I was gonna say my god man what an absolute tank of a man and just to watch him outrun everyone on the field omg. I haven't seen a back with that size and agility and speed in all my life im only.in my mid 30s but i wish i could have relished this more in my youth because i would have definitely formed my running style after him instead of trying to be just the elusive type. This is just amazing to watch i was watching Tim biakabatuka highlights earlier i really idolized him but he didn't have the breakaway speed if he'd would have omg he would have been insane. but Wheatley was 100% underrated
When I was a kid growing up in Ann Arbor (born 1984) I considered Desmond Howard a god. Tyrone Wheatley was my second god. Dude was such a beast! And while a student he coached my sister's middle school track team. I remember meeting him and it was the second time I was starstruck and could barely ask for an autograph. First time? Same thing happens with Desmond! Both of them were very kind, gave me an autograph and shook my hand. My 7 year old self (w/ Desmond) and my 9 year old self (w/ Wheatley) was on the moon! I miss those great Michigan teams of my childhood (1990-2000)
I love the legend Keith Jackson calls Wheatley's touchdown reception for the Rose Bowl in 8 words. Respect to the talent of the player and the talent of the announcer. Also Brent's calls are solid and to hear Frank Beckman's radio calls are fantastic memories.
Tyrone Wheatley is my all-time favorite Wolverine running back. I love the old-school Michigan running game. How I miss the counter play from the I-formation. It brings tears to my eyes to see the tailback following the the pulling backside guard and tackle with a fullback kick-out block. Give me good old fashion power running over today's sissy spread plays any day.
To be objective. I'm 37, and have lived in Iowa my whole life. I bleed black and gold. One of my best friends in high school was a coach at Ohio State from 2011-2013, so I'm pretty partial to that school because of the great trips I had in/to Columbus. In my opinion, Tyrone Wheatley is the greatest college football player I've ever seen. Just terrifying, the amount of talent he had when they went up against Iowa. I'm sure he's better for it as a human being, but professionally he should have left after his junior year. What a monster...
@Boondock Saint Very fair. AP and Ricky were the only guys of those 4 I saw live. I'd still take Wheatley over those 2 in the college game. It's really pulling hairs. All 4 of the backs you mentioned were incredible.
@@jeffduflo8204 Very fair. But I never saw him in college. I know the numbers he had in 1988 were absolutely ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they can't add his bowl game to those totals even though they do that now. It's so stupid. They know the numbers.
My favourite Michigan rb for sure. Those Moeller-coached teams were superb. One can only surmise what the program would have been of he hadn't had to resign.
Wheatley understood angles so well..he makes such smart turns and cuts...strong and so fast. That was a well-organized offense. I don't think I've ever seen a player cover ground like him. A guy who loved playing football.
I am an Ohio State fan all the way but really liked this back for Michigan. Occasionally I like a Michigan player even if I'm not routing for their team ever. Great running back; speed, power, heart.
Wheatley came along after I was a student at the U, but other than Anthony Carter, I don't remember a player that was more exciting to watch. The BLOCKING that he got, too, was just outstanding.
I'm a lifelong Penn St fan from a family that had season tickets for 32 years, and these highlights remain some of my favorite college football highlights on yt. He was fun to watch, except for 2 games haha. The 93-94 Michigan teams remain a small mystery to me, I don't know how they lost 8 games with this guy.
Lytle power, Robinson speed, Morris elusiveness.......best-ever UM back. He and Barry Sanders were the only RBs that could run for 15 seconds on ANY play.....'course, Ty would be in the endzone, and Barry would be running in circles around his O-line...:).
boy the speed on him I was just amazed when I was a kid with him he was my first Michigan Jersey I ever got . WHO'S GOT IT BETTER THAN US ? Nobody!!!!!! GO BLUE !!!!!!!!!
Chris Perry was a Heisman finalist and I would say, Mike Hart would be superstar material. Pretty sure he had led the NCAA in rushing for a year or two.
@@terrypowers7806 Tyrone Wheatley was a dual threat, running and receiving. Clutch performance in big games. Most TDs rushing and receiving. 1st round draft pick. NFL career.
I was looking for some of his Raider highlights, that's where most of my memories are of this guy. I had no idea he was such a beast in college, god damn. His college highlights are as fun to watch as Reggie Bush's.
