The Wolverine

2018 Michigan Football Preview

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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THE WOLVERINE 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 31 fense playing an extraordinary football game, and we won that game because we won the special teams battle with Barry Pierson and the punt return game. "You can never fully appreciate our de- fense, how well they played and how much they throttled that Ohio State offense." "It shouldn't have been as close as it was," Hanlon said. "We had some chances to score and didn't do it. "But there were some great efforts. Thom Darden made some great plays on defense. Garvie Craw was a workhorse running the football. It was a great team effort." It also brought Schembechler's right-hand man out of the press box. "I very seldom ever go down on the field," Hanlon said. "I was in the press box, and in the last two minutes of the game, I told Bo, 'You're on your own. I'm coming down.' I went down on the field to be a part of that celebration. It was something extra special. "It was one of the greatest highlights of my coaching career, to see those kids culminate a season like that, with the victory over Ohio State." A Lost Rose Bowl, A Secured Legacy Michigan's hard-earned trip to Pasadena to take on USC in the Rose Bowl turned out disastrously. Schembechler suffered a heart attack the night before the game, and players didn't learn about it until shortly before they boarded busses to head for the stadium. The shell-shocked Wolverines' 10-3 loss, in retrospect, was predictable. Ask Dierdorf his memories of the game, and he flatly states: "I have none." Oh, he recalls Coach Young telling the team Bo was in the hospital, had suffered a heart attack and wasn't in good shape. Not much after. "From that moment on, it's pretty much a blur," Dierdorf said. "They had to herd us onto the bus. Everyone was in tears. It was a complete shock. "The game didn't matter to us. The only thing that mattered to us was that Bo was in the hospital, and we didn't know if we were going to see him again." Brandstatter pointed out Michigan's over- work leading up to the game and Doughty's knee injury in practice as contributing fac- tors. But at the core of it, Schembechler's absence proved too much to overcome. "We got to where we were because that guy pushed us," Brandstatter said. "We knew that. We may not have wanted to admit it. For him not to be there on that sideline, there was a huge hole in that team, psychologically." Despite that major disappointment, Michi- gan football had indeed changed, for the next four decades. In that period Schembechler and coaching disciples Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr accounted for 21 Big Ten titles and one national championship. The '69 season, and those involved, changed the game at the corner of Stadium and Main. Player-wise, Hanlon noted: "It started with our captain, Jimmy Mandich. He was a heck of a football player. He wasn't a real boister- ous guy, but he could get into your face if he needed to. I thought his job as a captain was one of the better jobs we ever had here at Michigan. "It was such a change for everyone. For everybody to buy in, he had to be the first one to do it. He got to the rest of the se- niors, and that junior class also had some really good kids in it, who were leaders and good athletes. He was able to get two groups, the seniors and juniors, to bring along the younger kids. "Those seniors were subject to a lot of change. A lot of pressure was put on them to be the leaders. It was a tremendous situation for us, to have Jimmy Mandich and those seniors to be part of the group." "We were the start of the Schembechler era," Pierson added. "We were all close, and Bo made us close. He's a special guy. You could have 400 guys there, and he'd know them all. He was super." So was his impact. Hayes once stood be- fore a room filled with hundreds of former Ohio State players and coaches, including Schembechler. Hayes noted his '69 squad was his greatest ever, glaring multiple times at his long-ago apprentice. Dierdorf recalled Schembechler's famous story on the incident: "Bo says, 'Woody takes his fist, bangs the podium, and goes g--damn you Bo!' Bo thought that was one of the great moments of his life." The All-American engaged Schembechler in many talks over the years. The coaching icon's words about the '69 squad will always stay with him. Dierdorf recalls them this way: People might say I'm playing favorites, but you have to understand something. Not a single player on that team was one of my recruits. Every one of you came to Michigan to play for Bump Elliott. And when I recruited a player, and he came to Michigan to play for me, he knew what he was getting into. He knew what the deal was before he got there. You guys didn't. You had a choice to make. Every guy who survived and stayed on that '69 team, had a choice to make. That choice was whether or not you were going to buy into my program. You were going to become a different person, because I was asking you to. I've always had an appreciation for you guys, because you didn't have to do it. You could have quit. You could have gone behind my back. I always was thankful for the '69 guys, who bought into my program. Michigan fans of all ages echo that grate- ful praise. "I don't think anyone can argue that be- cause of that win over Ohio State, because of the arrival of Bo Schembechler, that season and that game kick-started the modern era of Michigan football," Dierdorf said. "Bo's arrival changed everything. From the sellouts, to the importance of what he accom- plished over the next 20 years … everything was different after 1969." ❏ Senior cornerback Barry Pierson picked off three passes and returned a punt 60 yards to Ohio State's 3-yard line in the victory for Schembechler over his former coach and mentor, Woody Hayes. PHOTO COURTESY BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY

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