The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/998618
THE WOLVERINE 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 27 to run all the way around the concourse of Crisler Arena, over and over, timed and all," he recalled. "I was not much on distance running. I hated it. I remember the running more than anything else." Everybody hated something. However, most didn't hate it enough to pack their bags and move on. At the same time, more than two dozen prospective 1969 Wolverines did walk away. They decided the price to pay was just too high. Brandstatter recalled: "There were guys who said, 'This is stupid. This is nuts. Why am I doing this? I'm supposed to be a college student. I'm not supposed to be this maniacal physical specimen who is running up and down stadium stairs, beating on each other.' "At that point, a lot of guys said, 'Maybe I ought to seek my future elsewhere.'" "I wasn't keeping score on how many guys left," Dierdorf added. "And there were times I'd see some guy leaving, going, 'Man, that's not all that bad of an idea.' "After a while, it became kind of a running joke. I would wonder how many guys are go- ing to quit today." "These guys would disappear," Pierson ob- served. "We never really did know why. But the winter workouts were tough. He was try- ing to get a point across." He did, and things didn't get easier when winter conditioning moved into spring foot- ball. Schembechler never coached "from above," like Brandstatter recalled Elliott doing. No, the teaching — and the commentary — came from point-blank range. "Bo Schembechler was right in the middle of it," Brandstatter noted. "He was right on the field. He was with you. He would be at every drill, offensively and defensively, at some point or another. He would be offering encouragement, or he would say, 'You can't play! What am I doing with you?!' He would work with everybody and motivate everybody in a way he thought was appropriate. "He was down there in the trenches, which is something that none of us, through Bump's years, had seen." Pierson loved the spring interplay between offense and defense. He knew Schembechler came in as an offensive strategist, installing his bruising rushing game. He also knew the Wolverines featured more than a little talent on the defensive side of the football. They were encouraged to show it. "Guys talk about how hard it was," Pierson said. "I loved every minute of it. But there was no fooling around. It was a very serious atmo- sphere. The defense would fight against the offense, and Bo was on the offensive side, so he would take the offensive side, but nobody really cared. "The defensive coaches would just egg us on. They'd like to make Bo mad, and we did. It was pretty wild, but we all had a good feel- ing about it." Meanwhile, Michigan's offensive line — including Dierdorf and fellow future College Football Hall of Famer Reggie McKenzie — was getting taken to a higher level. "The first thing I remember was Jerry Han- lon and how he taught us how he wanted us to block," Dierdorf explained. "He introduced us to the cages, the metal structure he'd built out of steel. You had to come out low, or you'd hit your head on the crossbar. "It taught to you come off the ball at a cer- tain angle. He also put a 2-by-12 board on the ground. You had to block someone, live, with that board between your legs, because it taught you not to get too narrow of a stance. "If your stance got too narrow, you lost your power. But if your stance got too narrow with that board, you just slipped and fell flat on your face. "It was a scrimmage every day, but it was the beginning of being taught how to drive block by the greatest teacher in the history of offensive line play, Jerry Hanlon." Hanlon, meanwhile, knew something spe- cial began to coalesce on the practice fields that spring. "When we came here, we worked those kids pretty hard before we ever went on the football field," he said. "We had a pretty good idea as to what their attitudes were. When you put the pads on, though, it's altogether different. "When you put pads on, you see who not only has that attitude but that toughness. All of a sudden, you see who has the ability to be the players you want them to be." By the end of spring ball, everybody saw. "I used to read about Bear Bryant, when he was at Texas A&M, and I got to know Gene Stallings, when he was coach at Alabama," Dierdorf recalled. "He was also the coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, but not when I played. "He tells about the legendary stories of the camps Bryant had. I'm thinking to myself it couldn't have been any more difficult than what we went through. "Bo Schembechler and that staff wanted to know to which guys the game of football was important. If it wasn't really important to you, you had a reason to leave — and a lot of guys left." Off And Running Those who stayed were certainly ready to be champions, and not just because a new staff thinned the herd and herded those thinned. The '69 crew featured performers galore. Dierdorf proudly points out that team fea- tured four College Football Hall of Fame play- ers, as well as future NFL Pro Bowlers and Super Bowl champions. "Some people think it was a fluke that we beat Ohio State," he scoffed. "I guarantee none of us think it was a fluke." "We had [tight end Jim] Mandich and [safety Tom] Curtis and myself and Reggie McKenzie [the four Hall of Famers]. Just go down the line — [running back] Billy Taylor and [quarterback] Don Moorhead and [safety] Thom Darden, [defensive back] Randy Lo- All-American tight end Jim Mandich was the 1969 team's captain and most valuable player. PHOTO COURTESY BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY