What if? Michigan football version
One of the more interesting books I've read recently was called "What If". The premise of the book was simple. Take a significant event from history, say the Battle of Midway, and change the outcome. Then ask experts and historians to project what likely would've happened (in the case of Midway it was projected the Japanese would've successfully invaded Hawaii and prolonged WWII into the early 50's).
It's a slow day on the board and rainy day here in Cleveland so I started to think about what the Michigan version of "What If" would look like. Here are a few of mine but I'm sure there are a TON more:
1. What if Bo didn't have a heart attack the night before his first Rose Bowl game?
2. What would the outcome of the 1979 Rose Bowl have been if Charles White's phantom TD had been called correctly?
3. Does Michigan win the National Championship in 88 if Miami doesn't recover not one but TWO onside kicks in the final 5 minutes of the game?
4. What if Moeller doesn't get "Moellered" that night and remains the HC?
5. What if the original Les Miles hire had gone through and he, instead of RR, replaced Lloyd?
6. What if Casteel had come with RR as originally planned?
August 11th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
Then they wouldn't bump their asses when they jumped...
Is it Sept 1 yet?
August 11th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:27 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
beware his wrath!
August 11th, 2012 at 1:27 PM ^
He may angry, but he does have a point, specifically in your case.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:42 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:48 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^
Quit antagonizing.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:09 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:23 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:37 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:30 PM ^
No, we act like assholes on this board for a very specific reason - to act like assholes.
August 11th, 2012 at 2:56 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 7:32 PM ^
Negged for talking about points.
/doubleirony
August 11th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^
Im so sorry but the immature in me is not letting this one go..What if my aunt had balls ? would she be my uncle ?
I apologize..What if Shawn Crable doesnt hit Troy Smith late ? Does Michigan win vs OSU ?
August 11th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:48 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:51 PM ^
I was pissed they didn't call a penalty there, in light of it being called on us. However, the helmet-to-the-head shot by Crable was definitely a personal foul.
August 11th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:43 PM ^
It was clearly a personal foul. The official made the right call and we paid a heavy price for it.
August 11th, 2012 at 7:49 PM ^
Yep. As soon as the hit came in I was pretty much like "That's a flag... please no flag, please no flag, please no flag. Damn, the ref was watching the game."
August 11th, 2012 at 1:44 PM ^
through that game before passing? What if OSU had not changed the turf out?
I agree, that call doesn't get made today, when refs are used to QBs running and getting hit.
That said, that game was awesome to the last minute, and enough of the breaks just did not go our way.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:57 PM ^
What if the game had been in Ann Arbor? Or what if we had another shot on a neutral site? Oh that's only allowed for SEC teams? Ok then nevermind.
August 11th, 2012 at 9:38 PM ^
that only happens for the f'ing SEC.
August 11th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
What if Michigan didn't get jobbed in Iowa last season? Are we in the B1G championship?
What if Denard threw the ball instead of running in the 4th qtr at MSU?
August 11th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^
If you mean the 4th and 1 play, that was a pass play. We probably would have been better off calling a run.
The Iowa outcome didn't ultimately affect the Big Ten standings, siince MSU held the tiebreaker.
August 11th, 2012 at 2:28 PM ^
yep, my bad about the MSU game. I only remember Narduzzi absolutely read the play call by Denard. I chose to block out most of that game from my conciousness.
August 11th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^
Bad times.
August 11th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^
The “what if” about Michigan Football that I most often think about is what if Michigan had followed the lead of Chicago and deemphasized athletics?
August 11th, 2012 at 1:59 PM ^
My senior year in high school I desperately wanted to get into Chicago, and even in the suburbs the name recognition wasn't great. If they had stayed in conference, would my high school have a bunch of kids wearing Maroons hoodies? Probably not because even Northwestern wasn't well represented (and it's about 35 minutes away, UC is double that and smaller), but interesting to think about either way.
