The Michigan Wolverines are one of the most storied programs in college football history. With a great history comes expectations, sometimes unruly, to live up to what happened in the past. When the Lloyd Carr era officially ended at Michigan, on the first day of the year in 2007, Carr left behind a team that was able to knock off defending champion Florida and Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow in the Capital One Bowl.
But rumors were that Carr was forced to retire because trips to the Capital One Bowl were not good enough for the Wolverine faithful. Keep in mind Michigan had one of the most embarrassing losses in college football history that same season as Appalachian State knocked off the Wolverines at the Big House. One of the weirdest coaching searches ensued and finally, Michigan was able to pry away Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia, beginning a separate dispute between Rodriguez and WVU in the process.
Rodriguez is most known for his utilization of the spread offense, something never seen before in Michigan and the majority of Big Ten schools. People fairly criticized Rodriguez for ridding himself of Carr’s pro-style players, including then freshman quarterback Ryan Mallet. ‘Rich Rod’ began recruiting guys to fit his style and it was clear that there was going to be a mass turnover rate with his offense and defense.
In last year’s season opener against Utah, Michigan put up a great fight before succumbing to the Utes at home for the second season opener in a row. It wasn’t until a blowout loss at the Big House to Illinois when fans of the program really began to feel sour towards their team. In that game, Juice Williams set a Michigan Stadium record with 431 yards of total yardage. The following week was even worse when, once again, Michigan lost to an inferior program at home. This might have been the lowest point over the last few years for the Wolverines as they lost to a poor Toledo team that makes its living in the MAC. As the year came and went, blowout losses became the norm as Michigan lost to Penn St, Michigan St, and Ohio State in routes. They also lost to a horrid Purdue team at West Lafayette and lost to Northwestern at home for the first time since the Wildcats made the Rose Bowl in 1995. In sum, Michigan finished the season with the most losses in school history (9), they did not make a bowl game for the first time in 33 years, and it wrapped up their first losing season since 1967.
2009 would mark a big year under Rich Rodriguez. While many Wolverine fans were upset at the 2008 season, a good chunk of them also gave Rodriguez a grace period because he had to put his players in from his system. But another sub .500 season could see Rodriguez in the same spot where Ron Zook and Charlie Weis should be after this season; the unemployment line.
Besides the usual game against Notre Dame, Rodriguez scheduled one of the softest non-conference schedules in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Anything less than an appearance in a bowl game would be a massive failure for Michigan. The Wolverines went into the season unsure of who their starting quarterback would be for the duration of the season. They planned to use all three of their options in the season opener against Western Michigan.
Freshman Tate Forcier got the start but freshman Denard Robinson and the extremely unpopular senior Nick Sheridan would get some playing time. Robinson had the spectacular play of the game as he turned a botched snap into a 43 yard touchdown scamper. But Forcier stole the show as he lit up WMU’s defense by throwing three touchdowns and throwing for 179 yards. Forcier landed the job the next week against Notre Dame and led one of the most impressive drives in the college football season so far in the final two minutes against the Irish. Forcier dazzled the crowd with some great throws and some amazing plays on his legs. 240 yards through the air and over 100 more on the ground for the true freshman was undoubtedly impressive. Forcier found himself as the man on campus and gone were the days of worrying about Sheridan and Steven Threet at the helm.
Michigan blew out Eastern Michigan before they struggled mightily against the Hoosiers this past Saturday. Indiana had to settle for four red zone field goals and they ended up losing the game 36-33. If they just converted one of those opportunities into a touchdown, it’s a different outcome. The warning signs were there for Michigan in the first conference game of the season. Tate Forcier might be a good quarterback, but could his early season successes be due in large part to facing some uninspiring defenses? The signature win for the Wolverines is that win against Notre Dame. But the general feeling is that Notre Dame is a good offensive team, but they can not stop anyone when they line up on defense. A narrow victory against the Boilermakers (who already lost to NIU this season) for Notre Dame on Saturday didn’t ease those concerns either.
Right now, Michigan’s ranked 22nd in the nation. They are 4-0 and they play in the Big Ten. Not to mention the name recognition also helps, so it’s not all that surprising that they are ranked. When it’s all said and done this year the Wolverines will probably be a fringe top 25 team, but definitely not top 15 worthy. Let’s take a look at the remaining schedule for the maze and blue:
- @ Michigan State
- @ Iowa
- VS Delaware State
- VS Penn St.
- @ Illinois
- VS Purdue
- @ Wisconsin
- VS Ohio State
Out of that list, there’s only two ‘gimme’ victories (Delaware State and Purdue). There’s also three games in there that you can mark up as a loss (Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State). This week marks the first time Michigan is leaving the comforts of Michigan Stadium as they travel to East Lansing to take on the Spartans. Michigan St. has had some issues this year but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they pull off the upset. Penn State is a far superior team to Michigan but after their loss to Iowa, it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. And then there’s Illinois, who will be hosting Michigan in Champaign on Halloween night. Illinois has been horrible this year against their two legitimate teams that they have faced but even Ron Zook can find his way to at least one surprise win a season.
Michigan will probably end up with 7 or 8 wins and they’ll probably end up in the Alamo Bowl. I don’t think this year will be Michigan’s year to come back into the main spotlight but the future is much brighter for Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines at this point this year than it was just one short season ago. In reality, this is about as good of a best case scenario that the Wolverines could have hoped for.
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