Michigan Wins its First Nat'l Championship

12 - 0. How sweet it is!

I give all the credit to my defense. They gave on on average 47 total yards/game, giving up only 13 points all season. The defensive line was unbelivable, but the man was Scott McClintock, who re-wrote the record books for defense. He finished out his senior year with 39 sacks, setting school and NCAA records, plus he had 9 sacks in one game, another NCAA record vs. Indiana. McClintock also came in 5th in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Jerome Jackson - stud! Surpassed the 2000 yard mark on the ground during the National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl vs. USC (yes, a rematch!). Michigan won, 56-0, with a 200 yard performance from Jackson. Jackson also took home a lot of hardware at the end of the season, including the Heisman and Walker Trophies. Also First Team All-American and First Team Big Ten.

The offensive line was stellar yet again, with one of my guys winning best offensive lineman of the year and my center winning the Rimington Trophy for the second straight year. I narrowly missed out on winning the Best Tight End Trophy with Freshman Mike Moss, who ripped it up. Coach Lloyd Carr finished 3rd in the Coach of the Year voting.

There's so much about this team to be proud of, but I cannot list them all. I had a great senior class graduating, plus Jackson and couple of other guys who are surpassing their senior year to move on to the pros (Madden 2005, second draft class). I got a little smarter this time during Recruiting, giving more prospects more attention by using less points. During my first Recruiting session, I had only signed 9 guys, but this year, I got 19. Michigan was rated #1 in the nation as far as top recruiting classes go. I missed out on getting a wide receiver that I was after, so I had to accept a walk-on. Other than that, I got a pretty good incoming class of freshman coming in.

To top it all off, Michigan got the #1 spot in the Pre-Season Coaches Poll, while the Miami Hurricanes took the #1 spot in the Media Poll, with Michigan at #2. For toughest place to play, Michgian Stadium improved from its #12 spot to #6.

During the off-season, LSU and Florida State both offered me 3-year contracts to coach their programs. After winning the Nat'l Championship with Michigan and having already signed a 3-year contract with them, I'm going to be loyal for a while, maybe even possibly signing another deal after this contract is up. Otherwise, it would be nice to take on another program in another conference to see what I can do.