Michigan football countdown to kickoff: 96 days until 2022 season

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On3 image — (Photo by Jonathan Daniel / Allsport

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 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 96 days until Michigan football kicks off the campaign, let’s turn the clock back to 1996.

On its own, the 1996 season wasn’t anything special. But in the context of the decade, it helped set the table for the 1997 national championship. And beating Ohio State is never insignificant.

The Wolverines beat the Buckeyes in front of 94,676 fans Columbus, 13-9, to conclude the regular season. The triumph was Michigan’s second in a row against the hated rival and in the middle of a decade-plus of dominance in the rivalry, with U-M going 12-3-1 versus Ohio State from 1985-2000.

“It was a great victory, to be able to look those people in the eye and say, `This is why I didn’t go to Ohio State. I wanted to win at Michigan,'” then-sophomore Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson, a Fremont, Ohio, native said.

Woodson, of course, was Michigan’s top player again the next season and won the 1997 Heisman Trophy. He posted four interceptions, one receiving touchdown and a rushing score in 1996, before registering seven picks, two touchdown grabs and one rushing touchdown in 1997.

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Oftentimes throughout Michigan history, a great season comes on the heels of a disappointing one, or some of the best multi-year runs come just after a few underwhelming campaigns. The Maize and Blue went 8-4 in 1996 and hadn’t won double-digit contests in six years at that point. Just like the 2021 Michigan team after going 2-4 in 2020, the ’96 Wolverines were sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Woodson had said the ‘M’ in Michigan was starting to stand for ‘mediocre,’ and wanted to put an end to that notion. Boy, did he. Michigan went 12-0 in 1997 and beat Washington State in the Rose Bowl, climbing the mountain all year and reaching the summit under head coach Lloyd Carr.

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Jehu Chesson 96 yards to the house

Michigan football was just figuring out what it was under then-first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2015. After having shut out its last two opponents and allowing just 14 points in the previous four contests, the Wolverines’ identity of strong defense was being built. Michigan was taking on No. 13 Northwestern at The Big House Oct. 10, 2015, and because of great defense, the game-winning score came just 13 seconds into the game.

Wide receiver and return man Jehu Chesson took the opening kickoff back 96 yards for a score, which stands as the sixth-longest return in Michigan history. Michigan whomped the Wildcats, 38-0, marking their third-straight shutout.

Best Michigan player to wear 96: Calvin O’Neal

Linebacker Calvin O’Neal is one of the best Michigan defenders of all time. No. 96 was a consensus All-American in 1976 and etched his name into the U-M record book. He stands first in career tackles in a game (24 vs. Purdue in 1976), sixth with 151 stops that same season and seventh with 378 career tackles. He had three interceptions, including one pick-six, in 1976.

The Michigan captain and two-time All-Big Ten honoree was a sixth-round pick in the 1977 NFL Draft and played for the Baltimore Colts in 1978, his lone season in the league.