The 1997 Michigan Wolverines: A 50-Year Wait

on the podcast. I didn't know they know who we are by now because we've we've done a few of them. I say, Jason Smith, you say Mike Carmon, but in staid it's oh hey, look at me. But there's always some new folks coming in. Sure, maybe there's needs to build up maybe a little bit of you know, giant flutes and trumpets. You want giant flutes and trumpets, not regular flutes and trumpets. Gotta be giant flutes, rock flute

like Jethro Tall, not running down his nose. Play. They had other songs, m yeah, but that's that's the go to one though, that's always the pretty good one. Well, what we do on Special Teams Podcast we spotlight a single season in sports history. Some of the best, most notorious, or worst teams that grace a gridiron, hockey rank, basketball court, baseball field diamond whipper Will Woodpecker. Yeah, maybe the squared Circle. I mean, you never know what you're gonna get, you know.

Let's sudden look at the year that macho man Randy Savage ad back in three Wrestler of the Year. We take a look at the seven Michigan Wolverines, the first Michigan team in fifty years to win a national championship. They did it via defense. They did it with a future NFL Hall of Famer who didn't even play, And there was controversy, there was achievements something we had never seen before in college football history, all part of the

Big Michigan Wolverine season. This was a team coached by Lloyd Carr, who was a long time assistant and was promoted to being the head coach previously. And look, it wasn't like he was a guy that was sought after to become the Michigan head coach. He was a Michigan man and the old bullshem Bekler line, a Michigan man will always coach Michigan. He was a very loyal, longtime defensive coach who got promoted and hey, guess what, Lloyd Carr wins the first national championship in fifty years. Well,

and it's all on the strength of the defense. And we'll get into some of those numbers and peculiarities when you look at the they have the hardest schedule in the land coming in, but it's the long held tradition, and anytime there's been a shift from that, there's the the question of, all right, is this legacy thing? Do we need to work outside every time the job comes open. All the speculation, but for Lloyd Carr, everything came together

in what was one of the magical seasons. I mean that was still just fresh out of getting thumped with some regularity during my tenure at Northwestern, watched watching my team get obliterated a couple of wins in a row. But then they were on the schedule of what turned out to be a ridiculous run by car and his men. It wasn't a great year offensively, though they did have a defensive star and make some big plays for them. The defense was incredible. Every game for them was the same.

They would hold the offense would score enough points and the defense would exert their will and close out the game. Most teams, you want to win a game, we want our offense out there because the offense is gonna chew up the clock and gain first downs. This Michigan team wanted their defense out there because they were the ones that closed all season long. They gave up their first fourth quarter points in Week nine. Ponder that for a

minute week nine of a season. Overall, they gave up thirty seven second half points in a season and what was again at the time, the hardest schedule in the land when you put it on paper. Heading into the year, Michigan sent thirty one players from this team to the National Football League. Usually you see a team if it's really good, they sent between fifteen and twenty players at some point. Because this is not everybody in one, this

is not all seniors. This is just who played on this You had thirty one players, and you had players who were terrific and had great NFL careers. Jay Feeley was the place kicker. He kicked in the NFL for well over a decade. You had Steve Hutchinson, who had a phenomenal career. To Honey Jones, who had a great career, also had a great career afterwards, broadcasting. Anthony Thomas, you know, played for a long time, played for your Bears for a while. The A train, I mean hanging in my closet.

Do you really You're not even kidding you have an A train jersey Bears A train from promotion I did years ago when I was working at Yahoo. We had a thing where we gave out for our premium leagues. We gave out jerseys and they sent right. You could pick your team and then there would be a selection of players that would be fulfilled. And at one point they just sent me a couple of Bears jerseys, one of which is and Anthony Thomas, which still hangs proudly.

And every once in a while I'll wear it. Maybe I'll wear it next week, or I'll wear it the next time they win a game. Good, good luck with that. You're missing somebody on the team, and I didn't mention him because we're gonna get to him right now. Headed to the No, headed to the Hall of Fame. Not a guy who slipped on his driveway and missed time

because he was partying too much. Brian Greasy won the quarterback job for Michigan this year, right, he wanted over the incumbent the year before, who was Scott drives Back. Remember when Michigan at Scott drives Back, he was gonna be the next great quarterback. He was a good game manager,

but he still had big games. But Brian Greasy, Bob Greasy's son, won the quarterback job he wanted over Scott drives Back and a youngster named Tom Brady, that guy who wasn't quite ready to compete and win the starting quarterback job at Michigan. Brian Greasy, to the end of his life is gonna go I'm the guy that beat out Brady at Michigan. He wasn't good enough, and I

won the National championship. I remember that well. That was one of the curiosities going in And obviously the talk of nepotism and surnames ruling the day, uh certainly was was heard for quite a long time. And then you always have the pictures of Brady at his NFL combine with the concave chess, and you get young Well, I get it, I get it, and that's the way it works.

And Greasy had some some big moments of big games, and even during this magical run though there were times where he did his his part to put some some of these games in jeopardy. It's amazing that in his career, think about this, he doesn't beat out Brian Greasy and then barely holds off Drew Henson, who was coming in as the much ballyhooed quarterback out of Michigan, local kid who was gonna he was gonna be the next one guy,

and Brady barely held him off. Well. With Henson, though, you also had the giant baseball contracts sitting there, So in terms of trying to recruit him and get him to come to the school, you've got to make certain promises as well. Right, there's certain considerations. You're gonna get every chance to win this job, so you don't go play for the New York Yankees farm system. And you want another funny thing about this is I have seen

all three of these quarterbacks play in person. How about that I've seen I saw Tom Brady play in uh for Michigan. Rather, I saw them all playing person at Michigan. Tom Brady lose the Syracuse in that big Donovan McNabb Ranford touchdown with his shoe off. You want to start peacocking around the studio was the best. I saw Scott drives back play against Boston College, and I saw Brian Greasy play in the National championship game against Washington State.

So I saw all three of these guys play in person. About that, Mr Funk, Do you want me to make you a button to wear around? Nice little mow many people that you know concid, I saw all three of them. There's Michigan fans with season tickets in to see all that would be that would do you? You'd be a shortlist of one. So as Michigan was preparing for the fall season, what else was happening in? Married with Children

was canceled after ten years? Yes, very sad, and I had the biggest crush on Kelly Bundy for the longest time still do I mean like, yeah, not quite as I did when when I mean dead to me doesn't rev you up. But you know she has her moments. Job, Okay, I'll give you that. Sure, I'll give you that. But back then, when I mean she was and I'm like, oh my god, Kelly Bundy, Kelly Bundy, Kelly Bundy. Titanic opened in seven became the biggest box office film ever

in history, with over a billion dollars. Jack Chuck, I'm flying, Jack, Gonna be honest. Yeah, I've never seen the thing in its entirety. I've seen it all piece together, ship sinks at the years. That's why i didn't go see it. That's why I'm not part of a billion dollars. Harry Potter was published for the first time. Buddy, what is the Philosopher's Stone? What it makes it different from the Sorcerer's Stone? I don't understand. Just different countries, different publishing,

and of course the band ruling the airwaves. Hanson their debut album Middle of Nowhere and the hit Bob Everything Old Is New Again, Bob Bob, Bob do doubt do Up? What what woo? Yeah? Yeah, they performed Bob Bob do up? Didn't doubt doubt do up? Bob Bob woo Hey. Yeah, you've been practicing that over these twenty plus years. I just went to a concert that actually had Hanson as part of the lineup. So take that. Wow? Did you

pay money for that? Well? They were part of a much larger lineup like Bertie Groups seven oh, okay, like two groups I would say, oh boy, when Taylor Swift is the headliner. Okay, I think it's good. And Liza was out there and doing earthing. It wasn't like you saw the Hanson and seduction. No no, I did not, you know Fox, even though they took away married with children that year, they gave us King of the Hill. I sell propane and propane accessories. That boys, not right, Bobby.

So that's everything heading up to the magical season for the Michigan Wolverines. Coming up next, they have a couple of big tests early and an unexpected player announces his candidacy for the Heisman Trophies. The Special Team's Podcast with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. Welcome back to the Special Teams Podcast. Jason Smith and Mike Harmon hit us up on Twitter at how About a Fresca or at Swollen Dome.

We are now taking a look back at the Michigan Wolverines, first Michigan team to win the national title and over fifty years. He began the fall season with a big win over Colorado to three. They followed up the next week by beating Baylor thirty eight three. And you're thinking, okay, this Michigan team is not bad. They get into their big Week three showdown with No tre Dame and that really is, for the longest time, was always the official

beginning of college football. When Michigan plays No tre Dame. Now they play very rarely. They're not gonna play again until fourteen years. Yeah, Michigan able to look, Hey we won the last game. They were all talking. Social media was so good after that. We don't care, we don't play you guys. We're gonna play you guys with the fifteen years say whatever. That Yeah, so much coming out because you already you have to build up for that game. But what they did to Colorado was historic in its

own way, right. That was a one games that that was the lowest output that Colorado had had. And then you get to Notre Dame. You got Paulos and you got the first year of Bob Davey. So you've got the shiny new look. And remember ron Polis that he was going to, Hey, we'll win multiples with No tre Dame. And then you know when I had when I had him on my radio show after when I was at ESPN, I would have him on every week and he was

so awesome. And one time I was joking around about Ron Palace and he goes, oh, I talked to him the other day. I go, but you did, He goes, He's the quarterbacks coach at No. Tre Dame. Of course I talked to him. I talked to him all the time. I was like, oh, I didn't know, like he still had a related talked to Ron Palace all that time.

I always felt bad for Ron Polace because they kept trying to make him run the option when he was a statuesque stand behind the tackles and make a throw quarterback like Gretchian Winers kept trying to make Ron Palace happen. Then it just didn't happen, for he's not getting the outside stop. Week three's game against Notre Dame was a nail biter. No points in the fourth quarter for Notre Dame.

Michigan scores two touchdowns in the third quarter, and they really put the game away late despite the fact they turned the football over repeatedly in the fourth quarter. A handoff was botched, gave no name the football. Notre Dame drove to the twenty yard line, but they had a key stop on fourth down and Michigan ran out the final three and a half minutes of the clock. They

turned it over. This was the first nervous moment of the year from Michigan, but the defense was able to hold firm a storyline that would go on throughout the rest of in a spotlight game to get to three and oh and I mean, because let's face it, all eyes are on this game, right, You've got Florida State and Nebraska doing their things, and that'll be the other story that weaves in and out throughout what Michigan is doing.

But you look at the dominance and especially fourth quarter scoring, like that's that's that became the hallmark on his defense,

and especially with those giveaways. We talked about it all the time in the NFL talking about in college football the ability to bend a little bit but pick up for the other thirds, right, failures on offense or special teams, or if your defense is struggling, having a quarterback that can will you and push you over the top in points totals here of the defense, just stop after stop. You watched highlights of this group and just watch how they swarm to the ball is really something to watch.

So now Michigan suffers are or gets through their first test, nearly suffering their first loss. A couple of big wins later. I'll gloss over the one against Northwestern. You're all, we've beating him two years in a row before that, you did. Brian Cohen's had a couple of field goals. He scored the first second half points against a man. Also, we're stealing the plays off of their sideline before the Patriots made it fashionable. You're all, you're kind of doing that smart. Well,

you are very smart. If you're too dumb to cover up your signals, that's my old rule of thumb. Everybody's trying to get an advantage Baseball, football, etcetera. If your coach, your quarterbacks, whomever, too dumb to PI figure out that they're tipping calls. We keep seeing it in twenty nineteen teams as well. Michigan takes their undefeated record to Iowa four weeks six, and Iowa jumps all over them in

the second quarter. They scored twenty one points, punctuated and by a punt return for a touchdown on the final play of the first half by Everybody's all American Tim Dwight, one of my favorite guys, Dwight. Tim Dwight, I'll tell you we we had a great story because at Northwestern, right small campus and the visiting teams busses, they're right outside and at the time you're collecting autographs or you know, you just want to go meet a player, a coach.

Very easy to get close and Tim Dwight was. There was such a market and this is a big deal as we talk about the licensing and ability for players to make money off of their name. Back in the day, they had state sheriffs that traveled with the Iowa team because there was such a market for Tim dwight autographs in Iowa that they'd literally he'd look at me. Have we seen these guys before? It was their job to

say yes or no? And we saw a guy that had traveled from Iowa City for the game, like, Noe, we know you, he's not signing for you, but he signed for everybody else. Couldn't have been nice. But that's how much of an industry and how popular Tim Dwight was at his peak. Later played very successfully in the NFL, including a Super Bowl run with the Atlanta Falcons, but this was a game the defense would once again close

out for Michigan. After Michigan gets back in it, Brian Greasy scores on a fourth and goal sneak from the one yard line to give Michigan the lead, but then Iowa takes the lead back after a big kickoff return by Tim Dwight. Again, Michigan takes the final lead in the game after Brian Greasy throws a touchdown to Jeremy Tuman. Iowa drives all the way down to Michigan's fifteen yard line, but Sam Sword picks off Matt Sherman with thirty seconds

left to go that secures the win. And it was once again, boy, as good as we've been, the defense really pulled us out of that. You look at Greasy three interceptions in this game, setting up opportunities, Riowa and Tim Dwight showing what special teams could do right just the game breaking opportunity and their their last field goal kind came off that seventy two yard return. But once again defense coming up big and just many stars off

of that defense. Yes, Charles Woodson would get all of the headlines, but guys like Sam Sward came up big time. And again now you mentioned Charles Woodson, and this is really where his Heisman campaign began, which was Week seven against Michigan State and Nick Saban, you have, yes, you have an undefeated Michigan team. This is before Nick Saban was Nick Saban. This is when it was Nick Saban's

getting the head coaching job at Michigan State. Really, Oh all right, I guess so, okay, we got we got Michigan, so we got we got him. They went to John L. Smith after that, and you know that, look, Michigan State through a bunch of guys before they finally got to Mark D'Antonio, who has been great. It was great for a long time. But Nick Saban really cutting his coaching teeth with Michigan State. But this is the game in

which Charles Woodson announced his Heisman candidacy. Long being looked at as one of the best defensive players in college football, one of the best defensive backs, he's starting to play offense now for Michigan and he's cutting through the clutter. He becomes the story. What's the story of this Michigan football team. Well, their defense is good, in their quarterback is okay. But hey, Charles Woodson's the guy who's excelling on defense and he's starting to play offense. The first

two way star the sported scene in a while. Rod Woodson, when he left perdue to go to the NFL, had a couple of great games at running back at the very end of his run, but he wasn't a two way player like Woodson was for the majority of a national championship season. So Woodson's getting all the attention. And it's Week seven against Michigan State where really his heisman candidacy is announced in earnest for the first time. Yeah, I mean, you have a couple of big interceptions and

that brought his career total of fifteen. And you start when you're talking about the history of Michigan and every graphic is here's where he ranks all the time. You really get to start pushing that narrative. And Michigan State was five and one at this point underhead coach Nick Saban Nick Saban before he was Nick Saban. Remember meeting him as he became Nick Saban and moved over to l s U. Okay, No, he was a lot of fun chatting it up. He thought it was a you know,

a new new world, new change. I'm like, why are you leaving a big ten Man's wrong with us? Why you gotta go over to the other because mayn't beat Michigan because we're Michigan. But that's just it. I was trying to celebrate it, but I mean they had done so well to that. I mean, that was the best start they'd had in thirty years, okay with that Michigan State team. So when we look at Nick Saban, he'd

gotten everything moving in the right direction. Unfortunately he now faced an absolute juggernaut on that defensive side of the ball. Michigan States scored in the first quarter, did not score again. Charles Woodson with two interceptions and in a big highlight game. Hey, here's Woodson with two picks following week against Minnesota. Follows it up with a thirty three yard touchdown on the ground against the Golden Gophers in a game that Michigan won going away as well. So now you have Woodson

with two interceptions. Here he's on a top down run. Charles Woodson two way star. When I say cut through the clutter, there's always there's always big pastors, there's big runners, there's big stories. But when you get something that you haven't seen in a while, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is this guy playing both ways. He's playing offense and defense and special teams. Remember he was a big punt returner as well. So this is something that everybody

hooked into. And suddenly Michigan became the stars of college football because long tradition program winning all these games. And now you've got a guy that's one of the Heisman Trophy favorites. Look at what he's gonna do and some of the amazing work on defense. You mentioned special team, but now in this game, six team plays on the offensive side, including that reverse, and what they did in the second half, this is also I popping. They give

up ten yards of offense in a half. That's like Chicago Bears twenty nineteen, like the Jets on any play yards, I thought I'd take one for the team there. I didn't want to make fun of the Jets. I didn't want to turn this into a therapy session. That buddy, that's okay. I mean we do that four hours a night nationally. He's so well, why do that here? The

next week they beat Penn State. He catches a thirty seven yard touchdown and also holds Joe Gurrovicious, who was Penn State star wide out to twenty yards, receiving two catches for twenty yards. When Joe Gurovicious was how are they gonna stop him? Look at what he's done, and he does absolutely nothing, And now it's boy. Charles Woodson is great on both sides of the ball. They beat

Wisconsin in week ten. They run a trick plane which he nearly throws a touchdown to Brian Greasey, unfortunately goes down at the one yard line. But the legend of Charles Woodson is now growing and it's something we haven't seen. And it's really Woodson versus Peyton Manning at this point, because Peyton Manning was the overwhelming favorite coming into the year for the Heisman trow. Look Peyton Manning his last year mark. He's gonna get that, He's gonna get the

Lifetime Achievement Award. But now who's Charles Woodson showing up that's gonna try to take it away from him. Well, that Penn State game was significant in helping to bolster all of the the hype wagon as well, because you're talking about the long tenured career of Joe Paterno. They score nothing on that defense in the first half right, twenty four nothing, largest deficit a Joe Paternos Penn State career. And remember this is also a happy valley, so add

add to that the misery that goes on there. Thirty four nothing over three quarters, they finally get points in the fourth. Those are the first fourth quarter points scored against this Michigan team. Uh Courtisinus was was the guy running for Penn State in What's garbage time? And then Bears. There's a lot of Bears connections on. It really does work quite well for me. But I mean, Penn State was a top three team as this matchup went went

in and they absolutely thumped them. After this week, they debut at number one in the country and the Associated Press Pole. However, the coaches pole had Florida State at number one. Remember the days when it was the a P Pole and the coaches Pole and oh boy, who knows if that's gonna work, right, So had Michigan number one in the a P Pole and Florida State number one in the coaches poll. A lack of respect or belief in Michigan by coaches that comes back later in

this storyline. But now for Michigan, it was all set up for them in their rivalry game against Ohio State. And this is back when Michigan used to beat Ohio State almost every year, instead of the rivalry to turn into under Jim Trestle and then Urban Myron, which if Michigan won once every seven years, it was a big deal. Not much of a rivalry at that point. No, they go into this game and Charles Woodson in a game that look nationally televised, it's the game everybody is watching.

Woodson returns a punt for a touchdown seventy eight yards in the second quarter. He also picks off a pass and it was at that moment that he won the Heisman Trophy. Watching this, you see there's Heisman Trophy moments that players have and they go, oh, what's this Heisman Trophy moment? The seventy eight yard punt return for a score that was his Heisman Trophy moment. As long as they won this game and moved on, he was gonna

win it. He had a very acrobatic interception in this game, and Michigan holds on with a big stand at the end to beat Ohio State fourteen Ohio State ten in one in this in the in the season at this point, and it was either team could now potentially be the number one team in the country. Here's Ohio State if they beat undefeated Michigan. This was that kind of game. But it was the defense that held from Michigan in

the end. And I vividly remember this, Kirk Herb Street on ESPN saying, Michigan Ohio State with a six point game. Michigan's got a four teen lead late in the fourth quarter and Ohio State gets the ball back and this is well, they could wreck Michigan season with a touchdown, and Kirk Herbsty Ohio State said, Michigan's defense has held all year, They're gonna hold here again. And they do hold and keep Ohio State off the scoreboard, and they win the game and they move on to the Rose Bowl.

Four teen. Well, it's funny because you've got Stanley Jackson, Andy katsonmore like all these legendary Big ten names, at least at the time, Stanley Jackson uh the quarterback who eventually seeds in that game to Joe Germaine. The legend of Joe German began there. David Boston and some of these great names of five minutes in the NFL David Boston five minutes. What to Arizona would you expect? Well, yeah, it's true, that didn't help anything. We gotta survive. That

was Larry Fitzgerald. No no no, no, not no, and and Rod Tidwell survived because Jerry McGuire was nine. And then people are still watching Jerry McGuire. It's okay, curiosity of how they put him on the Arizona Cardinals, but that's a whole other thing. Good work by Glenn Fry in that movie while we're at it as well. But taking care of business against Ohio State and what do we say,

succeed and proceed? Ohio State was ranked fourth in both polls, and now Michigan, without a doubt, number one in the eight peopole, moving on to the Rose Bowl where they would take on Washington State. So this is your first consensus number one participant for the Rose Bowl since nine eight, because it wasn't like Big ten teams and and packed

ten teams were winning national championships all the time. But now Michigan's number one in both polls and they're heading out to the Rose Ball, but they're playing Washington State, who was right number eight in the Country one verses eight. The doors open for if you beat a team that's not quite up to your level, for another team to maybe sneaking and split the national championship with you, lobbying, politicking and a little bit of uh, let's let's compare

resumes going on. But Ryan Leaf was on the other side of that game. This was the last great day of Ryan Leaf's football career. Well, I guess getting drafted by the Charges with Big D any day after that wasn't very good. On they comeback trail, we all root for Ryan Leaf. So we're set up Michigan versus Washington State, Ryan Leaf, who was then the consensus at worst number two pick in the draft, behind Peyton Manning. But first

we had the Heisman Trophy Award to get to. Coming up next on Special Teams, was it gonna be Woodson? Was it gonna be Peyton Manning? Well, you know by now it was Woodson. How close was it? And plus just how did Michigan hold off Washington State? And when the national title amits some controversy? That's next Special Teams Podcast Jason Smith, Mike Harner. It is the Special Teams Podcast on I Heart Radio. Jason Smith Mike Harmon taking

a look back at the Michigan Wolverines. Before we get to the National Championship, there was the matter of the Heisman Trophy to disperse with and dispense with. He dispense with stuff you don't disperse dispense with. I mean you can dispense first. Funds you first. I mean you can say you dispersed Award he votes were dispersed out or dispersed.

As we mentioned before, the three of the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, Ryan Leaf and Randy Moss out of Marshall, he wore the crazy socks all the way up to the top of his knees, and he had all kinds of touchdowns. Is he gonna dominate the NFL? But look at Randy Moss small school. He gets invited to the Heisman Trophy awards ceremony in New York, which is won by Charles Woodson the margin of eighteen fifteen to fifty three points. He is the

first predominantly defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy. Just why did Charles Woodson win? Woodson one? As we talked about earlier, his story cut through the clutter playing defense but playing great on offense. But quite honestly, there was a Peyton Manning fatigue at that point because Peyton man had been a great player for so long but never reach the heights we expected to see him get to.

And after all the years of Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning, you know what, we got something new And Charles Woodson was the new, shiny new toy. And we see that in Heisman voting now in which a guy who one last year got really close the year before comes back and as a finalist all the way through. But you know what got I've been hearing about this guy for two years. Now. Oh here's a new quarterback or a new running back doing something that's gonna be my guy

for the Heisman Trophy. It happens. But this was definitely Peyton Manning fatigue and a combination of Michigan playing as well as they have, being undefeated all season long. Yeah, you had a representative of the number one team in the land, a guy who cut through the clutter, highlights on all three phases. Right, you don't often get to see that defense, big catches as our runs on the offense, and then working in the return game, so there was

always something. Oh and here's another update from the Michigan game, and Charles Woodson's name would be in one of the three phases. Peyton Manning was throwing big yardage, big touchdowns week after week for years, and he'd been the talk of the town. So Charles Woodson wins the Heisman Trophy and Michigan moves on to the National Championship Game. De facto National Championship Game. We think, Hey, they're playing Washington State.

