Michigan Football: Ranking the Wolverines top 10 bowl victories

4. Bo beats Tom Osborne in 1986 Fiesta Bowl

The 1985 Michigan football team was one of the best that Bo ever had. Unfortunately, Iowa had one of the best teams in the country and the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten that season.

However, the Wolverines still posted a record of 10-1-1 and beat five ranked teams on its way to eventually earning a No. 2 ranking at season’s end, the closest any of Bo’s teams came to winning a national championship.

To start the season, Michigan beat ranked teams in Notre Dame, South Carolina and Maryland. Michigan also beat 12th-ranked Ohio State before knocking off seventh-ranked Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl 27-23. The game was significant because it was Bo vs Tom Osborne, with both teams ranked in the top 10.

Jim Harbaugh ran for two touchdowns, while Jaime Morris ran for over 100 yards in the Fiesta Bowl win. At the end of the season, Michigan got one vote for first place in the AP but finished second to Oklahoma after losing 12-10 to Iowa, who was No. 1 at the time and tying with Illinois 3-3.

That tie might have cost Michigan a chance to share the national championship. But still, beating Nebraska and winding up as the No. 2 team in the country was a helluva finish.