What was the mood on campus back in the day?

I always feel awful for fans that weren't around for the 90's. honestly I don't know how those fans still watch.

... exceptional football.  Great defenses.  Expectations of greatness.  Pagentry.  Make no mistake, they were down years, but those were years we lost 4 games.  97 (my senior year), was magical.  

 

Dave Brandon would like a word with you.

a starting offensive line comprised of future NFL players, a QB you knew would get drafted and you would see play in the NFL, big bruising tailbacks that would rush for over 1,000 yards during a bad season, 6'2 receivers and stud tight ends that were always a threat. That was just the offense, forget pro bowl corners like Charles Woodson and T Law, or that you might never see Michigan lose to Michigan State or Ohio State while you were in school...or if you did it happened 1 time in 4 years. Or your senior year at Michigan, you would see a CB win the Heisman, the president of the university invite several thousand fans into the president's house after defeating a great Penn State team, Michigan earn a birth in the Rose Bowl by beating Ohio State, fans rush the field in the BIG house (not because they beat ND under some lights, but because they were going to play for a national championship...at the Rose Bowl), and all of your friends come to LA and stay at your house to celebrate the New Year and witness Michigan win a National Championship. Sigh. Those were the days. Harbaugh

It was like the 2008 Capital One Bowl every saturday

Hang on, my man (or gal).  I was at UM during almost the entire 90's.  Between undergrad and grad saw more amazing games and seasons (including of course '97) than you can probably comprehend.

 

Growing up with the Bo era then seeing the 90's first hand I would have put UM football success right up there with death and taxes.

So when The Horror happened, I shrugged it off.  I went to the Capital One Bowl game as the players carried Lloyd off the field.  A good win against a UF team with Tebow and Harvin.  Still felt that UM football was as untouchable as the Vatican.

 

Then 3-9 happened.  It was like someone telling me I was adopted.
Then 5-7.  I literally was gaining weight and losing hair and pissing off my wife every 10 minutes.

Then finally a bowl game.  Only to be emasculated.

Then the 11-2 miracle.  Went to Vegas with some UM friends and basked in the glory of BCS relevance.

Now the steady spiral to where we are today which leaves me feeling nothing but sadness and questioning my own self-identity.

Here's the advice from an old guy to a young guy:  double down.  UM is a special school and Ann Arbor is a special city.  We don't use the word "deserve" because we've worked for everything we have.

I truly believe that Jim Hackett is a f'ing BOSS and will bring in Harbaugh.  And the Jim & Jim Show will restore us to not only relevance but B1G Titles and National Championship Playoff expectations most years.

Sleep well, my young padawan.  You aren't alone in your fears.  But, remember, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to....

 

You get the picture.  

 

Never give up your hope or loyalty.  It's all going to work out because we work, work, work hard to make it happen.

 

Sincerely,

TH

'93 & '99

Discontented. People wanted more Rose Bowl victories; wins were taken for granted. Expectations are a squirrel cage.

Yeah the 90s were not all wine and roses but it was much different than it has been since Bo died.

I remember general grumbling as much as anything, and how as fun as football games were we spent most of our time doing just general college stuff. It wasn't until I left for good that the games took on a different meaning and I find myself thinking about Michigan football on a Tuesday. That would have never happened when I was in school. I would be playing quarters or studying for something.

I think the fact of the matter was that we just took it all for granted. Although we did go to outrageous lengths to celebrate the 1998 Rose Bowl. I can't ever even remember thinking about recruiting, or what Ohio was doing.

I grew up from an early age a Michigan fan. I'm thinking back and really can remember a little from the A. Carter days.  What I remember the most was being so confused when my older brother told me AC signed with the Michigan Panthers in a league called the USFL. What the heck was a USFL?

When I hit middle school and high school, Michigan was chewing up conference championship and a lot of invites to big bowl games.  My freshman year of high school, Desmond won the Heisman and on that same day the Fab Five almost beat Duke,  I think that is the time I became a diehard. 

In that time, John Cooper came into our lives and it was fantastic.  They were so many years that he had lead that school to great seasons only to be spoiled by the Wolverines.  I loved it.  I had an older sister who married a “John Cooper led team fan” and even though he was 11 years older than me I got to gloat year after year under John Cooper’s rein.

Yet, in my mind, the best thing growing up was the ongoing joke which its punchline changed exponentially in greatness every year:

“You hear that Columbus changed their area code again this year?”

