amani toomer

Previously: Krushed By Stauskas (Illinois 2014), Introducing #ChaosTeam (Indiana 2009), Revenge is Terrifying (Colorado 1996), Four Games In September I (Boston College 1991)

This game: WolverineHistorian highlights

Welcome to 1994, baby.

Mark Jones looks exactly the same, somehow

A lot has changed for Boston College since they put a scare into Michigan at home in 1991. After reaching nine wins in his third season, highlighted by a 41-39 upset at #1 Notre Dame in late November, Tom Coughlin took the head coaching job with the NFL's expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, which also gave him a good deal of control over their personnel.

Boston College hired Dan Henning, best known for his two stints as Washington's offensive coordinator in which they won two Super Bowls, in hopes of repeating their success of targeting a top-flight NFL assistant. Whereas Coughlin had won a ring with the New York Giants in the year before going to BC, however, Henning was coming off two years as offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, which didn't finish better than 16th in points or 19th in total yards in his tenure despite boasting Barry Sanders, Herman Moore, and Brett Perriman.

Here are some other decisions from 1994 that turn out about as well as this one:

• Jeff Gilooly finds a creative way to get his ex-wife, Tonya Harding, a leg up on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan in the months before the Winter Olympics.
• To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the legendary music festival, three of the original promoters put on Woodstock '94, billed as "2 More Days of Peace and Music."
• Major League II is released in theaters with a PG rating.

Michigan enters the season ranked fifth in both polls. They have a lot of stability: Gary Moeller entering his fifth year as head coach, Lloyd Carr his eighth as defensive coordinator, senior Todd Collins throwing to junior receivers Amani Toomer and Mercury Hayes, senior Tyrone Wheatley leading a stable of touted running backs, and talent across the defense. They aren't quite as loaded heading into the season opener as expected, though, with Wheatley out two weeks due to a separated shoulder and receiver/co-captain Walter Smith lost to a season-ending knee injury.

Henning decides to start his new job with a bang:

Over breakfast at the team's hotel this morning, Boston College's Dan Henning told quarterback Mark Hartsell that he wanted to open the game against Michigan with a play called the speed pump, a bomb that he hoped would go for a touchdown.

Both Henning and Hartsell were making their respective debuts, Henning as the Eagles' head coach and Hartsell as the starting quarterback.

Henning argued with his assistant coaches over the prudence of the play. Hartsell was taking over for quarterback Glenn Foley, a seventh-round draft pick by the Jets. Henning thought it would be good for Hartsell to get his feet wet and silence the 105,936 at Michigan Stadium.

Just as Henning drew it up, Hartsell rolled right. He waited, waited, waited. Then he heaved a 74-yard touchdown pass to receiver Greg Grice. In 16 seconds the Eagles were up by 7-0, Hartsell wasn't nervous and the crowd was silenced.

Unfortunately for BC, the Henning Era is about to hit its apex.

[Hit THE JUMP to see the third-string running back take over.]

With Ty Law joining eight other Pro Football Hall of Famers from Michigan last week, and Tom Brady continuing to push the bar for greatest football player of all time past the outer reaches of the Virgo Cluster, I figured our next Michigan All-____ team should focus on who made the best pro players.

This one got long and took a lot of research so here's Part 1.

Previously:

• Ancient History: 1879 to 1968
• The 5-stars
• The 3-stars
• The Extracurriculars
• Position-Switchers
• Highlights
• All-Numbers Team Part I: The Offense
• All-Numbers Team Part II: The Defense
• The Best of Michigan (the state)
• All-Name Team
• All-Small Team

Today's Rules: I'm creating a 53-man NFL roster with Michigan alumni based on their total contributions in pro football (mostly the NFL). It's not about the greatest Michigan players to go pro; in fact I'm going to include a few transfers best known for playing elsewhere. I'm judging based on things like years in the pros, years as a starter, Pro Bowl/All-Pro selections, a little bit on team success, and their impact on the game, all relative to when they played.

The goal is a bit different than normal because the idea here is to build a team, not reward the best players. A guy had to play a position in the pros to be be eligible for it, within reason: I expect a career left guard to be able to play right guard (but not necessarily center), and a 1950 flanker to not feel totally out of place as a modern slot receiver.

A * means he's in the Hall of Fame already.

Quarterback: Tom Brady (2000-present)

It doesn't seem to get old. I think we can skip the career rundown because you've no doubt been on this Earth the last few weeks. At this point Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are past trying and just making up challenges to keep things interesting.

