40 days until Michigan football: Remembering the 1983 Wolverines
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the 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.
With 40 days to go until the start of Michigan football’s 2023 season, we remember the 1983 Wolverines, who went 9-3 (8-1 in Big Ten play) in head coach Bo Schembechler’s 15th season the job, finishing second in the conference standings.
The Wolverines beat both Michigan State and Ohio State, but suffered losses at No. 16 Washington, at No. 9 Illinois and in the Sugar Bowl to No. 3 Auburn. Rick Rogers led the team with 1,0002 rushing yards, while Steve Smith threw for 1,420 passing yards and racked up 2,087 yards of total offense. Sim Nelson had 494 receiving yards and kicker Bob Bergeron had 76 points on the season.
Smith was the team MVP, and offensive linemen Stefan Humphries and center Tom Dixon were first-team All-Americans. Humphries, Dixon, Bergeron, defensive linemen Al Sincich and Kevin Brooks and defensive back Evan Cooper all earned All-Big Ten team honors.
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However, the year is probably most known for what occurred prior to the start of the season. Schembechler delivered the most famous speech in Michigan history when he pontificated about “The Team, The Team, The Team.”
“We want the Big Ten championship and we’re gonna win it as a Team. They can throw out all those great backs, and great quarterbacks, and great defensive players, throughout the country and in this conference, but there’s gonna be one Team that’s gonna play solely as a Team. No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here. You will never play for a Team again. You’ll play for a contract. You’ll play for this. You’ll play for that. You’ll play for everything except the team, and think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is, The Team. We’re gonna win it. We’re gonna win the championship again because we’re gonna play as team, better than anybody else in this conference, we’re gonna play together as a team. We’re gonna believe in each other, we’re not gonna criticize each other, we’re not gonna talk about each other, we’re gonna encourage each other. And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know, it’s gonna be Michigan again, Michigan.”
Michigan football countdown to kickoff
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