Remembering 2006 Michigan @ Notre Dame

I went to the game with my dad. We sat in front of a couple rather large Michigan fans from Saginaw that went NUTS every single time LaMarr Woodley made a play. Celebrating his scoop and score was awesome. So was the Burgess TD. And the Manningham TD. And the other one. And the third one. The ND fans were as silent as I can remember 80,000 filing out of anywhere I've ever been. Felt like a morgue except for the occasional high five exchanged with fellow M fans who were all smiles. What a day. My dad drew the parallel with the '97 Penn State game that he also attended. But this was Notre Dame.

I can remember big games in the context of my life at the time.  Kordell Stewart's hail mary happened on my 35th birthday.

That Notre Dame game came at an especially unique moment of worlds colliding.  My wife organized a baby shower for our daughter on that day.  Condo neighbors of ours have a huge living room and the very nice lady of the house offered us use of their unit for the shower. The man of the house, a nice guy in his own right, is a die hard domer and admits to a pompous personality.  So, here I am being as nice as I can be to these generous hosts in helping to set up the party.  Before I went back to our place to watch the game and leave the girls to their shower things, he says to me, verbatim, "you have the most over-rated coach in the country."  This, from a guy who's team's coach just got a gargantuan raise, and had the "strategic advantage" thing being repeated by all the pundits.  Meanwhile, Carr is coming off of the Season of Infinite Pain and we're already starting to hear "hot seat".  So, even before the game and subsequent season transpires, this guy is soooooo wrong!

And, as we know now, he just got wronger and wronger.  Oh, wide open.

I was in the MMB on the field, and really couldn't see shit for a good chunk of the game because their cheerleaders and stadium staff insisted on standing right in front of us the whole time. I couldn't see the initial touchdown but for the general hysteria coming from the sideline, and it just got better from there. In my mind, the whole day is just a blur of "OMG did that just happen?" over and over and over again. Plus Mario Manningham murdering half the clarinet section on a touchdown catch.

Really, one of the best days ever.

Michigan did all that despite Notre Dame's "decided schematic advantage" that year.  Hard to believe.

I will always remember how Notre Dame never even crossed our 40 yard line. That was my freshman year at UM and we just fried those chicken bastards.

What I remember from that game is watching the first half at home and then, at half-time, heading to my wife's uncle's house.  I watched the entire second half with him.  He was dying of cancer and had just been released from the hospital in a "live out his final days in familiar surroundings" kind of thing.  I vividly remember the clash of emotions on the drive over there.  We were in complete control of that game at the half, which was exhilerating, but of course there was that "heading to a funeral" feeling of dread churning in my stomach as well.

Just before the 3rd quarter kicks off we get to Frank's house and, of course, it's his party and he can do whatever he wants.  So, what does this man with the death sentence want to do?Why, watch the second half of the Michigan/Notre Dame game of course!  Turns out that while most of the family are Spartan fans, and therefore took only a passing interest in our game, Frank was a HUGE Michigan fan.

While the rest of the family mingled and generally tried to pretend that we were at a party and not a funeral, I took a seat next to Frank and was soon chatting with him about the game, the rivalry and Michigan Football.  The whole time we're talking I'm of course thinking "I am going to be at this man's funeral in a month."  But then it eventually struck me that, at that time, he didn't seem to care about any of that.  He was near the end of his time on earth but still reveling in the glory of life and Michigan Football.  When it was over he looked at me and said, "well, if that's my last Michigan/Notre Dame game, it's a helluva one to go out on."  His nonchalant acceptance of the situation was... I dunno, amazing, gut wrenching, and hilarious all at the same time.

He died less than three weeks afterwards, on a Monday, and was burried on a Thursday.  My father-in-law, at his funeral quipped "he died on Monday so that we could get his funeral out of the way and not have to miss any college football."  

The funny thing is, on the ride over to Frank's house that day I knew that Michigan was in complete control of that game and it was going to be an epic "where were you when" kind of victory.  But I also knew that I would probably forever associate that game, that win, with a sense of death and mortality.  But that's not how it turned out.  Experiencing that game with Frank elevated the experience from a great Michigan Football memory into simply a great life memory.  

I was driving to a wedding in Muskegon (from Grand Rapids) and I remember listening to the radio broadcast and thinking "who in the hell is Zoltan Mesko?".  I also remember being very nervous about this game.  I got to the wedding and immediately located the bar.  Luckily this was at a country club so I was able to access a TV.  I was pretty much by myself as the ass kicking unfolded, but I was steadily joined by more onlookers, including some Sparty who appeared to be enjoying the slaughter as well.  I ended up drinking a lot of Jameson that night and made my wife drive us home.  Great, great day.