Yeah, he was a fuckin god in college. He was one of those few backs who seems to have everything, speed, quickness, athleticism, great vision, great moves, and of course he was a massive RB to boot. Unfortunitely he had major knee injuries when he was at the Giants early in his career, and sadly he was never the same after that. In spite of that though, when he was at Oakland - he still was a pretty damn good back, just not close to being the sort of back he looked like he was going to become early on. He basically went from Bo Jackson to Jerome Bettis, (Bettis when he was in his final seasons that is). I was a massive Raiders fan along with being a Michigan fan, so when he and Charles Woodson wound up on my favorite pro team, i couldn't have been happier.
I miss the days when Michigan would just dominate opponents on the ground. Wheatley had the ultimate blend of size and speed. Once he got in the open field there was no catching him
Tim Biakabatuka, Jamie Morris, Tyrone Wheatley, etc. UM hasn't had a running back who could switch on beast mode in FAR too long. It's time. Welcome back to A squared coach Wheatley! :)
I love how he knows he is so fast that he can out run the defenders so sometimes he'll run slow to the defender, make one good juke move and then he is gone.
tonoslim It really was like giving Denard: better vision, 3 inches & 40 lbs. Guy was a freak. Glad to have him back home for as long as he wants to stay.
As an Ohio State fan, I have to say he is the one Michigan player I really liked. I Hated every other Michigan player in their entire history but I liked Wheatley he was great to watch. Great power and speed. Good smash mouth football.
Got to say Wheatley was awesome, i grew up when OSU and Michigan were competitive. OSU is a great football program, I worked in Zanesville last year for the better part of a year, lots of talk before the game, dead silent after. GO BLUE
I would say Bo Jackson Ladainian Tomlison, Willis McGahee, Rashan Salam, Reggie Bush, Adrian Peterson, Marshall Faulk, Hershal Walker, Darren Mcfadden, Warrick Dunn are some that could turn that corner like that but your right it's a hand full of elite backs blessed with that GOD given talent. I'd like to see someone name a caucasian running back that could move like that lol.. I'll wait!
I don't see Faulk, Tomlinson, or McGahee (and I'm a Miami fan) getting that edge, and outrunning everyone, quite like that. Not against a team that was good enough to make the Rose Bowl, anyways.... I haven't watched any Salam highlights in a LONG time, tho.
It's scary to have a running back the size and strength of a defensive lineman and the speed of a defensive back. That's a near impossible feat to stop him. Tyrone Wheatley is what I envision when I see a Michigan running back: big, strong, fast.
I don't have a team, just love college football, but this is when Michigan had OSU's number. I thought he would have had a better pro career, but he was a joy to watch while at Michigan.
In spite of the slew of phenomenal RB's Michigan's been blessed with over the years, (especially over the past three decades or so), Tyrone still easily stands out as Michigan greatest RB of all time! Hell, he's one of the greatest most unstoppable RB's in college football history for that matter! It's an absolute travesty that he never got the heisman. And why he's simply better than everybody else doesn't merely have to do with the impressive stats he racked up either, it's also because of his unbelievably impressive skill-set and versatility. As well as his simply mind-blowing physical ability and athletic talent/potential. And it's i these attributes that truly set him apart from the other greats. He did also go on to have a great start in the NFL and was one of the best backs in the league for a couple of years with the Raiders before being plagued with injuries that ultimately transformed him into your prototypical power-back. Guys like A-Train, Perry, Chris Howard, Biakabatuka, Hoard, and Minor are all unbelievably great at pretty much everything, ad were physically huge and powerful along wit being quicker and faster than your average RB. It's rare for a team to have more than one of these types of backs over the span of a decade, whereas with Michigan, starting with Tyrone, you then ended up having five over the same time frame! But all those guys were extremely versatile, they were however significantly better in a few areas than they were in others. With A-Train- you had a guy with great speed and power, and tough he was impressively quick/agile for a monster of a bac that he was, he most certainly was still more of a power back. Where as with Perry you had the opposite, though he was taller than an average back to go with even better speed and awesome quickness/agility to go along with being the best receiving RB in Michigan history with only Chris Howard being anywhere close to him in that regard. The fact is he was a bit on the skinny side and while could certainly bowl over dudes far better than average - he was still not nearly as powerful as he was agile and also was prone to injury which like Wheatley - robbed him of having a good pro career. Tyrone on the other hand was pretty much equally phenomenal at every facet. The only guy who was as versatile and similarly unstoppable was Biakabatuka, but even he wasn't quite on the same level as big #6! I'm really hoping that Zack Carbonnet could be the second coming of Wheatley. He's the only guy I've seen to come to Michigan in a long while who's had all the physical ability and potential that Wheately had. Isaac was really close, but was either injured all the time, or was sadly immensely underutilized by Harbaugh. I never understood why when you got a guy like him, who can literally do pretty much everything all the other Rb's were best at as well or even better! He was pretty much better than Higden at everything, while not being as agile as Evans or Smith, he was close while also being more powerful, better at breaking tackles, and also being every bit if not even more explosive. Of course he finally got a chance to demonstrate that during the first half of his final year where he finally had become their go-to back, but sadly that was cut short by him getting injured once again.
