Part II.

Defensive End – Dave Bowens, Trevor Pryce

These two hurt. Dave Bowens was a pass-rushing beast off the edge who, in 1996, as a true sophomore, established Michigan’s season high for sacks in a season, with 12. Unfortunately, Bowens couldn’t stay eligible, and was purged, transferring to Western Illinois. Bowens subsequently cobbled together a still-going NFL career in which he played in 10 or more games 9 times, and started for the second time in his career last season for the Browns.

Trevor Pryce struggled both on and off the field, eventually transferring to Clemson, where he turned in one dominant season before embarking on a 13 year (and counting) NFL career that included 4 Pro-Bowls, and a Super-Bowl Championship. Pryce is still a starter on a quality NFL defense (Baltimore).

Defensive Tackle – Larry Harrison, Marques Slocum

Obviously the most fun tandem of the team. Marques Slocum, a huge recruit, originally failed to qualify for Michigan, but worked hard in a fifth year of high school, qualified, and joined Lloyd Carr’s team. With the coaching change, Slocum seemed to fall out of favor, and likely transferred to a school with a zoology program to study rare and interesting kinds of predatory cats.

Larry Harrison received a solid number of snaps in both his freshman and sophomore years before his sophomore year was cut short by a run-in with the law. Harrison had, on at least 16 occasions, exposed himself to female students in their homes. At the time, Harrison had become a starter at defensive tackle alongside Gabe Watson, and had actually out produced Watson as a younger player in his sophomore season. Harrison was kicked off the team, and recently was fighting legal battles in an attempt to play in the Arena League.

Linebackers: Cobrani Mixon, Lawrence Reid, Pierre Woods

Woods is the outlier on this list – the one player who used all his eligibility, and didn’t get kicked off the team and didn’t transfer. In a possibly (likely?) apocryphal story, Woods obliterated a red-jersey-clad Matt Gutierrez, ending the quarterback’s career at Michigan during a practice. As a sophomore, Woods had racked up seven sacks and 13 TFL’s, but was virtually never heard from again, as Lloyd banished him to Jamie Gumb’s basement. He did briefly reappear two years later to rescue the 2005 MSU game. The treatment of Woods destroyed the school’s relationship with Glenville High School, which likely cost the team Ted Ginn, and robbed the team of one of their most dynamic players.

Lawrence Reid was Michigan’s leading tackler as both a sophomore and junior, accruing 152 tackles and 17 TFL’s across the 2003 and 2004 seasons. A nerve-injury impacted his junior season, and caused him to give up football following the 2004 season. Reid, however, wasn’t done contributing to Michigan – he graduated, and then earned his Master’s Degree in epidemiology from Michigan’s School of Public Health, focusing on STD transmission in urban youth.

Both Woods and Reid rightfully should have been starters at LB on Michigan’s ill-fated 2005 defense. Instead, David Harris anchored a unit featuring a disappointing Prescott Burgess and Chris Graham. What could have been.

Cobrani Mixon transferred from Michigan following the 2006 season for undisclosed reasons. Mixon transferred to Kent State where, last year, he became a destroyer of worlds – racking up 108 tackles in his second year as a starter, earning first-team All-MAC honors. Yes, it’s the MAC, the worst conference in Division I, but it’s hard to imagine, given Michigan’s struggles at the position over the past three years, that Mixon’s services would not have been welcome.

Cornerback: Will Peterson, Zia Combs

Perhaps no other player cut a swath of havoc and possibly untrue stories through Michigan at the rate of Will Peterson. At least, some have to be true, right? Did he have a kegger in his dorm-room? Probably. Were there strippers? Plausibly. Did he steal one of their purses? This is getting crazy. The stripper called the cops and got him arrested? Whatever, at the very least, all of these were whispered about campus.

If nothing else, he turned up like a bad penny at an array of off-field incidents, joining team mates Jason Brooks and Ray Jackson at a somewhat legendary robbery/brawl/skull-cracking (yes, a kid’s head bled) at Sigma Chi. Later, he and James Whitley were pulled over and charged with possession.

On the field, Peterson was the 1997 championship team’s third corner, and then lost ground to classmate James Whitley after an “eventful” off-season, keeping the role (Whitley was arrested for breaking and entering at a girlfriend’s apartment with a gun on his person, but Peterson’s character was more concerning to Lloyd. Remember this.). He transferred to Western Illinois, where he got his act together enough to be a third-round NFL draft pick, and launch a multi-year professional career.

If Justin Fargas provided the most gruesome injury in Michigan Stadium, Zia Combs may have provided the scariest. Diving for a pooch punt, his head collided with Ernest Shazor’s knee – and then he didn’t move. Combs regained movement the next day, but was deemed physically unfit to play again due to a congenital spinal problem. In his half-season as Michigan’s 3^rd corner, Combs was the best defensive back on the field (other than Marlin Jackson) against Washington in the “Phil Brabbs game”, and showed significant promise, out-playing Jeremy LeSeur and Markus Curry – his chief competition for playing time.

Safeties: Shonte Peoples, Ryan Mundy

After his red-shirt junior year, Shonte Peoples heard the alarm on his new Jeep go off. You, me, we probably look out the window, probably call the police. Not Shonte Peoples. He sprays the parking with a semi-automatic firearm, and later finds out that he was shooting at police officers.

Peoples, who had played Safety at Michigan and made All-conference, joined the CFL, where he converted to DE (?) and became known as a pass-rusher. Stylistically, he was Ernest Shazor before there was Ernest Shazor.

Ryan Mundy is the genesis of the finest MGoMeme of all – “Yards-after-Mundy” – spawned from his bizarre pursuit angles and poor tackling. After graduating following his red-shirt junior season, Mundy opted to move to WVU to pursue a graduate degree, and an NCAA loop-hole allowed him to play his final season without sitting out a transfer year. Mundy immediately seized the starting job on a one-loss team, held it for the entire year, and played well enough to garner a sixth-round selection in the NFL draft, and still holds a roster-spot with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So was Mundy a bad player with a break-out year, or a poorly coached elite talent waiting to be developed?

To his credit, Mundy achieved the status of Academic-All-American all five years that he was under the auspices of the NCAA.