Kornacki: Add Another Milestone to Wheatley's Brilliant Career
9/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 24, 2015
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-- The 1993 Rose Bowl was the stage for Tyrone Wheatley's signature game as a Michigan Wolverine.
He rushed for 4,178 yards in a marvelous college career, and the 235 yards he gained on only 15 carries in Michigan's 38-31 win over Washington was the most Wheatley gained in one game.
That performance was honored and rewarded Thursday (Sept. 24) with Wheatley's election into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame along with Mark Brunell, Fritz Pollard and Jim Muldoon. Brunell was Washington's quarterback in that high-scoring game on Jan. 1, 1993.
"That field, that stadium and that game has seen some incredible players and people," said Wheatley, now the running backs coach at his alma mater. "To be mentioned in the same breath as these all-time greats and be selected as a hall of famer, that's ..."
Wheatley, reclined in a theater-style seat in the full team meeting room at Schembechler Hall, tried finding the right words.
After a few seconds, Wheatley added, "Words can't describe it. It's an incredible honor."
And in that game, Wheatley was truly an incredible player. He ran a combined 168 yards on three touchdowns despite the fact that he was running hurt on two of them.
Wheatley scored first on a spirited 56-yard run that fired up Michigan and provided a 10-point lead.
Next up was the 88-yard touchdown run that showed why Wheatley also was an All-American and Big Ten champion sprinter in track and field.
Tenacious center Steve Everitt threw the block that sprang Wheatley near the line of scrimmage. Then it was off to the races for Wheatley, breezing down the middle of the field. Two safeties, the last defenders with a chance, had angles on him. But they didn't have Wheatley's speed and he blew through them as if they weren't there.
But the 24-yard touchdown, though the shortest of his three touchdowns, might have been the most impressive because Wheatley had lost feeling in his left leg.
"I hurt my back early in the second quarter," said Wheatley. "And as the game progressed, it just got worse. On the last run, the left leg was numb. I remember telling myself on that one, 'Just run, just run, just run.' It was funny because my high school track coach asked me why I was struggling and didn't look smooth. I said, 'I couldn't feel my leg! I was just trying to get to the end zone.' "
Wheatley bumped the draw play outside to the right and could smell pay dirt. He dragged safety Tommie Smith into the end zone. But the game had taken its toll on his body, and the touchdown with 1:48 remaining in the third quarter was his last play.
He set Michigan's bowl rushing record with the 235 yards, nipping the 234-yard effort of Jamie Morris in the 1988 Outback Bowl against Alabama.
"That was my favorite run of the game," said Wheatley. "I just remember looking in all the guys' faces, and we were tired. They were tired. It was a heavyweight fight and we were slugging it out. Everyone was bruised and battered.
"I stiff-armed a guy, and after I stiff-armed him it propelled me and I got my foot off the ground. Once I saw the open field, it was usually, 'Put up six points and strike up the band.' On this one, it was, 'Oh, God, I hope I make it.'
"And when I did, I jumped up and celebrated. People said, 'If your leg was numb, how did you jump up?' But I'd made it and I knew our defense would do what it had to do."
Michigan held the Huskies scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Ed Davis picked up some critical yards for the Wolverines in the fourth quarter, and quarterback Elvis Grbac's 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tony McGee with 5:29 remaining put Michigan ahead for good.
The 15.7 yards Wheatley averaged in that game also remains the highest per-carry total by any Wolverine with at least 15 carries in one game.
"It was the prototypical stars and the moon aligning perfectly," said Wheatley. "My offensive line was blocking incredibly along with receivers like Derrick Alexander and Amani Toomer and those guys.
"That was the best-blocked game that I've ever been a part of."
Wheatley also credited Grbac, who was playing his last game and finished his career as Michigan's career leader in passing yardage and touchdowns. Washington had beaten the Wolverines in the previous Rose Bowl, and Grbac wouldn't allow a defeat repeat.
"Just like he led the band in 'The Victors' after the game," said Wheatley, "Elvis was our orchestrator. He had been on teams that played and fought and lost in Rose Bowls. He understood what it took to become champions. He was the end of the Bo Schembechler era and brought that in along with Gary Moeller.
"Grbac was able to help young guys like myself understand that this was going to be tough and how to fight through hard times and manage games. He was a great leader for us in my first two years."
Washington had beaten Michigan, 34-14, in the previous Rose Bowl.
"Deep down, that was a huge factor," said Wheatley. "It was redemption. We wanted to prove that what we did the previous year wasn't really our team. We had underestimated them the year before and they played great.
"But in the next Rose Bowl, we just kept beating the proverbial drum and outlasted them. As many stars as we had, they had just as many. It was a great matchup. They were our equivalent. They had the same firepower we had."
Winning it for Moeller, his mentor and the one who convinced him to come to Michigan, was something special for Wheatley.
"He was a guy who listened to me," said Wheatley. "Now, did I get my way? Maybe two-percent of the time I did. But what was important was that he always listened. And in his responses to what I had to say, he had a way of painting a picture with his words for me with analogies and stories that he had of himself. For every situation I presented, he had a well thought-out, articulate answer.
"That's my guy! He got it. I had admiration and true respect for him as a player and still do. We talk all the time."
Wheatley also credited WoIverines running backs coach Fred Jackson for always being there for him as a friend and coach.
Has Wheatley ever watched that Rose Bowl, nearly a quarter-century ago, with his wife and five children, including Wolverine freshman tight end Tyrone Wheatley Jr.?
"No," he said. "I don't watch much of that with my kids. But when De'Anthony Thomas of Oregon broke my record for the longest Rose Bowl run (with a 91-yarder in the 2012 game), I was upstairs in the bed asleep, and my middle son, Terius, came up and said, 'You mean you had a run in the Rose Bowl that was a record that stood for 20 years?'
"He said, 'Dad, you're not watching this? He broke your record!' I said, 'Records are meant to be broken, son.' I went back to bed, and he was shaking his head."
But the memories last forever, and that is why Wheatley will become the 10th Wolverine to gain induction into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. The induction will be Dec. 30 at the Pasadena Convention Center.
"But I've moved onto bigger things now," said Wheatley, who played 10 years in the NFL, and has coached both in the NFL and at colleges. "I want to help these guys we have playing now achieve their accolades and all the great things I've had a chance to do.
"But I've gone back to the Rose Bowl game four or five times. I don't watch a lot of football, but the Rose Bowl is a game I'll watch. It's the 'Granddaddy of Them All.' And to me, it will always be the best bowl game. It's absolutely beautiful."
• Wheatley Chosen for Rose Bowl Hall of Fame (09/24/15)
