Michigan football countdown to kickoff: 42 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 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.
Forty two. That’s a lot of points to score in a college football game, with only two teams averaging more than that mark per game during the 2021 season. Ohio State was one of them, registering a nation’s-best 45.7 points per outing.
But Nov. 27, 2021, the Buckeyes were held to just 27 points, their second-lowest output of the season (despite their head coach, Ryan Day, saying he’d ‘hang 100’ on the Maize and Blue). Michigan, on the other hand, exploded for 42 points in that rivalry tilt, then did so again the next week in the Big Ten championship game against Iowa.
Michigan scored more points against Ohio State than any of OSU’s opponents that season. It was the first time that the Buckeyes had surrendered more than 40 points that campaign. The last time they gave up more points was to Alabama (52) in the national championship game in January of 2021.
Michigan’s 42 points were the most the Wolverines have scored on Ohio State since they hung 58 in Columbus in 1946 and are the third-most they’ve ever put up on the Buckeyes.
Michigan racked up 297 yards on the ground, behind a historic performance from redshirt sophomore running back Hassan Haskins, who went for 169 yards on 28 carries with five scores, tying the school’s all-time single-game rushing touchdown record (Ron Johnson vs. Wisconsin in 1968).
Against Iowa in Indianapolis, Michigan started fast with two big-play touchdowns — a 67-yard run by Blake Corum and a 75-yard trick-play pass by Donovan Edwards to Roman Wilson — but the offense stagnated in the second quarter (the Wolverines totaled just 53 yards, averaged 2.7 yards per play, went 1 of 5 on third-down conversions and threw an interception during the second stanza).
After making halftime adjustments, Michigan’s offense kicked into gear in the third and fourth quarters, when the College Football Playoff became so close the Wolverines could taste it. Michigan tight end Luke Schoonmaker had two catches — a 27-yarder and a 22-yarder — that set up Wolverine scores. Position-mate Erick All chipped in with a 38-yard catch on a flea flicker in the fourth quarter that put the Wolverines in position to score their final touchdown of the game.
All in all, it resulted in a 42-3 smashing victory to win the program’s first conference title since 2004, breaking a program-long 17-year title championship drought.
Jersey number spotlight: Billy Taylor
Running back Billy Taylor was a three-time All-Big Ten honoree from 1969-71, and stands ninth on Michigan’s all-time rushing yards list with 3,072 yards. That was a record-breaking number at the time but Rob Lytle shattered that six years later.
The most famous play of Taylor’s career was his 21-yard game-winning touchdown against Ohio State in 1971. The Wolverines trailed, 7-3, at the time, and Taylor ran it in to make it 10-7, which was the final score.
Bob Ufer‘s call, naturally, added to the all-time great moment.
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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