FootballSaturday, September 17, 2016
6
where they were and why did this
happen. He was livid. It was a bad
locker room.”
Later, Falk went to the visiting
coaches’ locker room to see Colorado
coach Bill McCartney, who was an
assistant at Michigan before he took
the Colorado job.
Falk: “I went in to see him after the
game. Of course, Bill McCartney is a
really religious guy. Very religious.
And I walked into the coaches’ locker
room after the game, and I said, ‘Well
Bill, congratulations, but that was a
really tough loss
for us.’ And Bill
looked at me and he
says, ‘Well Jon, you
know, the Lord was
with us today.’ And
I looked back at
him and said, ‘The
Lord was with you
today?
Bill,
that
was nothing but a
long pass.’ That’s just the way it went
right there.”
Morrison: “My wife now, my
girlfriend at the time, as a lot of
people tend to do, they leave games
early. She had no idea that we lost
the game. I saw her back at the
apartment, I came right home, and
I think I got a ‘Congratulations.’
She obviously didn’t know what
happened in the game.”
***
‘It’s a lifetime thing’
After one of the wildest finishes in
college football history, the Wolverines
still had eight more regular-season
games to play. They fell to No. 7 in the
poll, behind the fifth-ranked Buffaloes.
They still had a chance for a Big Ten
championship, but moving on from
the devastating loss proved to be an
arduous task.
Morrison: “I don’t know if we
did, I’ll be honest. You go back and
you say, we played this Notre Dame
team and we beat them in the last
second, and probably riding as high
as a team could have at the time.
We’re moving up in the ranks, we’re
going to play this team that in our
minds, we had them beat. But that
only goes so far. Obviously you gotta
finish the job.”
Moeller,
in
the
following
Tuesday’s edition of the Daily:
“You never get over it. You’re not
supposed to. It’s a lifetime thing.”
Falk:
“That
was
such
a
disheartening game that it just took
an awful lot out of our football team
for the rest of the year.”
Moeller: “Everything in sports
doesn’t come out your way, and
sometimes you’ve got to live with the
tough ones, and not let it conflict with
your growing in the next month or
the next two years or whatever. You
gotta continue to grow and continue
to want to do well.”
Without the Hail Mary, Michigan
would have finished with its first 3-0
non-conference record since 1986,
preparing to take the next step beyond
a Big Ten championship.
Rosenberg:
“So
that
Hail
Mary changed the story from a
breakthrough moment to one of the
worst in the team’s history.”
Guynes: “That game screwed our
season up, honestly. We won a lot
of games still, but I think that game
put a funk on us as a team and it was
such a tough week
afterward because
that’s all you saw.
So obviously being
an
athlete,
you
get home, you’re
watching
ESPN,
and that’s all they
keep
showing.
You’re
just
like,
‘Dude, let’s move
on to something else.’ That funk
lingered over that Michigan football
team for that season.”
Rosenberg: “If they had just held
on and won that, people would have
said, ‘Is this the best team in the
country?’ Because they would have
accomplished more than anyone
else. Now, you could argue that these
things kind of even out — I mean,
they barely won one the week before,
and they lost that one — but to lose
one like that, it was in the stadium, it
was silence.”
In
the
following
two
weeks,
Michigan beat Iowa and Michigan
State but then welcomed No. 3 Penn
State to Ann Arbor. Still reeling from
the Colorado game, the Wolverines
lost a close one, 31-24, and the Nittany
Lions finished undefeated to win the
Big Ten.
Morrison: “We played Penn State,
which had a fantastic offense that
year, probably one of the better ones
ever, and we needed a stop late, and
we didn’t get it. I can’t help but think
we just didn’t have a lot of confidence
in our ability as a team for finishing.
You can hide that, fake it all you want,
but I still think it had something to
do with the way (we lost). I think we
were a better team than an 8-4 team,
I really do.”
Michigan’s last two losses came
against Wisconsin and Ohio State, and
the Wolverines finished 8-4 by beating
Colorado State in the Holiday Bowl.
But the two teams that beat them by
a touchdown or less — 12-0 Penn State
and 11-1 Colorado — ended up at Nos. 2
and 3 in the polls, respectively.
The Buffaloes’ only loss came on
Oct. 29 against eventual national
champion Nebraska. The following
spring, both teams proved their talent
in the NFL Draft, where Colorado
had a whopping 10 players selected —
including Westbrook and Salaam in
the first round — and Michigan had
five. Wheatley, Law and offensive
tackle Trezelle Jenkins were all first-
rounders. The miraculous play that
connected the teams in college followed
them for years.
