The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2025 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 29 Meanwhile, Messner absorbed a differ- ent sort of punishment. "A tight end came back and popped me something fierce," explained Mess- ner. "The trainer came out and pulled me toward the sideline, because I didn't know which way to go. I was just standing there, like a lost puppy. "The days have changed. Then, a little smelling salts and the fog cleared from the eyes, and I said, 'I've got to get back out there.' It's the in- tensity and the hard-hitting nature of that game. Somebody is going to put a hit on you from somewhere. Nothing has changed. It's still like that today." One foe remained in the Fiesta Bowl. Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers, looking more like CornHulkers, flexed on a relatively undersized Michigan squad early in the game. "They were at their steroid best," Morris said. "But these were two of the best strength and condition- ing coaches in college football, go- ing against one another. Drug-free Michigan versus steroid Nebraska. That's the way it was, in our heads. We had to do this for Mike Gittleson. This wasn't Bo versus Osborne. This was Gittleson versus his counterpart, over at Nebraska." For 30 minutes, the game was almost all Cornhuskers. They took a 14-3 lead into the halftime locker room, and Michigan needed to answer. They did, running o f f a 24 - 0 t h i rd - quarter assault. Two fumble recoveries by the Michigan defense and a blocked punt deep in Nebraska ter- ritory turned the contest all around, the Wolverines hanging on for a 27-23 vic- tory. " I t's p ro ba b ly o n e o f t h e g rea t - est games that I had," said Morris, who slashed through for 156 yards on 22 tries and secured Offensive MVP honors. "The offensive line came alive. [Offen- sive line coach Elliott] Uzelac got into them, Bo got into them, and said, 'We're going to run this ball. Defense, get us the ball back.' And they got us the ball, every time, on our side of the 50. We got the ball back three straight times. It didn't matter if we went right or left. It was there. I got into a zone. Holes were bigger. Receivers were blocking, and it opened up." "We were getting our tails handed to us that first half," Messner recalled. "We had a very, very significant and inspira- tional talking to by Bo in the locker room at halftime. Momentum is such a power- ful thing. "You go into the locker room leading at halftime, and you're overconfident. The other team gets jacked up like we did. "You come out and that wave of mo- mentum is so powerful, if you're on the wrong end of it, there's no stopping it. That's what happened in that game. We came out in the second half, full of piss and vinegar, and ready to play football. We hit them every which way you could hit them. "I personally had two fumble recover- ies in that game. We were just knocking the hell out of them. "We had some great plays and just dominated them in the second half." The Wolverines dominated almost all season long. They wound up with two first-team All-Americans in defensive tackle Mike Hammerstein and cornerback Brad Cochran, along with Hammer- stein, Cochran, Messner and line- backer Mike Mallory on the first-team All-Big Ten squad. They received a school-record 1,976 passing yards from Harbaugh and 1,030 yards rush- ing from Morris, the first U-M sopho- more to surpass the century mark. They earned the No. 2 ranking in the final Associated Press and Coaches' Polls. Best of all for the players, they earned Schembechler a coveted bowl win, and The Team, The Team, The Team its respect back. "Bo got one of his very elusive bowl victories. To see the joy in him, af- ter coming off getting his tail kicked in bowls all the time, was a wonder- ful, wonderful experience," Messner said. "We could give that to Bo. Over the next three years, we only lost one bowl game. We won three of four in my tenure there. " H e e ve n c o m - mented after the Fi- esta Bowl, 'This is what it feels like? I kind of like it.'" " T h e to n e wa s , we're Michigan again," Morris assured. "We can raise our heads up a little bit. You could see Bo Schembechler and [assistant] Alex Agase smoking a cigar, with Clay Miller, a senior that year. I'm still young, and I'm just looking around, amazed. "I was proud to be a part of this team and contribute a bit. We beat Ohio State, and we did something they usually didn't do on Jan. 1. Bo Schembechler had a bowl victory. "That was kind of cool. You had to help the old coach out." "More than anything," Messner con- cluded, "it's the camaraderie and the brotherhood that will stick with me for- ever." ❑ Schembechler and a young Mark Messner, who earned All-Big Ten honors as a redshirt freshman along with Mike Hammerstein (not pictured). Michigan's defense shut out three opponents and allowed a mere 6.8 points per game in the regular season. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN "Bo got one of his very elusive bowl victories. To see the joy in him, after coming off getting his tail kicked in bowls all the time, was a wonderful, wonderful experience. We could give that to Bo. Over the next three years, we only lost one bowl game." DEFENSIVE TACKLE MARK MESSNER, A REDSHIRT FRESHMAN AND FIRST-YEAR STARTER IN 1985