Let's see how it turns out awaiting Michigan. As we said, Ryan Leaf, who really, I mean, going back to that, I remember Ryan Leaf and how highly everybody thought about him. In fact, there was some concern that he would jump Peyton Manning to being the number one pick because Ryan Leaf was the new toy with a cannon arm, throwing the football as well as he did with Washington State, and maybe Peyton Manning, Oh, does he have a strong enough farm? As ball flutters a little bit. That was

a lot of the talk about Peyton Manning. Had he peaked? Yeah, right, because he'd been at that big performance for a couple of years and had been such a name, just like the fatigue. When voting for an award, it also becomes a all right, is he want to give me one of these college heroes. That doesn't necessarily translate because obviously not exactly. A guy running around with wheels didn't have

the strongest arm. All of those some of those boxes you check when you look at Leaf and what they were doing at Washington State putting up forty plus a game, and a lot of it on the strength of his arm as much as just the accuracy. I mean, we're talking about a guy with a big howitzer attached that suddenly became a sexy thought of well, maybe they zag because he's the unknown commodity and the diamond in the rough.

I was at this game as a fan. My wife went to Michigan and there was no we weren't going to the Rose Bowl. And I remember calling the day tickets got available, getting busy signals, busy scene was finally getting tickets, like, oh, I know you had to call that. You couldn't just get online. I just got a little

guy walking like he's standing in line. We called. Remember your turn being at work and calling every couple of minutes because we called, like Rose Bowl tickets go on sale eleven AM, and my wife and I were on the phones at work. We had all when you had all the different lines you could call him on one phone, and we kept calling, calling, calling, We couldn't get him, couldn't get throughout. The time we got through, Rose Bowl was sold out. We were like, oh my God, but

we're finally able to get tickets. We go to the game, we tailgate. It's the first Rose Bowl I had ever been to, and it's a hundred thousand seats standing, and it's the first kind of experience I've had with that kind of craziness on both sides, because going to other Michigan games I've been there where you know, it's a hundred thousand people and nine of them are rooting for Michigan. This is really split. A lot of Wazoo fans came down the coast and it was it was a lot.

It was a really fun atmosphere tailgating before the game. But there was nobody who thought that Michigan wasn't gonna win this game. And the way it started was a very typical Michigan game, except Washington State came a little bit more than they thought they can handle. They took a thirteen seven lead getting to halftime, and it was boy, maybe Washington States can be able to loosen up this Michigan defense a little bit. In Michigan's offense is having

trouble with the Cougars on defense. Nothing they were running was really working, and Michigan they were really kind of stuck in the mud on offense in this game. Well, yeah, you look at Leaf the second half at nine yard drives so right that that one's kind of deflating, right, you're expecting, all right, we're gonna force a punt and

get the ball back amount midfield. This is right off the jump of the second half, and all of a sudden that defense showed some cracks, showed a little bit and Ryan Leaf, this this is where you start peaking the interest of the the overall, overall audience. And and remember bowl games at the time in their place, you know, just that pageantry, especially the Rose Bowl, the granddaddy of them all, Keith Jackson setting you up with everything from the parade on down. But then Brian Greasy, the ball

goes on on his hand. He's got to make the big play. And we've seen over the course of the year where there had been spots where he became turnover prone. Not here. Tie Streets, another great name that will get into hits him with a big fifty eight yard reception, and all of a sudden, they're back to life. And this play change the course of the game. Michigan's offense was going nord. They're running a lot of play action

and Greasy was going short and it wasn't working. And this play happened right in front of me because we were in the end zone and Greasy goes for a play action fake and he turns back around and he's got Tie Streets one on one and he just throws it. I think as far as he could. Tie Streets catches it,

gets into the end zone. They kicked the extra point because Washington stated missed the extra point, So now they have a fourteen thirteen lead, and you could kind of tell there was a bit of a sigh of relief from the Michigan crowd as if, okay, we finally broke through. That play took a situation where it was nip and tuck for Michigan and suddenly open things up. They were breathing a little bit from there. They exerted their will

on the game. They got another touchdown in the fourth quarter Greasy Throne with the Jeremy Tumman a field goal

from Ryan Lindel, Remember Ryan Lindell. Washington State cuts the lead to sixteen, so it's still a chance for the Michigan defense to close, except they close in a very weird way because Washington State gets the ball back with not a lot of time left, and Ryan Leaf throws a forty six yard pass to put the ball just past midfield to Ny and Taylor, who commits the most blatant pass interference penalty you could possibly see, and you

can see this on YouTube. Now, he just basically chucks it up to the to midfield where there's a lot of receivers. The Michigan defensive back it's not Charles Woodson is stopping to catch it, and Taylor just runs up pushes him out of the way. He sprawls on the ground. Taylor catches it, goes down and now Washington State has

a chance here. It should have been a fifteen yard penalty, but instead Washing State's got the ball at Michigan's forty seven yard You know, you can have thrown a challenge flag in the NFL and been no with the but it was a two handed push and a ship doesn't matter. We saw those all during the nineteen season, are you kids? Harrison Ford kicking Gary Oldman out of his plane on a plane. So Washington State it's got a chance. Now. They run a hook and ladder play that gets the

