Favorite Moments of the RR Era
To while away the time during the off-season, I put together my top five moments of the RR era. My list has the theme of "our heart is bigger than yours and we're also faster than you are". Feel free to theme your top 5 accordingly.
If I were better at uploading content, each would be accompanied by a video. Unfortunately, a youtube link will have to suffice.
So, without further ado:
5) Denard's first play. Obvious, but it is included for the Denard/Tate manlove that follows the play as well as Tay Odom's flying ninja block on the Western Michigan D-lineman. All heart (henceforth: hart).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1402kDBdTU
4) Brandon Graham knocks Glenn Winston back into 2008, and Glenn begs to be sent back to prison. This hit is amazing on a lot of levels, but the fact that it came so close to the goal-line highlights Graham's hart. He'll be missed. *Unfortunately, neither youtube nor google have this video available.
See also, the Ohio State goal-line stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQfcytu6ItI (7:14) Again, hart.
3) Tate's two jumping endzone plays against Indiana. I believe dude injured his shoulder either on the first one or prior to it, and he still chucks himself into the endzone for a two point conversion. Dude's got ups. Gritty ups. Hart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igsmIi4V0EM (6:55-7:20)
2) RVB's hulk-out in the Indiana game. After making the wrong line-check that helped UM give up the 80-yard TD run, RVB is in on all three plays on the next drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igsmIi4V0EM (8:00-8:12)
1) Tay Odom's block in the 2008 Minnesota game. The highlight of a miserable season. Odoms sprints past a fading Shaw just to put a block on a safety about 50 yards downfield in a season where nothing was going right. Odoms winded himself just for the possibility of putting a block on somebody and helping his running back into the endzone. Hart and speed, but mainly hart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMosjutIyc (3:38)
there are just too many to recount....
The whole damn thing
when Stonum took that kick-off to the house.
... it will turn up eventually! ; )
Preach! What about everyone's favorite Barwis moment? Speaking of Barwis, I've been going through withdrawals. When will we have some more Barwis Porn?
Helps to remind us of the good things that have happened, and gets us to think of the highlights that have yet to happen.
I have a particular image of the Branch-Morelli hit with Roh and Big Will standing over Pryor....
mgoblog.com/content/david-cone-rapping
I enjoyed John "The Machete" Thompson picking off Wisconsin and taking it to the house.
Tate's game winning throw against ND wasn't bad either
Tate nearly breaking Darius Fleming's ankles on his way to a TD run.
Like a lightning bolt outta nowhere, turning a 6-20 deficit with under 5 minutes to go into a manageable 13-20 score.
youtube
Tate to Mathews at the end. That was the first game I'd been to in person in a few years. That ending made it possible to look back and enjoy all the back and fourth that preceeded it.
It has to be the Matthews TD. That moment contained so much excitement, hope, promise, everything. I will never forget being at that game that was awesome.
it's the 19 point comeback win over wisconsin at home. talk about an emotional roller coaster of a game. i had a friend from madison visiting, and he was looking pretty glib when the fourth quarter started. that was definitely a great moment
The interception touchdown for me. The big house was so dead that day, and from that play forward it was crazy.
I'd actually say it was the "Minor . . . is major!" TD run just before that that got the crowd going wild.
And not include Forcier to Mathews? Certainly the brightest moment in the past two years as far as I'm concerned.
"we have more heart and are also faster than you". That moment (best though it is) does not really fall under the category.
I would have to add Tate's first TD pass against WMU.
Tate scrambles, buys time, motions for Hemingway to break his route, throws an accurate pass which goes for 6.
I remember getting home from that game, pulling up each QB's first TD and thinking to myself "we are going to punch the dick off of every team we play."
I was off by one year.
Watching Cone go 3/3 against baby seal u
I agree with OP, this was one of my favorite moments.
BG the Destroyer is what I dubbed him for life after that play. Sigh, if only that terrible BTN announcer was right about him being a junior.
and I feel like punching someone in the face, I turn this vid on...
