Rookie Blue--Michigan Football RCs: part 2 (1996)

(For all posts in this series click here)

I've got lots of great COMC stuff to post soon, but before I do that I wanted to take care of a lingering project first:  showing off the Michigan Football rookies I've accumulated from complete sets, trades, and purchases.  I broke them down into eight manageable groups so that's how many posts you'll be seeing under this feature.

Each post will include a range of one or more years, and the cards from that range are sorted alphabetically by each player's last name and then by set (uh, mostly--sometimes I goofed on "official" set titles and sorted accordingly).  I'll list each player and card, plus anything done in this style indicates what I consider to be a Michigan uniform photo, regardless of airbrushing, etc.

One year is good enough to cover 11 cards of two players from our next time period, 1996:

• Tim Biakabutuka (1996):  Collector's Choice; Fleer; Pacific; Score; Select; Select Certified; Skybox Impact; Stadium Club; Summit; Ultra
• Amani Toomer (1996):  Select Certified

We're still 100% offense so far, but that'll change in a couple posts.  Today I'm featuring 10 cards from beastly RB Tim Biakabutuka and one of Super Bowl XLII champ WR Amani Toomer.

Timmy B. has some 31 rookies to his name and I appear to have 11 of them in hand with a bunch more on the way from COMC and Sportlots.  A healthy six of his cards are Michigan uni shots with half of those including some degree of air-brushing.  Honestly, for as ugly as some of Pacific's designs could be in the 90s, that base card looks solid overall and is a good example of what I've found to be pretty nice college game photography from the brand during that era.

Toomer joins in the fun with a lone card in the form of this higher-end Select Certified base (which joins Tim's above).  I came up with a count of 22 RCs for Amani, a guy who was less heralded than the big back but went on to enjoy a longer and more productive career.  My current stash is a lowly pair, but again I have more help on the way soon.

Next time we'll be looking at some cards from 1998 and 1999 so stay tuned!