Changing Michigan football history one play at a time

The call was actually a penalty for helmet to helmet contact.

If the refs had made the correct call that Lantry's FG was good, #3 Michigan plays #4 USC in the Rose Bowl for a chance at the MNC. #1 OK was ineligible due to probation, and #2 Alabama lost in the Sugar Bowl to #9 ND.

Given our struggles against USC it's far from given that we would have beaten them, but with a healthy Dennis Franklin at the helm we would have had a helluva shot.

1988 Notre Dame - Mike Gillette missed the game winning FG as time expired. The next week Michigan blew a lead against #1 Miami and lost 30-31. Team finished 9-2-1 (tied Iowa) and could have been a NC team if Gillette makes that FG.

1.  2006 vs. OSU
2.  2011 vs. Minnesota-Duluth national championship
3.  2007 vs. AppState
4.  2013 vs. Chicago Blackhawks game 7
5.  2013 vs. Louisville national championship

Some of the most heartbreaking games I have attended.  Sorry, once I got thinking about this I couldn't just limit it to football.  

WVU is 10-0 and ranked #2 in the BCS standings and the AP, and #1 in the coaches poll. Pitt is having a woeful season at 3-7, and a sure victory at home by WVU puts the Mountaineers and Rich Rodriguez into the BCS Championship game, probably against Ohio State.

Instead, Pat White injures his thumb in the second quarter, the WVU offense sputters, they miss two FGs, and end up losing 13-9 in one of the largest upsets in recent seasons.

If WVU wins that game, they go to the NC and there is no chance that RR leaves for Michigan. With WVU in the title game, LSU does not slide into the championship game, and Les Miles is free to take a job offer from UM after Carr announces his retirement.

Whether UM would actually have offered the job to Miles is open for debate, but our recent history would have been radically different if Pat White doesn't injure his thumb down in Morgantown.

All that was good in the world... until that last week, when all hell broke loose.  Never been quite the same since.

I have no real specifics to offer, I'm just musing.

1999 vs Illinois - Henson goes in for Brady the 2nd quarter and loses all of the momentum and Illinois comes back to win.

I was 11 years old for the 2000 Northwestern fumble. I don't know why but that still drives me crazy.

There was a play in that 2001 MSU game that is always forgotten but may be equally egregious to the Clock. On that same final drive, a Spartan receiver caught a pass and went out of bounds on 4th down well short of the sticks. Freshman CB Marlin Jackson hit him late out of bounds. Because this was after the play was over it should have been turnover on downs, with a 15 yard penalty assessed against Michigan. But the refs erroneously gave MSU a first down, ignoring the fact that it was a dead ball foul. So that's my choice. Although another one was against OSU that same season, John Navarre hitting Marquise Walker in the endzone square on the numbers and he just dropped it. My how the perception of Jim Tressel may have changed if we had won that game.

Ahead 9-0, John Wangler was injured by North Carolina's Lawrence Taylor and he wasn't quite the same afterwards. Not only do we end up losing that game, but Wangler doesn't start the following year until the third game. This includes a heart-breaking 29-27 loss to Notre Dame, in which Wangler didn't come in until Michigan was down 14-0. The next week they lost to South Carolina at home in a game in another close game.

With a healthy Wangler playing all year and getting in full practice time, I think Michigan wins all of its games in 1980 (in addition to the Gator Bowl in 1979).

1989 versus Notre Dame. The coaches decide "hey, maybe we shouldn't kick the ball anywhere near Rocket Ismail."

Then maybe that 5-point loss turns into a win. Michigan goes into the Rose Bowl undefeated and ranked #1 where they have been all season. And maybe, just maybe, knowing that they could send their coach off to retirement with a national championship, the players play out of their minds and take down Southern Cal.

Has to be 2006 OSU. If we win that game, we have another B1G title and no drought since 2003, no 7 game losing streak vs OSU, and a MNC birth, if not a title during the BCS era. I also think that if we win that game, we don't end up losing to App State the next year, so it's basically a 2-for-1 deal.

but worth mentioning, I think. The 4th and 1 call from the 9 yard line against Michigan State 2011. If Borges doesn't call that bizarre play action pass and the team converts the first down and scores a touchdown, tying the game at 21, we would've at the very least gone to the Big Ten Championship Game.

Not necessarily my vote, but a couple others:

-Kordell Stewart Hail Mary
-Rocket Ismail kick returns.

That game @Purdue where we blew a 20 something point halftime lead and lost on a last second FG.

For me, it's not a play, but rather a result of a game: 2007 Ohio State @ Michigan. What a crappy day and what a crappy game. 17-3 loss right? For as bad as the 2007 season had started, Michigan was right there again to go to the Rose Bowl and beat Ohio State. Lloyd's legacy was on the line for this game, and I can only wonder if he would have stayed around and there would have been less public pressure for him to retire if they won that game and went to Pasadena again.

Some oldies. Lost to Auburn in the Sugar Bowl by a FG. Stanford in the Rose Bowl. A pass right through Jimmy Smiths hands against Washington in the Rose Bowl in 78. The birth of the Selmon twins cost us the 75 Orange Bowl. 85 Iowa loss on last second FG.

Incensed me. I'd want that injustice to be corrected, even if we don't win in the end (but I think we would have, even against a great USC team). I don't remember the 73-74 games - my fandom starts in 1977. The Crable hit and burning all our TOs before the Texas FG also rankle.

2012 bama would have been a nice one.

2000 OSU v. Michigan

Michigan, despite playing an abysmal game, is within a score and approaching the endzone IIRC.

Navarre throws it into a WR's bread basket and he drops it (can't remember who it was)

Result:

Tressel is mocked for his guarantee.  I doubt they go undefeated the next year as well.

Two plays that cost us two National Championships:

1985:  Last second field goal by Iowa.  We held Chuck Long and company out of the end zone all game but still lost on field goals.  We had a dominant D that year, ala 1997.  The Iowa game was the only loss.  (This may have been a split NC - Oklahoma Wish-boned their way to an undefeated season over Penn State.) 

1990:  Desmond getting tripped up (tackled) on the 2-pt conversion against MSU.  We were ranked #1 at the time and would have kept that ranking for the rest of the season.  We dominated Ole Miss so badly in the bowl game that the entire O-Line was given the MVP.

Imagine that.

 

2002 Michigan - Ohio State: Michigan drives inside the red zone with time for one last play to win the game.  Had we made it, like 2005 PSU, it would have knocked OSU out of the NC game.  

Yet another victory for Michigan against Ohio State, and no National Championship for them in 2002.