The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2020 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS FIVE YEARS AGO, 2015: Michi- gan's defense beat back an attempted game-winning run on a quarterback sneak, hanging on to beat Minnesota 29-26. The Wolverines faced a wild one on Halloween at TCF Bank Sta- dium. They built a 14-6 lead on Joe Kerridge's one-yard touchdown run and Jehu Chesson's 13-yard TD re- ception from quarterback Jake Ru- dock. But the Gophers scored twice be- fore the half, Ryan Santoso's 32-yard field goal as the clock hit 00:00 put- ting the home team up at intermis- sion, 16-14. The lead changed three m o re t i m e s a f t e r t h e break, Chesson's 12-yard touchdown catch giving the Wolverines a 29-26 ad- vantage with 4:57 remain- ing. Minnesota responded with a 74-yard drive to put itself on Michigan's 1-yard line with two sec- onds remaining in the game. T h e G o p h e r s o p t e d to go for the win, rather than sending the contest to overtime with a field goal. They relied on 6-3, 235-pound quarterback Mitch Leidner to power the ball in behind a surg- ing offensive line. The Wolverines' defense stonewalled them, allow- ing Jim Harbaugh's team to escape with a victory on its way to a 10-3 record in the coach's debut U-M campaign. Interim Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys, stand- ing in for Jerry Kill — who retired three days earlier — stood by the decision to go for the kill. "I just think in those sit- uations you've got to be able to get half a yard," Claeys insisted. "If it's outside the 1-yard line, hey, we'll kick it and move on. But in that situation, I felt like we could get it." 10 YEARS AGO, 2010: Denard Robinson scored on a four-yard sprint with just 17 seconds remain- ing to snap a shootout deadlock and give Michigan a 42-35 win at Indiana Oct. 2. The teams were never more than a touchdown apart as they raced up and down the field in Bloomington. The Hoosiers led only once, in the opening six minutes, but tied the game up at 14-14, 21-21, 28-28 and finally 35-35 on Ben Chappell's 19- yard touchdown pass to Darius Wil- lis with only 1:15 remaining. Robinson and Michigan's offense went to work, driving 73 yards in only five plays and 58 seconds for the clincher. Robinson fired a 42-yard pass to Junior Hemingway, setting up the game-winner at the Hoosiers' 4. The Michigan quarterback then hit paydirt himself, capping a day featuring 494 yards of total offense from him. The total fell just eight yards shy of the school-record 502 Robinson hung on Notre Dame ear- lier in the year. He rushed 19 times for 217 yards and two touchdowns while throw- ing for a career-high 277 yards and three scores. "He's a great athlete," Indiana head coach Bill Lynch said. "He's one of those guys that's just different. He's got speed. He's got aware- ness. He's got instincts and he's a very, very good passer as well. "You can see it on film getting ready for him, but on the field you sense the same thing. Some athletes are just different. They have not only talent, but competitiveness and a sense of how to play the game." 25 YEARS AGO, 1995: Lloyd Carr 's Wolverines rolled to a 52-17 home win over Minnesota Oct. 28, keeping the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor. Quarterback Brian Gri- ese tied a school record with four touchdown passes, while tailback Tshimanga Biakabutuka rushed for two more. Griese was starting only his fourth game, after Scott Dreisbach broke his thumb earlier in the year. Amani Toomer made touchdown grabs of 75 and 52 yards, on his way to 177 yards on just five c a t c h e s . B i a k a b u t u k a piled up 196 yards on 19 carries, his fifth time top- ping 100 yards rushing on the season. — John Borton THIS MONTH IN MICHIGAN ATHLETICS HISTORY Quarterback Denard Robinson torched Indiana for five scores (three passing, two rushing) and 494 yards of total offense in a 42-35 win Oct. 2, 2010. The latter total fell just eight yards shy of the school-record 502 Robinson hung on Notre Dame earlier in the season. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY