The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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"very high quality (two wins and zero losses) the Bo Era was "high quantity," but low quality (five wins and 12 losses). Bo often said that God must have been trying to keep him humble with his bowl record, and it worked! I had no plan to end this section on a "high note" when I first wrote it, but I would like to share some in- teresting data that I discovered while researching this book. Coach Schem- bechler's "Bowl Game" winning per- centage of only .294 was the lowest of any Michigan coach as of 1989. Fielding Yost, on the other hand, was perfect, having won his only Rose Bowl appearance by a score of 49-0 over Stanford. It would have been in- teresting to see how Mr. Yost would have fared in 10 to 15 more games. Based on his track record, he prob- ably would have won quite a few more bowl games. So comparing Bo and the legendary Yost on bowl game success is a futile effort. However, things get a little more interesting when you look at how both men fared in their "regular- season" bodies of work. Fielding H. "Hurry Up" Yost coached in a total of 203 regular-season games and posted a record of 164 wins, 29 losses and 10 ties in those contests. Glenn E. "Bo" Schembechler led his team for 230 regular-season games and finished with a total of 189 victories, 36 de- feats and five ties. The chart below reveals how the "regular season" numbers worked out for both Michi- gan Legends. Bo didn't win his first 11 games, nor did he go unbeaten in his first 50-plus games, like Yost. What he did do was win at a very high rate for a very long time. Yost coached lon- ger than Bo, but did not coach in as many games because of the Big Ten Conference schedule limits and other factors. When you look at the amaz- ing numbers for both of these mag- nificent coaches, you see that Bo was better, but not by much. The bottom line was that Bo could flat out coach, especially in the regular season. What happened to Bo's teams in December and January certainly mystified him and all the fans of Wol- verine Nation. Once again, I believe that Bo's numbers gave Michigan Fans the "Greatest Era of Wolver- ine Football" based on the extensive number of wins, Big Ten Conference Championships, and everything else that Bo accomplished in Ann Arbor. I hope you learned something from this section. SUMMARY So, Bo did a pretty good job for the second-choice guy, don't you think? He did everything he could to return Michigan Football to the conversa- tion about the best football programs in the country and by every m e a s u r e a b l e category (ok — except bowl w i n s a n d a BO VS. FIELDING YOST, REGULAR SEASON Coach Games Won Lost Tied B10 Titles Win % Yost 203 164 29 10 10 .8325 Bo 230 189 36 5 13 .8326