The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/279958
M ichigan fans are convinced. So, too, are Nebraska fans. Had the Wolverines and Cornhuskers met up in the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl or the Sugar Bowl at the con- clusion of the 1997 season, there would not have been a split national title. The Maize and Blue would have slowed down the one-trick pony that was Nebraska's option offense. Or is it that NU would have been able to outscore a U-M offense that averaged only 26.8 points per game? The answer largely depends on where one calls home: Ann Arbor or Lincoln. Unfortunately, two proud pro- grams were not afforded the op- portunity to settle their grand argu- ment, which came one year before the creation of the Bowl Champion- ship Series. Thus, Michigan played Washington State in the Rose Bowl, and Nebraska met Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. Both teams won, and thanks to some successful lobbying from NU head coach Tom Osborne, who announced his retirement from a storied career, the Huskers jumped the Wolverines in the final coaches' poll; Michigan retained its No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press top 25. Almost 20 years after the split championship, former U-M head coach Lloyd Carr admitted in a recent interview with Detroit NBC affiliate's Bernie Smilowitz that the decision by his fellow coaches irks him. "I got a phone call the day after Nebraska played Tennessee in the Orange Bowl — I had stayed in Los Angeles for recruiting — and that call said: 'Coach you just won the national championship from the Associated Press.' And I knew, based on what we had done, I fully expected to win the coaches' vote," Carr relayed in the interview. "But it was explained to me that we had lost, and the way the balloting ended up, one coach voted us fourth or two coaches voted us third. "I didn't tell the team that; I didn't MAIZE N' VIEW MICHAEL SPATH 1997 Myth Debunked Former U-M head coach Lloyd Carr (right) recently admitted he is still bothered by the fact some of his peers elevated Nebraska past the Wolverines in the final coaches' poll of the '97 season. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN