All-time great Michigan defenses

Submitted by Doctor Wolverine on

A lot of the talk early this season has been about the dominant Michigan defense.  I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the best Michigan defenses of all-time.  I have included 8 of my favorites for comparison, but I would love to hear any additional ones that you can add to the list.  I also included 5 non-Michigan great defenses for consideration.  It was hard to find the same stats accross all eras, but maybe Wolverine Historian or somebody with more skills than myself at gathering stats from online sources can provide some better metrics and put them in a pretty chart.  Here's what I've got:

 

2015 – Def S&P+ rating 5.0 (#1 in the country).  They have given up 3.06 yards per play, 6.3 points per game and only 181.3 yards per game.  They are on pace to record 6 shutouts for the season.

 

2006 – Gave up only 43.4 yards rushing per game (1.9 yards per rush), but did give up 268.3 total yards per game (4.4 yards per play).  They recorded 3.3 sacks per game.

 

1997 – Gave up 222.8 yards per game and 9.5 points per game.  Did not give up a second half touchdown through the first eight games of the season.  They allowed 8.8 yards per completion (FBS record) and 89.0 rushing yards per game.  Obviously ended up winning the National Championship.

 

1985 – Held opponents to 6.8 points per game, including 3 shutouts.  One of Bo’s best teams, finished the season ranked #2 and were led on offense by some QB named Jim.  Defense recorded 15 INTs and held opposing offenses to 143.4 yards passing per game and 119.9 yards rushing (3.2 yards per rush).

 

1973 – Held opponents to 6.2 points per game (this was also the year they went undefeated but controversially did not get a bowl game and finished the season ranked #6).  This team also recorded 3 shutouts (which were consecutive).  Other stats are a little skinny, so feel free to fill in the gaps.  #15 all-time defense by SRS.

 

1948 – In Oosterbaan’s first season, the team recorded 5 shutouts, had the #20 all-time defense by SRS, shutout #3 Northwestern and won the national championship.  They gave up a stingy 44 points on the season and were led by Alvin Wistert and Al Wahl.  The defense also forced 32 TO’s over 9 games.

 

1947 – The Mad Magicians!  Led by greats Bump Elliott and Bob Chappuis, this was the best overall Michigan team of all-time by SRS.  This undefeated team was Chrisler’s last and beat MSU 55-0, Pitt 69-0, #9 Wisconsin 40-6 and #3 USC 49-0 in the Rose Bowl.  Despite that, they were robbed of the National Championship (rankings at that time were done prior to the bowl games? All hail the modern playoff system!).  This team was also revolutionary in that it was the first to embrace the concept of defensive and offensive specialization.  Only Bump Elliott and Jack Weisenberger played both ways.  They recorded 5 shutouts and gave up only 5.3 points per game.

 

1940 – The Tom Harmon led team gave up only 4.3 points per team (outscoring teams 196-34).  During the 8 game season, they shutout 5 of their opponents, and their only loss was 6-7 to Minnesota on a missed PAT.

 

1901 – In their first year under Yost, Michigan went 11-0, outscoring opponents 550-0!!  They defeated Stanford 49-0 in the 1902 Rose Bowl (the first college football bowl game ever played).  This was Michigan’s first national championship and was the first of Yost’s “Point-a-Minute” teams.  Michigan’s defense allowed only 7 first downs.  Four of Michigan’s opponents never crossed the 50 yardline.

 

Other great (non-Michigan) defenses:

 

1971 Nebraska – Forced 4.7 turnovers per game (27 INTs and 20 fumble recoveries).  They gave up 12.2 points and 71 rushing yards per game.

 

2003 LSU – Gave up only 11 points per game, 67 rushing yards per game, 252 total yards per game and 4 yards per play.   They also recorded 44 sacks. 

 

2011 Alabama – Recorded 30 sacks and gave up only 9 TDs for the season (and 106 total points).  They held opponents to 2.4 yards per carry and 938 total rushing yards on the season.

 

2001 Miami – Recorded 39 sacks, forced 45 total turnovers, gave up 9.4 points per game, and only allowed 5 total passing TDs.  They held opponents to 3.9 yards per play.

