·     10  2007 Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0 – Cripplefight 2007 between two teams headed in different directions, but we didn’t know it at the time.  For Michigan it was redemption following two horrible weeks that I won’t recount, and was the first of eight straight wins.  Mike Hart guaranteed victory, and victory he achieved in blowout fashion.  Also known as Yakety Sax Part Deux.

·     9  2004 Michigan 43, Miami (not that Miami) 10 – This is the game we all expected to be Matt Gutierrez’ coming out party, and instead it was Chad Henne’s.  I can still recall learning about Chad starting from the guy who’s lawn we parked on.  Even though it was a blowout, it was actually closer played than the score indicated due to a plethora of Miami (NTM) turnovers.  Two TD passes to Braylon Edwards were an omen of good things to come.

·     8  1998 Michigan 27, Penn State 0 – Penn State was fired up for this game following the embarrassment from the year before.  An early goal line stand over four downs made it clear Michigan came to play.  27 points later, Michigan had its first home victory ever over the Nittany Lions.

·     7  2002 Michigan 49, Michigan State 3 – This game was Bobby Williams’ death knell.  The prior year was clockgate, and Lloyd was pissy.  Maybe it was just me projecting on Lloyd, but he seemed to relish this one a little more than usual.  He certainly didn’t call off the dogs until well after it was decided with a couple insurance TD’s for good measure.  (It is honestly the only game I can recall where I thought he ran it up a little.)  He seemed to be declaring that if you needed an extra second to beat us last year, this year we don’t even need the *2^nd half* to beat you punks.

·     6  2003 Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0 – This was awesome in a conveniently wrapped package, seeing as there was only doubt for about ten minutes of gametime.  Steve Breaston had a couple great returns, late in the game Brady Quinn got a welcome to college football that involved lots of mass and pain, and the Leprechaun got teary eyed.  ESPN had tabbed Notre Dame for “The Season”, and it was secretly very enjoyable to watch that week’s episode to see how they would hide the fact they were destroyed.  As I recall, Tyrone Willingham was only vaguely aware at best that they had been blown out.  Return to Glory, indeed.

·     5  1993 Michigan 28, Ohio State 0 – From the 1985 season when I really understood college football, through the year 2000, we lost to Michigan State five times, and lost to Ohio State three times with a tie.  Think about that a second.  1993 is a perfect example of why, in 2000, Wolvrine32 had virtually no respect for Ohio State.  In 1993 we were unranked at 6-4 and facing a #5 Buckeye team that rolled into Michigan Stadium only to slink home after a thorough and meticulous beating.  These things run in cycles, and we owned them in the 90’s.  Let’s hope the tables turn back in the coming decade.

·     4  1997 Michigan 27, Colorado 3 – Not only the backdrop of Colorado’s prior visit to the Big House, but also the talk of the Michigan “M” standing for mediocre and the sheer shock of the whole thing make this an all-time blowout great.  I went to the game with an ND friend, and he actually cringed several times when Hessler (Colorado’s hapless QB) got sandwiched.  Neuheisel pulled him less from ineffectiveness than from concern for his well-being.  Things got ugly.  It was awesome.

·     3  1991 Michigan 31, Ohio State 3 – This is the Desmond Howard “Heisman Pose” game.  Also my first Michigan game I actually attended, with the best seats I’ve ever had at a game.  What a great day.  Howard also caught two long passes and generally ran in circles around any DB in a white jersey he could find.

·     2  1997 Michigan 34, Penn State 8 – Judgement Day couldn’t have gone more to plan, at least without footage of Beano Cook actually sobbing after the game.  This game was a massacre, and if Penn State QB Mike McQueary doesn’t still have recurring flashes of Glenn Steele bearing down on him, then he lacks some form of basic survival instinct.  (Sometimes I think of Steele sneaking up on McQueary working in a real estate office and pulling a Terry Tate just to mess with him.)  I still remember the PSU crowd cheering mildly sarcastically after that 4^th quarter TD, both because they had avoided the shutout and because Penn State had scored the first TD in a second half on Michigan all season.  A minor footnote in a major win for the program.  (A good friend described it afterward as a “three hour orgasm.”)

·     1  2006 Michigan 47, Notre Dame 21 – Make no mistake, Lloyd could’ve named his score here.  This was a decent Irish team, which only scored 14 in the first half because Henne threw one bad interception and Ron English got confused and put in Jim Herrman’s playbook for the last drive of the half.  God I loved this game.  Context: it followed the Year of Infinite Pain, and was the message to all college football that we were back.  Also, Brian posted the following on MGoBlog that my wife still refers to as The Michigan Prayer:  “Win you bastards.  Win.  Win for Michigan.  Win for America.  Win for that little boy in the hospital.  Win for me.  Don’t lose.  Win.”

Bonus coverage, 1992 Michigan 61, Houston 7 – This is bonus because although the opponent or context wasn’t anything special, I can still see Tyrone Wheatley zipping down the sideline for a TD on the opening kickoff, my second home game as a student.  Michigan 7, Houston 0, 14:49 remaining, 1^st Q.  And no one touched him.  Plus, it’s the most we’ve scored since the Bo era.  Oh wait, no it isn’t, we put 63 on Minnesota that year.  Man, Gary Moeller could really coach him some offense.