With Tim Tebow winning this year’s Heisman, it’ll mark the fourth straight winner of the top college prize will have played against the Wolverines at some point in their career. And over the past 14 seasons, eight of the winners have played either with (Woodson) or against Michigan, most of them in the same season. Here’s the breakdown: During this span Michigan is 2-2 against the team fielding the Heisman winner of that season. The Wolverines defeated Eddie George’s Buckeyes and Ron Dayne’s Badgers and lost on ‘The Catch’ to Rashaan Salaam’s Buffs and of course last year to Troy Smith. The rubber match will be at the Capital One bowl this year.
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An M Man is Hit (Man)
Did you catch the news that David Harris made a couple plays for the Jets this weekend? Yep, in his first start of his career Harris rung up 17 tackles in week 8 and TWENTY-FOUR (!) tackles last week against the Skins. He’s been hailed as “Harris The Hit Man” by the New York Post. He’s fourth in the AFC in tackles right now, one more than Ray Freakin’ Lewis. This despite not starting until a couple weeks ago – WOW. Along with Chuck Woodson’s big day and the other quarterback who helped his team win their 8th straight by tossing two fourth quarter TD passes all the while playing for a coach wearing a sweatshirt, it was a big day for former M men in the NFL.
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Is Hart Really #1? How about Willie Heston?
Art director: “Wolf. Wolverine. Close enough. Just print it.” Just about the only good to come out of Saturday’s brutal game was of course Hart’s record. During the EMU broadcast M radio play-by-play voice Frank Beckmann suggested that Mike Hart may have some work to do to truly catch the Michigan man with the most rushing yards. That man? Willie Heston, the 2 time All-American that Fielding Yost convinced to come with him to Michigan from California. There’s no doubt Heston put up ridiculous numbers during Yost’s Point-a-Minute reign of terror. While they didn’t keep detailed individual statistics back then, we do know he scored a jaw dropping 72 touchdowns. Beckmann offered that by some estimates Heston tallyed over 7,300 rushing yards. That’d leave Hart way out of reach of Heston if true. Of course it was a different game at the turn of the 20th century. Teams didn’t pass and a durable back like Heston ended up running the ball on just about every play. Was Heston the greatest back ever? Again, there’s really no way to know. Certainly Hart, Harmon and Heston are in the conversation. I found a quote from a Time magazine on Harmon where Yost reminded folks of his great runner’s place in Michigan history: Surging out of the stadium, a majority of the 54,000…
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Team Survey Results
The Ann Arbor News posted the results of its annual team survey. They asked 18 players to answer a variety of questions and here are a few notes: Q. Will Lloyd Carr retire after this season? Don’t know – 11 votes No – 7 votes. Q: Best player in the Big Ten outside U-M (last year Troy Smith ran away with this): P.J. Hill (Wisconsin) – 4 votes James Laurenitis (Ohio State) – 2 votes Brian Hoyer (Mich State) – 1 vote Javon Ringer (Mich State) – 1 vote Q: What are you looking forward to most about the stadium renovation: More noise – 5 votes “Nothing” – 2 votes Q: Who’s the hardest hitter? John Thompson – 7.5 votes Q: Who should win the Heisman? Mike Hart – 9 votes Chad Henne – 1 vote Hart or Henne – 7 votes Chris Graham – voted for himself saying “I’m going to be a history-maker.”
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Desmond Howard’s Holiday Bowl
UPDATE 12/22: This really isn’t going away. The nerd-o-sphere is all over Howard (rightly so). Check out these comments from one of the top blogs, Deadspin
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The Drunk and Old 98
Here’s a great moment of Michigan Football lore. Were you aware of the showdown between Wolverine legend and Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon and a drunken fan during Michigan’s game at Cal back in 1940. I recently purchased this page out of Life magazine on eBay for $6.50 and it depicts the scene. Additional research yielded some great quotes from the fan, enjoy: There are so many great things about this incident. The guy is just a real classic. After watching this thing and picturing Brennan giving the interview for Life magazine, you end up wishing he actually did bring Harmon down. I love that Harmon had to make a little move and apply a stiff arm to shed the pickled Brennan. The beauty of it is that Brennan, in his mind, feels like he actually did tackle Harmon, first saying he almost did, then he changes his tune by saying no Cal player tackled #98 all day but “I did.” This guy is a national treasure. I tracked down some more info on the game here, turns out Harmon called it a day before the first half even ended. The fact that Life took the pains to put this pictorial together is great as well [a 1940s version of YouTube], and their caption writer deserves major props, “..Brennan sinks…
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Mike Hart’s Decreasing Heisman Stock
Has anyone noticed that Mike Hart's has suddenly dropped on the Heisman chase lists around the internet? I'm not saying that he should get any consideration to win - that of course is going to Troy Smith - but I was hoping the guy cracked the Top 4 and got the trip to New York.
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The Pick: Woodson’s Interception vs. MSU
Here’s Charles Woodson’s epic interception for the Michigan Wolverines. The interception helped the Maize & Blue defeat Michigan State in 1997 on that road at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. Woodson looks like he is reaching at least 11 feet into the air, probably a little higher. For those who need a refresher course, Woodson ripped that ball out of the air, secured it, and landed in bounds for the turnover. Later that year Michigan won the 1997 national championship in the Rose Bowl and Chuck Woodson won the Heisman Trophy: college football’s most prestigious individual honor. Woodson went on to leave college after that season (as a junior) and entered the NFL draft. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders and has made a few trips to the Pro Bowl.