 

1992 Alabama Crimson Tide – Gave up 1.67 yards per carry, 9.2 points per game, undefeated and national champions.  9 of the 11 defensive starters went on to play in the NFL.

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Wolverine Devotee

October 11th, 2015 at 10:26 PM ^

  • 50-0 vs Albion
  • 57-0 vs Case
  • 33-0 vs Indiana
  • 29-0 vs Northwestern
  • 128-0 vs Buffalo
  • 22-0 against Carlisle Indian School in Detroit
  • 21-0 at Ohio State
  • 22-0 vs Chicago
  • 89-0 vs Beloit
  • 50-0 against Iowa in Chicago
  • 49-0 against Stanford in the Tournament East-West football game

Joined: 06/29/2009

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J.

October 11th, 2015 at 10:34 PM ^

Many of these were shortened games, either by mutual agreement ahead of time or by having the opposing coach concede.  That makes the offense, if anything, even more impressive.

I think you have to consider pre-V-J day as its own category.  I mean, just consider Yost's first few years:

1901:  550-0

1902: 644-12

1903: 565-6 (11-0-1)

1904: 567-22

1905: 495-2 (12-1)

Those are some stout defenses. :)

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Wolverine Devotee

October 11th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^

Tragic story. William Dennison Clark fielded a kick in the endzone, took it out and tried to reverse field but was tackled in the endzone for a safety. He was suicidal after the game and eventually did commit suicide about a decade later and mentioned in his note that that mistake in that game is something that should not be forgiven.

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Maize_Nation

October 12th, 2015 at 1:53 AM ^

I can't find a source for it online, but I remember when I was young I read a michigan football history book, which stated that the rules back then made it so that the team who scored would receive the kickoff and keep possession. And this was before the forward pass as well.

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TennBlue

October 12th, 2015 at 11:27 AM ^

It was that the ball only had to be touched by the kicker's foot to be in play, like it remains in soccer. The rule requiring the kickoff to go 10 yards before it could be recovered was added in 1894.

"On side" is an interesting term still in use, as it is a holdover from the original Rugby days. "On side" meant being behind the ball, which made you eligible to receive a lateral pass and handle the ball generally. The term gradually came to mean the status of being able to take possession of the ball rather than one's position relative to it, and we continue to use in that form to this day.

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Wolverine Devotee

October 11th, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^

1901 is obviously the greatest one and that will most likely never be touched.

Not allowing an opponent to score one point all year long. 11 game season.

 

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Chitown Kev

October 11th, 2015 at 11:13 PM ^

Purdue, Ohio State, and Washington (in the Rose Bowl) were all ranked.

 

The stats on that team may not be as good because of the way they started the season but completely shutting down both Mark Hermann and Art Schlichter...have to put them on the list of great Michigan defenses.

 

Overall, the 1980 defense was 5th in scoring defense that year w/ 10.8 pts./game (better than a couple of those "other" defense on that list) and best of all...

The preseason  #1 team in 1980 was...

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bacon

October 11th, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^

I don't see us getting 6 shutouts this year. I could see us shutting out Minnesota and/or penn state, but Rutgers and Indiana will probably get points on a big play at some point, OSU will be a handful and MSU is bound to kick an FG at least. Therefore I think we only get 4 or 5 shutouts this year b

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Doctor Wolverine

October 12th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^

If we never talked about fun topics until after the season...mgoblog would lose a lot of traffic/$. If any players do read this, I hope it inspires them to stay in that discussion (not that they need any inspiration from a blog). Part of the fun of attending (and I imagine playing for) Michigan is the tradition and history of those who came before us.

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MotownGoBlue

October 11th, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football_national_championships… The concept of a national championship in college football dates to the early years of the sport in the late 19th century,[8] and the earliest contemporaneous polls can be traced to Caspar Whitney, Charles Patterson, and The Sun in 1901.[9] Therefore, the concept of polls and national champions predated mathematical ranking systems, but it was Frank Dickinson's math system that was one of the first to be widely popularized. His system named 10–0 Stanford the national champion of 1926, prior to their tie with Alabama in the Rose Bowl. A curious Knute Rockne, then coach of Notre Dame, had Dickinson backdate two seasons, which produced Notre Dame as the 1924 national champion and Dartmouth in 1925.[10].....etc...etc.... AP Poll

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Wolverine Devotee

October 11th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^

Nobody thought or really cared much about a national championship back then. They had ranking systems like the Dickinson (which Michigan won in 1932, see below), but it really didn't become a widespread thing until the AP poll.