Tyrone is literally the best all-around RB in Michigan history and maybe even all of college football history! Not in stats or in terms of awards, but with regards to his physical attributes and abilities. He similarly would have been a phenomenal pro RB as well if he hadn't gotten injured so badly after his first couple seasons. Which sucks, because he was looking great those early years prior to all those injury problems. He was a tall and very strong back which allowed him to break tackles with absolute ease all while being immensely quick and agile. There have been other big backs who were really quick, like Jerome Bettis in his early years with the Rams, but the only other huge RB who was both as exceptionally quick and as ridiculously explosive as Wheatley was, was Bo Jackson! And no, I'm not exaggerating, Tyrone was just that damn good. Michigan has been blessed to have had a number of freakishly stunning "super-backs" over the past few decades though, and Wheatley was merely the best of them. Whether we're talking about Perry, Thomas, Biakabatuka, or the criminally underrated Brandon Minor - all these guys to an extent fit that great-at-everything RB type. As awesome as those guys all were, none of them were quite as physically gifted in each and every aspect as Tyrone was. And he wasn't just physically great either, he also was a good receiving back as well, especially because he was such a tall RB made him that much more dangerous in that regard. He also was a superb blocker and had both excellent vision and moves when he had the ball in his hands. He was so damn good that even after all those injuries and surgeries, while at the Raiders during the late 90's and early 2000's, he still managed to put up decent numbers and even lead them in rushing yardage couple times. He didn't have the breakaway top end speed, nor the great quickness and great moves the way he did prior to those injuries, but he still had his strength and power which still allowed him to at least be an excellent power back.
The speed, the agility, the power are amazing. However, I don't think it's taking anything away from TW by saying he was getting some *serious* blocking by those front line monsters. Good job, guys!
Student at UM fro 92-96 here.....how I wish we could turn back time and stop Gary Moeller from drinking that last double shot of tequila...🤦🏼♂ The guy was a hell of a coach and recruiter. Lloyd Carr rode Moeller's recruiting to the 97 NC and Moeller never would have sabotaged the program or his exit the way Idiot Carr did. Every time I see clips of Gary out there sadness hits juts a little.
Yeah his first couple years there he was a beast. It's too bad though he had some major injuries right after that and went from being the pretty much perfect all-around RB and transformed into pretty much a great power RB. Cuz he was faster than most scat-backs, while also being ridiculously quick and agile to go along with all that size and power - he was unstoppable. Reminds me a hell of a lot of Bo Jackson in both how super-human his abilities were and how similarly how his success at Oakland was cut short due to injury - (nothing like what b went through, true - cuz he did come back eventually and definitely contributed to those great Gannon years for sure). He was better than Napoleon and i think in those first couple years he was also better than Garner who was Reggie Bush before there was a Reggie Bush, but wasn't near as effective as a runner and shoulda been more of a change up back imo.
A big powerful bruising punishing RB yet with blazing speed as well. A commodity one does not see very often. Most fine RBs are one or the other but not both.
so odd seeing him as a speed back... I mostly remember him for his good years with the Raiders as a powerback or the Thunder to Kaufman/Garner's Lightning
Except Dayne never had nearly the speed and quickness of Wheatley. Tyrone got injured and when he came back he never was the same. Ron on the other hand at his peak abilities, was pretty much where Tyrone was after his injuries. That's not to say Ron wasn't a great short-yardage power back, (which he should have been used as from the get-go), that's more to say that Tyrone was just that physically gifted prior to those injuries.
it's amazing those teams ever lost. outside of the florida st and washington rose bowl game, i bet they rawly lost by more than seven points for a 8 year stretch. wheatley was best in a BACKFIELD of STUDS! Powers and johnson were good backs! biaukabutuka and wheatley are michigan BEST back to back combo. Wheatley sure knew how to get in that endzone! alot of GREAT TAILBACKS, but i'd take wheatley everytime.
