Irony- the higher ranked versions of these teams lost these games. The 88 USC team with Rodney Peete was better, but the 89 team with Marinovich won the Rose Bowl. The 89 Michigan team was better, but the 88 team won the Rose Bowl.
The 88 team was better. 2 plays away really from winning the National Championship. Missed 2 easy fg's against Miami and barley missed a game winner against Notre Dame.
Evidently Michael Taylor had a sore shoulder and Bo was very close to starting Elvis Grbac in the game. I think if Boles doesn't get hurt against Minnesota Michigan would have won . Boles and Hoard complemented each other in 88 & 89 . Boles injury along with a hurt Taylor got the Wolverines the game.
1971, 1977, 1978 and 1989 were Bo’s best chances to Win a National Title but Big Blue kept coming up short🤦🏿🤦🏿🤦🏿🤦🏿 1971: Upset by Jim Plunkett and Stanford (Who upset OSU the previous year when they were undefeated) 1977: Upset by Warren Moon and Washington-wasted a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY with Notre Dame upsetting Texas and Arkansas upsetting Oklahoma. 1978: Well I’ll leave that be. Still a VERY SORE SPOT for Michigan Fans. 1989: Was the Better Team but Southern Cal wanted revenge for the previous year when Michigan upset them when they was the Better Team+ Holding Call on the Fake Punt+Lack of Scoring despite having several Big Plays.
If Todd Boles plays in this game the outcome is most likely a W for Michigan. He would have had back-to-back 1000-yard seasons. We will never know thanks to the astroturf in old Minnesota stadium.
Maybe Bo ran off the field at the end of the game instead of talking to reporters for fear he might erupt and punch someone like Woody did back in '78. 🏈🏉😖
@dave4248 lies , lie triple lie, the guy was so far out of the play and way off to the side that he had absolutely zero chance to make the tackle. The refs were corrupt, jealous , anti UM bigots and had Schembechler won that game UM would have been crowned the national championship in at least 1 and probably both of the 2 polls. UM on that big gainer deep into usc territory had all the momentum but the dirty filthy anti UM refs were for usc so instead usc had the momentum. Finally, it is at least questionable as to whether or not that far away from the ball and which had zero impact on the play was even a penalty. Replays showed how tickey tack and non callable that often is. Face it, UM and the legendary Schembechler got screwed and up to that point UM's defense was dominating the same usc team and coach that UM beat in the previous year's Rose bowl. Case closed. Let's say UM was not called for that phantom penalty and scored the go ahead td and won by a Td , 7 points with the extra point. After all the usc defense was gassed . Michigan's only loss that year was very early in the year in a very very close game to notre dame. Dame ended up #2 in the polls but UM would have leap frogged ND because nd not only lost much later in the season but significantly by a a whopping 17 points to to Miami. Then #1 ranked Colorado lost its bowl game. Stir in that Miami got walloped late in the season for its lone loss. Only MICHIGAN among the top 5 with 1 loss each lost early and twas only Mighty Michigan who had a close loss. This would have been a nice and fitting retirement present for Bo. He did win 13 big ten championships, an all time record, for the winningest team by far in college football history. In short, the evil refs stole that game just like patino and the refs and cheating Louisville stole the basketball NC away from UM in 2013. Indeed because the ncaa later ordered, Louisville' s bogus title to be vacated due to cheating, UM should and will some day hopefully be named 2013 ncaa basketball national champion. Yahweh above knows that in the 1989 football season UM deserved the nc but that 1990 Close Rose Bowl loss due to evil corrupt officiating, cost UM it's rightful victory.
The holding call on the fake punt was complete bullshit. There was no way in hell that USC defender would have gotten to the punter-he was going in the opposite direction. Totally fooled. On top of that, the Michigan sideline was flagged afterwards. That one play changed everything. Yes, games can be decided by one play!
