[COOL NEWS: MGoBlog will be at WTKA this Thursday, July 13, starting at 8:30 a.m. The first hour we’ll have Billy Taylor, Fritz Seyferth, Dr. Sap, and possibly Jim Brandstatter and Larry Cipa on to talk about BT’s TD and the early Bo years. Afterward Ace and Brian and I will talk about the stuff in HTTV, which is basically this football season.]
Coach Hanlon deserves a helmet sticker for this one. [Dr Sap]
In this year’s edition of Hail to the Victors (now sold in our online store, at Ann Arbor Underground Printing locations, at Literati, and on Kindle) Michigan historian Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis—known to many of you as the author of Dr. Sap’s Decals—spoke with all the key guys involved in Billy Taylor’s 1971 game-winning touchdown on Ohio State. If you, like me, weren’t even a glimmer in some miscreant college students’ eyes at the time, here’s that play.
Coach Jerry Hanlon, Bo’s right hand man and definitively untitled guy who happened to do a lot of offensive coordination, was kind enough to go over the playcall with Dr. Sap for his article. The short version is it was a crack option sweep that they had prepared in case Ohio State showed an 8-man (goal line) front. The playbook—which Coach shared with us—had the exact eventuality planned and practiced. In fact the notes from Hanlon’s copy explicitly called for his quarterback to check—“Recognition 8 call possiblity”—into this if Ohio State went to a goal line.
Always prepared.
That is exactly what (backup) QB Larry Cipa did. So to all you UFR scorers at home, this play is definitely some kind of RPS. But there’s an older scoring system. Coach Hanlon was also the guy responsible for giving out helmet decals. So Dr. Sap asked who got one for this play, and after joking everybody did, Coach realized the kindly answer simply wouldn’t do. Not at Bo’s Schembechler’s Michigan. No, we demanded the actual scoring system. He unsurprisingly didn’t remember exactly, so Coach went over every guy’s assignment and re-scored it for us.
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Here’s the criteria the coaches used back in the day to award decals to each of their position players:
1) Was the correct assignment carried out by the player?
2) Did the player execute the proper technique?
3) Did the player follow-through on his assignment?
4) Did the player “get” his man?
If you scored 3 or higher, you were awarded a helmet sticker, but if you didn’t “get” your man, “NO STICKER FOR YOU!”
Here is the play (click to open in a different window to read):
And here are the position assignments for play 58/59:
Back-Side TE (Paul Seal): Release shallow along Line of Scrimmage; Throw and Roll 3 times.
Back-Side tackle (Jim Coode): Lead inside #2 cross-field; Peel or Turn upfield.
Back-Side Guard (Reggie McKenzie): Lead block to play-side; Head up middle guard if exposed.
Center (Guy Murdock): Lead Block “0” in odd defense; Lead with front foot to front-side; scramble and sustain; Seal backside. Even defense – lead front-side gap and pick up back-side linebacker.
Front-Side Guard (Tom Coyle): Lead block ready to pick up angle in tackle when #1 is LB; Fire hard with head up; Do not get body turned; Sustain.
Front-Side Tackle (Jim Brandstatter): Lead block #2; Get head and arms beyond; Scramble and sustain; Keep long axis of body upfield; Be ready to pick up LB on angle in.
Front-Side Tight End (Paul Seymour): Seal man in tackle area; If not needed, seal LB; Release deeper; Ready to block man crossing your face; Prevent penetration; Block #3(DE) if #4(CB) is on Line of Scrimmage.
Front-Side Split-Out (Bo Rather): Use Rooster or Crack block; On corner coverage, bump corner.
Quarterback (Larry Cipa): Open and sprint to the end; Option End; Pitch ball whenever possible. Look pitch to tailback.
Fullback (Fritz Seyferth): Sprint to play-side gaining one yard to end-of-line area; Do not turn up too soon; Sprint to widest defender and overthrow on him; Block any defender who crosses your path.
Tailback (Billy Taylor): Sprint to play-side; Keeping phase (4 yards away) on FB; Keep eyes on QB; Look ball in on pitch; Cut off the FB’s block (never cut upfield until FB blocks).
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So without further ado, here’s how he’d score it:
Seal: “Released inside. Not a great block. Made contact. Changed course of defender. (3)”
Coode:“Led inside, but did not get upfield. Don’t really want to give him a two…(reluctant 2)”
McKenzie: “4”
Murdock: “4”
Coyle: “4”
Brandstatter: “Led technically on 2-Call. Did not “get” man, changed his course enough…(2, borderline 3)”
Seymour: “Did not sustain, but did seal inside. (3)”
Rather: “Good position & technique. Should have followed-through more. (4)”
Cipa: “Pretty good optioning of end, but does end up blocking him. (4)”
Seyferth: “Great open-field block. Just a wonderful block. (4)”
Taylor:“4”