Head Coach Tom Amstutz accepts congratulations from Rocket fans following Toledo's 13-10 victory over Michigan in 2008.
Rocket Blog: My 12 All-Time Favorite Rocket Football Victories
10/31/2020 12:38:00 PM | Football
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University of Toledo Associate Athletic Director for Communications Paul Helgren shares his 12 favorite Rocket Football victories since 1998, the year he began working with Toledo Football. No. 1 and the final entry on his list is the Rockets' 13-10 win over his alma mater, the University of Michigan, in 2008.
For me, the most memorable thing about Toledo's 13-10 victory over Michigan in 2008 was the ending – both of them.
First, the ending you know about. The one where Michigan's K.C. Lopata's chip shot field goal attempt veered left with four seconds left, setting off a wild celebration of Rocket fans, those thousands witnessing in the Big House and as well as those watching on TV around the country. In hindsight, that miss seems like a parting gift from football gods to "Toledo Tom" Amstutz, the Rocket head coach, whose long and illustrious career would be over just six weeks later.
Then there was the other ending that came about two hours after the game was over. In a big win like that, post-game interviews can go much longer than usual, and this game was no exception. I thought we were finally done when Rob Powers, the sports anchor from WTVG in Toledo, asked for one more interview with Coach Amstutz on the field.
We were the only ones on the turf, just the three of us. The cavernous stadium that just 90 minutes earlier had been crammed with 107,267 fans was now empty, save for us and the cleanup crew. When the interview concluded, Coach Amstutz left to join his waiting family, while Rob headed for the press box. I decided to linger on the field just a little while longer, all by myself on the 50-yard line.
I took a look around this hallowed gridiron one last time and asked myself, did this just happen? Did Toledo really just beat Michigan? I remember consciously thinking: remember this moment.
Michigan, the football team, was the team of my dreams growing up in suburban Detroit. I lived and died with the mighty Maize and Blue. My dad and I loved to listen to Bob Ufer call the action on the radio (most games weren't on TV back then, can you believe it?). Ufer was the ultimate homer. He used to honk a horn when Meeeshigan scored. Some people sneered at his antics. We loved him. But most all we loved Michigan Football.
Tyrrell Herbert ran this interception
back 100 yards for Toledo's
only touchdown of the game.
Michigan, the school, is where I went to college. I wanted to be a sports writer so naturally I worked at the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. There I learned the craft of writing a good sports story. I also learned a thing or two from the legendary Michigan football coach, Bo Schembechler, who had little regard for people like me, that is to say, sports writers.
From the moment I arrived at the stadium that beautiful October morning until my drive back to Toledo that evening, the entire day felt like an extended trip down memory lane. It had been 24 years since I had been in the Michigan Stadium press box. As I stepped out of the creaky elevator, I felt as if I had walked into a Twilight Zone time warp. The press box had not changed, not one bit. Everything was exactly the same. Same worn carpeting, same weathered old photos on the wall, same mediocre food for the media. But there also were also some of the same friendly faces there to greet me. Bruce Madej, the longtime sports information director who helped me get my start in the business, was still there, as was his erstwhile deputy Jim Schneider. One of my old Michigan Daily comrades, Drew Sharp, was there too, covering the game for the Detroit News.
I recall that Drew had been tough on Bo back in the day, so you had to wonder what he made of Michigan's new coach that year, Rich Rodriguez. His Wolverines were 2-3 headed into the Toledo game, coming off an embarrassing 45-20 home-field loss to Illinois. But even the most pessimistic scribes were not predicting much of fight from Toledo, so surely they must have felt that RichRod at least would be getting back to .500.
The Rockets were struggling too, 1-4 and coming off an equally embarrassing 31-0 loss to Ball State at the Glass Bowl. Amstutz had won two MAC championships in his first five seasons at the helm but now was on his way to his third consecutive losing campaign. So even the most optimistic Rocket fans were probably not very hopeful. Toledo was a 28-point underdog, if I recall correctly.
And yet, it happened. So many things went right for Toledo that day. A botched fake punt by the Rockets at midfield gave Michigan an early chance to take the lead. But on second-and-goal from the five-yard line, Steven Threat's pass was picked off by safety Tyrrell Herbert in the end zone and returned for a 100-yard touchdown, the longest interception return in both Toledo history and in the storied history of Michigan Stadium.
Despite a record 20 receptions by junior wide receiver Nick Moore, the Rocket offense failed to score a touchdown. The defense on the other hand, kept Toledo in the game. Michigan tied it up in the first quarter and took a 10-7 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Wolverines would not score again, while Toledo would manage only two field goals, the last of which could easily been seen as proof that fate was on the Rockets' side.
Desmond Marrow celebrates with fans after Toledo's
big win in the Big House.Â
Toledo tied the score, 10-10, in its first possession of the second half on a 29-yard Alex Steigerwald field goal. After the teams traded punts through the rest of the third quarter, Herbert came up with his second interception of the day at the UM 40-yard line. Toledo could only move the ball to the 31, which set up a career-long Steigerwald field-goal attempt from 48 yards out. The eventual game-winning kick had just enough oomph, bouncing off the cross bar and over for a 13-10 Rocket lead. Miracle number-one was in the books.
Following another exchange of punts, the Rockets grabbed their third interception of the game, this time a diving grab by safety Mark Singer at the UT 27-yard line with 3:44 left in the game. A long drive could run out the clock and give Toledo the win.
Junior DaJuane Collins broke free for a 24-yard gain that put the Rockets into enemy territory. Toledo then faced fourth-and-two from the 32, but Amstutz passed on a 49-yard field-goal attempt and went for the first down. Quarterback Aaron Opelt's short pass to tight end John Allen was stopped at the line of scrimmage, giving Michigan the ball with 1:32 left.
With the clock running down, quarterback Nick Sheridan hit running back Sam McDuffie for a 29-yard gain down to the UT 18-yard line. A Michael Shaw run moved the ball to the nine with 18 seconds left. The Wolverines were now in position to pull out the comeback victory. But Sheridan's next two passes were incomplete, leaving Michigan with having to settle for the game-tying field goal.
You could not have asked for an easier field-goal attempt. Twenty-six yards away on the right hash. A perfect setup for a right-footed kicker. The snap was perfect, the hold steady. And yet, somehow, some way, Lopata's kick hooked east, just barely outside the left upright.
The on-field celebration that followed was euphoric. As the final seconds ticked off, the Rockets ran around the Michigan Stadium field, tossing their helmets to the sky. Some of them jumped into the stands to join the party with Rocket fans who filled the south end zone. Grabbed by WTOL sports anchor Dan Cummins on the field, Amstutz broke down with emotion.
"I'm really proud…" He stopped, fighting off the tears. Cummins put his hand on the coach's broad right shoulder. "I'm really proud of the players. They never quit. I give them all the credit. They did a great job."
After an extended on-field celebration, Amstutz joined his players in the locker room for a joyous chorus of the fight song, followed by a giddy press conference in a packed little space deep below the Big House grandstands.
As for me, it was a wonderously strange high point in my career as a sports publicist. From an outside view, it was nothing more than a struggling Toledo team upsetting a historically bad Michigan squad (both teams wound up with identical 3-9 records). But to me, it so much more. The Rockets, a team I had lived and died with for the past 10 years, had done the impossible. They had slayed the giant, defeated the mighty Wolverines in arguably the most famous college football stadium in America.
On my drive back to Toledo, I had one last thing to do to make the day complete. My dad, who had been watching the game at his home in northern Michigan, was waiting for my call. Though it must have felt a little strange for him, he was delighted with the outcome. After years of living and dying with Wolverines, today he joined me – and all of Rocket Nation -- in celebrating their defeat.
