Best UM games from 2001-2009 (one per year)
A friend and I were talking the other day about how, no matter how bad (or good) a Michigan football team is, there's always one game each season that makes it so worth it to be a fan. In the spirit of trying to wrap up the work week, what are your favorite games from each of the seasons between 2001 and 2009? Only one game per season. My list:
2001: Western Michigan (first game after 9/11)
2002: Washington
2003: Ohio State
2004: Michigan State
2005: Penn State
2006: Notre Dame
2007: Florida
2008: Wisconsin
2009: Notre Dame
Hard to argue with most of those. Despite the result in '06, you could still argue the Ohio State game with all of the surrounding drama. There might be a difference between "best" and "most memorable" though. At any rate, I wish the list looked more like this:
2001: Ohio State
2002: Ohio State
2003: Ohio State
2004: Ohio State
2005: Ohio State
2006: Ohio State
2007: Ohio State
2008: Ohio State
2009: Ohio State
If the "best" game of 2006 were Ohio State, then really the "best" game would hopefully be the National Championship game we would've played for and won against Florida.
2001 : 45-20 win over an Illini team that went 10-2
2002 : 49-3 smackdown win over MSU
from 2003 on, I agreee with your list.
But that Washington game was amazing.
Brabbs? Brabbs.
But the 49-3 beatdown, coming just one year after "clockgate", was great from start to finish.
But I was willing to make an exception when it came to MSU that year.
I agree with the OP on Washington in 2002 - that was my first game at Michigan Stadium and I'd be hard pressed to find a more memorable one that I have ever seen.
2001: Western Michigan
2002: Washington
2003: Ohio State
2004: Michigan State
2005: Texas
2006: OSU
2007: Florida
2008: Wisconsin
2009: Notre Dame
We didn't play Texas in 05(Well it was Jan 1, but it wasn't the 2005 season). I would have to agree the PSU was the best game that year.
I definitely took certain liberties with that one :)
Worst games from 2001-2009:
2001: Ohio State
2002: Notre Dame (Iowa a close second)
2003: IOWA!!!!!!
2004: Ohio State (Notre Dame a close second)
2005: Ohio State
2006: USC (Ohio State was devestating, but losing to USC took so much clout away from our BCS rematch argument)
2007: --
2008: Northwestern
2009: Penn State (that's when we knew that the wheels were falling off)
NOTHING BAD HAPPENED
I just remember being at Disneyland the entire time.
Arrrrrrgh!
"2009: Penn State (that's when we knew that the wheels were falling off)"
Watching the wheels fall off was frustrating, and disappointing.
Watching them absolutely shit-the-bed the next week in Illinois was unbearable.
No contest.
I was at Illinois for that game.
Shit-the-bed best summarizes it.
(HATED the Illini shirts that have "Muck Fishigan" on the front and "Ann Arbor is a whore" on the back. What total low-lifes! They thought they were so damn clever, too!!!)
2008 has got to be Toledo, it almost felt worse to me than Appy St. It's the first time in my life that I wanted to throw up and slam my tv against the wall at the same time.
I remember sitting at the bar at Old Chicago, actually worried before the game that Appy st. was going to beat us.That sucks, but it didn't hit me as hard as losing to Toledo did because I knew that Appy st. was a good team. Toledo is not , and we had never lost to a MAC team before (or a DIAA....)
I think it is easy to forget just how much hype that team was getting with the "Where there's smoke there's fire!" nonsense before the season started. Laying the hammer after all that while Smoker tried to de-tox from snorting a few kilos the week of the game was pretty sweet.
seeing the huge billboard like things right outside Spartan Stadium that had Smoker on one of them. I think they stopped putting those up after that year. What a fall, first Smoker, then the running back drags a police officer down the road in his car. On a positive note, my wife and I have a picture of the two of us at the game (on my desk at work right now) with the scoreboard and field in the background, that we used as our save the date magnets. It was definately sweet sending those to our State friends.
in my 18 years of being fan (and alive). the capital one game was probably my favorie win. i mean of course theres the 97yr and what not but i was 6. hell of a way to go out after appy and what i thought was an even worse loss in oregon
I agree with many of the ones already listed but a few notes:
2001: Illinois - That was our "A" game that year. Illinois won 10 games and won the Big Ten title. We beat them 45-20. We could have added another TD at the end to make it 52-20 but Carr decided to take a knee inside the 15 yard line with a minute to go.
2002: 49-3 over Sparty and Brabbs over Washington was nice but I loved the OT win over Penn State. Chris Perry up the middle for the win.
2003: Ohio State - Racked up tons of yards against OSU's defense.
2004: Triple overtime against MSU. All our other wins weren't very exciting.
2005: I'm giving a slight edge to MSU over PSU. Remember, the Sparties started the season 4-0 and were given a glowing write up in Sports Illustrated after they pounded Illinois. Kirk Herbstreet picked them to win the Big Ten. They were HUGE in September. Then we go into Spartan Stadium and beat them in OT - a game that never should have gone into OT since MSU was rewarded a bogus TD on a fumble return that wasn't a fumble. But seeing their fan base destroyed after just a great start was beautiful.
2006: Notre Dame - Probably the win of the decade for me. ND was #2 and the media was kissing their asses like it was the 1970's. To destroy them like we did and in South Bend, I can't even put that into words.
2007: MSU - Henne to Manningham.
2008: Wisconsin - the only bright spot of the season.
2009: ND - Again, the only win that meant anything.
2001: Iowa
2002: Washington
2003: Notre Dame
2004: Michigan State
2005: Michigan State
2006: Ohio State
2007: Florida
2008: Wisconsin
2009: Notre Dame
I'd go with most exciting and/or most aesthetically pleasing.
2001: Iowa. At one point they were up 20-7 but after a couple of lead changes Navarre won it in the fourth quarter with a touchdown pass.
2002: Washington
2003: Minnesota. We were down 28-7 at one point but came back to win it with a field goal in the last minute. This was a Friday game (I think because of a schedule conflict with the World Series), and I forgot about it until the fourth quarter.
2004: Michigan State, nudging out the Rose Bowl with Texas.
2005: Penn State.
2006: Ohio State, unfortunately. We weren't in a lot of close games that year. Penn State was the only other game within a touchdown, and they had a fourth quarter touchdown to make it close in a game dominated by the Michigan defense.
2007: Florida.
2008: Wisconsin.
2009: Notre Dame.
It doesn't even matter we lost, I doubt any of us will see a game as monumental and incredible as 2006 Ohio State again in our lifetimes. Everything surrounding it was what is great about college football.
Completely agree. Some games(and certain espn specials) are hyped for weeks, and built up to such a degree that the actual event becomes incapable of living up to the hype. However, this was the rare game that proved to be everything the experts predicted.
2003 vs. Minnesota. That game took me out of the realm of the "casual" fan. I had been a casual Michigan fan since childhood, but I'll always point to that comeback win against the Gophers as the turning point of my fandom.
John Navarre caught a pass and ran for a TD fer crissakes!
After that, The 100th Game. I've been a degenerate for it ever since.