The USC Trojans and Michigan Wolverines have very rarely met in regular season games. That will change in the new-look Big Ten next year. USC will host Michigan at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the first time since 1957. Michigan will go to L.A. to play USC, but not in a Rose Bowl Game.
When Michigan did fly to Los Angeles to play in the Rose Bowl, one thing usually happened: The Wolverines lost.
One of Michigan’s most famous coaches, Bo Schembechler, lost four Rose Bowls to USC in five trips, but what adds to Bo’s woes against the Trojans in the Granddaddy is that his very first and last Michigan seasons ended in the same familiar way: with a loss to USC in the Arroyo Seco on January 1.
Schembechler’s first season as Michigan head coach was in 1969. The Wolverines met USC in the 1970 Rose Bowl. They lost, 10-3.
Schembechler’s last season as Michigan head coach was 1989. The Wolverines met USC in the 1990 Rose Bowl. They lost, 17-10.
From his first Rose Bowl to his last, Schembechler regularly struggled in Pasadena in January. His Michigan teams went 2-9 in the Granddaddy, beating USC once in 1989 and Washington in 1981. On almost every occasion, Michigan lost because its offense got shut down. Michigan went 1-4 against USC in the Rose Bowl during Schembechler’s tenure. Michigan did not score more than 10 points in its four losses. It scored 22 in the 1989 Rose Bowl, beating USC by eight points.
Bo knows Rose Bowls. Bo did not know how to regularly outfox USC once he got to the Rose Bowl. This is a central part of USC-Michigan history, now consigned to the past with the two schools becoming regular-season — not postseason — opponents in the Big Ten.
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