In fact, when John Cooper was fired the punchline was already ruined because he had lost too much to Michigan.

“2-10-1” didn’t sound right like “291” or “181” for an area code, but in the end “2-10-1” really was the best punchline as a John Cooper fan.

Sadly, my first time going to “The Game” in Ann Arbor was in 2001 and it also was Steve Bellisari last start for that school.  We all know what happened that year.

I’ve had the privilege to see some great games at the Big House.  My first was 1995 when Michigan beat the Barber brothers and Virginia and we all thought Scott Dreisbach was a god.  I held the banner in 1996 for the Penn State game.  There were a lot of future NFL stars that ran under that banner that day, although it does make me a little sick I was on the field with that Penn State coaching staff.  I was at Ben Roethlisberger’s first college game wondering with everyone else, “Why is this freshman MAC QB running all over us?”   I saw a lot of Rueben Riley’s games.  Also, I witnessed Mike Hart’s first start and I was even at RichRod’s first game in the Big House.

But the best part for me being a Michigan fan growing up was being able to thank the football gods almost every year for the greatest coach for Michigan who never coached at Michigan.

 

John Cooper…I love you.

 

EDIT:  I totally forgot that Steve Bellisari was suspend for blowing a .22 when pulled over by the police early in the week, and it was Craig Krenzel's  first start.  I can't believe I forgot that, because we were all pissed that this back up QB beat Michigan at the Big House.  Me forgotting makes me hate Craig Krenzel even more.

  even more even mroe I hate friggin' Craig Krenzel 

If you want an illustration of how utterly moronic, entitled and stupid the mood on campus was in the late Carr years, look no further than the number of students wearing "I'D RATHER BE PLAYING CAL" shirts in the lead up to the Rose Bowl against Texas in the 2004 season.

I was one of those students on the field in 2011... It was weird indeed in that it just didn't feel right. Yes, we won, but we didn't really beat the OSU that we were so accustomed to kicking our ass year in and year out. Even then the 6-6 OSU almost won. 

This was also during the time Meyer was rumored to coach OSU, so it felt good to win, but kinda meh for the future. This was also before we knew how good of a recruiter Hoke really was to give even more positive vibes about his tenure early on. 

Then senior year rolled around along with my master's year, and the campus was right back to how it was my first 2 years in that people partied before the game, sometimes went, sometimes didn't. The whole nonchalentness really started kicking in the 12-13 season. 

Under RR there was at least all the September Heisman hype with Forcier and Denard. It always felt like that THIS was finally our year with RR when we would start 5-0 every year with a victory over ND in the most ridiculous fashion... 

But by the time I graduated, no one seemed to nearly care as much anymore in the student body. It's sad. I really wish I could have experienced all my years at UM as if it were that 11-2 year. 

On occasion I watch repeat games of Michigan Football from the 60's 70's 80's and 90's and we have a some really good games in 2000's and not because Michigan was winning although for some odd reason most all of the games that I rewatch Michigan won.

Just something about Michigan Football games. It was just in the past couple of years that I took in what is referred to as the snowbowl game Michigan/Ohio St. Michigan won, but I think that there was a total of 3 points scored in that game and it was in black and white.

I still see that when a team shows up to play Michigan they play their hardest and their best because if you can beat "Michigan" then you have done something and this comes from all of the Tradition and the Great of Michigan Football. Michigan Football for the past several years has gone through some transition in coaching, but I have no doubt "We Will be Back and Stronger than Ever"

Harbaugh is coming home!

Go Blue!

 

 

Sad thread is sad. The first 20 or so OSU games I was aware of were about as scary as 2014 Michigan playing Illinois. Losing was possible but I expected a win every year and being able to compete was never in question. Losing to MSU required the aligning of several planets. When we played ND it was like Bama - Oregon and we usually lost.

But the "growing years" hoping we'd get past ND with a win. The ND game determined if we were on track for a run at the National Championship because pre-BCS you had to go undefeated. If we made it into the conference season undefeated then there was upstart Big Ten team that year leading to The Game, which was the ticket to the Rose Bowl. The tension was don't lose a game, and after that get to the Rose Bowl. It was still a tragic tension but the first loss took you out of an NC run - it didn't lead you to assume a disaster of season was about to unfold. (Even when Jimmy broke his arm.) And so, we were bummed if we lost early or to the upstart team, but had or steam back for OSU. S party was a side show. That was '83 - '87.

