1986 Michigan at Wisconsin

Submitted by goblue16 on

Another game to get you through the offseason and its Jim Harbaugh related. Horrible camera angles for some reason. Thomas Wilcher scored 2 rushing tds. Jim Harbaugh with a nice playaction pass to Gerald White near the goal line and also added a running td late in the game. Michigan would go on to beat the Badgers 34-17. Enjoy! Also uploading all the michigan replays from that season as well. Should have them done soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WeozevplM0

WestSider

June 29th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^

good school, very good basketball and football teams, good college town, awesome stadium environment, coaches who generally behave well, no real drama off the field. UM and Wisconsin should be playing every year.

LSAClassOf2000

June 29th, 2015 at 11:35 AM ^

Some of the highlights from the box score:

Thomas Wilcher had 22 attempts for 74 net yards and 2 rushing TDs. The other rushing TD was scored, of course, by Jim Harbaugh, who gained 12 yards on 7 attempts on the ground. Wilcher's totals alone match Wisconsin's entire production for the day incidentally. 

In the air, Harbaugh was 15-24 for 310 yards and 1 TD, caught by Gerald White. Of note, Harbaugh's longest pass that day went for 62 yards (I think McMurtry caught that one). 

ThadMattasagoblin

June 29th, 2015 at 11:36 AM ^

I can't remember the last time we won in Camp Randall. Madison and Columbus are two places it seems like we've won very rarely every time we go there for football/basketball.

WolverineHistorian

June 29th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

2001, when they muffed the punt and Hayden Epstein kicked the game winner with 10 seconds left.  We've only played there 3 times since. 

We were 22-3-1 all time at Camp Randall until the 2005 game when they beat us in the final minute 23-20 when we were without Mike Hart.  Two years later, both Hart and Henne were out with injuries for the game (when the conference title was on the line) and we lost again.  And finally in 2009, we had RichRod and couldn't beat anybody.  That was the last year we were in Madison.  

markusr2007

June 29th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^

Long-time HC Dave McClain, a good friend of Bo Schembechler, died that April 1986.  DC Jim Hilles took over.   McClain was an average HC. Wisconsin had beaten Michigan and Ohio State a number of times, but never won more than 7 games in a season since his arrival.

Hilles took the Badgers to 3-9 in 1986 as interim HC and was replaced at season's end by Don Morton (Flint, MI) who brought the veer option offense to Wisconsin 1987. 

Morton was a disaster of an HC. Wisconsin went 6-27 over 3 years.

Interesting historical tidbit: McClain was the former Ball State HC who had coached LB Brady Hoke, future UM coach.

Dave98

June 29th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^

I love how Dierdorf says "Bo Schembechler when he got to Ann Arbor was a maniac". Then Bo responds with "He calls me a maniac because I put him on the track at 6:30 in the morning if he didn't come in under 250" lol

SalvatoreQuattro

June 29th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^

that the crowd was so loud he couldn't bark out the signals for his teammates to hear. It was a rule then that a team received a penalty if the crowd was so loud that it impacted the away team's play. Asinine rule, but one Harbaugh took advantage of. That's the memory of Harbaugh that sticks out the most because my dad said how smart it was of Harbaugh to do that. 

SBayBlue

June 29th, 2015 at 5:39 PM ^

I remember it vividly, almost more than any other games I went to. I was a sophomore at Michigan, visiting my girlfriend at Wisconsin.

The crowd was deafening. I could barely hear the people around me. No wonder Harbaugh had a tough time. He worked on a silent snapcount for most of the game, or hand signals. Typical drunk Camp Randall fans (but lots of fun). Nearly got in to a fight wearing my Michigan sweatshirt a few times.

And yes, the Badgers were putrid back then.

WolverineHistorian

June 29th, 2015 at 6:58 PM ^

The old crowd noise rule in college football. That popped up often when Michigan played on the road. Iowa in 1988, Wisconsin in 1986 and as recently as Penn State in 1993, were all issued warnings. When we played in Columbus in 1990, the crowd was given the penalty and OSU lost a timeout as a result. The big house crowd came close to getting the penalty during the 89 OSU game. The ABC cameras actually show the entire Michigan sideline desperately pleading with the fans to quite down so we won't get the penalty. It's probably one of the strangest things you'll ever see.