Previously: Krushed By Stauskas (Illinois 2014), Introducing #ChaosTeam (Indiana 2009), Revenge is Terrifying (Colorado 1996)

This series: Four Games In September I (Boston College 1991), Four Games In September II (Boston College 1994), Four Games In September III (Boston College 1995)

This game: WolverineHistorian highlights

For the first time heading into a game of this series, Michigan and Boston College both hold onto their head coaches. After both teams turned in disappointing 1995 seasons, they're at least afforded offseasons without coaching turmoil. Naturally, the 1996 game and its aftermath are the messiest of the series.

The Wolverines are ranked eighth in the country after opening the season with wins over Illinois and at #5 Colorado. Boston College is giving Matt Hasselbeck his second start after he came off the bench to lead a comeback win in the opener at Hawaii; 1996 Drew Bledsoe couldn't have saved the Eagles from a 45-7 pasting at the hands of rival Virginia Tech in game two.

Third-year head coach Dan Henning, perhaps in an attempt to keep expectations low for his own sake, doesn't exactly give the home team any bulletin board material (via the Michigan Daily archives):

Let's take a peek ahead and see if this gambit worked:

Well, I'll be damned.

[Hit THE JUMP for fumbles, a biblical downpour, Jarrett MFing Irons, and a gambling scandal.]

The broadcast is on ABC with Brent Musburger on play-by-play and Dick Vermeil, 14 years removed from his coaching career, is the analyst. (Vermeil will take the Rams job the following season.) As Michigan's offense takes the field, they put up a graphic on quarterback Scott Dreisbach. Guess which stat captures Musburger's attention?

"Dreisbach, of course, is unbeaten as a starting quarterback at Michigan. He wears number 12 and he's a can-do sorta guy."

Meanwhile, Chris Howard is injured, so Clarence Williams is the feature back. Offensive coordinator Fred Jackson gets him involved early with a reverse out of the slot that sees Dreisbach hustle for an impressive downfield block:

Can do that!

A penalty gets Michigan off-schedule, however, and on second-and-twenty Dreisbach's throw is undercut by safety Daryl Porter.

As the game moves forward, it's clear each team has a major problem. In Boston College's case, they cannot handle Michigan's front seven, led on this day by middle linebacker Jarrett Irons and edge-rusher David Bowens. Irons sets a physical tone from the start:

Despite that warning sign, Henning gambles on fourth-and-short on BC's opening possession:

Early statement made.

Michigan, on the other hand, keeps moving the ball only to repeatedly smack into trompe l'oeil paintings covering the mountainside. Dreisbach's interception is the first of several drive-ending mistakes. Next comes an ugly miss from the former All-American, Remy Hamilton, that wastes the great field position created by Juaquin Feazell's fourth-down stop:

Hasselbeck is under constant fire. He's sacked by Glen Steele, escapes an unblocked corner blitz to convert a first down, and can't escape the pursuit of Bowens when defensive coordinator Greg Mattison brings another corner blitz on the next third down:

A couple first down pitches to Williams and a play-action strike to Mark Campbell move Michigan into scoring position; on this occasion, they don't screw it up. Dreisbach drops a fade to JuCo transfer Russell Shaw into a football-sized window between the defender and the sideline:

You can see why announcers, coaches, and fans alike fawn over Dreisbach more than the stats would suggest, even if the inconsistency is maddening. I mean, yeesh:

Unfortunately, we're soon back to the shenanigans. After the defense gets a quick stop, Chuck Winters coughs up a punt and BC recovers on M's 19-yard line as time expires in the first quarter. The Eagles knot the game at seven on a Hasselbeck touchdown pass.

"Are you surprised? You bet you are," says Musburger, who rarely fails to allude to the betting line. The home team is favored by three touchdowns.

Michigan dials up the perfect play to retake the lead minutes later but, with Tai Streets running free behind the secondary, Dreisbach misfires:

Yeesh. Later in the drive, Chris Floyd—lining up as a tailback—loses a fumble.

Boston College still can't move down the field, however. Irons melts Musburger's brain in a very 1996 way with a tackle for loss:

"Jarrett Irons, 37, Jack, just came in and ate up the internet. Go shopping on the world wide web with that, partner," Brent says. Believe me, I'm not funny enough to make this up. Side note: we're in the eighth of what would be a 14-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts for Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)." Nineteen-ninety-six!

Michigan's defense continues its onslaught on Hasselbeck; Winters and Bowens each tally sacks when BC can't pick up Mattison's blitz schemes. With under two minutes to go in the half, Hamilton gets a chance to break the tie:

Hoo boy. This is a bad time for a "College Kickers" game but that's what makes it so "College Kickers."

We head into the half tied at seven. Rain begins to fall, lightly at first; it doesn't stay that way.

Michigan moves the ball again even though the drizzle is quickly becoming a heavy storm. While the frame didn't make it to the GIF, there's a flash of light during this Williams screen—he'd be a great modern back, by the way—that I'm sure would cause a delay under today's rules. Regardless, the offense moves into field goal position, and the special teams breakdowns become holistic:

That's not gonna help the floundering kicker's confidence.

Special teams play begins tilting even more in BC's favor. Winters lets a punt roll from the 20 down to the four, and while a defensive penalty gets the ball out to the 19, the offense goes three-and-out. Punter Paul Peristeris then boots a 12-yarder, his second shank of the afternoon. Three plays later, Omari Walker slices through sheets of rain and the entire Michigan defense to give BC an improbable 14-7 lead:

It's getting wild in the small, extremely Boston visitors section:

There's a 100% chance the guy in the #87 jersey went on the Gronk cruise. I give the bro who removed his shirt but replaced his backwards fitted hat a 98% chance.

Yet another form of special teams disaster strikes on the ensuing kickoff, which ricochets off up-man Aaron Shea's leg; BC's Shalom Tolefree (I repeat: SHALOM TOLEFREE) recovers. Given Henning's early coaching aggressiveness, it's fair to wonder if this is an intentional play designed to set up a dagger of a drive. His postgame presser says it all by not saying much:

again: SHALOM TOLEFREE

The Eagles now have a short field and a chance to go up two scores in a monsoon. Hasselbeck picks his way through pressure and throws a dart to an open receiver. This time, the weather game gods favor Michigan:

Daydrion Taylor's interception probably saves the game. The sudden change seems to put a spark into the offense, which utilizes Williams's all-purpose talent to work down the field. Then the BC secondary, again, turns Streets lose near the end zone. Dreisbach, again, misses:

This time, however, Michigan goes right back to the well, and Dreisbach totally redeems himself (though even in 1996, this reference is worn out, I apologize):

It looks to me like Streets pokes the ball over the goal line at least once before going out of bounds on that play; we're still in the pre-review era. The call is made irrelevant when Dreisbach sneaks in from the one. Hamilton ties it on the extra point, though the kick doesn't exactly instill hope he's worked out that nasty hook.

The game stays locked at 14 apiece when BC kicker John Matich, incidentally, can't get his field goal attempt to hook through the uprights. A couple more nice runs by Williams get M near midfield, then Driesbach finds Jerame Tuman running alone up the seam for a 58-yard score—though a lot of the air comes out of the crowd when Hamilton's ensuing extra point is blocked, holding the lead to six:

"It ain't Remy time in Ann Arbor," says Musburger, who rarely fails to pass up a reference to drinking. Upon closer inspection, the block is on Hamilton, whose kick may have had trouble clearing the line without the outstretched arm to knock it down.

After BC drives into Michigan territory, Feazell gets another sack on Hasselbeck, forcing a fumble that Bowens dives on. (This didn't make the highlight reel, for some reason.) Michigan's offense stalls out; backup quarterback Brian Griese, usually the designated pooch-punter, is handling all of them in favor of Peristeris.