I'm an old(er) timer now, born and raised in A2, grew up with fall Saturdays in the stadium during the 10 year war. Beating the crap out of teams like Navy and being ranked in the top 5/10 most of time (along with a strong hoops team at times) made a young boy feel like he was King of the World. Seriously. Delusions of grandeur. Of course knowing nothing else for most of my youth, it truly felt like a birthright. The last decade plus has been the payback, but it certainly has made me realize how charmed my childhood was.

I was in undergrad in the early to mid 90s.  It started off fantastic in 91 and 92 but back to back Rose Bowls but then it degenerated into a sea of four straight four loss seasons with a coach getting fired in the middle of it.   They seemed to underperform for the most part and I remember that loss to Northwestern in 95 being a huge shock since NW was nothing but a doormat up until that point.   There was always John Cooper to look forward to at the end of the year.  OSU was almost always better record-wise when we played but UM would beat them like a drum.

When Mo got canned that was quite a shock and nobody I knew thought Carr was the right guy to replace him.  I think in 97 he was coaching for his life, a three loss season would have probably done him in.

 

When I arrived in Ann Arbor in the fall of 1987 as a PhD student, the mood on campus was that the football team sucked and Bo was getting old and didn't know how to coach any more. We finished 8-4, lost to State and Ohio. The next year, Bo got it together, won the conference, beat State, beat Ohio, and finished 9-2-1 after beating USC in the Rose Bowl. Bad years weren't nearly as bad, and were often followed by very good years. 

Being a doctoral student, though, I was way too busy to pay much attention. 

 

I was a freshman for Harbaugh's senior season. He remains the best UM QB I have seen play the position. It wasn't necessarily that he had vastly superior skills than other before or after him, but he was such a fierce competitor that it never felt like we were out of a game until the clock read 0:00. We were absolutely in the hunt for the MNC that year. Going into the Minnesota game, we were undefeated, Harbaugh was a candidate for Heisman, and the team looked unstoppable. Then Ricky Fucking Foggie blew those plans to hell. While THE HORROR was the worst loss ever, the 1986 game for the LBJ felt much, much worse. Then we beat the Buckeyes in Columbus again, in many respects, on the sheer will of Jim Harbaugh. We came back from a two TD deficit (!!) in the first quarter to win and head to the Rose Bowl. More often than not, that was a typical season. And we were not a content bunch. Bo, while recognized as a great coach, was not treated as the diety he is now. Fans, myself included, noisily complained about conservative offensive schemes that seemed out of touch with the best teams in college football. When Moeller became coach, he became more of an innovator. Elvis Grbac was the archetype of the stand-tall pocket passer with a cannon arm who was built like a building and moved as fast. Didn't matter because our O lines were like the Berlin Wall. It was an exciting time to be a Michigan fan. One that I fear I may not see again in my lifetime.

Every single year the expectation was that we would win the national championship.

but I started paying attention to Michigan when a certain coaching candidate was playing qb in AA.  1985, I think we finished top 4 that year only losing to Iowa. Watching Desmond strike the pose, The fab 5, and Tyrone Wheatly as a freshman. Those were special times man, I never thought we would lose a game. It happened but it was always a fluke in my mind. I rememeber always throwing out a stat that every Michigan qb from Harbaugh on played in the NFL.

we had these things attached to the wall with a cord and you spoke to your friends through them!  It was amazing.  You would go for hours without having contact with your friends, though.  We didn't have email.  We had "MTS".  We had to wait in Angell Hall to get classes, and when you went up to the woman's large box (computer), if your class was gone, you had to rush and pick another!  This was called "CRISP".  We also had "blue books" and wrote with these weird things called "pencils".  Fancy kids had giant computers.

We had no idea who the hell was the Athletic Director, and INdiana, Minny, Illinois,  Purdue were all given wins.  Your ticket had an actual seat #, but you would just go in your section and sit wherever.  Good times.

Don't worry, everything that goes around, comes around.  We'll be fine.

Love, Grandma

and '64 being like a gift straight from heaven while the old men who remembered Fritz's teams from the 40's reminisced about the good old days and maybe this being a return to them, but the next couple years sending them back to despair again.

You got it easy kid.

This too shall pass.