Michigan twenty six yard line. As Jason Clayton gets tackled with two seconds left, the clock has stopped to move the chains. So Washington State you think is gonna have at least one last player. They try to spike the ball, but they're gonna start the clock after they move the chains. With two seconds left, no time outs left, Ryan Leaf spikes the football, except the referee from the Southeastern Conference crew, Dick Burlison, shakes his head and says, Nope, he didn't

spy in time. Game is over, Michigan wins chaos as always. I mean, he couldn't have it, and easy little bit of a makeup call, I thought. I said, Okay, well, maybe they get the spike in, but they shouldn't have the ball at midfield because of the past interference and that extra second ticked off a little fast and did the referees run away like a w w E referee or someone that just want a belt by hitting someone with a chair. I remember Ryan Leaf getting really mad

trying to go over to talk to the referees. But at that point, Michigan wins, the game's over and everybody's running on It's not like you're going up to the booth. Thought, Hey, should we put time back on the clock. Nope, no, no, no, no, games over. Okay, Now, once the game was over was over different times. Man, everybody's running on the field and I'm watching Lloyd car get interviewed by a bunch of

different people. My wife is going crazy because they won the national championship, and it's just it's just a great moment. Michigan wins. You think, can we reset the game clock to one second please? So Michigan wins and national champions Sure, but they had to wait three days for the final poll to come out. This is back when the final polls would always name the national champion, and usually when the number one team wins in the game, they're the

national champion. Except on January four, it was revealed that Nebraska overtook Michigan by four points in the Coach's poll. To win a split. Michigan wins the Associated Press National Championship. Nebraska wins the Coach's Poll for the National Championship. There was a lot of controversies surrounding this as Nebraska be Tennessee forty seventeen, had a big day on offense, and

this was what a great day. Scott Frost was the Nebraska quarterback, and I remember after the game he put out a statement saying, Michigan any field anytime I did. He did a lot of politicking. Because the other thing is just goes back to the Peyton Manning effect, right, is that you just bludgeoned Peyton Manning. Right, you beat them down to where T Martin was finishing the game. You're finally T Martin, who would go on to win

the National Championship next year. Yeah, exactly, we just had to get rid of Peyton Manning and now we're gonna move on five D thirty four yards of offense. Just so some ridiculous efforts along the way, So, right, not just what happens on the field. And and here's some computer rankings. Now it's all about lobbying and politicking and the fact that Tom Osborne had announced his retirements. That's

the big thing. That's why he wins. Tom Osborn, who was one of the most respected college coaches in college football history before that game, announced his retirement. So there's some coaches went all, yeah, let me give him one more because watching both these teams, there was no way Nebraska was as good as Michigan. I mean, Nebraska an undefeated season that had a couple of uh last minute escapes,

they were not as good as Michigan was. And the fact that Tom Osborne's retirement pushed the decision that way. I thought it was a little weak. Can you imagine that happening now? Oh yeah, wait, but this guy's retiring, So yeah, we're gonna give him the national championship at half of it. So Michigan has to split the national championship with Nebraska. Yeah, they had a couple of near near missus. I mean when you're talking about a game late in the season, uh end of November at Colorado,

a team that Michigan had absolutely thumped. We talked about it earlier in the podcast of you know, we're talking record lows over a ridiculous length of time under under new Heil, where they escaped with the win. And so when we start comparing apples to apples, like, well, Michigan's defense rising up. Yeah, there was some gaudy point totals for Frost and Company there, but the tambo Osborne factor, numerous big ten selections, all American selections. Brian Greasy set

passing records with a hundred ninete completions seven attempts. Uh. Both those records were broken by Tom Brady. We talked when he finally won the starting job at Michigan. Get out of here, Greasy. So let's play a little where are they now? Where are some of these big players from this Michigan team where Well, we had our thirty one people that went to the NFL, and we'll get to one of them. I think it's a friend of yours in a minute, duade, Patman a couple of years

defensive back. He's a Partner's Capital Group of Financial services. And it will find that thread. There's a bunch of guys in in finance running off this team, those Michigan You've gotta be smart to go to Michigan, I think, right, that's what they tell me. Clint Copenhavier, district sales manager for a medical devices company. It's like he's come up with like this device will stop you from snoring. Just put it in your mouth and have it tamp your

