MgoOldSchool: Harbaugh to White vs. Iowa 1985
A lot of the old timers around here saw JJ's flip pass to Donovan Edwards and were reminded of this play from a #1 vs. #2 'game of the century' from 4 decades ago. It's also mentioned in the podcast.
Skip to 2:39 if the embed isn't working correctly.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:59 AM ^
Straight dropbacks, splitbacks, cowboy collars, perms on cheerleaders - very 80s football. Just missing receivers lined up in a three point stance.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
That was probably the first UM game I ever fully tuned in to as a kid. I remember my mom, at the end, saying to my stepdad, who wasn't a UM fan, "you shouldn't be allowed to win a game if you can't even get the ball into the end zone". 38 years later, Iowa still happily wins games that way.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:59 AM ^
Thanks for making me remember that damn game. #1 vs #2 and Bo was being the most Bo-like Bo known to man that game. We ran the wishbone that year and he stubbornly kept slamming the ball into 7, 8 and even 9 man boxes instead of letting Harbaugh throw the ball.
55 yards passing on 13 attempts. And I'm pretty sure somewhere Chuck Long has just completed another 8 yard pass against our VERY soft zone coverage.
Grumble, grumble.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
I take it we lost that game?
October 16th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
Yup. On a walk-off field goal.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:39 AM ^
a kick/play I remember vividly because I had cut my fingers on a tomato slicer (which, it turns out, also slice finger tips) at a dorm cafeteria where I worked. The stitches were literally being sewn in at the university hospital when the winning kick was being kicked. It was a sucky day. Thankfully we would return the favor the following year.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:45 PM ^
12-10
We did not let them cross the goal line and still lost.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
Iowa was even Iowa back then.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:15 AM ^
#toosoon
October 16th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
We kept them out of the end zone…but Rob F*#king Houghtlin…
October 16th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
This is exactly why Iowa can never be shown any mercy. To add insult to injury he went to the Lions where he forgot how to pass.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:53 AM ^
it was the weirdest thing...the guy was an absolutely brilliant college quarterback. on the rare occasions when he got stopped, you just knew he was going to come back out on the next possession and make something happen.
then he got to detroit, completed his first pass for a td (if i recall correctly - maybe that was andre ware?), but eventually was dragged down by the shit show that was the darryl rogers "era" and that was that. by the end he was just a shell of a player, just a real bummer of a career.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
Crazy how much of a can't miss Long seemed to be. I went to a Jr. High summer track meet in Iowa City the summer before that game. And one of the bus drivers who always drove us to the track was Chuck Long's back-up. All he ever talked about was how good Long was, and how Iowa would be ranked #1. I remember him telling us about Chuck's insurance policy with Lloyd's of London, or some such career insurer.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:33 PM ^
Yeah, those policies were all the rage back then because they were brand new. Only the best players had them...
October 16th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
You're correct. Long's first pass was a TD to Leonard Thompson. I actually remember that game and thinking that Chuck Long was gonna be a star.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:56 AM ^
Still, the game was won if Brad Cochran doesn't drop an easy interception on Iowa's final drive, I knew at that point we would end up losing the game. Another memory from that game was Harbaugh backing out from under center when the Iowa crowd got too loud. New rules said that the offense had to be able to hear their signals, or the home team would be penalized.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
oh yeah - i'd forgotten about that rule...now i'm also remembering bo just absolutely losing his mind about it at some point, but it might not have been that game.
unrelated, but i was also there the day he lost his mind over one of the early iterations of the wave. i can still see him going out on to the field and having an apoplectic fit at the fans
October 16th, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
I was there as well when he lost it regarding the wave. It was shortly after his fit that the silent wave and other variations were created. Good times.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:53 AM ^
JFC, the stats from that game are godawful. It's a miracle we held them out of the endzone.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:09 PM ^
The silver lining of that game is that Iowa ended up in the Rose Bowl, whereupon they got their corn-fed asses kicked up and down the field 45-28 by UCLA.
