Michigan coach Brady Hoke to a crowd in Grand Rapids: "We have unbelievable rivalry games at Michigan," Hoke said. "The Notre Dame, that rivalry, which they're chickening out of ... they're still going to play Michigan State, they'll play Purdue; they don't want to play Michigan." Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon: "As I understood it from my counterpart at Notre Dame...the earliest we could schedule (them again) would be sometime post-2021, 2022, and when you start talking that far out, who knows. So it's going to be a while." Brandon used the word "disappointed" several times in discussing the end of the ND/Michigan series I wonder what Lou Holtz and Desmond Howard think about this... Desmond Howard's famous full layout, diving TD catch in the endzone on fourth down helped Michigan snap their four-game losing streak to Notre Dame 24-14. Lou Holtz and Bo Schembechler
Michigan and Notre Dame respectively rank #1 and #2 in all-time winning percentage, #1 and #3 in all time wins (ND is only two wins behind Texas), and both are tied for #2 with 11 National Championships (behind Bama, who has claimed 15) Michigan and ND have played every year since 1978 (with a few short breaks -- '83-'84, '95-'96, '00-'01), and each team is 9-5 (64.3%) at home during that time, 14-14 all The glory years of the rivalry was the 7-year stretch between 1987-1993, during which time Notre Dame and Michigan were the top two teams in the entire North (the area in the red box below), with the only other teams in that red box with top 25 win pcts during that time being: 1987-1993 (7 seasons) #3 in NCAA -- 84.3% -- Notre Dame (72-13-1) #5 in NCAA -- 77.4% -- Michigan (63-17-4) #8 in NCAA -- 76.2% -- Syracuse (62-18-4) #15 in NCAA -- 69.6% -- Penn State (58-25-1) #19 in NCAA -- 66.9% -- Virginia (55-27-1) #20 in NCAA -- 65.2% -- Ohio State (51-26-5) #21 in NCAA -- 64.8% -- West Virginia (51-27-3) how ND and Mich finished in the AP Polls during that time... 1993 -- #2 ND, #21 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Gary Moeller 1992 -- #4 ND, #5 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Gary Moeller (Big Ten Champs, Big Ten Coach of the Year) 1991 -- #13 ND, #6 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Gary Moeller (Big Ten Champs, Big Ten Coach of the Year) 1990 -- #6 ND, #7 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Gary Moeller (Big Ten Champs) 1989 -- #2 ND, #7 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Bo Schembechler (Big Ten Champs, Big Ten Coach of the Year) 1988 -- #1 ND, #4 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Bo Schembechler (Big Ten Champs) 1987 -- #17 ND, #19 Michigan -- Lou Holtz vs Bo Schembechler the Heisman hype for each team during that time... 1993 -- 8th-place: RB Tyrone Wheatley (Michigan) 1992 -- 5th-place: RB Reggie Brooks (ND) 1991 -- winner: WR Desmond Howard (Michigan) 1990 -- runner-up: WR Rocket Ismail (ND) 1989 -- 4th-place: QB Tony Rice (ND), 10th-place: WR Rocket Ismail (ND) 1988 -- 1987 -- winner: WR Tim Brown (ND)
Off topic but do you think Miles would ever want to schedule Michigan in the regular season? I'm thinking he wouldn't because of how much he still loves Michigan. I don't think I'd want to coach against LSU because of my intense love for the Tigers. I'd personally love to play them in a home and home because we've never played them in recent memory. Guessing we'll eventually meet up with them in a bowl or playoff game.
Brady Hoke continues to have fun with calling out ND for chickening out, this time on ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" radio show, even as his "chickening out" comment whips around the sports world. "I almost didn't call," Hoke said after joining the show. "But I didn't think it was good for me not to call -- I didn't want to chicken out." It's since been picked up by most national outlets -- and even Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith invoked the phrase this week, saying the Buckeyes weren't "chicken" of playing Michigan twice in basketball. Brady Hoke to Mike and Mike (one of the Mikes, Mike Golic, played DT at Notre Dame in the early 80's before playing in the NFL from 1986-1993): "Being a guy from the Midwest and growing up watching the rivalry, and obviously being a part of it as a coach, we had 115,000 people in Michigan Stadium at night two years ago," he told the show, referring to the 2011 game, which still holds the NCAA record for attendance. "That excitement, and that landscape of that game, on a national level, it's going to be too bad when that series ends. "I just thought that was one of the great things of playing at Michigan, and coaching at Michigan, was the three rivalries that we play, when you look at it from a national standpoint with Notre Dame, and in state with Michigan State, and obviously the Ohio (State) game at the end of the year is as big as anything."
in addition to Lou Holtz and Desmond Howard, another couple veterans of the 1987-1993 glory years of the Michigan-ND rivalry are: --Jerome Bettis, FB for Notre Dame from1990-1992, 1st Round pick (#10 overall) 6× Pro Bowl, 3× All-Pro --Aaron Taylor, OG for Notre Dame, won the Lombardi in 1993, All-American in both 1992 and 1993, 1st Round pick (#16 overall), won a Super Bowl ring with the Packers (his teammate and Superbowl MVP was Desmond Howard)
check out the highlights of Jerome Bettis at ND... simply amazing how awesome he was from Bettis' official website: "After graduating from (a Detroit, Michigan) high school in 1990, Jerome Bettis was off to University of Notre Dame where he was signed as a fullback. During his Notre Dame career, Bettis rushed 337 times for 1,912 yards (5.7 yards per carry), and made 32 receptions for 429 yards (13.4 yards per catch). per totalfootballstats.com: 1990: 15 carries for 115 yards and 1 TD 1991: 168 carries for 972 yards and 16 TD. 17 catches for 190 yards and 4 TD 1992: 154 carries for 825 yards and 10 TD. 15 catches for 239 yards and 6 TD when you add rushing plus receiving, that is: 1991: 1,162 yards, 20 TDs 1992: 1,064 yards, 16 TDs