Tom: Okay guys, don't even block Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh, and Dante Fowler for a quarter.

Bill: Betchya I can convince the whole league to go back to punting on 4th and short from the opponents' territory.

Tom: Oh yeah? Watch me make a short, bearded Jewish guy a Super Bowl MVP.

Bill: Ooh, that's a good one. Try this…I'm going to hold Jared Goff to the worst passing day of his career.

Tom: Yeah?

Bill: Using just zone defense!

Tom: That's good, but you know what would really be funny?

Bill: What?

Tom: Okay, here it is: Not only do you have to hold the Rams under 7 points, but you also have to get McVay to forget he has the highest paid running back in the league for a half…

Bill: …and?

Tom: And then you've got to bust out your own 1st round RB from Georgia and salt the game away using nothing but double ISO and counter-trey.

Anyway the nice thing about the All-Michigan NFL Team is it will beat any other college's all-NFL team. I mean, what other school gets to put out a tweet like this every year?

Congratulations to Brian Hoyer on becoming a Super Bowl Champion! #GoGreen #SpartansInTheNFL pic.twitter.com/qZL9p0Zc5n

— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) February 4, 2019

Backups: Benny Friedman* (1927-'34) and Jim Harbaugh (1987-'00). What's more incredible about the greatest quarterback of all time is he pushed down the Most Important. Without Benny the NFL would have taken much longer to get out of the college game's shadow. Benny also provides depth at RB, the secondary, and special teams. Former 1st round pick Jim Harbaugh was 49-22-1 as an NFL starter, mostly for the Bears, but had a long second career as a backup who doubled as a mentor and coach for young prospects.

Honorable Mention: Elvis Grbac (1994-'01), Brian Griese (1998-'08), Chad Henne (2008-present), Todd Collins (1995-2010), Larry Cipa (1974-'75), Jake Rudock (2017-present)

[After THE JUMP: a position that isn't as deep, and one that's deeper]

But which position he? [Patrick Barron]

Here’s some very important #content for #content week as our focus remains on pushing out two very important projects. MGoBlog photographer Eric Upchurch last night tweeted one of those “make your all-time” lists that generate the same answers (our board is up to that now). I thought I’d up the difficulty/interest by theming them, sort of like how Ace made his all-Beilein teams last year. First: the 5-stars.

----------------------------------

Rule: Has to be over 4.5 stars on my database and a five-star to someone.

Cut-off: Had to commit (or transfer) to Michigan after 1989. If you want all-Bo teams talk to Dr. Sap, and anything earlier go to MVictors, because I’m not old enough to have strong opinions on anyone before the mid-1990s. Also my recruiting database only goes back to 1990 (yes, millennials, crootin existed before the Rivals database).

----------------------------------

Quarterback: Chad Henne

No this entire post won’t be me posting gifs and slapping some words on it; I just wanted to try it once.

Four-year starter, his healthy junior season was the best by a Michigan quarterback under Lloyd Carr despite being up against a parade of NFL draft picks. Drew Henson at his best was the best, but as the owner of a Henson jersey I can vouch it was Henne who really rescued the value of that purchase.

Speaking of that parade, partly because the position gets ranked higher, Michigan has brought in a LOT of five-star quarterbacks. Brandon Peters didn’t get anyone’s 5th star but was a 4.60 for reference.

Other candidates: Shea Patterson, Shane Morris, Devin Gardner, Ryan Mallett, Clayton Richard, Matt Gutierrez, Drew Henson, Jason Kapsner

Running Back: Tyrone Wheatley, Anthony Thomas

The first time I learned that Michigan had to convince high-schoolers to play for them—rather than, I dunno, springing from midfield or something—was a Free Press article about Wheatley being the most perfect human-football specimen ever produced in the state. Wheatley is the but… response to “are our 5-star running backs cursed?” You youngsters probably don’t know what it feels like to have this massive pair of shoulder pads gliding away from smurfs (and Nits). To this day his signature shoulder-dip is my go-to move when trying to dodge a person in an enclosed space.

If you do have a frame of reference, it’s probably because A-Train was a near carbon copy of #6. Thomas didn’t have much of a pro career but he was a great college player, fast enough to return kicks and one of the best pass blocking RBs of the modern era. And he always. Fell. Forward.

Other candidates: Kareem Walker, Ty Isaac, Derrick Green, Kevin Grady, Kelly Baraka, Justin Fargas, (okay okay we’re cursed!), Ricky Powers.

[After the JUMP: This all could have been (was) a Tweet. Happy June]