Previously: Part 1

First Quarter

Todd Howard, cornerback: I personally remember because I had played with that cast all season, toward the middle of the season after my wrist started to heal a little bit more they made me this molded cast that was not so big. I literally had the old school cast you up, get the thing wet, wrap your arm up [type] and once they made me this cast that was formed to my hand, it was more like rubber with some type of hard stuff underneath it. I was getting my cast cut off every week. I’d wear a cast to class and throughout practice and they’d cut it off at the end of the week and then I was able to wear this new cast. Once the game was over, they’d cast me back up and that was my weekly routine.

Got down there to Miami [and] I didn’t need to wear a hard cast anymore but they were still making me wear that cast they made for me and I remember the day before the game we were cutting off our ankle tape, all that stuff, our wrist tape. I saw it on the floor and I was like, Man, what would happen if this just magically disappeared before gametime? They wouldn’t have time to make me another one. I felt my wrist was alright at that point so I kind of slipped that into the garbage and then the next day, Oh, where’s your cast?! I was like ‘I don’t know, man. I haven’t seen it.’ Plus I got some new gloves, too, that I wanted to wear. It was weird just wearing one glove all season. I was like, man, we’re gonna be on national TV, we’re playing in the Orange Bowl, playing Alabama; I’m wearing two gloves. So the next day they just gave me a nice little wrist wrap and I remember going out first play and having to get off a block versus a receiver and my wrist was just on fire. I was like, ‘Yeah, probably shouldn’t have gotten rid of that cast.’

Alabama’s receivers lived up to their billing, but their offensive line was a surprise. Left tackle Chris Samuels, a first-team All-American and the 1999 recipient of the Outland Trophy, practiced only once the week prior to the game and did not play due to a nagging knee injury. The coaching staff decided to flip true freshman right tackle Dante Ellington to left tackle and start redshirt freshman Lannis Baxley, who had been serving as Chris Samuels’ backup, at right tackle.

Todd Howard’s wrist wasn’t the only thing tested on Alabama’s first offensive snap of the game. The Tide ran what appeared to be a bubble screen, which the secondary read and set to stop. Outside receiver Jason McAddley quickly broke inside and came free, but quarterback Andrew Zow put the ball a touch ahead of his wide-open receiver. A Shaun Alexander rush went for little gain on second down, then an actual bubble screen was blown up when Dhani Jones saw what was coming and closed seven yards in a split second to pull down A.C. Carter by the ankles. While the first play of the game hinted at a contest that would end with nearly 70 combined points scored, the rest of the first quarter did not.

Howard: It was a boxing match starting off. Just kind of going back and forth, and I remember the first carry or first couple carries Shaun Alexander had, I remember I was guarding a receiver and I took an angle and I was like, Yeah, I’m gonna make this tackle on Shaun Alexander and I took an angle that I typically take for a normal running back and I misjudged that thing by a landslide because he just took off and split the seam. I was like, Whoa. I don’t know how long the run was—I think it was his first touchdown—but I think it was like 40 or 50 yards and I remember that’s when I realized this speed’s a little bit different. For a guy that big to be able to move that fast, it was just...it was amazing. And we’d go on to see Shaun Alexander ended up being a pretty good running back in the NFL. Not such a bad career.

[After THE JUMP: Alexander continues to looks like Bowser but fast, though there's opportunity in through the air]

Second Quarter

The first quarter ended with both offenses working through their scripts and ultimately failing to cross the goal line, but the impact Alexander would have on the game was becoming apparent early in the second quarter. Two minutes in Alexander made two defensive linemen and two linebackers wrong with a counter step. Dante Ellington got to the second level quickly and walled off Dhani Jones, while Alexander followed fullback Dustin McClintock around the left side of the line. McClintock took out safety Tommy Hendricks, and Alexander was free to tightrope the sideline until he was finally tackled 34 yards downfield. On 2nd and goal from the 5-yard line McClintock threw another key block, this time getting just enough of Ian Gold to give Alexander a clear lane outside the right tackle. Cato June beat a block in the end zone and dove at Alexander, but Alexander saw June get ready to launch and cut inside the diving tackle attempt. 

Michigan 0, Alabama 7, 9:49

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Michigan handed the ball to Anthony Thomas with about 8:30 remaining in the first half and he followed his pulling guard for a gain of seven, Michigan’s longest running play of the night to that point. Bob Griese, that evening’s color analyst on the ABC broadcast, remarks “That’s inside running and that’s where Michigan should stay. Too much speed from Alabama.”

Instead the offense went to the air—sort of. A throwback screen to Anthony Thomas looked like it picked up a first down but a block in the back call changed that; Diallo Johnson pulled up and started to pull his hands back, but there was contact for which he was flagged. Tom Brady then threw three yards short of the sticks, hitting Marcus Knight on a drag behind the linebackers.

Hayden Epstein uncorked a punt that went 50 yards from his foot to Freddie Milons’ hands. Milons looked like he was going to run it up the middle, but he then quickly cut to his right. One Michigan defender dove at the point of the cut and missed, then Millons ran to the sideline and around three more Michigan defenders. He was eventually run out of bounds by Epstein, who came across the field and launched himself at Milons. Griese says Michigan had Milons contained but he just ran around guys. ESS EEE SEE speed has been extant for at least two decades.

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On 1st and 10 from Michigan’s 31-yard line the Tide coaching staff called for play action out of the I-form with two receivers to the quarterback’s left and one to his right. The action pulled in the defensive line and linebackers, but the secondary did a nice job in coverage. Zow lofted a long ball for Tim Bowens as defensive end Josh Williams was about to hit Zow. The pass was behind the receiver and as likely to be intercepted by cornerback James Whitley as secured by Bowens, but Bowens got his hands under the quickly dropping ball and pulled it in. Alabama was now inside Michigan’s 10-yard line and did exactly what you would have predicted: went heavy and handed the ball to Alexander.

Michigan linebacker Ian Gold nicely executed a scrape exchange and safety Cato June slipped past a block to stop Alexander on a first-down stretch. They did not fare so well on second down despite nearly identical alignment. Alexander saw a lane opened by his interior line and cut hard to get up the middle, leaving Michigan’s waiting linebackers on the edge with nothing to hit as he walked into the end zone untouched.

Michigan 0, Alabama 14, 6:51

Shawn Thompson, tight end: We knew going into the game the speed of the SEC—that’s all you hear about, right? You prepare as best you can for that. You prepare for the weather, you prepare for that speed, but you don’t know it until you’re actually in it. We found ourselves—it wasn’t a great feeling early in the game being [down] 14-0 and us not putting up any points. That definitely took a knock in terms of how we were feeling going into the game, but I think that might have had to do a little with how excited we were going into it. We might have been a little too amped up. To get that early deficit against Alabama was obviously not a great feeling.

Marcus Knight, wide receiver: We’d already had a pretty contentious season where we were in games or had control of some games. Won some close ones but also lost some that we could have played better in, so we knew the game wasn’t over. We knew we had a leader in Tom that was going to fight to the end and all we had to do was just do our job as part of his co-starring or whatever in that, we just knew we just had to do our job. From a wide receiver’s standpoint, we were just itching to get the ball in the air and have an opportunity to make some plays.

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For a moment it appeared Michigan’s offense might not get the opportunity to try attacking through the air again before halftime. Alabama, like Michigan, rotated quarterbacks during the ‘99 season and had switched to Tyler Watts. The structure of the offense remained similar with Watts under center, but the alignment of the personnel changed. The coaching staff called for play action from the I-form with two receivers left and one right on 2nd and 21 with just over four minutes remaining in the quarter, but they opted to move Freddie Milons to tailback and slide Shaun Alexander over to the left slot. Watts found Alexander all alone deep between zones for a big gain that was erased thanks to All-American defensive tackle Rob Renes. Alabama’s guard and center doubled up Renes, but they also double held Renes. Instead of 1st and 10 at the 34-yard line, Alabama faced 2nd and 25 from their own 4. Offsetting personal fouls erased second down, a third-down Alexander rush failed to gain 25, and Alabama was forced to punt.

Michigan offensive coordinator looked to take advantage of Alabama’s soft outside coverage with hitch routes; Brady completed one to Marquise Walker on first down for eight yards, then another to Walker on 3rd and 2 for a fresh set of downs. Brady worked the other side of the field on first down to find Diallo Johnson on a hitch for three yards. With 1:04 left in the second quarter, the broadcast posted a graphic with Tom Brady’s stats: behind LOS- 5/5, 11 yds; 0-15 yds- 6/9, 39 yds; over 15- 0/0, 0 yds

Aaron Shea, fullback: I think the great coaches we had, with coach Carr starting off, I think he just knew Alabama was really stacking the line of scrimmage. They were eight, nine at the line, so we had to adjust. We always prided ourselves at Michigan to run the ball. That was one game [we couldn’t]. They had a good d-line.

Knight: Our coaches did a great job of understanding what they [Alabama] were trying to do. They were closing off the middle of the field and in that season we were having a lot of success attacking the middle of the field. They were giving us one look and then rotating to close the middle of the field and Tom recognized it. He didn’t try to force anything. He ended up taking the first read that was given to him, which happened to be a small hitch route in front of the cornerback.

Brady changed the numerator and denominator of his “throws over 15” stat on the very next play. It looked like Michigan was using the Smash concept to Brady’s right with Terrell running the post. The Alabama defender assigned to the zone nearest Terrell shuffled over, at which point Terrell executed his second deep move, snapping the route back inside. This put him behind the underneath zone and matched up one-on-one with a safety. Terrell beat the safety to the interior, jumping to pluck the ball from the air near the right hash.

Michigan 7, Alabama 14, 00:58

Knight: I think our first touchdown we got on a post but we were creative in the way we got to it putting Dave in the slot and giving him an opportunity to get one-on-one with the safety. Safety overplayed it and Dave ended up scoring on the first touchdown.

David Terrell, wide receiver: That first touchdown, there was a lot of back-and-forth in that huddle. We can’t complain. That’s all I said from the jump. Ain’t no complaining about what the coach is calling; we’re going to figure this shit out, I promise you, so if the coach calls something and we change some shit up, that’s just what happens. Nothing you can say about us scoring a touchdown.

That post-corner, that first touchdown was big because it got us moving. It showed Alabama that one dimension may be shut down, but the other dimension isn’t. There’s two forms to this thing: we run the ball and we pass the ball, so if we can win passing, shit, let’s go ahead and see it. And halftime came through at the perfect time.

Thompson: For us, what a huge touchdown that was going into halftime. I think that’s such a big deal from a confidence standpoint, getting on the board going into halftime. It kind of put the motivation on our side in terms of coming out of halftime, but it was good to just start moving the ball at that point. That was just a huge confidence booster going into halftime.

Coming in Part 3: Terrell takes over, but not without opposition from Alexander and Milons. Then the Tide get burned on some Nebraska Chili.