Football week is here! The boys deliver a lively discussion on the game, their pre- and postgame routines, memories from Desmond Howard's magical 1991 season, the new college football rules and of course, a preview of our week 1 opponent East Carolina. Go Blue!
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Gary Moeller and Lou Holtz Breaking Down ‘The Catch’ (Notre Dame vs Michigan 1991)
Back in 2012, I sat inside the WTKA 1050AM studios with Coach Gary Moeller. We talked about a few different things but primarily we methodically stepped through the headset audio 'The Catch' (recall that the athletic department released the audio in 2011 inside the 'Under the Lights' Notre Dame game program). Here's the raw audio, over 17 minutes, with Ira Weintraub on the audio playback.
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How Coach Mo Schooled the Detroit Lions
Bumping in honor of Coach Mo. Part of my 2012 conversation with former Michigan and Lions head coach Gary Moeller, on his favorite memories at Michigan Stadium, and how he drew on his Michigan days when he took over the Lions.
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A Seventy Burger | This Week in Michigan Football History
This Week In Michigan Football History, as played during the WTKA 1050AM 'Countdown to Kickoff' held November 7, 2020 before the Michigan-Indiana game. Topics: Bob Ufer's passing and the onfield tributes, Bo's disdain for both Illinois (after firing Gary Moeller) and for Illinois's head coach Mike White. For all these reasons and more, Bo and crew dropped 70 on White and the Illini:
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Calling ‘The Catch’
Reposting this based on Twitter love, here’s the audio of Gary Moeller’s headset calling the 4 & 1 play vs. Notre Dame in 1991 that resulted in Desmond Howard’s incredible catch. This was originally posted by the U-M athletic department as part of the Under the Lights game program and collateral. Love it. For a detailed breakdown of this audio, check out my interview with Moeller where we walked through this…slowly…and he explained behind-the-scenes what all this stuff means, and what was going on. This post also includes a bonus: audio from Lou Holtz and his memories of the play via my man John Kryk.
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The Reverse Dimple Rawlings Double Grip Football | Storytime with Sap
[Ed. Here’s another great Bo-era story from the mind of Dr. Sap.] Guest Post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis After Bo Schembechler left U-M to become the president of the Detroit Tigers he met Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley. Finley liked to dabble in the unique as he was the inventor of the high visibility yellow baseball as well as the green and gold tunics the A’s wore in the ‘70s. The two talked about Finley’s new football invention – the reverse dimple football. Its enhanced grip was supposed to improve the accuracy of throws and increase the distance it was kicked. [more on the patent here.] The grip enhancement looked much like a golf ball’s surface and the leather looked something like this: Bo was intrigued and told Finley to go see U-M equipment manager Jon Falk in Ann Arbor…and that’s exactly what he did in the spring of 1990. The two hit it off and Falk agreed to try the new ball that Rawlings now dubbed the “Double Grip Football” with the 1990 Wolverines. Everybody liked it. The quarterbacks liked the grip and felt more accurate throwing it. The receivers liked the tackiness and the kickers felt it sailed longer when booted. Falk wanted to use the new pigskin against Notre Dame to start the 1990 season, but…
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Missing on Pay-dirt
Via the January 14, 1993 Michigan Daily: Indeed, “Payton” considered Michigan along with Florida and his dad’s alma mater Ole Miss before committing to Phil Fulmer at Tennessee right around signing day. Bagging Manning put the Vols on top of most recruiting ratings for 1994, while Gary Moeller’s Michigan crew finished in the top three. Dreisbach was joined by commits Marcus Ray, Sam Sword, Clint Copenhaver, Jay Feely, Chris Floyd, and Jerame Tuman. So how would have history changed had Manning selected Michigan? No idea, but I don’t think there are any regrets with either side. U-M of course took the ‘97 national title, Tennessee netted a Heisman runner-up :) and the BCS crown in ‘98. Related: Hoover Street Rag explored the What If? Manning scenario back in March 2012. Follow MVictors on Twitter HT: Buddy from Stunt3 – thanks for sending this over.
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Gary Moeller Recalls Scouting Bo Jackson
Did you catch the premiere of the latest ESPN 30 for 30 films, this one on Bo Jackson? I sat down with coach Gary Moeller a few weeks ago and he shared this story..thought it was timely: MVictors: Is there an opposing player that you faced while coaching at Michigan that was really special—a guy you really had to gameplan for. Does anybody stand out? Gary Moeller: It’s always hard to pick one guy. There were two times I went to Birmingham, Alabama to scout the Alabama-Auburn game. One time to scout Alabama when we played them in the Hall of Fame Bowl, and and another time, to prepare for the Sugar Bowl when we were to face Auburn. The time we were going to scouting Auburn, this guy gets the ball and he starts to sweep to the left and it’s all bottled up. He turns around, reverses the field—he must have gave 10 or 15 yards—takes off down the other sideline for a touchdown. It was the fastest thing; it was like he was shot out of a gun. He did it twice in the game, about the same distance from about the same spot for two long touchdowns. Bo Jackson. That guy was unbelievable. We were talking to each other, ‘How are we going to stop this…
