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ColonelKVC wrote:

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TheOutlander wrote:

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By the way, any other night WLW beats Ann Arbor Huron and goes on to take on CC at the Silverdome. I have no explanation for that loss.

Not so fast, my friend.

First, Western beat Brighton by a single point, and had the Brighton WR not dropped a sure TD, Western wouldn't have made it to the Huron game. Brighton's best WR drops a wide open post pattern that Drew Henson drops in the basket without the WR having to break stride...and he drops it. On any other night, Western takes the "L." I have no explanation for that win by Western.

Recall that Huron went and beat #13 USA Today-ranked Rockford under normal conditions the week after the WLW game. This suggests two things:
1. Huron must have been pretty darn good to go and beat Munger's most talented team ever.
2. You either forgot that Western would have had to play the best team in the state the next week, or you assumed you'd have beaten the 13th ranked team in the country.

There were 11 players on that Huron team that went on to play college ball, 3 of whom were starters at Wayne State (1 or 2 of them were all-conference). I don't care if you have zero D-1 guys. If you have more than 5 good enough to get a scholly to play D-2, you have a heck of a HS team (unless you're in the PSL, I guess--ahem, Cass Tech).

Huron had a very high-powered offense that year and was equally slowed down by the snowy conditions.

Huron ran a lot more wide-open offensive scheme and threw the ball a ton more than Western, so why did bad weather conditions favor Huron?

If it was difficult footing, shouldn't Western's counter game out of the wing-T worked wonders on a defense that is trying to re-direct?

But if you're searching for explanations, here's a couple guesses:
1. Western beat Brighton on Friday, and many of the Warriors went to the Huron/Belleville game the next night. As Huron left the field, said "Warriors" put their state title rings from the year before on their middle fingers and let their fingers do their talking.
2. In the locker room prior to the game, Western had its highlight video from the '96 title team on. Every River Rat could easily hear the video.
Both of these suggest typical Walled Lake trash talk and chest thumping (which Central went on to adopt, perhaps an Apap thing).
3. David Johnson, Western's absolute beast of a FB, tried (briefly and unsuccessfully) to play on a broken ankle. They really didn't have Johnson, and on a snowy night, a runaway freight train is a good weapon to have.
4. Huron had better players. OR
5. Huron had better coaches.
However, here's probably the most logical explanation:
6. Huron had the better team in '97.

Believe me, I have no delusions about the classiest or lack there of with the players in the program in that era, and I don't think it has changed much under Coach Z --- but now that do not have as much to be cocky about!

Whether Huron was the better team,(and I'll concede that since they proved it on the field)--- that WLW team had too much firepower on offense to get shut out.