1986 season Taylor enrolled at the
University of Michigan in 1985. As a
redshirt freshman in 1986, Taylor appeared briefly in 4 games, rushing for 33 yards on 5 carries and scoring a touchdown against
Illinois.
1987 season As a sophomore in 1987, Taylor appeared in seven games for Michigan, including two games as the starting quarterback. Taylor threw his first touchdown pass for Michigan in a backup role against
Wisconsin. He got his first start after junior quarterback
Demetrius Brown broke the thumb on his throwing hand in the
Indiana game. Prior to Brown's thumb injury, Taylor had completed only 9 of 21 pass attempts for 133 yards, 2 interceptions and 1 touchdown. At the time, Michigan head coach
Bo Schembechler expressed confidence in Taylor, telling the press: "Michael Taylor is a fine quarterback. He's smart. He's a good quarterback. If we have to play Taylor, we'll be all right." Taylor had a 65-yard touchdown run and had runs of 31 yards in the second quarter and 39 yards in the third quarter set up field goals by Mike Gillette.
1988 season At the start of the 1988 season, Michigan faced a quarterback controversy. Demetrius Brown had been declared academically ineligible earlier in the year, but regained his eligibility before the season started. Taylor had missed spring practice due to a
hamstring pull, leaving Coach Schembechler worried about the quarterback position. At the time, Taylor was considered the team's best
option offense quarterback, but he had completed only 41% of his passes in 1987. Taylor ended up starting 9 of 12 games for the
1988 Michigan football team that finished the season with a 9–2–1 record (7–0–1 in the Big Ten), won the
Big Ten Conference championship and defeated
USC in the
1989 Rose Bowl. Taylor completed 76 of 122 pass attempts for a 62.3% completion percentage and was intercepted only twice. In the season opener against Notre Dame, Schembechler kept the ball on the ground, with 52 running plays and only 11 pass attempts. Michigan lost a close game 19–17, as Taylor completed 8 of 11 pass attempts for 74 yards and scored one of Michigan's two rushing touchdowns. Taylor had his best game of the 1988 season in a 31–30 loss to the No. 1 ranked
Miami Hurricanes on September 17, 1988. Taylor nearly led the Wolverines to an upset win to break Miami's 33-game regular season winning streak, but the defense gave up 17 points in the final 5 minutes and 24 seconds to allow Miami to come from behind to win the game. Taylor did his part, completing 16 of 24 pass attempts for 214 yards and three touchdowns.
The Washington Post praised Michigan's passing game:"Employing a combination of its usual righteous conservatism with a startlingly effective passing game, the Wolverines incited an overflow crowd of 105,834 in the broad, intimidating sweep of Michigan Stadium by outright dominating the Hurricanes, the defending national champions, for most of four quarters. A mulish, persistent quarterback named Michael Taylor threw scoring passes of five, 18 and 16 yards, the latter to take a 30–14 lead with 10:32 left." The
Associated Press also praised Taylor's performance: "Miami's comeback overcame a brilliant performance by Michigan quarterback Michael Taylor, who was shaken up twice but returned to throw three touchdown passes." After losing the first two games of the season, the Wolverines were 9–0–1 in the final ten games. He was unable to play in the final regular season games against Illinois and
Ohio State and in the 1989 Rose Bowl game against USC. Taylor was the Big Ten's passing efficiency leader for the 1988 season. Taylor completed 74 of 121 pass attempts for 1,081 yards and 11 touchdowns in 1989. Coach Schembechler called it "the great Michael Taylor scare," and with news that Taylor would play, the
Associated Press reported, "The Michael Taylor scare is over." Michigan and
Notre Dame entered the season opener as the no. 1 and no. 2 ranked teams in college football. Taylor started the game against Notre Dame and completed 5 of 6 passes, including a touchdown, but he left the game after injuring his back. Taylor was replaced with freshman
Elvis Grbac in the Notre Dame game. After the loss of Taylor, Schembechler questioned his decision to let the injured Taylor play: "I suppose if I had to do it all over again, I probably should have started Elvis and let the chips fall where they may. To be honest with you, Taylor didn't throw a pass all week. He's got a bad arm right now. But he's a great competitor. He wanted to go. He felt he'd be able to throw the ball all right." Taylor was unable to play in the following four games against
UCLA,
Maryland,
Wisconsin, and
Michigan State. Coach Schembechler denied there was any controversy, and Taylor returned to the line-up in the fifth game against
Iowa Taylor was impressive in his return, completing 11 of 15 pass attempts, including 2 touchdown passes, and also scored a rushing touchdown as the Wolverines beat the Hawkeyes 26–12. After the game, Taylor said, "I think I did all right. I took what the defense gave me." The following week, Taylor again performed well, completing 11 of 18 pass attempts against Indiana and threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to Greg McMurtry and 43 yards to
Derrick Alexander. As Michigan continued to win under Taylor, Schembechler noted, "We've been more productive on offense since Michael came back, because he's so dangerous on the option play. I don't have any problem with Grbac at quarterback, but we're a better team when Taylor's in there. He's a fifth-year senior who makes few mistakes. We were counting on him in spring practice, gearing the season toward him."
1990 Rose Bowl The Wolverines won the Big Ten championship and advanced to the Rose Bowl. As the starting quarterback in the Rose Bowl, Taylor was the subject of extensive pre-game publicity. In a pre-game profile of Taylor published by
USA Today, Michigan offensive coordinator Gary Moeller said, "He's kind of a
Joe Kapp, throw-it-end-over-end guy. He's not a great physical thrower. We all know that." On hearing about Moeller's comments, Taylor said, "I never saw Joe Kapp, but what I know is that I just go out and play, and I don't listen to the critics. I know I can move this team." Taylor said, "A lot of people question my health and my arm, but I just put that out of my mind. I don't really care what people say. I'm just going to go out and do my job."
Career totals In his three years as a quarterback at Michigan (1987–1989), Taylor completed 163 of 275 pass attempts for 2,194 yards and had 17 touchdown passes, 7 interceptions, and a career completion percentage of 59.3%. At conclusion of his career at Michigan, he ranked first all-time among Michigan quarterbacks in
passing efficiency, and his 59.3% completion percentage ranked second all-time, trailing only
Jim Harbaugh. ==References==