Week in Review: September 6

Biggest Story of the Week: The Sharp Decline of a Powerhouse

Everywhere you look today you will hear about the terrible day the Big 10 had yesterday. ESPN is practically running the story as breaking news. Here is some breaking news for the “World Wide Leader,” most of the country has known about the Big 10 being number 5 of the Power Five Conferences for a while. But we are glad you are paying attention.

For me, the biggest story of the day was watching Michigan play Notre Dame. Because of Notre Dame’s new deal with the ACC, this is the last time the two teams will play for the foreseeable future, and that was enough to peek my interest. What I saw was a bit shocking.

Going in, I didn’t think either one of these teams were that good, and when Everett Golsten had to burn two timeouts on the Irish’s opening drive because he couldn’t manage the play clock, I thought it would be a pretty good game between two average teams. Unfortunately for Michigan, they are far from average.

Notre Dame’s defense dominated the game, and Notre Dame’s offense was able to move the ball effectively, but looked like a high school team at times. Notre Dame doesn’t have elite athletes on offense and I think Golsten is a below average quarterback, but they were able to put up 31 points on Michigan. In the final game of the series, Notre Dame shut out Michigan for the first time ever.

While the decline of the Big 10 has been well documented, I think the decline of Michigan is far more troubling.

Like it or not, the Michigan football program is one of the top 3 programs of all time. They have won more games than any other team in college football history. Michigan has 11 consensus national titles. They have 23 undefeated seasons. They have won 42 conference titles. The winged helmets of the Maize and Blue are as iconic as any in college football. The Big House, which seats near 110,000 fans is one of the greatest venues in America. College football is a better product when it’s historical programs like Michigan are in contention.

The problem is that Michigan is not in contention. Since 2008, Michigan has lost 36 games (42-36 overall).

Obviously the worst of those numbers were accumulated during the utter failure that was the Rich Rodriquez era. Rodriguez was going to bring Michigan football into the 21^st century with a new up-tempo offense, but after two straight losing seasons and a 7-6 campaign in 2010, Rich Rod was gone and the Wolverines turned to a “Michigan Man,” in Brady Hoke.

Hoke endeared himself to the Michigan faithful in 2011 by returning the team to the national stage going 11-2 and beating Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Michigan was back!

Only they weren’t. Alabama embarrassed the Wolverines in the opening game of the 2012 season, and Michigan would limp their way to an 8-5 record and another bowl game defeat.

Last season, Michigan went 7-6.

Looking ahead this season, Michigan still has to play Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State. They aren’t winning any of those games. So that is 8-4 at best. If they slip up just once, they are flirting with another appearance in the Toilet Bowl, to be played on December 27^th in a half full stadium that no one has ever heard of.

Just saying that Michigan should fire Brady Hoke is an obvious statement. The more difficult issue is how can this storied school find their way back to national prominence in the current landscape of college football?

Before I answer that, let me tell you whose fault it is that Michigan has fallen so far off the map: Ohio State alum, and ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreet.

In 2007, on the day of the SEC Championship game, Herbstreet reported on College Gameday that Michigan was going to hire Les Miles away from LSU to be their next head football coach. Miles, whose team was playing in Atlanta that day, was forced to address the issue before the Tigers took the field, and said he was not leaving LSU.

Miles is a “Michigan Man.” He coached under the legendary Bo Schembechler and I believe with all my heart that the Mad Hatter was heading to Ann Arbor after the season finished, but after being publicly called out, he stayed at LSU. How can you recruit top level talent if you were the guy who was looking for his next job while his team was en route to a national title?

Miles was out, and Rodriquez was the eventual choice for Michigan.

So how does Michigan get back? Hire the man they should have hired in the first place. At the end of the season, Michigan should offer Miles a $10 million per season contract to come home and save his alma mater.

Watching the game last night, the most amazing thing was how few good players Michigan had on the field. How is it, at a place like Michigan, you can’t recruit better players? Miles is a great recruiter and hiring him would not only invigorate a huge fan base, it would also set up the 

Michigan/Ohio State rivalry as one of the best in college football once again.

