Trivia: When was the Last Major Upset UM Pulled Off? Line >10

Submitted by alum96 on

Just curious (sending the bat signal out to Wolverine Devotee if no one else knows) when was the last time we were a big underdog and pulled a "major" upset?  I don't mean -4 or -7 type of line but say -10 to-12+.  I know we were rarely in a position to be such underdogs but are we talking the late 60s?  Or has there been some game along the line I've forgotten where people gave us no chance and were flat wrong.  Outside of the obvious first Bo OSU game. 

Along those lines I wonder between say 1970 and 2007 how many times we've been underdogs by 10+ points in any game, anywhere, anytime.  I know 2008 forward it has happened relatively often but in the Bo/Mo/Lloyd era - not much after Bo's first team I imagine. Probably that 6-6 team vs BYU in the 86 bowl? Maybe one of the Rose Bowls along the way?  One of those undefeated or 1 loss John Cooper teams?  Even a game like Oregon 2007 I doubt we were -10, heck we may have been favored since we were at home.   FSU 91?  I imagine it was less than a half a dozen times in those ~40 years.

 

enlightenedbum

October 22nd, 2014 at 4:06 AM ^

'96 OSU.  Actually we might have been 10 point dogs against ND in 2006.  But I know we were in '96 against OSU.

EDIT: We were definitely two TD underdogs to the '95 Buckeyes as well.

alum96

October 22nd, 2014 at 4:33 AM ^

Yes I thought the most likely situation was one of those Cooper games in Columbus when he was rolling 1 or 0 loss teams out and we were doing our normal 3/4 loss thing in the 90s.

Looking back in 95 the game was in AA and #2 OSU was coming to visit a week after UM fell to 3 losses by losing to #19 PSU.  UM had fallen from #12 to #18.  Not sure we'd be a 10 pt dog at home however being ranked and being #12 the week before.

1996 I could definitely see us being >10.  Going on the road to (again) #2 OSU.  We had (again) just lost to #11 PSU for our third loss of the year, and dropped from #16 to #21.   We won 13-9.  That sounds like it could be our biggest upset of those 35-40 years.  But we were still ranked :)

I forgot about ND - 2006 it looks like we entered the game ranked #11 so it would seem unlikely to be that much of an underdog but perhaps.  I wonder if it happened at all during the Holtz era as some of those teams were elite but usually in those years they gave both ND and UM the benefit of the doubt and both would enter the game ranked top 15 since it was usually the 2nd game of the year.

Thanks.

B-Nut-GoBlue

October 22nd, 2014 at 4:45 AM ^

Not sure how to look this stuff up.  Could it have been the Wisconsin game back in 2008?  They were No. 9 coming into AA, though the rest of the country didn't realize just how bad we were yet, even after losing to Utah at home and badly against ND.

GoBlueSimon

October 22nd, 2014 at 6:57 AM ^

I don't think Michigan was an underdog to Oregon in 2007.  I think everyone thought they were going to pound Oregon in response to losing to App State.

The only time I can remember MIchigan being a big underdog was 95 OSU.

Sons of Louis Elbel

October 22nd, 2014 at 8:06 AM ^

The spread in '96 against tOSU must've been higher than '93 or '95, since it was in Columbus. Also the best game I've ever attended. The stunned silence at the end of the game was absolutely priceless.

Mabel Pines

October 22nd, 2014 at 8:15 AM ^

is a beautiful thing.

But let's be honest, how did they not see that coming?  It was a yearly tradition back then.  A wonderful, long forgotten, yearly tradition.

Now I'm depressed.  Thank god I was in my 20's and got to just go crazy those years.  Those were some good parties and the sad, sad Buckeye faces were great.  I miss John Cooper.

flashOverride

October 22nd, 2014 at 9:05 AM ^

I wish I could use the past for optimism here. Those mid-'90s Michigan teams and the one that beat Florida were actually good teams that just needed one or two things to click (or just needed their coach to realize it was his last game and maybe he should check out joining the 21st Century). This team needs about a dozen things to click. 

Blue Mike

October 22nd, 2014 at 9:15 AM ^

Looking through Gold Sheet's historical records, there are only a couple of times since 1996 that we've even been +10 or higher.  The only two we have won were the '96 OSU game (+17) and the '07 Florida (+10) game.  Since 2008, we've been +10 or more a couple of times, including a +24 at PSU and +20 at OSU in '08.  Last year we were +16 for the OSU game.

 

Heisman212

October 22nd, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^

A game where the team is playing for their coach and he is coaching for his job. There's enough in the line for this team that a win could go down as one of the biggest the program has had in a long time.

Perkis-Size Me

October 22nd, 2014 at 9:46 AM ^

What about the Capital One Bowl in '08? We were an unranked 8-4 team going up against the almighty Urban Meyer and his golden boy Heisman winner Tim Tebow. I have to imagine the line for that game was Florida by at least 2 touchdowns.

zebbielm12

October 22nd, 2014 at 10:43 AM ^

Michigan has only been double-digit dogs 9 times since 1990:

13 - OSU - 17 - L
12 - Bama - 13 - L
10 - OSU - 16.5 - L
09 - OSU - 10 - L
09 - Iowa - 9.5 - W
08 - OSU - 20.5 - L
08 - PSU - 24.5 - L
08 - Florida - 10 - W
96 - OSU - 17 - W
98 - OSU - 10 - L
96 - Colorado - 9 - W
 

I may have missed a few, here's the data:

http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pageLoader.aspx?page=/data/ncf/teams/t…

alum96

October 22nd, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^

Thank you.  I knew there had to be a website somewhere out there with historical data.

That one has betting lines back to 85-86 ...very cool.

Yes I was looking pre RR era ... pretty amazing to be double digit dogs only 2x between 1990 and 2007.  That Colorado team was #5 in the nation and it was in Boulder so that one makes sense but even that was 9.... how far we have fallen.

MoJo Rising

October 22nd, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^

and beats Sparty, it will be a win for the ages, imho. But I am pretty sure that's not going to happen and I will most likely be doing the below a lot during the game

 

WolverineHistorian

October 22nd, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^

*SIGH*  1996 OSU.  I was in high school at the time and I had not yet become a pessimist when it came to sports.  So when we were down 9-0 at halftime, there were no thoughts of doom and gloom.  I knew we could come back and win.  Then the second or third play of the 3rd quarter, Ty Streets takes that short pass to the house and at that moment, I felt we were going to come back and win. 

Today, if Michigan is down 9 points, I've got no hope for a win. 

GoBLUinTX

October 22nd, 2014 at 11:34 AM ^

that if Sparty showed up with a mono epidemic raging through their ranks, Michigan still loses.  After all, what's the point?  They beat PSU when everybody who was anybody said they would lose only to find out from those same prognosticators and fans that the win was meaningless because PSU sucks.  The players know, they really do, that their efforts on Saturday won't be appreciated by the movers and shakers of UM.  One only need read the front page of this blogsite to understand that.