Player of the Game was pure freshman Bruin Eric Ball, who ran for 227 and 4 TDs, while Iowa's Ronnie Harmon fumbled four times in the first half.
This was the second of three butt-kickings that Hayden Fry's Hawkeyes suffered in the Rose Bowl; in the '82 Rose Bowl, Washington blanked Iowa 28-0, and in the '91 Rose Bowl Washington got out to a 33-7 halftime lead over Iowa en route to a 46-34 victory.
Ferentz's lone trip to Pasadena didn't go any better: in the 2016 game, Stanford beat Iowa 45-16.
Michigan's record in the Rose Bowl since 1969 has been truly awful, but Iowa has managed to be even worse.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Iowa also lost to OSU two weeks after the Michigan game 13 -22. Then Michigan beat OSU in one of the classics 27 - 17. No doubt everyone has seen the play where Harbaugh takes a huge hit before hitting John Kolesar on a 77 yard 4th quarter TD pass.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
"...he stubbornly kept slamming the ball into 7, 8 and even 9 man boxes instead of letting Harbaugh throw the ball."
And this was AFTER Anthony Carter proved to him that WR's could actually help move the ball forward. Of course, AC wasn't available when Harbaugh got to run the show. But yeah, Bo is the coach that Harbaugh models his game after - so nobody should ever be surprised when he slams Corum into an 8-man front to 'establish the run'.
He learned that trick a long time ago...
October 16th, 2023 at 10:10 AM ^
Thankfully.... we were able to score more than 10 points this time.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:11 AM ^
Eh, now I've got to watch something else.. The Game played at the end of that season will do.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
That was a horribly coached game by Bo. Never should have lost that game.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
I keep watching the McCarthy to Loveland pass.
Love JJ's scramble and directing traffic.
Love Colston's adjusting his route and then his run.
Love the blocking that helped him get the TD.
It's like living in a Love Land.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
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Seth, this should fix the video embeds if you include it in the CSS.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:49 AM ^
Yeah, I saw that game. Didn't like it then, still don't like it.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
Chuck Long with the 17 step drop thereafter.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
Thanks for finding this. I saw JJ do it and leaned over to my kid and said "that was just like Harbaugh." Now I have video evidence.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
Here's a better result from the same year, and apropos of this week, the Wolverines crush the Sparties 31-0 at Spartan Stadium.
Skip forward to 0.28 for a classic shot of the MSU fans.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:50 PM ^
I was at the game with my college roommate. It was glorious! We were in the EZ with a lot of UM fans and where all four TDs were scored. MSU fumbled the snap on Play 2 and then Harbaugh hit Eric Kattus for a TD right in front of us. Next Sparty drive resulted in blocked punt for TD. Our D didn't give up even one 1st down in the 2nd half. CBS named "MIchigan Defense" as the player of the game!
For the classic MSU fan shot - I doubt those two could get into UM! Like the bumper sticker at the time - Can't get into college??? Go to MSU!
October 16th, 2023 at 11:48 AM ^
I remember that f'in game. Iowa couldn't score a damn TD but kicked four FGs to win.
Man, I still hate Hayden Fry*, but he was a good coach, and one could argue has one of the most successful coaching trees in all of college football history.
* Many reasons to hate him, but as I recall, after his team got torched in the Rose Bowl, someone asked how UCLA(?) compared to Michigan, and he said Michigan couldn't hold a candle to them.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:34 PM ^
Come on! Not much to dislike about Hayden Fry. Ran a clean program that was an asset to the Big 10. Turned out a ton of great coaches. Kept Bert away from the buffet. Who cares what he said about UM after getting his ass torched in the Rose Bowl. Just a statement of respect to UCLA. Just to complete history, UM beat Iowa the following year in Ann Arbor on a walk-off FG, en route to a B1G title. Had we not dropped a giant deuce against Minny, we might have been in the national title hunt at the end.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Fry resurrected an abysmal Iowa program starting in 1979. Iowa got shut out at home with less than 100 yards of offense vs. UM in 1978. From 1981-90, he was 4-5-1 vs. UM. Best record of any of our opponents. Ohio was 4-6, Sparty 3-7.