tongue down and you won't be storing anymore. Well. Also just tries to keep your heart beating. He was an outside linebacker. You mentioned Scott Drives back a little bit earlier. Uh, he's at high school in Austin. He is a teacher and a coach. You've got Dave Crispin. He's a football coach at a high school. But he's also a math teacher. So that we got some smart guys. So if you ever got fired, if you get fired from being a coach, you're still unless you get five for listen, you can't

coach and you can't do math. Wow, as long as you can still do math pretty well, I suppose you. Probably he may not get to stay at that school because maybe they got a hybrid coach math teacher there. How about take Shansky, it's a good name. Uh. He's a president of financial planning outfit, so that's a good one. Uh. And then Glenn Steele, he's a GM at a metal and plastic distributor. I mean we get some collected I mean, there's a lot of guys that the last name is Steele.

You're gonna work in something with metal in it. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of guys that are coaches. Marcus Knight played the NFL a little bit, was drafted by the Raiders. He's a running back coach. As we talked h at Indiana State. And then remember Charles Woodson, but he produces wine. He does wine. Now, Charles Woodson, I did not know that we should have him. Woodson, what if you remember we met him at the super

Bowl and oh yeah, frew years ago. Fun. And this is very weird because apparently Charles Woodson and I have a pass which I knew nothing about. You were you were you drunk? No? No, no, no, no, got at the super Bowl party? Now, no, we were. We worked pretty efficiently and effectively and soberly. But we were at the super Bowl in San Francisco, that's right. And we were at Jay Glazer's party, that's right, at the Glazer palooza.

And I met Charles Woodson because akbar Bye should be Amilia, who I knew from when I was working at NFL Network. I did the Fantasy Live there for three years. We met him at the party in ock Barns and ockbar knows everybody, nicest guy in the world. And Charles Woodson comes up and he introduces us. You know, hey, oh hey, Charles, how you doing. Hey, This is hey, this Jason Smith blah blah blah blah. And Charles Woodson shakes my hand

and says, I know you. And he doesn't let go of your hand, right, No, this is this is the reverse Curtis Martin that you talked about, where you wouldn't let Curtis Martin's hand go while you told him how great he was. Charles Woodson's giving you a stare. Now he's wearing and ascott like he's got this sweet code on this whole thing, but in a big glass of wine in his hand. But he does not let going.

He's locked eyes with you. He shakes my hand. He says, but I know you, And I wanted to say, well, yeah, and I said yeah, I do Fox Sports Radio and I did NFL network for three years. Probably saw me on Fantasy Lock and then I said yeah, Fox Sports Radio, I did and NFL. Now he goes, no, I know you, and he holds onto my hand and he's looking at me and I'm like, dude, are we gonna fight? I was like, what, okay, did you bash him at the back end career? His career? And why had NFL network?

We never talked about Charles Woodson White where I hosted a fantasy show, we were talking about Charles. I don't think we ever talked about Charles Woodson. I don't know when on the radio I would have said something about Charles Woodson. He was like, yeah, I know you. But he was like, oh yeah, I've been waiting for this moment. Now. We finished shaking hands and akbar kind of laughs, and Charles Woodson leaves and you and I were going, dude, what the hell is that all about? No, we talked

about that for a while. I was likely got bar back, what was that all about? Dude? You gotta ask Charles Woodson about that. You gotta ask about that and you never got an answer. Well, but it's it's a great mystery. Yeah it was. I mean, honestly, he does a bunch of media and whatever else. But we were looking at each other for the rest of the night, like we met a lot of fun folks and hanging out at Glazer Peloza like it's a it's a great party and atmosphere, a lot of a lot of good done there. But

that was just odd. Just why was Charles Woodson? What did you say? Did you did your bag on a teammate or buddy his? Did you disrespect the back end of his career? I mean, I don't know. Look, my wife went to Michigan. You think I can I can disparage Michigan anyway and not have her go hey, what was that all about? But the thing that it did is it killed the opportunity of a selfie, absolutely killed it because dam look it's me and Woodson. It looks

he's got his hand round my throat. No, it didn't escalate to that level, but if you had said the wrong thing, it might have. I'm sorry, I just didn't cajole it a little bit more. That's a good word. I like, Conde was nice in there, and I finished with five words. And now I still don't know about

Charles Woodson. So, Charles, if you listen to the podcast, you're looking back your glory days of Michigan on Twitter at how about a fresca if you can tell me you know what happened and why we have this also get it on Twitter. You have any ideas for some new Special Teams podcast you want us to look at some teams from years past? Again Twitter at how about

a fresca? Mike had swollen dumb. This has been our look back in the Michigan Wolverines national champions amid some controversy and a Heisman trophy and a very strange handshake. Before you go, rate and review the show. Whether you're listening on I heart radio, I heart radio apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us a rate, tell us you like it. We will love you forever and ever and ever. U Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio.

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