The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 29 made such a huge deal about it, that Duffy had beaten Bo and all that …" Brandstatter uttered a quiet curse. "Sorry," he said. "You can tell, after 50 years, it still bothers me." Schembechler's squads beat the Spartans the following eight seasons, and 13 of the next 14. They lost to Michigan State only four times in his 21 campaigns. "I know what Bo did afterward," said Pier- son, who later became a Michigan assistant coach. "He wasn't going to lose that game again. He wasn't going to fool around. He'd emphasize certain games throughout the year, and that one was right at the top of the list. "He beat up on them for quite a few years." "I agree with Jerry completely," Brandstat- ter said. "They got a tap on the shoulder that said, 'Hey guys, this game is really big. Don't forget that this is another one of those rivalry games that can change the color of the season, if you don't win it.'" Dominance Down The Stretch Michigan changed the color of opponents in the four games leading up to the showdown with Ohio State. They went from their natural hue to black and blue, the Wolverines winning the next four by a combined score of 178-22. Dierdorf identified that streak as Schem- bechler's plan becoming reality. The Wolver- ines knew they could run the football, knew they played staunch defense and believed they'd worked harder over the past nine months than anyone in college football. That's no swipe at anyone, Dierdorf cau- tioned. Belief is powerful. "When a team starts believing that, you have a confidence going into a game that we're just going to wear them down," he said. "We're going to wear them out, with our physicality and mental toughness. That's part of surviving the Bo experience. You have that built-in confidence, and that's invaluable. "He never asked us to do anything. He de- manded it. It was his way or the highway." That highway featured Big Ten roadkill the rest of the season. It started with a scare, how- ever. Minnesota fashioned a 9-7 lead over the Wolverines at halftime in the Gophers' den. Brandstatter and the rest braced for a deeply uncomfortable intermission. "We thought when we came into the locker room, we were just going to get ripped, that he was going to absolutely scorch the walls," Brandstatter said. "And he didn't. He said, 'Guys, we're better than them. You know it, and I know it. Do what you're supposed to do. Do what we practiced. If we do what we do, and we don't help them, keep the turnovers from happening and we play our game, we win this thing going away. So don't sit there with your heads down.' "He didn't slap us on the wrist. He gave us a pat on the back, and everybody went, you know, he's right." They went out and outscored the Gophers in the second half, 28-0, before destroying Wisconsin (35-7), Illinois (57-0) and Iowa (51-6) leading up to The Game. "From that point on, we knew what was coming," Brandstatter said. "We were killing people. We were just rolling at that point. "And when Ohio State came in, we knew we could win. We were a confident group. When we left Iowa, we were saying, 'Bring on Ohio State!'" "We almost tore the locker room apart," Dierdorf recalled, regarding the post-Iowa celebration. "Our enthusiasm after the Iowa game was a sight to see. "I'm sure there was a part of Bo that wished he could have snapped his fingers and we were in the locker room, getting ready to take the field against Ohio State. It's not often you see a team that's that ready to play a full seven days before they had to play." Hanlon worried about a too-early emo- tional apex. Schembechler, he recalled, didn't want to hear it. "When we went into that locker room after the game, our kids were higher than high," Hanlon said. "They were singing, saying, 'Beat Ohio State!' They were getting after it like crazy in the locker room. "I said to Bo, 'Let's not peak too soon.' He said, 'You can't get too high for Ohio State.' He just let 'em go. It was quite a picture in that locker room, and I knew right then, we were going to be a pretty good team to go against Ohio State." A Week To Remember Don Eaton played on the freshman team in 1969, making him and his classmates dem- onstration players for the varsity. They wore OSU-shaded jerseys during the practice week, with a two-inch by two-inch number 50 above the OSU player's regular jersey number. As if the Wolverines required a reminder about the 50-14 crusher in '68. "We had been living under the cloud of hu- miliation for 364 days," Dierdorf said. "That 50-14 game was a stinging, humiliating loss in Columbus. I felt bad for the guys that were on that team who were seniors. "That's the end of it. You don't get a chance at redemption. That's what that game was for all of us that were in Columbus — an oppor- tunity to salvage something." Eaton and the freshmen felt that intensity all week long. They also felt the chill during a mid-week snow storm, burying Ann Arbor in 8-10 inches of fluffy, white precipitation. They thought they'd get a day of inside practice. Instead, Schembechler sent out a dozen team managers to buy up all the snow shovels in Ann Arbor. The frosh wielded them, clearing the practice field. "We're in our full pads, and we had to go out and shovel this 10 inches of snow," Eaton All-Big Ten tailback Billy Taylor finished 1969 as the team's leading rusher despite being a sophomore. He ran for 864 yards and seven scores on just 141 attempts (6.1 yards per rush). PHOTO COURTESY BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY