Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines victory over Indiana

Indiana hosted Michigan football hoping to end the 23-game win streak the Wolverines held over the Hoosiers. Shea Patterson and company weren’t going to let it happen.

No one knew what to expect from the Indiana Hoosiers. At 7-3, they were a team on cloud nine, rising the ranks of the Big Ten in hopes of gaining relevancy not only in the conference but also on a national scale. Regardless of what happened in Bloomington Saturday, Tom Allen and his men knew they were bowl eligible, and they had already reached the highest win total since 2007 with two games remaining. But that wasn’t enough. Allen, like everyone else with a hand on the pulse on the Big Ten, knows the Hoosiers haven’t taken down a Michigan football team since 1987. For 24-straight games, the Hoosiers have lost at the hands of Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez, Brady Hoke, and ever since 2015, Jim Harbaugh.

For three years now, Mike Hart,  famous for his little brother comment and the fact that he’s the Wolverines career rushing yards leader, has kept the company of Hoosiers, employed as the running backs coach just like he had done previously with Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, and Syracuse. As a Michigan man, he’s sure done a lot to keep Michigan born men from becoming Michigan men, recruiting high school stars away from in-state universities and south to Indiana.

Guys like David Ellis, the Hoosiers talented punt returner, hails from Clinton Township, and even though Ellis didn’t receive an offer from UM, many others who committed to Michigan were also heavily targeted by Hart – a guy who’s keenly aware of Michigan’s recruiting tactics.

Hart’s subversive efforts were without success on Saturday. The Wolverines, not including the first quarter, demolished the Hoosiers 39-14 on the road providing Indiana it’s fourth loss and bumping the win streak to 24.

Here are grades for the Wolverines from yesterday’s win. As always, they’re based on an A-F scale.