Lloyd Carr, Michigan Football Coach (1995 – 2007)
(Image courtesy of www.peoplequiz.com)
On Friday October 31, 2014 the University of Michigan’s athletic director Dave Brandon resigned. When will Brady Hoke go? Who knows? We think it is inevitable. Michigan football is not what it used to be. We thought it would be interesting to see what it actually used to be.
Michigan is the all time leader in college football victories with a record of 916-328-36. That is a winning percentage of 73.0% over 1280 games. Based on which polls you think are legitimate, Michigan has won 16 national championships. Michigan itself claims 11 of these national championships.
What does this actually mean? Well, first of all, Michigan has been playing football for a long time, since 1879. A key to having the most victories is having started earlier than most. On closer inspection of these titles (see the table below) reveals that in the last 66 years Michigan has won one, that is one National Championship. Of the 11 they claim, four were from 1901 to 1904; one was during the WW I shortened schedule era.
- 1901, Fielding H. Yost, 11–0
- 1902, Fielding H. Yost, 11–0
- 1903, Fielding H. Yost, 11–0–1
- 1904, Fielding H. Yost, 10–0
- 1918, Fielding H. Yost, 5–0
- 1923 Fielding H. Yost Billingsley, 8–0
- 1932, Harry G. Kipke Dickinson, 8–0
- 1933, Harry G. Kipke, 7–0–1
- 1947, Fritz Crisler, 10–0
- 1948, Bennie Oosterbaan, 9–0
- 1997, Lloyd Carr, 12–0
Yes Michigan has won its share of Big Ten titles, but they haven’t been great in over 80 years! Their legacy coach Bo Schembechler was an astounding 2-8 in the Rose Bowl. In the last ten years their record has been 73 -53, hardly stellar. (This includes three of Lloyd Carr’s last years.)
So the question is simple: what exactly is the Michigan standard? What is a respectable season for Michigan? Please comment via the button below.
We don’t think the standard is very high and has not been for a long time, around 80 years precisely. To turn it back to where the program was 15 years ago shouldn’t be hard, but to emerge as a power house, it will be highly unlikely, as Michigan’s heyday was over 80 years ago.