Confident Michigan Doesn’t Overdo It

1992: Washington 34, Michigan 14.

1990: USC 17, Michigan 10.

1987: Arizona State 22, Michigan 15.

1983: UCLA 24, Michigan 14.

1979: USC 17, Michigan 10.

1978: Washington 27, Michigan 20.

1977: USC 14, Michigan 6.

1972: Stanford 13, Michigan 12.

1970: USC 10, Michigan 3.

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Nobody loses Rose Bowls the way Michigan loses Rose Bowls.

“Charles, do you think Michigan has to be at all concerned about overconfidence in this game?” an intrepid reporter, with the tenacity of a wolverine, nevertheless asked Charles Woodson when we caught up to Michigan’s main man Sunday morning in Pasadena, on his way back from church.

“No,” he answered.

“Lloyd,” another reporter obviously auditioning for “60 Minutes” interrogated Michigan’s coach, Lloyd Carr, later on, “are you at all concerned that after big games against Ohio State and Penn State and teams like that, your players might be a little overconfident for Washington State?”

“No,” he answered.

Sharp people, these Ann Arbor people. They know better. Michigan overconfident for a Rose Bowl would be like Susan Lucci overconfident for an Emmy award. I don’t care if Washington State hasn’t been in a Rose Bowl since a baby Keith Jackson was in his crib, wearing a “Future WSU Cougar” bib, dropping his rattle and saying, “Fummmble!” I can promise you, Michigan won’t be any more cocky for the Rose Bowl than the AFC will be for the Super Bowl.

Perceptions sure are funny, though. Some people act as though Washington State’s players must be shaking in their suburban Idaho boots, at the thought of tackling this mean, nasty, Jurassic monster of a Michigan team.

“I don’t feel sorry for Washington State,” Carr says, emphatically. “Anybody who falls into that trap is looking for trouble. How do you feel sorry for a team that’s 10-1?”

We all get certain ideas in our heads, that’s why. One is that Washington State is the biggest underdog since Buster Douglas, which it isn’t. I have seen Washington State and I have seen Ohio State and Penn State. I’ll take Washington State.

But then, even coaches get certain ideas in their heads.

For example, Carr was asked about the forthcoming era when the Rose Bowl game won’t necessarily be between a Big Ten team and a Pac-10 team. Carr said he hated to see this happen. He even said, “The Big Ten and the Pac-10 are the losers.”

Coach, things change. The Big Ten once had a radical idea. It had 10 schools.

Michigan has made many welcome contributions to football. (It also contributed Dan Dierdorf, but I forgive it.) All those Saturday afternoons I once spent in Ann Arbor, watching the leaves fall off the trees and listening to Michigan’s band play the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” theme while the football team would be beating poor old Purdue or Wisconsin by 60-something to zip, those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end.

Then came a little skid. A bunch of “four-loss years,” to borrow quarterback Brian Griese’s phrase.

Rose Bowls came and went, without them. A Wolverine team did win the 1981 game . . . after losing five in a row. Michigan did win the 1993 and 1989 games . . . by a touchdown apiece. Otherwise, teams with great offensive talent came to Pasadena and had difficulty scoring 20 points. (See above.)

This season’s undefeated team actually had its origins when Woodson hit campus as a freshman. Griese and teammate Tai Streets wanted to see what this whiz kid was made of, so they ran a route in practice to prove to Woodson that he couldn’t “do the things he did to high school players,” and burned him, but good.

“Tai and I had to give him an introduction to Michigan,” Griese says.

Ever since, Woodson has introduced himself. Once, just to show teammates he could do it, he dunked a basketball from a standing start. By the time he won the Heisman Trophy, this two-way superstar was so much his own man, Woodson forgot to thank his teammates or coach in his acceptance speech. He remembers this with regret, saying Sunday, “I kind of lost track what I was saying. I got caught up in the moment.”

If Michigan wins the Rose Bowl, will it be his last collegiate game?

“Why not come back and do it again?” Woodson teases.

He said it with confidence, but not overconfidence.