1908 Michigan Wolverines football team

1908 Michigan Wolverines football
ConferenceIndependent
Record5–2–1
Head coach
CaptainGermany Schulz
Home stadiumFerry Field
Seasons
← 1907
1909 →
1908 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Kirksville Normal     8 0 0
Miami (OH)     7 0 0
Iowa State Normal     5 0 0
St. Mary's (OH)     7 0 1
DePaul     6 0 1
Butler     5 0 1
Ohio Northern     9 1 0
Fairmount     8 1 0
Notre Dame     8 1 0
Michigan Agricultural     6 0 2
Lake Forest     4 1 1
Saint Louis     6 2 2
Kansas State     6 2 0
Michigan     5 2 1
Marquette     4 2 1
St. Viator     5 3 0
Central Michigan     4 3 0
Mount Union     5 4 1
Doane     4 4 0
South Dakota State     3 3 1
Western State Normal (MI)     3 3 0
Buchtel     3 4 0
Western Illinois     2 3 1
Carthage     2 3 0
Haskell     3 5 1
Wittenberg     3 5 1
Ohio     3 5 0
North Dakota Agricultural     2 3 0
Cincinnati     1 4 1
Wabash     2 6 0
Northern Illinois State     1 5 1
Michigan State Normal     1 4 0
Heidelberg     1 6 0
Franklin     0 9 1
Baldwin–Wallace     0 2 0
Chicago P&S     0 4 0

The 1908 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1908 college football season. The team's head coach was Fielding H. Yost in his eighth year at Michigan. The team compiled a 5–2–1 record, outscored opponents 128 to 81, and held five of seven opponents to six points or less. After opening the season with a 5–0–1 record, and allowing an average of four points per game, the Wolverines lost badly in back-to-back games against the 1908 national champion Penn Quakers (29–0) and Syracuse (28–4).

Team captain and center Germany Schulz was academically ineligible for the first three games of the season, but his performance in the Penn game, withstanding the attack of multiple Penn players focused on knocking him out of the game, was told and re-told by sports writers for decades after the 1908 season had ended. In 1951, Schulz was selected as the greatest center in football history in a poll conducted by the National Football Foundation and became one of the initial inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Right halfback Dave Allerdice, who also handled punting and place-kicking responsibilities for Michigan, was the team's leading scorer with 64 points (exactly half of the team's total), despite missing the final game of the season with a broken collarbone. Allerdice also led the 1909 team in scoring and was a first-team All-American that year. Fullback Sam Davison scored six touchdowns in the team's November 1908 victory over Kentucky State. Davison's total is tied for second in Michigan history for the most touchdowns in a game, trailing Albert Herrnstein's seven touchdowns against the Michigan Aggies in 1902.