What’s all the fuss about Appalachian State?
The Michigan Wolverines open their football season tomorrow the way they usually do these days, by playing a team they should easily beat. But that’s what they thought the last time they played Appalachian State.
It goes back to 2007, the year the NCAA allowed schools to add a twelfth regular season game, for no reason but revenue. Yes, another shameless money grab on the backs, knees, and skulls of amateur athletes.
To find an extra opponent, Michigan had to scramble. When a Division I-AA team called Appalachian State agreed to come to Ann Arbor for a flat fee of $400,000, fans wondered why Michigan had scheduled a team from the second tier for the first time – and, where the heck is that place? It turns out Appalachian State isn’t even a state. (I looked it up.)
Their fight song didn’t instill much fear, either: “Hi-Hi-yike-us. No-body like us. We are the Mountaineers! Always a-winning. Always a-grinning. Always a-feeling fine. You bet, hey. Go Apps!”
“The Victors,” it was not.
No ranked Division I-A like number five Michigan team had ever lost to a I-AA team. The Wolverines were thinking about national titles, not upsets.
The point spread was set at a staggering 27 – and some Las Vegas sports books wouldn’t take that bet. Not since 1891, when Michigan beat Ann Arbor High School 61-0, did the home opener seem like such a mismatch.
Nobody gave the Mountaineers much thought – but they should have. Appalachian State had just won two national titles in their division. They weren’t big, but they were fast, well-conditioned and well-coached – and they’d been studying Michigan since the game was announced.
If the Wolverines weren’t ready for the Mountaineers, the Mountaineers were ready for Michigan. On the third play, the Mountaineers hit a 68-yard touchdown pass — then poured on three more scores to jump ahead at halftime, 28-17.
With less than a minute left, the Mountaineers still held on to a two-point lead, but Michigan responded with a desperation 46-yard pass play to set up a 37-yard field goal attempt, with six seconds left. As crazy as the day had been, the Wolverines were surely about to escape. Right?
But a Mountaineer speedster ran straight through the line, and smothered the kick in his stomach. Appalachian State’s announcer went…apoplectic. ESPN still plays it, just for kicks, and ABC immediately declared the victory the greatest upset in the history of college football.
But there was no joy in Arborville. Mighty Michigan had struck out. A few grown men left the stadium in tears, the bars became morgues, and the story was broadcast on virtually every channel, even political ones.
In the Michigan locker room, no one yelled. No one screamed. No one threw their helmets. They slumped in their stalls, head on hands, and stared off into space, dazed. They could not comprehend it.
There was no spinning it — and to head coach Lloyd Carr’s credit, he didn’t try. “We were not a well prepared football team,” he said. “That is my job.” Carr had won more Big Ten titles than Fritz Crisler and more national titles than Bo Schembechler, but that night fans flooded President Coleman’s inbox with hate mail, some disturbing enough to show University security.
I stopped by Coach Lloyd Carr’s office later that week. I found him with the lights off, reclining in his chair in front of the TV, watching game tape. He looked like he had swallowed a hand grenade. He said he’d been “warning our guys for years that one of these days a MAC team is going to beat us. And you don’t want to be the team that gets beaten.” There was no need to tell him what he already knew: Appalachian State isn’t even a MAC team.
The Wolverines willed themselves to eight wins, then finished by beating defending champion Florida in their bowl game. But what the Wolverines lost that day is their aura of invincibility, especially at home.
They will not return to their former glory until they get that back. And tomorrow’s rematch would be a good time to start.
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I was hiking in northern, rural India on that day and wondering how the game had gone. The next day I ran across a couple from Dearborn–yes, in India–and they told me the score and I refused to believe it. The next time I was somewhere where I could get scores, UM had also lost to Oregon.
Wow, I had forgotten about that point spread. I actually was quite impressed with how U-M won those eight games in the middle of that year after starting 0-2 (the Oregon game was even worse). I remember particularly a win at night, at Illinois, when Chad Henne was really hurting. An amazing final year for Lloyd Carr.
Perhaps the comment “Yes, another shameless money grab on the backs, knees, and skulls of amateur athletes.” should be tempered by the fact that football funds all the other sports at virtually all universities. It is the reason schools have been able to add women’s sports without decimating non-revenue men’s sports.
Rob, I am all for the big guys carrying the monetary weight, but the problem I see is that the non-revenue sports act like they are a revenue sport. They should be playing regional schedules, not traveling around the country like football/basketball. The costs could/should be reduced.
