2000 Michigan Roster - most NFL players of all time?
So I'm watching the replay of the Michigan vs. Alabama 2000 bowl game, and I'm blown away with how many of our guys from this roster played in the NFL. Is it the most star studded team in the history of our program? My criteria is simply how many guys played in the NFL vs other UM rosters. I will list all the guys I can remember, and it's up to you mgoexperts to find guys I'm missing and maybe another team that had even more.
In no particular order...
Tom Brady, Steve Hutchinson, Anthony Thomas, Jeff Backus, David Terrel, Ian Gold, Rob Renes, Josh WIlliams, James Hall, David Baas, Justin Fargas, Drew Henson, Chris Perry, Larry Foote, John Navarre, Cato June, Marquise Walker ,BJ Askew, Bennie Joppru, Shantee Orr, Victor Hobson
That's 21 by my count, and that's even more than I expected.... thoughts?
The entire front 7 played briefly in NFL. That is scary. Most of the OL played with three of them still playing. That team should have won the national championship. That fact that it did not, is it a reflection of bad coaching, bad luck, or opponents who were even better? Sadly, coaching was the most important factor.
Thanks for reminding me.
That was the game where Lloyd went from "he won a National Championship!!!!" to "what the f are we doing out there" for me.
a top coach would have surrounded himself with top coordinators. Lloyd did the opposite and so our teams underachieved for most of the 2000's.
Still, it could have worked if the offense was more consistent. Some years, like 2001, the talent was in question. Remember who was the second-leading receiver in '01 after Marquise Walker? That's right, Bill Seymour with 25 catches. Rushing leader? BJ Askew fronting a mediocre unit that was never, ever game-changing. And redshirt sophomore John Navarre was not ready to lead a team with no tools.
What's galling is that this team lost only one more game than Carr's loaded '03 squad.
The interesting thing with 2001 is if Henson comes back, there's a good chance UM would have played Miami in the NC game. Their 3 losses were: @ Washington where after controlling the game for the first 50 minutes they are getting ready to kick a field goal to put them up by 9 only to watch UW block it for a TD and intercept a swing pass that bounced off the rb's hands for a TD, @MSU - clock gate and OSU where Navarre and the team laid a complete egg in the first half.
The interesting thing with 2001 is if Henson comes back, there's a good chance UM would have played Miami in the NC game. Their 3 losses were: @ Washington where after controlling the game for the first 50 minutes they are getting ready to kick a field goal to put them up by 9 only to watch UW block it for a TD and intercept a swing pass that bounced off the rb's hands for a TD, @MSU - clock gate and OSU where Navarre and the team laid a complete egg in the first half.
No evidence whatsoever he would ever live up to his hype. Maybe the outcome of OSU is different, but the losses to Washington and MSU were fluky enough that a change in quarterback would make no impact. Also, I'm reasonably sure that Miami would have torched Michigan if they got there. The defense had gotten pretty dire by this era, as highlighted by Northwestern 54, Michigan 51 the year before.
The MSU game would not have come down to an extra second of the offense hadn't gone to sleep for the entire second half until the last drive. I left the stadium that day thinking, mostly, that Michigan had looked like garbage yet still almost pulled out the win. A lot of our games went that way that year. I actually think Michigan did about as well as it could have with that roster.
The defense was indeed a weak point, though. The Citrus Bowl proved that.
Please do create the diary on "what went wrong" in the 2000's. If your fingers can stand typing the 100,000 plus words you'll need to complete the task I'd love to hear what you think.
In 8.5 games as a jr, he threw 237 passes and completed 146 (61%) for 2146 yds, 18 tds and 4 int's. I'd say those are pretty solid numbers.
Maybe the outcome of OSU is different, but the losses to Washington and MSU were fluky enough that a change in quarterback would make no impact.I don't understand this logic at all. Navarre didn't play well in any of those games, which greatly reduced our margin for error - and then the fluky plays cost us. With a superstar at QB (and Henson was really good - I'm not sure why you think otherwise), those games shouldn't have been close.
No personal disrespect intended, funkywolve, but your post reminds me of the people who credit Lloyd with two national championships.
That's right, two. It goes something like this:
* 1997 (Ahhh ... pleasant memories.)
* 2006: Were it not for Crable's poorly timed hit, UM would have played Florida and, of course, won, since they beat them the next year! (Please ignore that Florida lost an entire defensive line in the '07 draft: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/history/college/FL)
Need it be said that's Lloyd's get-out-of-jail-free card will always be that last wonderful game? It overshadows the Appalachian State and Oregon debacles in the minds of his most ardent supporters.
