The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 29 The Nittany Lions' meaningless TD with 6:12 to play salvaged nothing, including pride, in the 34-8 obliteration. They'd al- ready been savaged via 120 rushing yards by tailback Chris Howard, 151 yards and two TD tosses by Griese, including a 37-yarder to Woodson, and Michigan's relentless de- fensive assault. Paterno needed no more convincing. "They are as good as anybody, and have as much right to be voted No. 1 as any team in the country," he said afterward. They were, the very next week. For Steele, the notice seemed a bit belated. "We were kind of upset," he said. "We come in there and we're the underdog. We thought, wait a minute. How the hell did this happen? "Going in there, from the start, it was over. You could feel it. … We knew this game was going to get out of hand." It nearly marked the perfect afternoon for a team on the way to a national champion- ship. However, one play knocked perfection on its backside and ended the careers of two players. Anyone who saw it vividly recalls safety Daydrion Taylor's devastating hit on Penn State tight end Bob Stephenson. So do the two involved, neither of whom played an- other down of football. "It was definitely bittersweet," Taylor said of that fateful afternoon. "I started out the season with a goal, and I was still part of the team, just like anyone. Unfortunately for me, I had a play that ended my career. But I was as much a part of the team as before that play happened." He recalled the missed tackle that led to the fury unleashed on the sidelines in State College, and all that followed. "I remember missing a tackle on [Penn State running back] Curtis Enis," Taylor said. "Me, Woodson and Marcus Ray, we had all made a pact. We knew how good Curtis Enis was at that time, and we knew we'd have to be sure tacklers in order to be successful in that game. "It just so happened I missed a tackle on Curtis Enis. I got to the sideline and sure enough, Woodson, Marcus Ray and those guys let me know about the deal before the game. The next opportunity I got was the incident that happened on the sideline." The particularly violent sideline collision left Stephenson with a grade three concus- sion and Taylor with a spine that required surgical fusion in the neck area. "I knew my neck got stiffened up," Taylor said. "I knew it was a pretty fierce lick. I walked off the field. But it wasn't until I got a CAT scan that I knew how severe it was." Both Taylor and Stephenson went on to life after football, doing some coaching and pursuing other professional and private inter- ests. Taylor waves off any need for sympa- thy, noting he celebrated with his teammates just as fervently at season's end. "Yes, I wish I could have finished the sea- son being on the field as a starter," he said. "You can't undo that play, but I was just as happy for the other guys. "You know when you go out there, any given play could be your last play. When we won that national championship, I was just as excited as any starter out there." Finishing The Job Carr often cautioned his teams that "win- ning is about finishing." That proved es- pecially so in 1997, when the going got tougher and the Wolverines kept going. They survived at Wisconsin's Camp Ran- dall Stadium, 26-16, besting the Badgers and a 12-degree wind chill reading, locking up a share of the Big Ten championship. Still, one major regular-season test remained. The Wolverines got used to beating the favored Buckeyes through the '90s, but OSU saw the chance to fire a cannon through Michigan's dreams. Had they known beforehand Michigan would score but one offensive touchdown and be down to their third-string tailback in the showdown, they'd have counted on the upset. Lloyd Carr talks to his team following the Rose Bowl, in which his defense — ranked No. 2 nationally — held eventual No. 2 overall NFL Draft pick Ryan Lead and the nation's No. 1 offense to just 16 points to claim Michigan's latest national title. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN