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Michigan vs Alabama – Looking Back – 2012

Looking Back is a Special Feature by Jeff Cummins Highlighting Key Rivalry Games

The fourth installment of the series looking back at football games between Michigan and Alabama takes to the Cowboys Classic on Sept. 1, 2012 at Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) in Arlington, Texas. The national economy was stable in 2012, and overall, things were looking pretty good, particularly if you were dressed in maize and blue. Brady Hoke was now the Michigan coach, and in 2011 his Wolverines produced an 11-2 record that included wins over Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. It’s always great to be a Michigan Wolverine, but suddenly, it felt great, too.

So Michigan entered the 2012 campaign with a renewed vigor. The Wolverines chose to embrace greater challenges by playing the defending national champions at a neutral site in the south.

It was certainly an ambitious goal, but it also provided a sobering assessment of the Wolverines’ skill level. In the simplest of terms, Alabama was the better team.

As far as the competitive portion of the game, Alabama scored 31 points before Michigan scored at all.

Will Campbell sacked Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron 16 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Denard Robinson ran for a touchdown and threw a 44-yard scoring pass to Devin Gardner. The Michigan uniforms looked excellent. The Wolverines wore their old school black shoes and traditional maize pants.

Honestly, there were few positives about this game. Michigan played with courage, but needed better players and better coaches to compete with the best.

Thanks to YouTube and ESPN for the broadcast of this game. As always, we own nothing, and this blog post is provided strictly for the enjoyment of readers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ebaGzSsQk8

About Jeff Cummins

Jeff Cummins has written about football since 1998, including nine years with The Record of Hackensack, N.J. He frequently contributes feature stories to Touchdown Illustrated, an insert in the national college football game program, published by University Sports Publications, and he has also written the official pregame stories for the game programs of the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Gator Bowl, and the BCS National Championship game. He has written the preview story for the official program for the NHL Winter Classic at MIchigan Stadium, and numerous college basketball feature stories for College Hoops Illustrated, another game program insert published by University Sports Publications. In addition, he has written stories about theater, music, physical therapy, and newsletter marketing. He’s an avid Michigan football fan and long-time New York Jets season ticket holder, and he can be reached at jeffcummins@optonline.net.