What if? Michigan football version

Submitted by mGrowOld on

One of the more interesting books I've read recently was called "What If".  The premise of the book was simple.  Take a significant event from history, say the Battle of Midway, and change the outcome.  Then ask experts and historians to project what likely would've happened (in the case of Midway it was projected the Japanese would've successfully invaded Hawaii and prolonged WWII into the early 50's).

It's a slow day on the board and rainy day here in Cleveland so I started to think about what the Michigan version of "What If" would look like.  Here are a few of mine but I'm sure there are a TON more:

1. What if Bo didn't have a heart attack the night before his first Rose Bowl game?

2. What would the outcome of the 1979 Rose Bowl have been if Charles White's phantom TD had been called correctly?

3. Does Michigan win the National Championship in 88 if Miami doesn't recover not one but TWO onside kicks in the final 5 minutes of the game?

4. What if Moeller doesn't get "Moellered" that night and remains the HC?

5. What if the original Les Miles hire had gone through and he, instead of RR, replaced Lloyd?

6. What if Casteel had come with RR as originally planned?

 

MichiganMan_24_

August 11th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^

Im so sorry but the immature in me is not letting this one go..What if my aunt had balls ? would she be my uncle ?

 

I apologize..What if Shawn Crable doesnt hit Troy Smith late ? Does Michigan win vs OSU ?

BlueLotCrew

August 11th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^

An official should never have made that call in that game under those circumstances. The drive was over. OSU would have been forced to punt. Who knows if it would have altered the outcome and Michigan would have won, but one thing is for certain, it sealed the win for OSU. Terrible call.

TheGeneral

August 11th, 2012 at 6:38 PM ^

Haha I was going to mention that exact play. The reason it was called against us is a new change to how QBs were supposed to be hit. But once the QB scrambled he became a runner and he should have been officiated as such. They got the call right in the USC game, we were not so fortunate.

Doc Brown

August 11th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^

What if Michigan didn't get jobbed in Iowa last season? Are we in the B1G championship? 

What if Denard threw the ball instead of running in the 4th qtr at MSU? 

BlueLotCrew

August 11th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^

We scored 2 touchdowns and won that game. At least that's the way I choose to remember it. That was another abortion of officiating.

Owl

August 11th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^

The “what if” about Michigan Football that I most often think about is what if Michigan had followed the lead of Chicago and deemphasized athletics?  

justingoblue

August 11th, 2012 at 1:59 PM ^

My senior year in high school I desperately wanted to get into Chicago, and even in the suburbs the name recognition wasn't great. If they had stayed in conference, would my high school have a bunch of kids wearing Maroons hoodies? Probably not because even Northwestern wasn't well represented (and it's about 35 minutes away, UC is double that and smaller), but interesting to think about either way.

denardogasm

August 11th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^

Gotta nip this one in the bud.  The in-game what ifs don't really work because there's not even any useful way to project what would happen in the remaining time after everyone's mindset changed.  There's an infinite number of possibilities for what could happen and not really a guiding thread.  The long term coaching questions are interesting to think about but personally I just can't talk about RR anymore.  I wonder what might have happened if Woodson had remained at running back, for example,  or if Des had stayed in Ohio, or Woody never punched that player.  What if Tom Brady never had an affair with Lloyd Christmas?

Logan88

August 11th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^

Les Miles was NEVER going to be hired by UM. That is a complete fantasy. Bill Martin respected Carr's opinion too much to hire Miles over Carr's objections. I was a premium member of one of the "big" UM sites at the time of the coaching search (aka "The Fiasco") and Miles was never really under serious consideration.

All of the "smoke" about Les Miles to UM was just that: smoke.

maizenbluenc

August 11th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^

They had a few brews, and laughed at MGoBlog and others chasing our tails, and then shook hands: Les leaving with a leveraged up new LSU contract, Dave leaving with a certain subset of the base content that Les did not want the job, which gave Brandon cover to hire Hoke, and an easier path to lining up support behind Brady.

It was a win-win.

Candyman

August 12th, 2012 at 11:41 PM ^

While, yes, it is true that Les Miles was never going to get hired as it was in 2007, all the OP would have to do is amend the question to "What if Bo was still alive in 2007, meaning Les Miles was hired?" And yes, Les WOULD have been hired if Bo was still alive at that time, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

It's interesting to think about. That means Mallett, Boren, and Arringston stay. Possibly Manningham too, although I believe he would still declare for the NFL draft regardless. We're probably looking at a typical Lloyd kind of season in 2008, 9-10 wins and a January non-BCS bowl. I think we take Sparty, but the Ohio losing streak probably continues for another year, before we take them in 2009 during a 10-11 win season with a BCS bowl at the end. It's hard to project beyond that without knowing how he recruits, especially at QB(I'm assuming Mallett leaves after his junior year in 2009), but there's no reason to think we wouldn't have played for the National Championship last year against Alabama...setting up a rematch in Dallas to start this season. Boy, that'd be something.

I actually like thinking about "What if?" questions, but apparenly most don't...

jmblue

August 11th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^

Regarding this one...

 

3. Does Michigan win the National Championship in 88 if Miami doesn't recover not one but TWO onside kicks in the final 5 minutes of the game?

I don't think so, because Notre Dame won the title that year, and they still would have had a victory over us.

Now if Gilette had made the game-winning FG attempt at ND that year, yes, I think we would have.

mGrowOld

August 11th, 2012 at 1:09 PM ^

I remembered that unpleasant detail too late (that ND won it all that year) but damn the end of that Miami game was painful to watch.  Especially when you know the team ran the table after that.

BBall version:

What if Frieder doesnt announce he's leaving until after the tourney?

What if C-Webb doesnt call time out? (yes I know the game wasn't actually played according to the NCAA)

 

jmblue

August 11th, 2012 at 1:16 PM ^

I don't think the '89 team would have won it all with Frieder at the helm.  He was too high-strung, and his teams always seemed to play tight in the tourney.  They thrived with Fisher's low-key style.

If Webber hadn't called timeout, I think we'd have scored.  That team had always seemed to come through in the clutch.  Jalen probably would have taken the game-tying shot.  Dammit, it still stings.  We let that game get away.