The Appalachian State victory over U of M

The 2007 Appalachian State-Michigan game was a college football game held
on September 1 at Michigan Stadium on the campus of the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It pitted the #5 ranked Michigan Wolverines
against the two-time defending champions of the Division I FCS, the
Appalachian State Mountaineers. In what was hailed as one of the biggest
upsets in the history of American sports, the Mountaineers shocked the
fifth-ranked Wolverines 34-32. It is the first win ever by a team in Division I FCS
(still frequently known by its former name of Division I-AA) over a ranked team
in Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) since the NCAA split its Division I into
two football subdivisions in 1978. It is referred to by many sports fans now as
the Michigan Miracle, a play on what is now referred to as the Music City
Miracle, a 2000 playoff matchup between the Tennessee Titans and the
Buffalo Bills.

After offensive tackle Jake Long, quarterback Chad Henne, and running back
Mike Hart decided to return for their senior season,[4] and coach Lloyd Carr
chose not to retire,[3] the Wolverines were tapped as favorites to win the Big
Ten title.[2][5] Although the Mountaineers were favorites for a third straight
FCS title, and entered the game with a 14-game winning streak, the longest in
either the FCS or FBS,[3] the game was expected to be such a mismatch that
some Las Vegas sports books refused to offer a betting line.

The Mountaineers offense, which had not been able to move the ball for most
of the second half, suddenly returned to life after they got the ball back with
1:37 left. Edwards led them on a 69-yard drive, without a timeout, that ended in
a 24-yard Rauch field goal that gave the Mountaineers a stunning 34-32 lead.
The game was far from over. Henne hit wideout Mario Manningham on a
46-yard pass, giving the Wolverines the ball on the Appalachian 20 with 6
seconds left. They put their field goal unit on the field for the potential
game-winner. However, Gingell's attempt was blocked by Corey Lynch, who
ran the kick back to the Michigan 5 as time ran out.

The game made the front page of The New York
Times, which called the game "one of the biggest
upsets in college football history" and drew a
comparison to David and Goliath.

The loss ended Michigan's hopes of winning the
national championship for the season. In
addition, Michigan dropped out of the Top 25,
the first time in the history of the AP Poll that a
team ranked in the Top 5 had fallen out of the
poll.

The upset was the cover story for the September
10 issue of Sports Illustrated, which hit retail
outlets on September 5. The cover itself features
a shot of Jackson's first TD catch.

On the Thursday after the game (September 6),
the Associated Press, which had previously
restricted eligibility for AP Poll ranking to Division
I FBS schools, announced that lower-division
schools would now be eligible to receive votes,
and possibly be ranked, in the main AP Poll. At
least two voters in the AP Poll had expressed a
desire to place the Mountaineers on their Top 25
ballot. Division I FCS has its own poll, in which
the Mountaineers were the unanimous choice for
Number 1 after defeating Michigan

Minutes after the end of the game and nearly
600 miles (1000 km) away on the Appalachian
State campus in Boone, North Carolina, a large
group of students climbed a fence at the
Mountaineers' home field, Kidd Brewer Stadium,
and tore down and carried away one of the
goalposts. When Appalachian State chancellor
Kenneth E. Peacock, who was in Ann Arbor for
the game, returned to his home that night, he
found the goalpost had been deposited in his
front yard, which lies about half a mile (800 m)
from the stadium.

Peacock took the vandalism in stride, saying that
night during a celebration outside Kidd Brewer
Stadium, "It's all right. As good as today was for
Appalachian State, they can take it up there and
put it down. I can't wait to get there and see it."
Another tradition at Appalachian State is for
students to jump into a duck pond behind
Trivette dining hall after big football wins. Many
students did just that, with more than a few
jumping in naked. The Mountaineers players
received unusual amounts of attention; many
found their cell phone voice mail boxes full, one
player received over 100 text messages shortly
after the game, and Rauch found more than 20
friend requests from fans of Michigan's archrival
Ohio State on his MySpace page.

The team came home immediately after the
game, arriving at Tri-Cities Regional Airport in
the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and boarding
four buses for the 55-mile (80 km) trip back to
Boone. About 10 miles (16 km) out of Boone,
they were met by a caravan of fire trucks, police
cars, and ambulances leading them back to
campus. Moore would later say that when he met
the emergency vehicles, "I thought there was a
bad wreck." At 11 pm EDT (0300 UTC,
September 2), they returned to their stadium and
were met by hundreds of ecstatic fans; it took
more than 20 minutes for the team to make it
through the mass of fans to their locker room.
Many of the fans were wearing quickly printed
T-shirts reading "Michigan who? 34-32."

The celebrations in Boone were not limited to
campus. The parking lot of the city's main
shopping center, Boone Mall, was packed with
cars, and many of the drivers and passengers
were in long lines in front of Sports Fanatic, a
sporting goods store in the mall. Store owner
Jody Preuss reported that his store, which had
T-shirts celebrating the win on sale two hours
after the end of the game, saw seven times its
normal business that day. Also, the web site of
ASU's student newspaper, The Appalachian,
doubled its usual number of hits on Saturday
after the game, and received emails from
throughout the country asking for information on
purchasing "Michigan who?" T-shirts.

Online viral video sites such as YouTube soon
filled with videos of the game, many taken from
the stadium by ASU fans. Notable were several
videos of other teams such as Penn State and
long time Michigan rival Ohio State reacting with
wild cheers as they watched the outcome after
their own team's games. Several videos were
also posted of the celebrations in Boone such as
the moving of the goalpost.