No disrespect taken. The coulda, shoulda, woulda, what if is always ripe for second guessing.
but definitely a game where I have no clue how we lost against a team like that. 1999 was loaded as well.
Edit: Nevermind. I see this is about 1999. Thread title is confusing
Yeah, I think it's often overlooked that the 2000 roster won as many games as they did while playing one year in the past.
This was when I became convinced that no lead for Michigan was safe, because Carr would go so conservative on both offense and defense that they would blow it no matter what. The worst.
LLOYD CARR WON A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! (Exclamation ...)
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!!! (Guilt trip ...)
and ...
HE'S DONE MORE FOR MICHIGAN FOOTBALL THAN YOU EVER WILL!!! (Put-down ...)
- - -
Yeah, </not serious>.
But seriously, I'm glad that this 'blog is a place where Lloyd's later years can be thoughtfully and politely analyzed (at least by some).
at home in his tenure - given the talent he had on the roster. I remember sitting in the stadium and thinking "what the f**k is going on here?!"
That team had one weakness: cornerback. William Peterson (now William James, he of the long NFL career) was groomed to be the guy there but got kicked off the team in the offseason. Without him we got destroyed by Plaxico Burress in the State game. We were really good as it was, but with Peterson we would have been national-title good.
I actually think the Big Ten was the cream of the crop that year. Wisconsin, Ohio State, MSU, all the teams were extremely good that year.
The loss to Illinois was just horrible. Up 27-7 in the 4Q and losing it. The loss to MSU was on LC's shoulder with switching the QBs.
Which of the QBs was covering Burress?
Brady should have started that game.
Ohio was 6-6 that year and did not make a bowl game. PSU was very good though and had the #1 and #2 overall picks playing on their defense. The final Top 25 poll that year had 7(!) Big Ten teams in it.
The participants lost to Michigan and Michigan State, respectively. Wisconsin won the Rose Bowl. The B1G was easily the best in the country.
And while Michigan's loss to Illinois was awful, that Illinois team was pretty good--and near comeback or no, that Michigan State team was outstanding. The loss was not a fluke.
I think '99 was Carr's second best season, both in results and in getting the most out of the team.
Illinois and Minnesota weren't bad either.
that OL rivals the 1993 year with Everitt, Cocozzo, Skene, Doherty, Elliott, Trezelle Jenkins, and a few others that slip my mind, that all played in the NFL.
I forgot Dhani Jones. With bowties and poetry, how could I have missed him? 22 Guys and counting....
sorry to report they are not a professional team.
Mo was a starter and was drafted the next year to the Jags. (23 so far) Who else?
was awesome in that game, but I couldn't remember if he made it into the NFL. Kick ass, that takes us to 24.
players on our roster, we will a NC.
Cool story bro moment: I was at that game in the front row in the corner of the endzone (the endzone with Alabama written). The players celebrated in front of us and we got some oranges, couple receiver gloves, and a towel or two. I was watching the game this evening on BTN and even got a screenshot of my friends and I! Pretty awesome.
Anyway, what an awesome game. The announcer mentioned that Alabama's run D was rated so highly b/c nobody ran the ball well enough in the SEC :) Guess they didn't have the SEC speed back then huh? Also, I never remembed Shaun Alexander's jersey saying "SU. ALEXANDER" Had I known that I would've called him Su instead of Shaun for the rest of his career.
Also, Marcus Knight was choosing btw Alabama and Michigan for his school, and I believe Su Alexander also almost chose Michigan. Interesting tidbit...
Watch the '97 UM-OSU game again, and note the absurd level of NFL talent on the field. Not slow talent, either. When Michigan and OSU have appropriate levels of talent, they take a back seat to nobody.
This is the year that Henson started the game and Brady almost brought us back with a wild 2nd half comeback....
Clockgate was 2001. Michigan did not lose again to MSU until you-know-who came to Ann Arbor.
Was very talented over 20 nfl players from one team. Goblue
Ken Dorsey, Clinton Portis, Najeh Davenport, Frank Gore, Willis Mcgahee, Andre Johnson, Roscoe Parrish, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr., Bryant McKinnie, Vernon Carey, Jerome McDougal, Vince Wilfork, Jonathan Vilma, D.J Williams, Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Mike Rumph, Antrel Rolle, Phillip Buchanon, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few players who were drafted that didn't really pan out. I don't see that team being trumped, ever.
I don't see how that team was ever beat.
And an OSU team we coulda/woulda/shoulda beat punched them in the mouth. An all-time upset.