit in em. That screen reception got me cheering out loud again - thanks for a bit of sunshine in a dark football-less summer. Go Blue!!
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Imagine his career numbers had he not been injured his sophomore and senior seasons!
Sadly, I've been watching old YouTube videos of Michigan football the last few weeks, as I can't take it any longer. Yesterday, it was UM 41, Texas A&M 3 in 1977. I guess I'll watch this one now.
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Couple things.... I miss Mike Hart. Wolf from NI was a beast. I miss ABC games.
August 1st, 2015 at 10:09 PM ^
I was at this game :)
August 2nd, 2015 at 11:28 AM ^
This was not a nightgame. Neither were the 1995 game vs Miami (OH) nor the 1998 game vs Eastern Michigan.
Michigan I do not think ever had a night game at the big House prior to the 2011 UTL game vs Notre Dame.
The Saturday Night Football Moniker is a cool name which is probably why the OP is using it.
Some games ended in the dark at Michigan stadium, those 3:30 start times that ended late when it got dark.
But Michigan never had a true night game at home prior to UTL in 2011 against ND.
August 2nd, 2015 at 11:40 AM ^
We all know that Wolverine Devotee is just branding his Saturday night highlight video threads. I'm just disappointed he didn't create a logo for the series.