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:36 PM ^
is how BG pushes himself up by smashing that ugly helmet further into that ugly field.
like he had a 10 yard head start, get him a body bag.
But the most special play for me was Tate's 30ish yard TD run early in the 4th quarter on 4th down. He made one cut, put the defender on the turf, and was off to the end zone.
You've heard the phrase "slow speed train wreck," where the a bad outcome is inevitable and it happens at an uncomfortably slow pace?
This play was like a slow speed orgasm. After he made his cut, the fantastic outcome wasn't in doubt and we had a few extra seconds to watch it unfold.
September can't get here fast enough.
what about Stevie Dual-Threet's huge run against Wisconsin?
Threet's run begins at 3:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7zTselUuB8
I remember during that play thinking, "What the hell is going on?"
In RR's first two years I have found myself saying "What the hell is going on " on many saturday afternoons.
... like a ostrich running on a bad ankle. Crude, but effective.
It was our longest play from scrimmage for the 2009 season. And it was awesome.
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:36 PM ^
2:16 was a thing of beauty. If Tate and/or Denard can execute the zone read like that this fall, I think we're in for some good times.
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:26 PM ^
What?!? His nickname wasn't "Speedy".
Still, it was faster than the old transcontinental to Navarre on the sideline...they didn't even have to put that one in slow motion.
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:04 AM ^
Begins at 3:12 and ends at about 4:37.
edit: M-Wolverine beat me. +1 to you
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 PM ^
Eh, when it's like the 8th post down, it's kinda hard to see. I'll leave it to great minds...
This one's easy. Last year I attended grad school in Montana and flew back for the opener against Western. Given the events of the previous season and those the week before the game, my girlfriend constantly described RR as "ruining her entire life" (she is a Michigan alumnus, I am not). It was amazing to be able to go to the game with her, cheer like crazy in the student section and chant for Rich Rod. After the game, she admitted this new brand of football may not be "all bad".
The TD pass from Tate to tie the game against MSU last year. Even though we lost in OT, I was going bonkers at that point (in the heavy rain), especially after the first 55 minutes of that game were so brutal.
you should clarify; that was Denard's first play as a QB, not his FIRST play. In his first play he lined up as a TB.
I am fond of the sideline jump-scream still shot.
Sam McGuffie's pinball swing/screen TD against ND was pretty cool.
You know I've watched the BG-Winston hit about 400 times; but I had all but forgotten just how much of a monster Graham was in the Ohio State game. Tackles for loss, hurries, sacks, he was everywhere, and just carried the D on his shoulders. Amazing performance.
Can never get enough BG.
what is that, a dog-python hybrid...?
haven't happened yet
And I mean that in a good way. When we beat OSU and Sparty and go to a bowl game, those events will contain my favorite moments of the RR era. Everything up until then is preamble.
I hope you mean "when we beat Sparty every year so it stops being an accomplishment and goes back to the foregone conclusion that it should be."
That is, Forcier to Roundtree for 43 yards to the Ohio State 40 in the 4th quarter, down 11. Followed by Robinson getting 5 on first down from the Wildcat. The drive sputters and dies over the next two plays (one Denard, one Tate), but I don't care. For me, that was a vision of Tressel's nightmare in the coming years.
Tate to Greg Matthews will always be one of my favorites regardless. There are so many stories tied up in that one moment.
Wisconsin 2008 and ND 2009
hiring Robinson
knowing it was time to pull Tate out of the Iowa game
landing Devon Gardner
The touchdown, Tate to Matthews, to win the ND game is one of my all-time favorite UM football memories because it will end up being my 5 year-old son's first memory. To this day, when he sees a Michigan football clip, picture, etc. he screams, "Touchdown.....! Greg Matthews....!"
On that Denard run...
"Broken plays are...very...dangerous for a kid like this! Look at that speed!"
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:56 PM ^
that call too.