Again, Hasselbeck leads BC into Michigan's side of the field. On first down, with under three minutes left, he challenges Charles Woodson on a deep ball; the sophomore swats it away. Following another incompletion, Irons makes another huge play when he's the only defender to sniff out a well-designed misdirection screen:

Hasselbeck can't find an open man on fourth down, chucking a pass over a well-covered receiver's head. But Michigan goes three-and-out, Griese puts it away, and the Eagles have yet another chance at a game-winning touchdown with 59 seconds remaining and 73 yards to cover. Winters chases Hasselback to the sideline for a five-yard loss on the first play of the drive, then gets his hand on the second-down pass, tipping it to—you guessed it—Jarrett Irons:

Dreisbach kneels out the clock. Exhale.

The final score doesn't leave anybody happy. Michigan's offense puts up 408 yards and only scores 20 points. While some their seven(!) fumbles can be blamed on the weather, it's hard for anyone to look past Hamilton's career-worst game:

I'm not sure whether the lede or Carr's quote is harsher. The kicking worries are soon assuaged; Hamilton finishes the season 16-for-21 on field goals—in other words, three of his five misses occur in this game. College kickers!

Hasselbeck, meanwhile, isn't in the mood to celebrate a moral victory:

Michigan's season script, unfortunately, follows 1995's to an eerie degree. After the Wolverines peak at #6 in the polls with a blowout win against UCLA to close out September, they lose to a plucky Northwestern squad for the second straight year, drop consecutive contests heading into the Ohio State game, and have to settle for dashing the Buckeyes's national title hopes. Don't get me wrong, that last part is a wonderful consolation prize, but it's apparent the program has national title-level talent.

While BC wins three of their next four games, none are against ranked teams, and then the wheels come off after a 45-17 home loss to Syracuse. Like, all the wheels:

After the Oct. 26 loss to Syracuse at Alumni Stadium, bone-chilling rumors began to circulate in the BC locker room: The betting that had become popular among the players had evolved into a disturbing form of treason for a few. The word was that some players were betting against the team. "Call me naive, but I was shocked," says senior running back Omari Walker, one of four Boston College football captains. "I can't comprehend what would make a player do that." Over the next few days Walker reported the rumors to Henning, who confronted his players in a team meeting, asking anyone who had gambled to stand up. No one did.

The Eagles were 11-point favorites heading into their Oct. 31 game against Pittsburgh, but the struggling Panthers upset BC 20-13. According to Cosenza, Henning exploded in the locker room after the game, demanding that any player involved in gambling come clean. No one did. Two days later Henning told the team captains--Walker, defensive end Stalin Colinet, guard Mark Nori and safety Daryl Porter--to root out the culprits. The subsequent players-only meeting lasted more than two hours and included some heated arguments and near fisticuffs. Before the meeting broke, Colinet asked his teammates to stand if they had placed any bets this season, and the response was startling. Between 25 and 30 players stood. When Colinet then asked who had bet against BC, no one admitted doing so. "There were a lot of tears, a lot of emotion, a lot of finger-pointing," says Walker. "Unfortunately, the guys who bet against us didn't come forward."

That night the captains called another players-only meeting, and the results were more disturbing. This time a few of the players who were suspected by the captains of having bet against the team left the room laughing, unaffected by the gravity of the accusation. They didn't laugh for long, though, because moments later they were among five players who were led into a nearby room where [Middlesex County district attorney Thomas] Reilly awaited.

I'm going to say your gambling scandal is bad when the head coach surprises his players with a visit from the district attorney. Henning suspends thirteen players for a home loss to Notre Dame, two of whom are outed for wagering against BC in the Syracuse loss, though neither player saw the field enough to impact the score. The Eagles somehow scrape together a one-point win over Temple before ending a 5-7 season with a loss at Miami (YTM).

Eight of the suspended players never play another down for Boston College, a school that's already been though a basketball gambling scandal involving infamous gangster/snitch Henry Hill. Henning "retires" at the end of the season, though he's back on an NFL sideline the next season as Buffalo's offensive coordinator; he spends the rest of his career as an NFL assistant before retiring for real in 2010.

To top it off, this is the day Michigan loses the single-game attendance record to Tennessee, which had revamped Neyland Stadium with an eye on the record. The Vols attain it in a loss to Florida. The Wolverines get it back in 1998. Several enjoyable moments occur in the interim, including a measure of revenge on Tennessee.