The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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30 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW Only it didn't play out that way. Michi- gan's 20-14 survival proved a testament to the Wolverines' defensive mettle, the team's overall mental toughness and Woodson's jaw- dropping ability to make plays. "Jon Jansen, I can remember wondering how he stayed in the game," Carr marveled. "He had a bad ankle that was still a problem a month later when we played in the Rose Bowl. He was hurt, [Center Zach] Adami was banged up, and [tailback] Clarence Williams hurt his hamstring. "Then early in the first quarter, Chris How- ard — who I think was one of the more under- rated running backs in the country that year — got hit and was injured. He really took a shot, and he was out. "So we're playing with a true freshman [Anthony Thomas], who had really played an important role, but he'd never been in an Ohio State game before." "That was one of the most physical games I've ever played in," Jansen acknowledged. "That includes my 12 years in the NFL. That was a backyard brawl. "One play you'd be hitting them in the mouth. The next play they'd hit you in the mouth. It was a fistfight for 60 minutes. There were guys that were going to be going out of the game." Thomas bulled in from a yard out to give Michigan a 7-0 lead at 6:22 of the second quarter. Woodson then likely sewed up the Heisman three minutes later, taking an Ohio State punt, juking right, cutting back left and racing down the eastern sideline at Michigan Stadium on a 78-yard touchdown sprint. He considered doing the Heisman pose, like Desmond Howard in 1991, but never got the chance. Jubilant teammates buried him in a pile in the south end zone, the Wolverines taking a 13-0 lead into the halftime locker room. "I've been asking the coaches to run that wall left all season," Woodson said. "Finally, they gave it to me. The whole team did a great job of blocking downfield. The punter was the last guy who had a chance, and somebody got a great block on him. I almost ran out of gas — I locked up." Following cornerback Andre Weathers' 43- yard interception return touchdown early in the third quarter, it looked like the Wolverines might have the game locked up. Not so, when beleaguered OSU quarterback Joe Germaine (5-of-17 passing for 84 yards) unloaded a 56-yard TD bomb to David Boston late in the third quarter, and the Buckeyes cashed in again early in the fourth. Once again, Michigan's defense wasn't going to allow a comeback. It put withering pressure on Germaine, aided by a Michigan Stadium throng that shook the place over the closing moments. "The most exciting five minutes I experi- enced in coaching was the last five minutes of that game," Carr said. "You talk about a crowd. It was unbelievable, what they did, how they helped us." Only the Rose Bowl, and a high-octane Washington State offense, remained. Carr switched things up, taking his team out early (Dec. 20) for a Jan. 1 bowl game. They spent the first several days at Califor- nia's Dana Point, devising ways of their own to attack on offense. "We had not thrown the ball deep much, and we had not had much success throwing the ball deep," Carr mentioned. "One of the things we stressed out there was that we felt like we'd need some big plays. "Howard still wasn't healthy. Williams still wasn't healthy. It wasn't like we were at full tilt in our running game." Streets got the word: be ready. "The coaches were saying they were prob- ably going to play lot of man-to-man, and gang up to stop the run," he recalled. "We ran the ball so well, and you knew they were going to try to take away the tight end, Tu- man, because he had such a big year. "They said we were going to get a lot of opportunities, one-on-one. Try to take ad- vantage of it." WSU took advantage of the Wolverines early on, using four- and five-wide sets to relentlessly attack. Quarterback Ryan Leaf fired a 15-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter, then drove the Cougars to the U-M 12 early in the second. Eying a potentially devastating 14-0 lead, Leaf rolled out and actually tried to throw a ball away, out of the end zone. But the pass fluttered, and the newly crowned Heisman winner soared once again, picking off the pass at the apex of his leap and giving the Wolverines life. "Woodson's interception down there, when they were up 7-0, was one of the big- gest plays of the season," Carr assured. The Wolverines needed to do more than fend off the pass-happy WSU offense. They needed some big plays — and got them, just as promised. Griese fired a 53-yard bomb to tie the game midway through the second quarter. "We throw the takeoff to Streets, and Brian throws a perfect pass," Carr recalled. "Streets beats his man, and bang, it's tied up." The Cougars went up, 13-7, midway in the third quarter, but Griese and Streets con- nected again, this time for 58 yards, giving the Wolverines a tenuous advantage. Griese finished off Michigan's scoring with a 23- yard TD pass to Tuman, and Michigan held off the Cougars through a furious finish. "The last five minutes of that game were just as exciting as the Ohio State game," Carr said. "In that five minutes, Brian Griese was sensational. I don't know how many minutes we used off the clock." "Those last minutes of those last two games, they never leave you. Those were the great memories, because of all the things these kids went through — the adversity, losing four games, taking all the things that come with not measuring up with what the Michigan tradition is. It was great standing down on that field, knowing we had done something special." HEAD COACH LLOYD CARR Junior Tai Streets only had 476 yards and six touchdowns through the air in 1997, but he torched Washington State for 127 yards and two scores in the Rose Bowl. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN