Michigan Football: A Bitter Offseason Awaits After Brutal Loss to Buckeyes
Whether it’s an invitation to the Orange Bowl or the Rose Bowl, it’s going to be a bitter off-season for Michigan Football fans.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Michigan football was supposed to beat Ohio State this year.
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Not everyone thought that at the beginning of the season, of course. Back then, we were all clear-eyed, realistic and sober in our predictions.
Michigan football, we said, would somehow improve on its first promising season under new head coach Jim Harbaugh, but would struggle in November against tough opponents like Ohio State.
Even ESPN analyst (and former OSU quarterback) Kirk Herbstreit seemed to have it right back in August: “I think they’re about a year away,” he said then, referring to the Wolverines, “from being the team that everyone’s excited for them to be. I still think they’re going to be one of the 10 best teams in the country.”
It hurt to hear him say that, but we sort of, kind of knew he was right, and then something happened. We got swept up in the hopeful signs and the lopsided victories. We caught the fever that maybe this was the year – not next year or the year after that, but this year. We even allowed ourselves to think that we would win the Big Ten championship for the first time in forever and even have a shot at the national championship.
Frankly, it felt so good to clobber Rutgers that we allowed ourselves to think we could waltz into Ohio Stadium last Saturday and do pretty much the same thing to Ohio State – closer score, maybe, but the same result.
And then, as everyone could see on Saturday afternoon, something went terribly wrong.
Most notably, and I take no pleasure in writing this, Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight turned the ball over three times in situations where the Wolverines were headed for an almost certain score. In fact, if there had been a score in any one of those situations, the outcome of the game most likely would have been different.
Of those three turnovers, one was a pick-six, another was an interception that put the Buckeyes in the red zone, and the third was a soul-crushing fumble at the one-yard line.
And yet, even with those mistakes, it seemed that Michigan football had a chance. Through three quarters it felt as though the Wolverines could pull it out.
So, the problem must have been the officiating, right?
No question that the guys in stripes missed a few. Seeing receiver Grant Perry get hooked and pulled down without a call was tough to take, especially after the previous call on Delano Hill where the ball was almost certainly uncatchable.
And let’s not even talk about “the spot.” OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett was handed a first down in the second overtime, and without indisputable evidence on replay, the call on the field was allowed to stand. One play later Ohio State had won the game.
Michigan football had seven penalties for 59 yards, and Ohio State had two for a grand total of six yards. Even an Ohio State fan might notice the apparent discrepancy there. The officiating left a lot to be desired.
And yet, who among the Michigan faithful was proud when Harbaugh went to the post-game press conference and said, “I’m bitterly disappointed in the officiating”? That was a moment, if there ever was one in a coach’s life, to demonstrate grace and class. Even his players did better than he did when they spoke. But Harbaugh let it rip.
On reflection he might yet admit that throwing his clipboard, breaking his headset, and getting a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct was hardly the best way for him to contribute to his team’s effort.
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Michigan football might be “one year away,” as Herbstreit put it, but a lot of seniors are going to graduate, and a couple of talented juniors might want to grab an NFL contract too. Our best shot to beat Ohio State in a long, long time slipped away. Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl, who cares? It’s going to be a bitter off-season.