August 11th, 2012 at 5:13 PM ^
August 12th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
But part of the reason Northwestern has a small fanbase is that it's historically been terrible. Chicago actually was a football powerhouse for a long time and might have remained one if it hadn't de-emphasized sports.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^
Gotta nip this one in the bud. The in-game what ifs don't really work because there's not even any useful way to project what would happen in the remaining time after everyone's mindset changed. There's an infinite number of possibilities for what could happen and not really a guiding thread. The long term coaching questions are interesting to think about but personally I just can't talk about RR anymore. I wonder what might have happened if Woodson had remained at running back, for example, or if Des had stayed in Ohio, or Woody never punched that player. What if Tom Brady never had an affair with Lloyd Christmas?
August 11th, 2012 at 2:58 PM ^
So wait, you mean when I wonder what it would be like if my wife had bigger bewbs, you're telling me she might never had married me in the first place? What's the fun in that?
August 11th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^
Les Miles was NEVER going to be hired by UM. That is a complete fantasy. Bill Martin respected Carr's opinion too much to hire Miles over Carr's objections. I was a premium member of one of the "big" UM sites at the time of the coaching search (aka "The Fiasco") and Miles was never really under serious consideration.
All of the "smoke" about Les Miles to UM was just that: smoke.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:06 PM ^
August 11th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^
Brandon was never going to ask Miles to take the job. The whole thing about the Michigan plane landing in Baton Rouge was completely insignificant and probably a coincidence.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^
They had a few brews, and laughed at MGoBlog and others chasing our tails, and then shook hands: Les leaving with a leveraged up new LSU contract, Dave leaving with a certain subset of the base content that Les did not want the job, which gave Brandon cover to hire Hoke, and an easier path to lining up support behind Brady.
It was a win-win.
August 12th, 2012 at 2:04 PM ^
totally agree with this. it was the balm for the initially resistant over brady’s acceptance, then his “would walk all the way to a2 for this job” personality took over and locked it.
August 12th, 2012 at 1:50 PM ^
ok, say there wasn’t the venom between carr and miles, then what?
August 12th, 2012 at 11:41 PM ^
While, yes, it is true that Les Miles was never going to get hired as it was in 2007, all the OP would have to do is amend the question to "What if Bo was still alive in 2007, meaning Les Miles was hired?" And yes, Les WOULD have been hired if Bo was still alive at that time, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.
It's interesting to think about. That means Mallett, Boren, and Arringston stay. Possibly Manningham too, although I believe he would still declare for the NFL draft regardless. We're probably looking at a typical Lloyd kind of season in 2008, 9-10 wins and a January non-BCS bowl. I think we take Sparty, but the Ohio losing streak probably continues for another year, before we take them in 2009 during a 10-11 win season with a BCS bowl at the end. It's hard to project beyond that without knowing how he recruits, especially at QB(I'm assuming Mallett leaves after his junior year in 2009), but there's no reason to think we wouldn't have played for the National Championship last year against Alabama...setting up a rematch in Dallas to start this season. Boy, that'd be something.
I actually like thinking about "What if?" questions, but apparenly most don't...
August 11th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^
Regarding this one...
3. Does Michigan win the National Championship in 88 if Miami doesn't recover not one but TWO onside kicks in the final 5 minutes of the game?I don't think so, because Notre Dame won the title that year, and they still would have had a victory over us. Now if Gilette had made the game-winning FG attempt at ND that year, yes, I think we would have.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:09 PM ^
I remembered that unpleasant detail too late (that ND won it all that year) but damn the end of that Miami game was painful to watch. Especially when you know the team ran the table after that.
BBall version:
What if Frieder doesnt announce he's leaving until after the tourney?
What if C-Webb doesnt call time out? (yes I know the game wasn't actually played according to the NCAA)
August 11th, 2012 at 1:16 PM ^
I don't think the '89 team would have won it all with Frieder at the helm. He was too high-strung, and his teams always seemed to play tight in the tourney. They thrived with Fisher's low-key style.
If Webber hadn't called timeout, I think we'd have scored. That team had always seemed to come through in the clutch. Jalen probably would have taken the game-tying shot. Dammit, it still stings. We let that game get away.