What was lost that day in 2007 can never be retrieved. There was no good reason to schedule this game…it’s like getting into a fight with the little weakling in school, getting your ass kicked and then trying to fight them again when they are sick with pneumonia.
Even if we win 105-0, we haven’t gotten anything back. We still don’t have a coach that has shown he can outcoach anyone. We still have a quarterback that is best suited for a different style of play. I’ve been surprised and a little saddened by the lack of discussion nationally about this game because it clearly shows how irrelevant Michigan Football has become. And what’s worse, has seemingly been accepted by people that shouldn’t be accepting it.
But in the end, this is my alma mater. This is the blood that runs through my veins. This is what I am instilling in my son. It’s still all about….GO BLUE!!! Time to wake up, shake off the cobwebs, and reclaim our spot back as MICHIGAN. GO BLUE!!!
John, I was working at Ann Arbor’s 107one then. I worked six days a week and would take advantage of technology for my Saturday afternoon shift and “voicetrack” it. Don’t get, mad, I needed one day off a week. Voicetracking is recording breaks for your shows ahead of time and having the computer run them. On Friday I recorded a break to run around 4:30 on Saturday praising the Wolverines on opening their season with a resounding win over App State. I finished the recording and went about my office duties. Before I left, around 6:30, I thought “Maybe I should change that break, what if it’s a close game, I will sound like an idiot”. So I went in and recorded a different break with no mention of the game. Boy am I glad I did. I would have sounded pretty stupid praising Blue on that day. Never assume anything.
Agreed John. The challenge I see for us is that the aura of invincibility is like trust: once lost, very difficult to win back. It will take years of great football, decisive wins (against cupcakes AND against quality competition), and a few championships to start getting that back.
So far, we’ve done the opposite since 2007. But, you’re right, this is the year to start it. It’s a critical year for Hoke, we just can’t have another “transition” year. Nearly a decade of bad football has left us in a place where we’ll have to work really hard for that “aura” to come back.
And, yes, I was sadly in the stands for that game, completely silent and shell-shocked after. Found it hard to leave the stands or to even move.
John, Great story. I really enjoy your writing. This was the biggest upset ever. And I like your point about being able to be invincible at home.
I saw Utah just beat up on someone last night, so winning at home is not a given. Last year every home game was an exciting game to the bitter end. I wonder if that swagger will return this season.
I’m looking forward to the game in East Lansing of course. And waiting for Michigan to be a great team again. It’s good for the Big Ten.
For now I say, Go Green! There is a lot to learn from what Coach D is doing at MSU. It’s a pleasure to watch. And that includes his supporting cast of Mark Hollis and Pat Narduzzi.
Will be interesting to see this new coaching mix in Ann Arbor. I think it looks positive.
We (wife and I) attended that game with some dear friends of ours who had moved to Boone NC and drove up for that game and to visit family. Needless to say, I can remember feeling that Michigan had a game on their hands when App State tied the game at 14 all and didn’t look like they were about to fold to mighty Michigan. When all was said and done, I remember seeing kids in tears and the AS fans beside themselves in joy (we went up to a group and congratulated them on their victory). Afterwards, at our post game cook out at home, our friends brother-in-law was so bummed that he skipped our party….what a day that was.
PS-our friends husband teaches at App State so they had to go home and suffer it worse than anyone else that I know.
The game in 2007 should never have been scheduled, although I understand the scramble to find an opponent. App State deserves all the credit in 2007. But the game this year… horrible decision by the athletic department. The one loss trumps any number of wins over App State. Learn the lesson from the loss and just move on.
Professor, right again. Let me just add a late comment that along with the rest of Michigan’s 400,000 living alums and the millions of fans that make Wolverine Nation, I lost a piece of me that day.
As silly as it may seem in the scheme of things and everyday realities, I haven’t been the same about my Michigan football and, I might add, I think that pathos has been trans mutated into pathos for Michigan Football.
The aura could have been regained, or at least salvaged, with an effort against Oregon and subsequent BCS contention years. Let the greatest upset rightfully be exactly what it was in the minds of the sports-watching public: But I think the ghost of App State cannot be easily vanquished mostly because of my beloved Wolverine’s continued basement dwelling in the B14G – for reasons you articulate better than I.
Nothing new to report here, obviously. But I will never forget halftime of that sweltering day and remarking to younger alums I was attending with, ” Y’know? We’ve been walking this line for a long time. We CAN lose this game…” I feel like we’ve never recovered.
Not much has changed since ’07.. M has become 2nd tier program with a “money at all cost” philosophy.. Hard to root for a football program as misguided as Michigan’s and not get disapointed.. Hope regents finally get it right..