Lloyd Carr believes his greatest accomplishment in his 13 years
as Michigan’s head football coach was the 1997 national
championship. “There was a real dedication and determination to
win the championship,” he said. “They were a very focused
group.”
Larry Caruso/Photo Editor
Lloyd Carr’s final game as the University of Michigan’s football
coach was a 41-35 win over Florida on Jan. 1 in the Capital One
Bowl. “It ranks up there with some of my greatest memories
because of everything involved,” he said.
No regrets.
None.
In looking back at his 13 years as the University of Michigan’s head
football coach, Lloyd Carr said recently that he wouldn’t have done anything
differently.
Carr announced his retirement from coaching Nov. 19, two days after his
Wolverines ended their regular season.
Late on the afternoon of Jan. 1, after U of M beat Florida 41-35 in the
Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla. — and after he got a Gatorade shower from
his players on the sideline — he handed the reins of the winningest program
in college football history to Rich Rodriguez.
Carr, 62, spent 13 seasons as Michigan’s head football coach, and 15 years
before that as an assistant coach for the Wolverines. All told, the 1963
Riverview Community High School graduate spent 40 years coaching high school
and college football.
“It was time,” he said. “I had a great time. It was great fun. It was time
to do something else. Essentially, that’s what it comes down to. I was ready
to do something else.
“It’s something that I really began to think seriously about a year ago.
That’s when I knew it wasn’t going to be long. I wasn’t sure how long.”
Per his football contract, Carr became an associate athletic director upon
his retirement from coaching. His exact duties still are to be determined,
and he has moved from a spacious office at Schembechler Hall on the U of M
campus to more modest digs at the athletic administration building,
Weidenbach Hall.
He’s been spending lots of time on the telephone giving recommendation
interviews for his assistant coaches who still are looking for jobs.
“That’s a responsibility that’s very important, and it will be until they’re
all placed,” Carr said.
One assistant, Fred Jackson, was kept by Rodriguez. All of Carr’s assistant
coaches will be paid by the university through 2008.
Carr said he has talked with Rodriguez, who was hired away from the same job
at West Virginia University, but didn’t want to go into details. He also
declined to comment on the coaching search.
Carr said his responsibilities won’t include football.
“I’m going to be a fan,” he said.
“Obviously, he’s a young guy who has had great experience and a lot of
success. I think he’s a great choice.”
Life after football
Now that he has retired from coaching and has left the 18-hour workdays
behind, Carr said he’s going to take time to decide what he wants to do with
his free time, aside from spending time with his wife, Laurie, six children
and 11 grandchildren — nine of whom live in the area.
“My life has been filled with football,” Carr said. “I’ve not spent a lot of
time thinking about the future.
“There aren’t many jobs that are as time-consuming as coaching. There will
be an adjustment there.”
Carr plans to spend some time watching NFL games on television — which he
hasn’t been able to do because Sundays are busy days for college coaches —
and maybe attending some, because so many of his players are in the league.
He attended Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in Detroit in 2006. Among the
players were Michigan All-Americans Steve Hutchinson of the Seattle Seahawks
and Larry Foote and Jerame Tuman of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
His most famous ex-player, though, is New England Patriots quarterback Tom
Brady, who will play in his fourth Super Bowl on Feb. 3. Brady — who
lettered at Michigan from 1997 to ’99 — is 3-0 in Super Bowls, and twice was
named as the game’s most valuable player.
“Tom Brady is an incredible human being,” Carr said. “He was a great leader
here. We all have great respect (for him). The thing (about) his teammates
and friends from Michigan, they all admire the fact all the success he has
hasn’t changed him.
“He’s had incredible success and still is establishing a legend as one of
the greatest quarterbacks in the game.”
On a personal note
Another quarterback who wasn’t a starter means even more to Carr — his son,
Jason, who lettered from 1993 to ’95 (Carr’s first as head coach).
“The great news was that I got to see him every day,” Carr said. “That’s
something most college coaches don’t get to do. I’m extremely proud of who
he is and what he is. He’s a wonderful father. He graduated from Michigan.
It was a wonderful experience to watch him grow up and mature. That’s
unusual.”
Jason Carr followed his father’s footsteps into coaching football, spending
two seasons as an assistant coach at Central Michigan University. He’s now a
sales representative for Reebok.
His Riverview roots
Lloyd Carr decided that he wanted to be a teacher and coach when he was a
college junior, but his passion for sports started well before that.
He was born in Hawkins County, Tenn., on July 30, 1945, and his family moved
to a house on Brinson Street in sports-crazy Riverview when he was 10. Carr
lettered in football, basketball and baseball at Riverview Community High
School, and was an All-State quarterback as a senior in 1962.
“I had some incredibly dedicated people who were just great role models,”
Carr said. “I grew up at a time when it was very common to play three
sports. You just played whatever was in season. There wasn’t really anything
else to do. It was a great time to grow up. We had people dedicated in the
community to Little League sports. It was a great time.”
Among his role models were high school Coaches Bud McCourt, Pat Ankney and
Jim Martin.
His first teaching job after graduating from Northern Michigan University
was at Butzel Junior High School while serving as an assistant football
coach at Nativity High School, both in Detroit. He then was a teacher and
assistant coach at Belleville High School, and then a teacher and head coach
at John Glenn High School in Westland. Carr taught English and American
history. During that time, he lived in Riverview, and spent about seven
years on the Riverview Community School District’s Board of Education.
On to college
It was two fellow Riverview grads, Woody Widenhofer and Bill McCartney, who
got Carr interested in joining them as college football coaches.
“I took a chance, and here we are 32 years later,” Carr said.
Carr’s first stop was at Eastern Michigan University. He then went to the
University of Illinois, where he coached under Gary Moeller — something he
later did at Michigan — spent part of an off-season coaching at West
Virginia University, then got the call from Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler,
who named Carr as his defensive backs coach.
Schembechler promoted Carr to defensive coordinator in 1987. After the 1989
season, Schembechler retired, Moeller was promoted to head coach and Carr
added “assistant head coach” to his defensive coordinator title.
When Schembechler named Carr as his defensive coordinator, it got him
thinking about someday becoming a head coach.
“That was a wonderful opportunity in terms of a leadership role,” Carr said.
“I knew when I got that opportunity, it would prepare me to be a head coach.
I didn’t know what was ahead, but certainly that was one of my goals.”
Becoming the boss
Carr became the Wolverines’ interim head coach when Moeller resigned after
an altercation with police in May 1995.
“It was difficult time for everyone,” Carr said. “I had a son on that team.
When they asked me to be the coach for the 1995 season, I just made up my
mind I was going to approach the season, when it was over, (that) hopefully
all of these guys could say they had a great experience during that season.”
His Wolverines were 9-4 that year. Ten weeks into the season, with Michigan
at 8-2, the interim tag was removed.
Carr’s first game was nothing short of memorable. The Wolverines, who fell
behind Virginia 17-0, won 18-17 on a Scott Dreisbach-to-Mercury Hayes
touchdown pass on the last play of the game.
On the mountaintop
In Carr’s third season, 1997, the Wolverines hit pay dirt, going 12-0 and
winning three of the four national championships that were awarded.
“It was a very hard fight,” Carr said. “I remember going to the (preseason)
Big Ten meeting, and the media picked us to finish fifth. We had some great
football players on that ’97 team and we had some great leadership. There
was a real dedication and determination to win the championship. They were a
very focused group.”
The Wolverines came from behind to beat Notre Dame and Iowa, and Carr really
knew he had something special when his team beat Penn State, 34-8, on the
road. The Nittany Lions were ranked third and Michigan was fourth in that
week’s Associated Press poll.
Michigan then scored a 26-16 win at Wisconsin, setting the stage for the
regular season-ending showdown with No. 4 Ohio State, which the No. 1-ranked
Wolverines won 20-14 at Michigan Stadium.
“No one who was ever in that stadium will ever forget that day,” Carr said.
“It was really special.
“There was so much at stake. It was a great ballgame. We got out ahead 20-0.
Ohio State came back and made it 20-14. We were a banged-up football team.
We struggled, but defensively, we played incredibly well. Ohio State had a
chance to win the game. Our defense held, and all hell broke loose.”
A couple of weeks later, cornerback/wide receiver Charles Woodson became the
third Wolverine to win the Heisman Trophy as college football’s best player.
“It was an incredible achievement,” Carr said. “Winning the Heisman as a
defensive player, that may never happen again. He was very deserving of the
Heisman Trophy.”
The Wolverines capped their perfect season by beating Washington State 21-16
in the Rose Bowl.
Days later, there was a parade through the streets of Ann Arbor and a rally
at Crisler Arena.
“That was another absolutely incredible experience,” Carr said. “Crisler
Arena was packed. They introduced all the players and coaches. It was an
experience none of us will forget.”
Carr spent the next 10 seasons trying to reach the mountaintop again.
“I knew after we won it, that changed things,” he said. “I think it was a
wonderful challenge. In 2006, we had a great chance to do it. We had a
couple other great teams in there.
“It proves how difficult it is. It just highlights what a tremendous
achievement that ’97 team was able to accomplish. They raised the bar. It’s
been fun to try to do it again.”
Penultimate season
Carr’s next-to-last season, 2006, saw Michigan win its first 11 games. Hours
before the No. 2-ranked Wolverines boarded their buses for the trip to
Columbus, Ohio, to play the No. 1 Buckeyes, Schembechler died.
“It was extremely hard and it was extremely distracting to the game itself,”
Carr said. “There’s no other way to put it. Plus, we were playing a great
team in Columbus. That’s what it was.
“Part of being a great team is being able to deal with distractions. Bo’s
loss was much bigger than a distraction. It was an incredible loss for our
university. It was part of that team, part of that season none of us will
ever forget. It was a hard time.”
Ohio State University won that game 42-39 on the way to winning the national
championship. Michigan went on to lose to Southern California in the Rose
Bowl 32-18.
The upset
The Wolverines opened the 2007 season with two losses — the first a 34-32
decision to defending Division I-AA national champion Appalachian State in
what many experts called the biggest upset in college football history.
“We knew the caliber of athletes they had,” Carr said. “We knew the
quarterback (Armanti Edwards) was a phenomenal athlete. I don’t think
there’s any way we took Appalachian State lightly. We struggled greatly on
defense because we were replacing some great players. We missed some
opportunities on special teams.”
After losing 39-7 to Oregon, the Wolverines won eight straight — despite
quarterback Chad Henne and tailback Mike Hart coming in and out of the
lineup with injuries — then lost their final two regular-season games.
The season ended with the win over Florida.
“It ranks up there with some of my greatest memories because of everything
involved,” Carr said. “There were so many things that made it special,
especially with how this team started with the struggles.
“They beat an outstanding Florida team, essentially as a road team, as big
underdogs. It speaks to the quality and character of our team.”
Carr said he and his wife plan to stay involved with some of their numerous
charitable endeavors, and he plans to continue his annual summer football
camp at Riverview Community High School.
He looked back on his 40-year career with satisfaction, saying that the
disappointments make the successes more meaningful.
“I had a great time,” Carr said. “I loved every minute of it. I can’t say I
enjoyed every minute. That’s the difficult challenge because you’re so
focused on what it takes 18 hours a day. I will, in the days ahead, be able
to revisit with a lot of those players.
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