Retroactive titles based on selectors. Minnesota a few years ago claimed 1904 as a national championship season over 100 years after the fact.

Michigan could claim 16 national championships if they wanted to. They were selected as national champions in 1925, 1926, 1964, 1973 and 1985.

It's all mythical really, a recruiting tool and something you can hang on banners or in your stadium. I still say the 4-team playoff is crowning a mythical national champion. Until there's 16 or even 8, it's still horseshit. 

 

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TennBlue

October 11th, 2015 at 11:56 PM ^

They cared very much about championships right from the very beginning. Since the only good teams were in the northeast, it was usually Harvard, Yale, or Princeton that was declared champion based on their mutual play. It was "national" in that there were no other competitors for it. As evidence, this article from The New York Tribune from November 28, 1886:

Football became a national game in the 1890s, but western teams weren't considedered the equals of the eastern teams for a long time. Lots of newspapers spent lots of column space arguing about who was the best, but no one seriously tried ranking teams.There simply weren't enough good teams to worry about anything other than #1. Caspar Whitney began contacting fellow sports writers to evaluate teams on a truly national basis in 1901, but only kept it up until 1907.

Whitney's 1901 Poll had Harvard #1, Yale #2, and Michigan #3.

As the quality of football shifted from the east to the midwest, picking a truly national champion became more problematic and there wasn't any real consensus until Dickinson's system appeared in the 20s.

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LSAClassOf2000

October 11th, 2015 at 10:37 PM ^

The numbers over at TeamRankings tend to speak for themselves right now (rank in FBS is at the end of the line item) - LINK

Points per game - 6.3 - #1

Yards per game allowed - 181.3 - #1

Points per play allowed - 0.103 - #1

Yards per play allowed - 2.9 - #1

3rd down conversion pct. allowed - 18.82% - #2

Yards per rush allowed - 2.2 - #3

Rush yards per game allowed - 66.2 - #3

Yards per pass allowed - 3.9 - #1

We've done this before, but it is a long time since we've done it quite like this, it seems.

 

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Ray

October 11th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^

Between eras, but as far as I go back as a fan (1979) I have to rank 1997 first. Not only for their stats, but also because they could win games when they had to. Their performance at IA (making up for Griese's uncharacteristically bad game with 3 first half ints) and the nail biter against OSU are great examples. And there was Charles Woodson, who may have been the most talented player to ever play Michigan football. He was seemingly everywhere. That said, this team ranks pretty high. At the moment I'd have to put them third, after 97 and 06, but the season is yet to play out. I will say that for the first time since 1997 I'm as excited to see the defense on the field as the offense. That's saying someting. This could be a very special defense.

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jmblue

October 12th, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^

One thing that stands out in my recollection of that game is Hayden Fry calling a timeout in the final seconds of the first half, up 13-7, so Michigan would have to punt.  Tim Dwight was an excellent kick returner, but it still seemed a bit odd that Fry would bother.  Lo and behold, Dwight took the punt to the house with no time left on the clock.  Iowa then converted the 2-pointer to give themselves a 21-7 lead at half, which felt completely demoralizing.  Fry is deservedly in the College Football Hall of Fame.

 

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Larry

October 11th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^

Not an advanced stat, I know, but the play-by-play box scores available online indicate that UNLV was the last Michigan opponent to visit the red zone, let alone score. In fact, only two drives combined through the last three games have even crossed the 50; BYU had one early on, and the other was Northwestern's missed FG drive that stalled at the M 25 yesterday. Maryland did start one drive at the Michigan 28 because of a Michigan fumble, but the Terps immediately proceeded to move backwards and go three-and-out.

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RobM_24

October 11th, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^

The BigTen was definitely deeper in 1997. That '97 defense was loaded with NFL caliber talent. The linebackers were definitely better. 2006 gets thrown out the window for me, because they got shredded in the 2 biggest games.

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