Michigan Football: Chris Howard talks 1997 national title and more in exclusive interview

In an exclusive interview with GBMWolverine.com former Michigan football running back Chris Howard talked about his recruitment to the Wolverines, the transition from Head Coach Gary Moeller to Lloyd Carr in 1995 and what made the 1997 national championship team so special.

Chris Howard was one of the top running backs in the country coming out of Louisiana football powerhouse John Curtis Christian High School, located just outside of New Orleans in Kenner.

Despite being from Louisiana, where most top running backs would’ve gone to Alabama or LSU, Howard chose Michigan. He said his top five schools were Michigan, Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee, and Florida. He was heavily considering all of them, but once legendary Michigan football running backs coach Fred Jackson got into his living room it all changed.

“Fred is a sweet talking dude from the south,” Howard said with a laugh. “Once he gets in your house it’s a wrap, man. He’s got your Mom, your Dad, everybody loving it.”

When Jackson would visit Chris at home in Louisiana he would bring a football with him and they’d draw up plays in the Howard family’s front yard. That set him apart from other coaches and other schools. It was a genuine connection with an authentic coach.

A huge factor in Howard’s commitment was that Michigan was the only school that talked about academics in their recruitment of the talented back. He was extremely impressed with the number of University of Michigan alumni all over the world and the network that could provide after his football days were over. But there’s no doubt Coach Jackson played a huge role, as well.

“Fred Jackson and that silver tongue,” Howard joked when asked what ultimately led to his commitment to Michigan football.

“He got me up there, falling in love (with the university), and then my teammates were awesome.”

Howard was recruited by Gary Moeller who was forced to resign in May of 1995 after being arrested for disorderly conduct at a Michigan bar. Howard said there was a challenging transition to a new coach because he barely knew the former defensive coordinator, Lloyd Carr.

“I don’t think I had one conversation with Coach Carr. I could not have picked Coach Carr out of a lineup if he robbed a bank,” he quipped.

He said they were both great coaches, but there was some uncertainty.

“It was just a different feeling because nobody knew what we were getting (in Lloyd Carr),” Howard said.

Despite Moeller being an offensive coach and Carr being a defensive coach, Howard didn’t see many philosophical differences between the two coaches.

“They were both hard (expletive). I think all coaches back then had some of the best one-liners and some of the best insults. And Coach Carr was definitely not lacking in that department.”

With Coach Carr at the helm, Michigan football didn’t experience immediate success. Carr’s first two seasons produced 9-4 and 8-4 records, respectively. The fanbase wanted to see progress and was getting anxious. Howard said people were saying the Michigan block ‘M’ stood for “mediocre”. That, along with back-to-back 4 loss seasons, bothered him and his teammates. He credits those seasons for laying the foundation for the 1997 national championship season.

“We had great talent, but we always fumbled the ball, for lack of a better term. Those three seasons made that ’97 season. Because at the end of the day you get tired of getting your (expletive) kicked. You get tired of people talking bad about you.”

A lot of Michigan football fans point to the Penn State or Iowa games as pivotal points in the Wolverines’ national title season. Howard acknowledged those games but thinks it was the Wisconsin game that let him and his teammates know this was their year. The game against the Badgers was following an epic 34-8 beatdown of then-number two-ranked Penn State in Happy Valley. Wisconsin was a top-25 team and a letdown could’ve been understandable.

“For me personally, I knew once we got past the Wisconsin game. Because we had just beat the brakes off Penn State. Now we gotta go to Wisconsin and play Ron Dayne, Badgers Stadium, it’s cold.”

In the 1990s, Wisconsin was notorious for having an extremely tough field turf. Howard said it was like playing on concrete and he thinks he still has some of the turf burns from that game. Despite the rough playing surface, he led the team in rushing with 100 yards and two touchdowns against the Badgers. After beating Wisconsin 26-16, Chris realized that team could be special and win it all.

The defense gets a lot of the credit for the ’97 national championship, but Howard was part of a three-running back rotation that grated teams as the game wore on.

Alongside Howard was highly-touted true freshman Anthony Thomas. Howard said “A-Train” added another dimension to the Michigan rushing attack and that Clarence Williams was a quicker, faster option in the backfield. Also, Chris Floyd, the 6’2’’ 235 pound bruising running back that Howard emphasized was a unique talent.

Howard said he thinks he was a combination of all those backs:

“I was kind of a blend of all of us. Decent speed, not great speed, but I had good feet. I was always falling forward. We were a bunch of guys that just knew how to get it done. Obviously, Train (Thomas) went on to have great success as a lone, featured back. But us as a collective, you didn’t know what you were getting from the defensive side of the ball. We could all pass protect, catch the ball out of the backfield. We had great feet. We really pounded defenses. I love that stable of running backs that we had.”

Top to bottom, it was arguably the most talented running back room in Michigan football history.

The 1997 Michigan football team did not have a single 1,000-yard rusher that season. Howard had a team-leading 938 yards and seven touchdowns. Thomas ran for 549 yards and five touchdowns to go along with Williams rushing for 276 yards and one score.  Howard thinks each running back could’ve had better stats, but that’s not what the team needed to succeed.

In the 2023 Michigan football season, the Wolverines will look to take a page out of the 1997 team’s playbook and spread out the carries amongst the talented backs.

Their goal will be to keep all of those versatile backs healthy going into the season’s final games. This year’s Michigan football team might have the best running back room since that great 1997 national championship team.

Now the question is: Can they get the hardware to match?