The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW Best Team Of The Decade Jim Harbaugh's 2016 Club — Though Michigan's 2016 squad didn't finish with the best individual record of the decade (it went 10‑3, while Brady Hoke's 2011 crew concluded at 11‑2), it still gets the nod for this category thanks to its dominance throughout the season and what it came oh‑so‑close to accomplishing. Led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight and a defense that finished tied with Alabama as the nation's best, Michigan breezed to a 9‑0 start and a No. 2 ranking in the Associated Press poll before suffering its first loss of the year in a 14‑13 nail‑biter at Iowa Nov. 12. Seven of the Wolverines' first nine victories came by 17 or more points, with the team picking up three particularly impressive tri‑ umphs — a 45‑28 win over eventual Pac‑12 South champion Colorado Sept. 17, a 49‑10 whipping the following week of a Penn State club that wound up winning the Big Ten and a 14‑7 victory over No. 8 Wisconsin Oct. 1. A 30‑27 double‑overtime loss at No. 2 Ohio State Nov. 26 kept Michigan out of both the conference championship and potentially the College Football Playoff, turning what was once thought to be a special season into a second consecutive 10‑3 campaign. "What could have been" has become the lasting narrative for the 2016 Wolverines, who picked up their 10 victories by an aver‑ age of 34.6 points and suffered their three defeats to Iowa, Ohio State and Florida State by a combined five points. Best Individual Game Performance Denard Robinson At Notre Dame In 2010 — Quarterback Denard Robinson put on a clinic during Michigan's thrilling 28‑24 victory at Notre Dame on Sept. 11, 2010, compiling 502 yards of offense by himself. He rushed for 258 yards and threw for 244 more, finding the end zone twice on the ground and once through the air. Robinson's most important touchdown of the day came from two yards out with U‑M trailing 24‑21 and only 27 seconds remaining, putting his Wolverines on top for good. He also set the record for the longest run by any player in the history of Notre Dame Stadium (a venue that opened in 1930), scam‑ pering 87 yards for a score late in the second quarter to give U‑M a 21‑7 lead at halftime. The Fighting Irish had no answers for Robin‑ son all game long, with the sophomore quarter‑ back accounting for 94.3 percent of Michigan's yards that day (502 of the team's 532) and nearly outgaining Notre Dame's entire offense by himself (the Irish finished with 535 yards). The Sept. 11 victory over the Fighting Irish was just the second career start for Robinson and vaulted him into the thick of the Heisman Trophy discussion for much of the 2010 campaign. He eventually finished sixth in the final voting. Most Unbreakable Record Jeremy Gallon's 369 Receiving Yards Against Indiana In 2013 — The 5‑8, 184‑pound wideout's 369 receiving yards in U‑M's wild 63‑47 win over Indiana on Oct. 19, 2013, not only re‑wrote Michigan's receiving records, but nearly all of college football's as well. Gallon shattered the school mark by 123 yards, with Roy Roundtree previously hav‑ ing held the record when he hauled in 246 yards in the Wolverines' 67‑65 triple‑over‑ time victory over Illinois in 2010. Gallon did the entirety of his work against the Hoosiers in regulation, however, finish‑ ing with 14 receptions on 26.4 yards per catch. His 14 grabs were one shy of tying Marquise Walker for the single‑game U‑M record, which occurred twice in 2001 against Washington and Ohio State. He was also just 36 yards away from tying the all‑time college football mark for receiving yards in a single outing, with Louisiana Tech wideout Troy Edwards' 405 yards against Nebraska in 1998 holding the top spot. It's also worth noting that Gallon's to‑ tal was 68 more yards than any other Big Ten player had ever compiled, with the 301 yards that Purdue's Chris Daniels racked up against Michigan State in 1999 having stood as the previous mark. Best Win The 45-14 Smashing Of No. 8 Notre Dame In 2019 — There were several candi‑ dates for this spot (the 14‑7 win over No. 8 Wisconsin in 2016 and the 23‑20 overtime triumph over No. 11 Virginia Tech in the 2012 Sugar Bowl, most notably), but Michi‑ gan's destruction of the Fighting Irish on Oct. 26 last year earned the top spot. The reason this victory was chosen had to do with not only the dominant fashion in which it occurred, but also because of how stellar of a club the Blue and Gold were in 2019. They concluded their season at 11‑2 and suffered their only other loss by six points at then‑No. 3 Georgia Sept. 21, and yet U‑M manhandled them as if they were a MAC foe. The Wolverines outgained Notre Dame 437‑180 on a rainy Saturday night in Ann Arbor, while holding an impressive 303-47 advantage in yards on the ground. Redshirt freshman running back Hassan Haskins racked up a career‑best 149 yards on 20 carries (7.5 per touch), while freshman Zach Charbonnet chipped in another 74 yards and two scores. Harbaugh and company already had the game well in hand at halftime when they led 17‑0, but then blew the contest open by scor‑ ing the first 21 points of the fourth quarter to take a 45‑7 lead with 4:23 remaining. U‑M's obliteration of the No. 8‑ranked Fighting Irish was the school's fourth‑largest margin of victory ever against an Associated Press top‑10 club (the AP poll was intro‑ duced in 1936), and the biggest since a 41‑3 beatdown of No. 5 Texas A&M in 1977. — Austin Fox Michigan Football's Best Of The Decade Quarterback Denard Robinson accounted for 502 yards of total offense and three touchdowns while leading Michigan to a 28-24 victory over Notre Dame at South Bend in 2010. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN