Michigan football countdown to kickoff: 89 days until 2022 season

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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.

There are officially less than 90 days until Michigan starts its much-anticipated 2022 campaign, so let’s take a look at a few notable U-M football storylines surrounding the number 89.

First, the 89 receptions former Michigan wide receiver Jeremy Gallon hauled in during the 2013 season. That single-season marks stands second in Michigan history, behind Braylon Edwards‘ 97 catches in 2013.

Gallon is one of the 10 pass catchers in Michigan history to record a season with 1,000 or more receiving yards. The Opopka, Fla. native holds the program record for receiving yards in a single campaign, with 1,373 in 2013, and is third in career yards (2,704).

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In our eyes, Gallon, whose five-year Michigan career spanned from 2009-13, is one of the most under appreciated U-M players of the 21st century. The likely reason: His career spanned from 2009-13, which included some dark days under former head coaches Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke. Still, he landed on The Wolverine‘s 2010s all-decade team, one of two wide receivers along with teammate Roy Roundtree.

That 2013 season especially, Gallon and quarterback Devin Gardner had a special connection. Gardner completed 208 passes, which stands 11th in the Michigan record book, with the wideout being his favorite receiver.

The highlight of the season from an individual standpoint was Gallon’s 369-yard receiving day against Indiana, which shattered the Wolverines’ record for most receiving yards in a game. That record was previously held by Roundtree (246 against Illinois in 2010).

Watch the highlights from Michigan’s 63-47 win over the Hoosiers:

1989: Bo Schembechler’s last season as Michigan coach

The year 1989 was legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler‘s last season at the helm of the Maize and Blue, and it was a memorable one. The Wolverines posted a 10-2 record and won the Big Ten title, the final of Schembechler’s 13 conference championships, highlighted by a 28-18 win over Ohio State to cap off the regular season. Michigan made the Rose Bowl and lost to USC, 17-10.

Schembechler didn’t quit working when he gave up his football team — which he called “the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do” — that year. He had taken over the athletic director job in 1988 and led the department in 1990.

One of the most-told Schembechler tales surrounded the 1989 basketball team. Before the NCAA Tournamen, then-head coach Bill Frieder announced he would depart after the season to take the job as Arizona State head coach. Schembechler pulled a rare move and fired Frieder, who accumulated a 189-89 record at Michigan from 1981-89, promoting assistant Steve Fisher to interim head coach.

“A Michigan man will coach a Michigan team,” Schembechler said at the time.

Fisher and Co. won six straight games, including an overtime thriller over Seton Hall in the title game, to take home the program’s first NCAA championship. Schembechler was on hand to witness the final Michigan victory in Seattle.

All-time jersey number spotlight: WR Richard Rifenburg

Former Michigan wide receiver Richard Rifenburg was arguably the school’s top player to wear the No. 89. He played from 1944-48. He started nine games for the 1947 team nicknamed the ‘Mad Magicians,’ before an even better season in 1948.

The latter season, his final at Michigan, he caught 22 passes for 508 yards and earned consensus All-America honors. The team went 9-0 and won the national championship for a second straight year, and Rifenburg finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting.

Current jersey number spotlight: TE Carter Selzer

Michigan graduate tight end Carter Selzer — ‘The Sheriff’ — earned his nickname, certainly, but not many in the program remembers exactly why.

“I don’t know exactly why he’s The Sheriff,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said last season. “It’s stuck. I call him The Sheriff now too, but I don’t know why.”

Safeties coach and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, who worked with the Michigan tight ends from 2015-16 and 2021, actually was the one to dub Selzer ‘The Sheriff.’

“During spring ball [in 2021], he delivered an impressive stiff arm,” MLive’s Andrew Kahn wrote, profiling the Michigan tight end. “Tight ends and special teams coach Jay Harbaugh started calling him ‘the long arm of the law.’ Over the summer, Selzer worked as a bouncer at legendary campus bar Good Time Charley’s and its neighboring establishment, The Cantina. Once Jay Harbaugh discovered this — and perhaps realizing his initial moniker was a mouthful — Selzer became The Sheriff.”

Selzer is a sixth-year senior, having been with the Michigan program since 2017, and has become a natural leader for the Maize and Blue. A former walk-on, Selzer earned a scholarship ahead of the 2021 campaign and decided to return for an encore this fall.

Selzer has appeared in 24 career games, mostly on special teams, and finally caught his first career pass against for six yards in the Big Ten championship game against Iowa last year.