My wife and I had just moved out of an apartment and into our first house, a little 764-sq. ft. bungalow in the Central District of Seattle.  In a house that small, every square foot is precious--so I had to get my first ever flat-screen TV to go with it.  I remember taking a day off work so I could schedule the delivery a day or two beforehand (I am always paranoid that the delivery guys will be late or something won't work or whatever), and it was good to go once gameday arrived.  

Like other posters, I remember feeling confident in our team but nervous because of 2005 and our historic bad luck in South Bend.  But I think it was after the second, or maybe third, Manningham TD that I thought, "wait a minute--we are blowing them out!" and from there it was just pure bliss.  

I remember laughing during the Woodley TD, thinking we didn't really need the points but why the hell not.  I also remember being worried that Woodley might lateral the ball to another player and didn't want him to do it because I'm from Saginaw and wanted the Saginaw man to get the points.

I remember it was my cousin's wedding that day, and we came home before the reception so I got to watch the game. (This was before I realized the horror of fall saturday weddings, I was only 12) Anyways, I just remember Mario Manningham getting behind the defense three times, and it was oh sol glorious. I think that's the game that got me sucked into college football, because I was pretty young at the time. But being able to talk crap to the ND homers in my home state of Indiana felt pretty awesome.

47-21. What an absolute ass-kicking.

To Hell With Notre Dame.

I just remember how quickly I went from nervous to giggling with glee in this game.  I thought it had potential to be a close game, but we broke ND early and never let up.  After the first couple of drives it became one of those games where you just sit back and laugh at how easily your team is steamrolling someone.  Kind of like App State, but about 10 times better because ND is actually quality.

Possibly the most satisfying victory over a major rival I've ever seen Michigan have. 

The groundwork for this satisfaction began the prior season.  After ND's 7th game that year (a loss, mind you):

- Charlie Weis gets a 10-year extension, for which I think he still may be receiving big checks from ND.

- Brady Quinn instantly becomes the frontrunner for the 2006 Heisman.  I recall his mother being interviewed in the stands during a game in '05 where she basically implied that Quinn winning the '06 Heisman was a foregone conclusion.

- Thanks to Quinn's instant stardom, his SISTER became a regular TV site during ND games (this was exacerbated by the fact that she was at the time dating her now husband, OSU linebacker AJ Hawk).  She was getting Kimberly Webb screen time!  The only difference being that Kimberly Webb is a drop-dead gorgeous babe, whereas Quinn's sister could have passed for Alice Cooper given the right lighting.

- Skip Bayless starting predicting a 13-0 2006 season for ND before the '05 season was finished.

Take all that and mix it all up, and you get the most satisfying sh##-kicking ever when Michigan rolled the Irish that day.  All talk of titles and Heisman's ceased immediately!  Oh, it tasted soooo good.

I was in 5th grade at the time and remember that season completely. Every game, where I was, what channel it was on, the score and many plays.

I watched that game with my parents and saw Manningham put on a show along with that defense. 2 defensive TDs.

34-14 at halftime over the #2 team in the nation, on the road. It was over. I remember my Mom kept saying how tired nd looked because of all the starting and stopping due to the commercial breaks.  

I remember at some point late in the game when Michigan was cruising, some nd douchebag sitting in the endzone flipped off Breaston right in front of his face. The ultimate "you mad bro?" moment. Breaston probably just laughed to himself and thought "scoreboard".

I watched it with my ND-subway-aum in laws.  After a while alll I was trying not to do is laugh out loud.

Michigan beat number 1 ND in 1981, after we got upset by WI after being the pre-season number 1 team by both the AP and UPI. My last ND game, the Rocket ran back 2 kick returns, in 1989, though Grbac almost got us a come back from behind victory.

Rick Leach's final year they beat ND on the road. Also the resumption of the ND series since 1943.  I wonder how long it will be before we play ND again? Hopefully not another 34 years since I will be quite an old dude (85) or even dead?

