The Road to Ann Arbor: Incredible Twists and Improbable Turns Along the Michigan Recruiting Trail

To my wife and kids. You are my inspiration.

Contents

Foreword by Brian Griese

Introduction

1. Reggie McKenzie

2. Jim Harbaugh

3. Jamie Morris

4. Mark Messner

5. Tripp Welborne

6. Desmond Howard

7. Jarrett Irons

8. Brian Griese

9. Tim Biakabutuka

10. Tom Brady

11. Braylon Edwards

12. Chad Henne

13. Rashan Gary

14. Aubrey Solomon

Acknowledgments

Sources

Foreword by Brian Griese

My decision to walk on the football team at the University of Michigan has been well-documented, but the story of why I chose to do so has not been told in full. The stories of many Michigan football players—and their time in Ann Arbor—are similarly well-documented, but the reasons they chose this great university have not been told either.

My time at Michigan is something I will always hold in high regard. It’s a time in my life that taught me great lessons of persistence, hard work, and not giving up in times of adversity. Those lessons have carried forward to my adult life and are part of what shaped me into who I am today. As a walk-on, I had to earn everything and prove to everyone that I was capable of playing at the level that was established before me. Even when I earned a scholarship, playing time was at a premium and was something I continued to fight for my entire college career.

I wouldn’t have had the same experience in college had it not been for Michigan and the choice I made as a high school senior in Miami, Florida, to try to earn a scholarship and a spot on the roster. Nothing was ever promised from coach Gary Moeller or Cam Cameron, but I knew that Michigan would provide me with the best combination of academics and athletics to help me in my future career.

I never had NFL aspirations in high school. So few schools were recruiting me that I figured that was out of reach. Because of that I focused a great deal of my attention on the academics at each school and what they could provide me in life after football. That is why Stanford and Michigan were two of the main schools I was considering. It was Michigan, though, that provided me the best opportunities in athletics and also afforded me the best experience for the years I spent on campus.

I always had confidence in my ability to play, so the opportunity as a walk-on didn’t deter me from thinking that I could compete at Michigan. And despite my father’s success at quarterback, I never felt entitled to anything on the football field. Instead I always wanted to put in the work and loved the competition of earning something on my own.

Throughout my recruitment I had the opportunity to hear from some great coaches, including Mack Brown at North Carolina, George Welsh at Virginia, Bill Walsh at Stanford, and many other luminaries. Those conversations throughout my recruitment and the journey I took that led me to Michigan are all told in this book—along with the stories of many other Michigan football players who walked the halls of Schembechler Hall.

Tom VanHaaren allows the stories to come back to life through the voices of the players, our families, and the coaches who recruited us. Starting from 1968 all the way to the present time, the stories and the road the players took to Ann Arbor are all different, but the relationships that were built and the reasons those players chose Michigan over many other great institutions endure through the test of time and changes in coaching staffs. This book adds those stories to Michigan football’s great history and gives you a look at how it all began for so many outstanding men who have played such a large part of Michigan’s story.

You are brought along on the journey and get a glimpse of how the decisions of many former players could have changed the entire landscape of Michigan football and its storied past. Commitments to other programs, late scholarship offers, and the decisions of other players all factored into the names who ultimately signed with the Wolverines. The endings to our stories have already been written. Now you get a chance to see how it all started and where it all began for so many great men who wore the winged helmet.

—Brian Griese

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why Desmond Howard chose to attend the University of Michigan? Why was Tom Brady recruited so late in the process? How did some of the Michigan greats get to Ann Arbor and what are their recruiting stories? Many of those stories haven’t been told—mainly because of the lack of information available. Until now.

College football recruiting has exploded into a highly anticipated, heavily covered, and thoroughly patrolled industry. Blogs and websites have popped up across the Internet to cover high school football players and track their every move, and fans are eating it up at a rapid pace.

The advancements of the Internet and the growing appetite for content has created an industry where fans are aware of every detail that happens in a high school football player’s recruiting process and sometimes everyday life. Social media has only contributed to that coverage, as the recruits themselves tweet or post the latest happenings in their recruitment.

Whether it’s which schools have offered them a scholarship, what visits they will be taking, the list of programs they’re considering, or what schools have been eliminated from consideration, it will be found somewhere on the Internet. Recruits, some of whom are only freshmen or sophomores in high school, are seeing thousands and thousands of fans follow them on social media. Their tweets, posts, and videos are monitored for any hint of what school they favor. In the pictures posted, the clothes they wear, the color of those clothes, and the school moniker on their hat or gloves are analyzed and scrutinized, as fans try to glean any meaning. From camps to combines to media days, the prospects are interviewed at every event they attend, and every question tries to find the inside scoop.

Some dedicated websites have upwards of five to six writers covering one university to track the happenings and feed their fans’ appetites for information on which blue-chip player will join their favorite team’s recruiting class. It’s not irregular or abnormal now to see prospects receiving scholarship offers as freshmen and sophomores in high school. There have even been instances of scholarship offers going to eighth graders and seventh graders, so there is more time to find out every detail of that recruit.

The coverage wasn’t always that in-depth and detailed, though, as it has really only expanded in the 21st century. Before the Internet there were a few services that provided newsletters, and preps coverage in newspapers gave some updates as well. It was nowhere near as in-depth as it is now, though. How coaches recruit has changed greatly in the past 10 years as well. Universities now have full recruiting departments with staffers dedicated to scouting and editing highlight films. Graphic designers are a staple in any athletic department to help market and advertise its various sports to fans and recruits. If a college isn’t creating photoshopped pictures for recruits, then it is likely behind in the race, which is a drastic difference in how recruits used to be courted.

Just going back to the early 1990s, it wasn’t abnormal for a highly sought-after prospect to receive some letters in the mail, some pamphlets, and a phone call from either an assistant coach or the head coach. That was it. The recruit would take a visit to the campus, a coach would come out to the recruit’s house for an in-home visit, and the prospect would decide.

There was more communication than that, but in terms of the extra frills and technology and recruiting staffs, it was non-existent. In the ’60s and ’70s and even into the ’80s, the assistant coaches often relied on help from alumni in the communities they were recruiting, former players involved with their local high schools, or sources who scouted the areas they recruited.

Recruit questionnaires were relied upon heavily to find prospects and figure out who should be recruited and who could be passed up. A questionnaire often was simply a form that college coaches would give to a high school coach or a plugged-in member of the community. Given to a high school coach, the form would ask for the names of any player on the coach’s team or the teams the coach had faced previously that he thought could play at that university. It was highly unreliable, but it was the best they could do back then. There were countless times where a prospect nearly slipped through the cracks or didn’t hear from his favorite team because they simply were unaware of him.

That is one of the largest differences from today’s recruiting landscape. Now nearly every recruit has an outlet or medium to showcase his ability and put himself in front of a college coach. Another major difference prior to the 1980s is that the recruiting process didn’t start for most prospects until their senior season and sometimes not until after their senior campaign. It wasn’t unusual to receive most of your scholarship offers once your senior season started, and the official visit process would start after the season was over. That left little time to make the final decision, but it also helped prevent any uncertainty with coaching changes and prospects changing their mind and flipping a commitment. As a result of all of this, the fans really only learned about the players on the field as they began to star in college. And even then, how he got to Michigan and why he chose Michigan oftentimes wouldn’t be revealed. At that stage it was about the team, and the past was in the past, so fans were left wondering which schools could have stolen that player away from the Wolverines.

The University of Michigan football program has won 11 national championships and 42 conference championships. It is home to the largest capacity football stadium in the country and the most wins of any college football program. The history and tradition is as long and rich as it gets, and the numbers of great football players who have stepped on the field for Michigan are countless. There have been a total of 132 players who have earned All-American honors, dating all the way back to the 1800s and through the 2000s. Some of the most iconic names in college football are associated with Michigan football, including Charles Woodson, Tom Harmon, Dan Dierdorf, Mark Messner, Reggie McKenzie, Steve Hutchinson, Howard, and Brady.

All of those players earned accolades on the field, made spectacular plays, and won hard-fought games that brought them into the hearts of Michigan fans across the country. Their play on the field made them household names and, eventually, legends in Michigan football history. The fans watched as their favorite players donned the winged helmet and went to battle with the Buckeyes and other opponents year in and year out.

Michigan fans typically have a few memorable plays that launched their fandom for a specific player, like when Howard sprawled out horizontally to catch a touchdown on fourth down against Notre Dame in 1991. Or when he struck the Heisman pose in the end zone after returning a punt for a touchdown against Ohio State in the same year. Quarterback John Wangler threw a touchdown to Anthony Carter to beat Indiana, and Carter danced in the back of the end zone. Tim Biakabutuka ran for 313 yards against Ohio State in 1995 in a 31–23 win. Chad Henne threw a touchdown to Mario Manningham in the back of the end zone on fourth down with no time left in the fourth quarter to beat Penn State 27–25.

No matter what your favorite play is, it helped cement that player as a legend and a part of Michigan history. The stories of how Michigan legends wound up at Michigan are as much a part of Michigan history as the stories written about their time at the university and on the field. Some of the best players to come through the Michigan program have never had their recruiting stories told. What schools nearly stole them away from the Wolverines, how close was it between Michigan and the opposing schools, and what really sold the players on the Wolverines?

There are plenty of good stories with twists and turns that just have not been told. It’s time for those stories to be released and for fans to get even closer to the program they love so dearly. Why did Howard spurn Nick Saban to play in Ann Arbor? How did Michigan really find All-American offensive lineman McKenzie? What did Bo Schembechler do that surprised Messner and his family?

Head coaches Bump Elliott, Schembechler, Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, and Jim Harbaugh all had different styles of recruiting and coached in different times that required unique changes to how they recruited. Each recruited All-Americans who would go on to play for championships and eventually in the NFL.

If you have ever wondered how your favorite players got to Michigan and why they chose the Wolverines, the answers to your questions are within these pages. Although there were many high school football players who just loved the University of Michigan and wanted to be a Wolverine, not every recruiting story was that straightforward. Some players nearly went to other programs and were hours away from choosing another school. These are the stories of how many Michigan greats became just that and how their road to Ann Arbor began.

Author’s Note

The University of Michigan Library provided football questionnaires for many of the athletes profiled in this book. Included at the end of several chapters, these forms were filled out by the respective players while visiting Michigan.

Mark Messner provided several of the recruiting letters he received in 1983 from coaches at several programs. These are presented chronologically to give a sense of the level of interest these sought-after, blue-chip recruits receive.

1. Reggie McKenzie

Growing up in a blue-collar family in Highland Park, Michigan, lanky high schooler Reggie McKenzie never thought he would end up an All-American offensive lineman for the University of Michigan. The humble giant never imagined he would be drafted by the Buffalo Bills and eventually lead the offensive line group nicknamed the Electric Company that blocked for O.J. Simpson during his historic 2,000-yard rushing season.

McKenzie wasn’t the only one who didn’t think football was in his future either, as most big-name college programs didn’t know anything about the 6’3", 190-pound football player and wrestler in high school. The Michigan coaching staff found him through a happenstance conversation, which led to a phone call that would forever change his life.

Born in 1950, McKenzie was one of eight children growing up near Detroit at a time of high racial tension. Police brutality sparked the Detroit riots of 1967, which were close to home and took place during McKenzie’s junior year of high school at Highland Park High. He came from a hardworking family that instilled much of his toughness early in life. The oldest of 13 children, Reggie’s father, Henry, was born in Georgia and quit school during his youth to help his father raise the family on their family farm. His mother, Hazel, went to college to become a nurse and eventually gave birth to Reggie at 40 years old and then had twins at age 41.

It was a tough family with little money, and they stuck together to get by the best they could. McKenzie credits his mother and father’s work ethic for his own and for setting the example of what toughness really looks like. Raising eight children with minimal resources and always keeping their faith, the family stood by one another. I thank God for my momma and daddy because that’s why I’m at where I’m at today, McKenzie said. They laid the groundwork. They said, ‘You want this? You go out and work for it.’ That’s just the way it was.

In high school McKenzie wasn’t the ideal size for an offensive lineman and didn’t show much in terms of proper technique. He was a powerful wrestler, though, and showed his athleticism on the mat in his wrestling meets. He showed enough progress throughout his football career that a few programs saw potential and he started to receive recruiting letters from various schools. In the 1960s, though, the actual recruiting process typically didn’t begin until a player was a senior in high school. That’s when McKenzie saw letters come in from Nebraska, Western Michigan, and Brown. I was really a Michigan State fan because you have to remember in 1966 they won the national championship with Bubba Smith, McKenzie said.

He was a fan of the Spartans and had a Michigan State coach come by his high school to conduct a preliminary interview to find out more about him as a person and player. His high school head coach, Jim Bobbitt, was an All-American for the Spartans, so he had connections at the program and knew that McKenzie could play in East Lansing, Michigan.

McKenzie had not heard a word out of the University of Michigan, so he figured that the schools that were in contact—Western Michigan and Michigan State—would be his final options. Bob Wyman was the offensive line coach at Western Michigan, and Bill Doolittle was the head coach. The two were recruiting the Highland Park linemen heavily and got McKenzie to visit Kalamazoo, Michigan, during his senior year in early 1968. That recruiting trip swung the momentum in favor of the Broncos to the point that McKenzie thought that’s where he would play football in college.

Photo courtesy of Bentley Historical Library, Athletic Department (University of Michgan) records

It was still winter in the beginning months of the year, but McKenzie was done with his high school football career and starting to look ahead to college. Kalamazoo would potentially be his new home, but Michigan State was still lurking. Then, his mother went for a routine checkup at her gynecologist, Dr. Bernard Levine, and everything changed. Levine was a Michigan graduate and football fan. During the checkup Levine asked about the young McKenzie and found out he was a football player. My mom was telling him about me and that I had been recruited by Nebraska, Michigan State, and Western Michigan and got letters from Brown, McKenzie said. He asked her if Michigan had called. She said she didn’t think so, but she would have to ask me to make sure. So Dr. Levine made a phone call to the [Michigan] coaches. Levine was an alum and he said, ‘If Michigan State is talking to him, how come Michigan isn’t down there?’

George Mans was a former Michigan player and had a brief stint in the NFL before coaching at the college level. He joined Michigan head coach Bump Elliott’s staff in Ann Arbor in 1966 after spending time as an assistant at Michigan Tech and Eastern Michigan. In those days the coaches regularly had alumni across the country who helped identify prospective student-athletes for the coaches. Bob Royal was one such alum who was a school teacher in the Detroit area. Royal and Mans knew each other well, and Royal happened to also know Dr. Levine. The doctor and Mr. Royal knew one another, and they thought here’s a guy that’s going to grow a little bit, and Michigan should take a look at him, Mans said. So they called me, and in my wisdom, I said let me call around a little bit, and nobody seemed to remember much about Reggie. So I said, ‘Well I better go down there and take a look at this young man.’ I called Dr. Levine and Mr. Royal, and they said there’s going to be a wrestling meet that Reggie will be in, and I should come down to Highland Park and watch.

Mans made plans to watch the heavyweight match that McKenzie was participating in at around 190 pounds. His size wasn’t prototypical for what Michigan looked for in offensive linemen, but Mans and Elliott loved toughness and players who worked hard, so Mans went to the wrestling match. "A young man was wrestling at 250 pounds, and I thought, Well, this will be over quickly, Mans said. Before I knew it, Reggie had this guy on his back and was all over him. He had a great disposition to mix things up, and when I met him afterward, he was such a great young man, so we went and talked to his high school football coach."

Mans and McKenzie’s high school coach, Bobbitt, had played against each other in the Michigan-Michigan State games, so there was some familiarity there. Michigan had not gotten a recommendation from Bobbitt on McKenzie prior to this meeting, so this was the first communication. After the meeting with McKenzie and his coach, Mans went back to Michigan to report back to Elliott on what he saw: a scrawny kid with potential to grow who fought his way through a wrestling match against someone bigger and stronger.

The Michigan coaches worked to find some football film on McKenzie, as they couldn’t offer him a scholarship based on his wrestling technique. "On the film that we saw, the two