Biggest Win of the Week: Oregon pulls away from Michigan State

In the marquee match up of the day, the third ranked Ducks managed to pull away from Sparty in the second half in a win that will be even more impressive on paper than it was watching it live. Over the past two seasons, Oregon has fallen to the physicality of the Stanford. Beating a physical team like 

Michigan State in the manner they did, will give Oregon a lot of confidence going forward.

I still think it is going to be hard for Oregon to go undefeated in the Pac 12, but with the terrible day the Big 10 had, a one loss Pac 12 Champion would still be in the playoff. Oregon doesn’t play USC or Arizona State, so the Trojan’s victory over Stanford yesterday sets up the Ducks as the front runner in the Pac 12 North.

Most people on the east coast probably had not seen too much of Marcus Mariota. Mariota was very good yesterday, and at times, he was brilliant, using his mobility to buy more time to make plays down the field, rather than scrambling and taking big hits.

Oregon has speed all over the field on both sides of the ball, so if they can keep Mariota healthy, the Ducks should be in the hunt for the playoff, and a win over a top 10 non conference opponent is just going to make their case that much stronger.

Biggest Loss of the Week: Ohio State falls at home to un-ranked Virginia Tech

Once Braxton Miller was lost for the season, it was hard to see Ohio State being a factor for the national title race, but losing at home to a Virginia Tech team that is very young was embarrassing.

While the quarterback play wasn’t good at all, the real issue was the inability of the Ohio State offensive line to slow down the Virginia Tech defense. Seeing a middle of the road ACC team physically dominate Ohio State in Columbia was pretty surprising.

Going forward, Ohio State is still the team to beat in their division, but only because Penn State is still ineligible for the conference title and Michigan is awful. I can’t see the Buckeyes beating either Michigan State or Wisconsin in the title game, and even if they make it to one of the committee selected bowl games, they would probably be embarrassed.

Urban Meyer was supposed to establish Ohio State as the preeminent program in the Big 10, but now in his third season, Meyer doesn’t seem to have the type of talent that can compete with the big boys in college football. Even if Meyer wins his first Big 10 title this year, the loss last night probably eliminated Ohio State from the playoff, so the best the Buckeyes can hope for is winning the weakest major conference in college football.

Ohio State fans should be careful. If they lose another game or two this season, Meyer might decide that he needs to spend more time with his family again.

Top 3 in the Heisman Race:

1.      Kenny Hill

2.      Marcus Mariota

3.      Todd Gurley

College Football Playoff if the Season Ended Today:

1.      Texas A&M v. 4. Alabama

2.      Oregon v. 3. FSU

Three Things to Watch for Next Week:

1.     South Carolina hosts Georgia with their season on the line. Just like I feared, the Gamecocks looked mediocre against East Carolina last night, which means the entire world will be expecting Georgia to dominate them next Saturday. Georgia ran wild on Clemson, but they are going to need Hutson Mason to play a bigger role in the offense if they expect to win in Columbia for the first time since 2008.

2.      Big Game Bob hosts an SEC school. Oklahoma will face Tennessee in a very interesting game. Tennessee is still probably a year or two away from being able to compete for an SEC title, but they have a lot of talent and they could be a threat to Oklahoma if the Sooners aren’t on their game. Stoops always has a lot to say about the SEC, so I would imagine that he is going to want to make a statement against the Vols.

3.      USC and UCLA on the road. The Trojans head all the way to Chestnut Hill to face Boston College. BC isn’t that good, but it will be interesting how the cross country flight effects USC after a physical game against Stanford last Saturday. Meanwhile, USC’s cross-town rival, UCLA travel to the Lone Star State to take on Texas. The Longhorns got demolished by BYU last Saturday, so Charlie Strong’s team is going to need a big performance if they are going to get back on the right track before their conference schedule begins. The Bruins have not been too impressive in early season wins against Virginia and Memphis, so putting a whopping on Texas would affirm some of the preseason hype they received.