I was a junior at U of M and drove down to South Bends with a couple of housemates on Friday night.  We were staying in Siegried (and Roy) dormitory with a friend who went to ND and the party scene at  ND was pretty weak compared to at Michigan so we kind of had fun joking about that.  I think other than having a few beers in some kids' dorm room the most notable thing we did Friday night was go to Sbarros in the union.  Anyway, all the kids in the dorm had white boards on their doors that read things like "Go Irish" and stuff like that.  When I went to the bathroom at 4 in the morning I changed them all to say stuff like "Michigan 28, Notre Dame 24" (even I wasn't expecting a blowout) plus some lines about Charlie Weiss and maybe "Fuck the irish" and stuff like that.  I hadn't been that confident about our chances during the week but I remember reading the staff predictions on rivals and they all had Michigan and, while I normally don't put much stock in that, it was kind of the boost that for whatever reason got me really confident that Michigan was actually going to be able to go in there and get a win (for the first time in 12 years).

Anyway, Saturday morning rolled around and it was funny overhearing all the ND kids complaining about the white board thing.  A bit later, we ran into Jimmy Clausen on his recruiting visit and told him "don't come here, I go to Notre Dame and it totally sucks.  It's the worst place in the world."  It was an okay attempt but I don't think he bought it considering I was wearing a Michigan jersey.

Finally, the game rolled around and it was absolutely amazing.  If I'm remembering right, Henne got picked off on the first drive but Michigan quickly responded with the long TD to Manningham and the first pick by Prescott Burgess.  I think we built the lead to 34-7 in the first half and that was probably the happiest I had even been at a sporting event up to that point in my life.  Anyway, the game ended and we met up briefly inside the stadium with my dad and some family friends who were there.  It was really cool that on a college road trip I could still share such a special moment with my dad.  After that we waited outside the locker rooms with the other Michigan fans to cheer for the guys as they boarded the bus.  We got to say a really quick hello and congrats to a couple of the guys who lived on our hall (I actually can't remember know if it was Forcier or Zoltan or both), and then we finally headed back to our friend from ND's dorm.  When we got there, we decided to walk into his room singing the Victors... this led to his gf bursting into tears and storming out.  She wasn't seen again for the rest of our trip!

Finally, we drove back to Ann Arbor and got into town in time to do some real partying and celebrate with some real Michigan fans on Saturday night.  What an amazing trip, mainly because it was just such an amazing game.

I already posted about what a great weekend Michigan - Notre Dame 2006 was for me, but it was also a really special and bittersweet game for a close family friend of ours.

My dad went to Ann Arbor Pioneer and graduated maybe in 1976 and for my entire childhood we would hang out with his best friend from high school (and their family) before every Michigan game that we went to (and we had and still have season tickets).  Actually, we saw so much of them that they said we were kind of like their kids' cousins because we visited all the time.  Anyway, the father of my dad's friend was an usher in Michigan Stadium for something like 40 years and in fact my father's first Michigan games that he went to in person were when his friend's dad snuck them into some blowouts when he was in high school.

Sadly (but not entirely unexpectedly), my dad's best friend's dad (the usher from Michigan Stadium) passed away only a few days before Michigan - ND in 2006, I think it was on that Wednesday.  I called and offered our family friend (the usher's son) my condolences and talked about the game for a bit.  

So, my dad's friend (the son of the deceased) decided that the perfect way to honor his father's life would be to hold the memorial service that Saturday morning in Ann Arbor and then drive down to South Bend to watch Michigan take on Notre Dame.  Actually, my dad didn't even have tickets and hadn't been planning on going, but his friend was able to pull some strings and make the trip happen.  My dad drove to Ann Arbor for the memorial service that Saturday morning and then he and his friend, his friend's sons, and one or two other family friends drove down to the game together.

We all know now that it turned out to be one of the most amazing Michigan games of all-time, and I guess it was even more special for that whole group for Michigan to just destroy ND when they had gone to the game as sort of a way of honoring our deceased friend (the stadium usher).  Also, since my dad made the trip down to South Bend, I was able to meet up with him in the stadium after our amazing win which was a special moment for me since Michigan football has always been maybe the biggest thing that we've bonded over.

Anyway, although I don't actually believe in stuff like this, it's nice to think that our family friend was there in spirit cheering Michigan on (and incredibly happy) as we destroyed Notre Dame that day.

Henne to Manningham!  What a great day.  I remember being so happy for Coach Carr after this game, finally getting a win in that stadium.   

Senior year of high school.  My Dad had just gotten his first DVR.  He set the game to record and turned off the TV.  He was so nervous that he made my entire family go run errands with my mom. He wouldn't even listen to it on the radio in the car.  We got home and I finally checked the score and we were up 34-14 with the second half about to start.  Flipped on the TV and no more errands were run that day.