I was at the sickening UM loss at Iowa in 2003 (terrible special teams play that day that would make MSU's current special teams coach smile) - Fry was presented with his CFB HOF trophy by none other than Bo! Sure Bo hated the crowd noise, but he had a ton of respect for Iowa and Fry.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
I remember this game well - it was on my birthday! I was in a horrible mood when my fiancé brought over our friend group to celebrate. It didn’t cheer my up.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
Hayden Frye's mustache in that post game interview could kick anyone's ass
October 16th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
Payback for Michigan winning in similar fashion in 1983. I’ll never forget Bob Bergeron’s low line drive kick in the rain to win it.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:42 PM ^
On a Michigan football blog, just who is it that you think wants to agree that Iowa deserved that win as payback for the previous year?
Dude - know your audience...
October 16th, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^
I was at that 83 game as a JR. The gameday weather was like the 2nd half vs. Indy. Just miserable, but the final kick was incredible. First time in many years, it was UM winning on a last second FG (and not losing the game on a miss like ND 1979, Ohio 73/74, Purdue 76, etc.).
Was also at the 86 game won by Mike Gillette, much better weather that day.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
A terrible memory.....one of the first games I remember. One of many that went this way because of Bo / Lloyd stubbornness. So frustrating.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:51 PM ^
I wish Edward would have scored on JJ’s flip to get on the highlight reels.
that’s the kind of thing that Heisman voters remember
October 16th, 2023 at 3:09 PM ^
That was Bo's best team - among a lot of teams that could be rated as his very best (1973, etc.). I was a senior and watched it at my roommate's family house. A bitter loss indeed. However, Iowa badly outplayed us (Long threw for 297 yards and Ronnie Harmon ran for 120). Our D was spectacular in the red zone, though replay rules today would have given them a TD pass in the 1st quarter that ended up being a FG.
I was glad at the end of the year because we beat ND, MSU, Ohio and then Nebraska in Fiesta Bowl. I still enjoy watching replays of that season's games, minus the Iowa one of course.
October 16th, 2023 at 3:10 PM ^
Some quotes from the post game story: Iowa Beats Michigan On Last Play, 12-10 - The Washington Post
"Was this the biggest win ever at Iowa?" Hawkeyes Coach Hayden Fry asked rhetorically when it was over. "There's no doubt it was. I'm even gonna vote us No. 1 tomorrow."
Iowa now stands at 6-0, Michigan 5-1. Before today, only one Big Ten school, Ohio State, had ever defeated Michigan in consecutive seasons since Bo Schembech-ler took over as coach 17 years ago.
Said Fry, "I told Coach Schembechler before the game and repeated it after, 'It's too bad that one team had to lose this one.' I told him he had a great team, and he said, 'But you have the greatest.' That was quite a compliment coming from Coach Schembechler. He even gave me a pack of chewing gum."
"The real thing to remember about the game," Schembechler said, "is Iowa's offense. With (quarterback Chuck) Long and (running back Ronnie) Harmon on the same team, it makes it extremely difficult to shut them down. We can and did keep 'em out of the end zone, but we couldn't shut 'em down."
October 16th, 2023 at 4:03 PM ^
With just minutes to play (last drive) Chuck Long threw a long blooper to our best DB Brad Cochran who dropped it. So sad.
October 16th, 2023 at 4:24 PM ^
I remember Gerald White drove a beautiful red BMW around campus in 1986.
October 16th, 2023 at 7:42 PM ^
I was at that game as a young 10 year old.
Cousin played for the Smuckeyes and that game was responsible for my conversion to a Michigan fan.
Also, Chuck Long is a dick/douche, your choice.