The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/382426
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? It proved memorable indeed, not only personally for McGee but for the Wolverines overall. The Gary Moeller-coached squad never tasted defeat — the first unbeaten season for the Wolverines since 1973 — in going 9-0-3. They won the Big Ten for the fifth consecutive season, knocking off Washington in a Rose Bowl rematch, 38-31. The ties kept them from na- tional championship consideration, but the group featuring quarter- back Elvis Grbac, tailback Tyrone Wheatley and a crushing offensive line spearheaded by Steve Everitt steamrolled opponents by an aver- age score of 36-14. Oh, but those ties — 17-17 at Notre Dame, triggered by a phan- tom interference call on cornerback Ty Law; 22-22 in a home fumble-fest versus Illinois; and 13-13 at Ohio State, that left Moeller seething over a quagmire of a field he likened to an ice rink. McGee recalls them all, some ruefully. "Every game we tied, we actually should have won," he insisted. "We should have never tied those games in the first place. I don't think about if they'd have had a sudden death or anything. We should have won all three of those games, hands down. "I remember the Illinois game. We all had Vaseline on our arms to cut the wind. Moeller made everybody wipe their arms off at halftime, be- cause we kept fumbling the ball. You think back on things like that. We should have won the games." Along the way in 1992, Cameron proved prophetic. McGee asserted himself throughout, making 38 catches for 467 yards and six touch- downs, and carving himself a niche as a key component in an offense that also featured 1,357 rushing yards by Wheatley and 740 yards worth of catches by lead wideout Derrick Alexander. It was when the Rose Bowl rolled around that McGee stepped into the biggest spotlight, although Wheat- ley kept running in front of it. U-M carried considerable swagger into the showdown with Washington, which had executed a beat-down of the Wolverines in Pasadena just a year earlier. "We got out to the Rose Bowl and we were doing some interviews, and the previous year, Washington had actually beaten us," McGee re- called. "When that happened, Coach Moeller said, 'Yeah, we're going to beat them.' They started asking ev- erybody, and we said, 'Yeah, yeah, we're going to beat them.' "You usually don't say that be- fore the game. I don't know that it was necessarily a guarantee, but it was absolutely a huge vote of confi- dence. We had that confidence per- meating throughout the team, from the coaches on down. When you have that, you go on the field with a lot of confidence and you can win the big games." The Wolverines backed it up, in a defense-optional shootout versus the Huskies. McGee proved a ma- jor weapon, making six catches for