Desmond Howard says his famous 1991 catch against Notre Dame put him "on the map" and his equally-famous Heisman Trophy pose against Ohio State "was the cherry on top" of that Heisman-winning season.

But did either of those moments come in Howard's best game in a Michigan football uniform?

Best known for that dominant 1991 season -- when he was a consensus All-American and also won the Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year honors -- Howard also had some big games as a sophomore in 1990.

With Howard on his way to being enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, AnnArbor.com staff members dove into The Ann Arbor News' archives from 1990 and 1991 to review some of Howard's career highlights. After a vote, we rank the following games -- listed No. 1 through No. 10 -- as his best as a Michigan receiver and kick returner.

Do you agree? Vote for your top choice in our poll and discuss the list in the comments section. Howard's career statistics can be found here.

Sept. 14, 1991
(AT) MICHIGAN 24, NOTRE DAME 14

Howard’s most memorable catch helped the Wolverines snap a four-game losing streak against the Fighting Irish.

Leading 17-14 early in the fourth quarter, coach Gary Moeller decided to go for it on a fourth-and-one play. Quarterback Elvis Grbac seemingly overthrew his favorite target on a 25-yard pump-and-go pass to the end zone, but Howard made one of the most famous touchdown catches in Michigan history (see video below).

“If I could make that call again, I would,” Moeller said. “But it takes a special guy to throw it, and a special guy to make the catch. They make the coach look good.”

Howard beat double coverage, extended his 5-foot, 10-inch frame parallel to ground and pulled in the ball in the corner of the end zone. It was one of six catches (for 74 yards) on the day. He also scored on a 29-yard touchdown run.

Said Howard: “I didn’t think it was overthrown. I just knew I had to get it.”

Along with his four-TD day at Boston College the week before, Howard scored six of Michigan’s first eight touchdowns of the season and became a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.

“Today the whole country knows that Des is one great football player,” Moeller said.

Michigan trailed 10-0 after a mistake-filled first quarter to open the 1991 season. But Howard’s 19-yard touchdown pass from Grbac on the first play of the second quarter put the Wolverines on the board and he returned the second-half kickoff for a 93-yard touchdown to put them up for good.

He became the first player in the history of Michigan football to return two kickoffs for touchdowns (the first was in 1990 vs. Michigan State) and finished the game with seven catches for 86 yards.

After the game, The News’ Jim Cnockaert wrote: “Junior speedster Desmond Howard may have started a write-in candidacy for Heisman Trophy with his sensational opening day against Boston College.”

Howard downplayed his Heisman chances: “I can’t touch (Houston quarterback David) Klingler. He may throw another nine touchdowns the next time he plays.”

If this wasn't Howard's best game, it certainly included his greatest individual moment (and the No. 4 moment in Michigan Stadium history, as voted by fans in 2010).

Howard struck his famous Heisman Trophy pose (see video below) after a school-record 93-yard punt return put No. 4 Michigan up 28-3 on the No. 17 Buckeyes before halftime. Howard caught just three passes for 96 yards in the 31-3 win, but the Wolverines claimed their third outright Big Ten title in four years and he’d win the Heisman Trophy in a landslide two weeks later.

“Howard’s big play and pose were as good as any acceptance speech he might have planned for Dec. 14, the night he will almost certainly accept the 1991 Heisman Trophy,” wrote The News’ Chris McCosky.

Howard said the memorable moment almost didn’t occur:

“At first I was going to signal for a fair catch because guys were coming down and getting too close for comfort,” he said. “But then I thought, ‘This is the Ohio State game.’”

Howard was a main cog in a Michigan offense that racked up a then-program record 715 yards in a Gator Bowl win.

Responsible for 226 yards of all-purpose yards, Howard opened the scoring with a 63-yard touchdown on a deep pass from Grbac and later turned a 5-yard screen pass into a 50-yard score, juking Ole Miss defender Todd Sandroni on the play.

“I don’t know what kind of move I put on him,” Howard said. “All I could hear was the crowd going, ‘Oooh!’”

He finished with six catches for a career-high 167 yards, which was a Michigan and Gator Bowl record.

“This guy is in a class by himself,” Ole Miss coach Billy Brewer said. “He has as much ability to run with the ball after a catch as anyone I have seen in a long while. Heck, we kicked away from him on the kickoffs and he still managed to kill us.”

Said Howard: “I think we showed the nation what type of team Michigan has and what might be in store next year.”

After catching nine passes his entire freshman season, Howard opened his sophomore campaign by catching six balls for 133 yards and two touchdowns in a Saturday night loss to the No. 1-ranked Fighting Irish.

The game was Moeller’s first as Michigan’s head coach and he deployed a no-huddle offense that caught Notre Dame off guard. Grbac’s 30 pass attempts were the most by a Michigan quarterback in five seasons.

Howard’s 25-yard score gave No. 4 Michigan a 24-14 lead in the third quarter before Notre Dame roared back. He also averaged 27 yards on three kickoff returns.

This game would be catapulted to the top of this list had Howard come up with a late two-point conversion pass to win the game.

Desmond Howard can't haul in a two-point conversion pass in the final seconds of a 28-27 loss to Michigan State in 1990.

AnnArbor.com file photo

He didn’t. The incomplete pass knocked Michigan out of the No. 1 spot in the AP poll and tarnished one of Howard’s better statistical games: 8 catches for 140 yards and a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

With six seconds remaining and the Wolverines going for the win (there was no overtime in college football at the time), Grbac attempted to hit Howard with a quick slant pass over the middle. Spartan defensive back Eddie Brown, who later admitted he was expecting Howard to run a fade to the corner of the end zone, reached out to grab Howard and got tangled in his legs.

The debates still rage: Should Brown have been called for interference? Should Howard have made the catch anyway? Replays indicated Howard may have possessed the ball before contact with the end zone knocked it away.

In 1999, Brown -- who became a coach at Willow Run High School -- told The News: "I saw 6-foot-5 Elvis Grbac back there about to dump it in there for an easy two points and I'm thinking, ‘There's no way I can go back to East Lansing if I give up this play.’ So I tripped him and I tried to act like I tripped and fell.

Howard put the Wolverines up 14-0 with a pair of early touchdown receptions -- including another of his patented diving grabs in the end zone -- and finished with eight catches for 101 yards. It was the sixth straight game Howard scored two touchdowns.

Afterward, he still wanted more.

“I scored two, but I should have had two more,” he said. “It’s discouraging. You want to get all that you can.”

One seemingly sure touchdown was batted away by Brian Winters. Grbac threw the other into the turf after Howard had juked Allan Haller to his knees.

Playing a little more than one half of a Friday night blowout (the Minnesota Twins had a Saturday World Series game at the Metrodome), Howard scored two touchdowns and set up two more.

A career-long 65-yard touchdown reception gave Michigan a 28-0 lead. After missing portions of the second and third quarters with blurred vision from a hard hit, Howard returned to the field to add a 41-yard score. The second TD broke Anthony Carter’s Big Ten record of 14 touchdown receptions in a season with four games left on the schedule.

Howard finished with six catches for 155 yards. His 18-yard reception and 21-yard reverse set up a pair of 1-yard TD runs by tailback Ricky Powers.

A week after a 46-point win over Minnesota, Howard caught seven passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns to lead the No. 4 Wolverines to a landslide win over the Boilermakers.

Howard caught a 47-yarder to spark what had been a sluggish Michigan offense in the first half. Then he caught a 17-yarder in the third quarter, pulling the ball in while lying on his back in the corner of the end zone. He finished with 169 all-purpose yards, setting up a third TD with a 39-yard punt return.

“He is everything they say,” said Purdue coach Jim Colletto. “He makes a catch falling down on his back and the ball is on the other side of him and he reaches back and catches it for a touchdown. I mean, he is a hell of a player.”

After back-to-back one-point losses to Michigan State and Iowa, Howard and the Wolverines hopped on Indiana early. They led 31-7 by halftime.

Howard caught a career-high nine of Grbac’s 14 completions (in 18 attempts), including a diving 3-yard touchdown that opened the scoring. He finished with 117 receiving yards and added 17 yards rushing on a reverse.

(If you’re wondering, Tripp Welborne was returning kicks for Michigan at the time. He averaged 23.4 yards on five returns.)

HONORABLE MENTION
Nov. 17, 1990
(AT) MICHIGAN 35, MINNESOTA 18

In a somewhat nondescript game, Howard gave a preview of his famous 1991 catch against Notre Dame with a spectacular, toe-dragging, 4-yard TD reception against the Golden Gophers (see video below). He finished with eight catches for 86 yards.