Michigan Football: Are the Wolverines stuck with John O’Korn?

Michigan football beat Indiana 27-20, but quarterback John O’Korn wasn’t much better. Are the Wolverines stuck with him at this point?

Winning on the road in the Big Ten is never easy. But still, it was hard not to be discouraged by the performance of Michigan football in its overtime win over the Hoosiers.

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The start was solid enough, as the Wolverines grabbed an early 13-0 advantage. But then, as the game wore on and the offense got worse, Indiana pulled even. Thankfully, Karan Higdon had a career day and made a stellar run in overtime. It was a good thing too that the defense had enough in them to get one more stop.

A loss to Indiana would have sent the season into a downward spiral. It wasn’t pretty, but Michigan football is 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines still control their own Big Ten destiny. And after all the upsets this past weekend, I think we can agree, a win is always good.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t cause for concern, there is, big time, especially at quarterback. Let’s be real, the Hoosiers defense is far from vaunted. Yet, John O’Korn, the Wolverines starting quarterback, completed just 10-of-20 passes for 58 yards. He averaged 2.9 yards per attempt.

That’s awful. It’s actually hard to conceive a Michigan quarterback playing that poorly, but in that way, O’Korn has exceeded expectations the last two weeks. So you have to wonder, when will Jim Harbaugh make the move to Brandon Peters? Will he ever?

At this point, it’s hard to tell. With the way O’Korn played against Michigan State, you had to think he was on thin ice, but after another inept performance, if Harbaugh doesn’t try Peters now, when will he?

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O’Korn probably is being scapegoated a bit. He’s not really that bad, he just seems to have lost confidence. The offensive line isn’t great and the running game can be inconsistent. Higdon’s big day might help with that. He should be the starter going forward and if he can continue to get tough yards and break big runs, it will help immensely.

However, it doesn’t solve the problem at quarterback. The bottom line is that Michigan football has zero chance of beating Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State with 60 yards passing. It’s just not going to happen.

I get that starting a freshman (Brandon Peters) in a night game at Happy Valley is risky, but can it really be worse than sticking with O’Korn? I guess he did manage to avoid turnovers against Indiana, but the Wolverines need more than that.

Michigan choosing to stick with O’Korn, could mean the squad is headed for an 8-4 season, if its lucky. Maybe Harbaugh wants to get through these two road games, then turn it over to Peters against Rutgers (Oct. 28).

Or maybe the Wolverines really are stuck with O’Korn. It’s possible that Peters just isn’t ready or isn’t that good. But we will never know unless Harbaugh puts him on the field.

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And even if Jim doesn’t think he is ready, at some point, he owes it to his football team to try. The Michigan defense is special and the Wolverines risk wasting it due to poor quarterback play.