Morrison:
“Ironically
enough,
when I played professionally in
Indianapolis two years later, my
roommate was from Colorado. He
was an offensive lineman. We were
sitting on the couch that night, and
he gets his rookie card or baseball
card delivered to the house, his first
one, and he starts reading the back.
And it says something to the effect
of ‘Helped Colorado beat Michigan
on a last-second Hail Mary pass by
leveling hard-charging linebacker
Steve Morrison.’ I swear to God, it’s
on his card. Couldn’t make this stuff
up. And I’m like, ‘You had somebody
make this. This can’t happen. We’re
roommates now.’ That was probably
one of the first times I got a chance
to actually laugh about it and actually
put it behind you.”
Most of those involved with the
game 22 years ago did so, but all of
them are still left with the sour taste of
a life-changing defeat.
Tyrone
Wheatley,
running
back, 1991-1994: “I was there and I
was on the sidelines and I thought
we had the game won. And to have a
Detroit native come in the freaking
building and steal one from us and
go back to Colorado wasn’t a great
feel. Just certain things you kind
of carry with you and it sticks with
you, and I didn’t play that much in
that game. You’re just like, ‘Man,
if I was healthy, maybe could have
helped a little bit.’ It’s still a bad
feeling. I think that was also a year
that we had national contention
aspirations and things of that such,
so just a bad taste.”
Morrison: “God bless the Big Ten
Network, but when that came out,
that game was on. And people would
call, ‘Hey, you’re on TV right now!
And I’m like, ‘Yeah,
OK. It’s either the
Michigan
State
game
when
we
lost — that, the
Penn State game
where we lost or
the Colorado game.
Which one is it?
Because I’m not
watching
any
of
them. For a long
time.’ ”
Madej: “We’ve had our fair
share of great wins. I was on the
field when Anthony Carter scored
that touchdown against Indiana. I
remember in the press box watching
the catch by Desmond Howard
against Notre Dame. Last-minute
field goals, last-minute touchdowns,
last-minute plays. It goes both ways.
Sometimes you get the bear, and
sometimes the bear gets you. And
unfortunately, that day, the buffalo
got us.”
Guynes: “Never been in that
situation since then as a player. I made
it to the (NFL) and bounced around,
went to the CFL, NFL Europe, arena
ball and stuff, so played a lot more
football after U-M, but nothing to
that magnitude of emotional ‘What
the hell?’ And that’s all I can really
call it is just an emotional ‘What the
hell just happened?’ ”
In May 1995, eight months after the
Colorado game, Moeller resigned after
a drunken incident at a local restaurant.
His defensive coordinator, Carr, took
over. Michigan lost four games in
each of Carr’s first
two seasons before
breaking out with
an
undefeated
season and national
championship
in
1997.
Asked
if
he
ever thinks about
what could have
happened
if
the
Wolverines
had
beaten
Colorado,
Moeller said, “Oh, I don’t know. Yeah,
but they don’t erase ’em and change
the plays very often. … Boy, if the kids
could have gotten that one, what a
great record that could have been, or
a great win that could be.”
With the tailspin of the Rich
Rodriguez and Brady Hoke years still
more than a decade away, the “Miracle
at
Michigan”
didn’t
permanently
stunt the team’s momentum, but
it represented a key point in the
trajectory of the program.
Rosenberg: “That game might
have changed the course of Michigan
football if you think about it. Because
that team was really good. They
finished 8-4, which was like the
apocalypse at that time in Michigan’s
history. … They lost to Penn State,
which was one of the two best teams,
but they were in it with them. I
don’t know, maybe they go 10-2, or
whatever it is, and Moeller doesn’t
feel as stressed and doesn’t have the
incident next May. Who knows what
happens? … Even if the incident does
happen, if they had a better year,
maybe they keep him.”
The Buffaloes are back in town
this weekend for the teams’ third
meeting since that 1994 classic.
McCartney retired after that season,
and Colorado has had more than its
share of struggle in the two decades
since, going 117-141. The program
maintained decent success under Rick
Neuheisel from 1995 to 1998, but it
has gone through seven head coaches
since
McCartney,
suffered
four
double-digit loss seasons and not had
a winning season since 2005.
And while both programs have
shifted several times since they created
a miracle, this weekend’s matchup
brings back memories for everyone
who stood in silent Michigan Stadium
that day.
Falk: “That damn game lives in
my soul. It really does. Every time
I see Colorado, every time we play
Colorado, I want to beat them as bad
as I can for them to remember the
day they beat us.”
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Linebacker Steve Morrison captained the 1994 Michigan team that lost to Colorado.
“You never get
over it. You’re not
supposed to. It’s
a lifetime thing.”
“All those
involved will
never forget it.”