Mammoth Blog

Although small, the senior class of the Michigan football team has experienced enough to span several classes.

From the 2006 season -- during which the Wolverines reached No. 2 in the national rankings and nearly beat Ohio State for a spot in the national title game -- to Lloyd Carr's retirement to the past two years of once-in-a-generation futility, the seniors have seen it all.

Many of their classmates have departed -- five fifth-year seniors remain from the 2005 freshman class and 13 from the 2006 class -- but the ones who endured through the tumult have impressed U-M coach Rich Rodriguez.

"I think the greatest accomplishment you can have as a college football player is completing through your senior year and graduating," Rodriguez said, entering Saturday's noon regular-season finale against Ohio State. "Even more so than making All-American, All-Big Ten, you've devoted four or five years of your life to the university, to the program, to your teammates. You want it to be a special week that they remember.

"Obviously, if you play well in a game and you win the game, it makes the memory even more so. ... It's a small group. I've only been with them a couple years, didn't recruit 'em. But I have a lot of fond memories of them. It's a very, very special group to me. They're great young men. They're all on track to already graduate or will graduate. They've given an awful lot to this program."

A year ago, the sentiments were the same, but it was a different feeling. Many of those players lasted through the year because it was their last one and leaving the program would have been difficult. This year's group of players showed a more stable commitment, knowing they had at least two years with the new coaching staff.

Unfortunately for these Wolverines, they've experienced many new lows during their final two years and also share the albatross held by their two preceding four-year senior classes -- no wins over the Buckeyes.

"It would be real important," said linebacker Stevie Brown, named one of the Wolverines' permanent captains Thursday, along with fellow seniors Brandon Graham, Zoltan Mesko and Mark Ortmann. "It will be my last game in the Big House so I do want to go out with a win."

Graham, who may be one of the few players whose individual career followed the path he expected, was asked about realizing his career could end Saturday -- if U-M loses, there will be no bowl trip for the second straight year -- and had to catch himself talking about it for fearing he would start crying.

Ortmann, the team's starting left tackle, also knows the importance of the rivalry game.

"It's something that's been playing in all of our minds," Ortmann said. "The past two seasons we've broken a lot of (negative) records that we've held and set a lot of new ones. But it'd be a great way to go out, beating Ohio State and maybe starting a new record there."

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