The Epic Journey of Matt Gutierrez Continues

Matt Gutierrez is my favorite Michigan quarterback, ever.

How’s this? Tom Brady should be, but he was wildly underrated by me and most (see: all) Michigan fans when he was here. To call the Golden Boy my favorite Michigan quarterback would be disingenuous, he’s my favorite Michigan alum quarterback. Jim Harbaugh was up there in the running, but he was a bit before my time. Brian Griese gets points for stealing a limo, which requires incredible cojones, but still falls just short. No, Matt Gutierrez is my favorite Michigan quarterback of all-time. Why? Because of the allure of the unknown. In his early years, he was the tantalizing back-up to serviceable but uninspiring John Navarre. We were waiting for this quarterback who had never lost a game that he had started, ever. He was undefeated back to middle school. And we just had to wait for him to take over and intangible Michigan to a championship. His time finally came, and he suffered a season ending shoulder injury before the season even began. This led to the beginning of the Chad Henne era. Henne had a silly good frosh year, mostly because if he threw the ball up in the general direction of Braylon Edwards it was likely to be caught. The next year, Gutierrez returned as back-up. Henne, just like Navarre, became serviceable but uninspiring. Once again, we had the undefeated, tantalizing back-up. Gootz, never got the call. He eventually transferred to Idaho State, where he actually did lose a football game, but finally got to play.

Which brings us to today. Now, Gootz has been signed to the New England Patriots. There will be all sorts of articles comparing Gutierrez to Brady. This is because they already wrote that article when the Pats drafted Matt Cassel, it’s an easy article. Gutierrez isn’t Brady. It’s just good to see that he got paid.