Michigan football countdown to kickoff: 81 days until 2022 season
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 3 opener against Colorado State. We’ll discuss the current Michigan events, upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan football finds itself 81 days away from the start of the year. This brings us to the best to wear No. 81 in program history in defensive lineman Glen Steele.
Having a storied and productive career at the University of Michigan. Steele is a product of West Noble High School near Ligonier, Indiana and joined the program in 1993. His first season was a redshirt year, but he would find a way to crack the lineup and become a stalwart from 1994-97.
Steele was one of the driving forces on the 1997 National Championship team, finishing the year with 45 total tackles (14 for loss) seven sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries. This earned him the Richard Katcher Award as the top Michigan defensive lineman that season in addition to All-Big Ten first-team selection and first-team All-American status from the American Football Coaches Association.
Steele finished his Michigan career with 45 tackles for loss and 24 career sacks, which was second-most in team history when he graduated. His play allowed him to be selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth round of the 1998 NFL Draft.
Pro football career that spanned six seasons
Steele played 80-straight games with the Bengals between 1993-2003 before signing with the New York Giants during the 2004 offseason. The Giants released him and he signed with Cincinnati again shortly after. The Bengals let him go on Sept. 5, 2004. His NFL career would come to an end after a tryout with the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite the way things ended, Steele told the Goshen News in 2016 that he has no issues with anything about his football life.
“I played six years and have no regrets,” he said. “That is the highest level you can go in football. Not a lot of guys can say they played in the NFL. “I may not have been the most athletic guy in the NFL, but there was no way I was going to let you outwork me. My goal was to always have more left in the tank in the fourth quarter than my opponent. My mindset was we can do this all day long and I’m going to win more than I’m going to lose.
“Things are a lot different in the NFL. It’s a job. You are getting paid to play football every day.”
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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