Until yesterday, Michigan hadn’t won a game since Bo Schembechler died, last November. Let’s hope that the rest of the season will go much better. Mallett actually looks like a better natural quarterback than Henne ever has. It’s not obvious who should start next week, even if Henne is healthy.

Maybe this year won’t be a total disaster for (southeast) Michigan football. The Lions are leading the Raiders at the half, ten zip.

Based on the game so far, it looks like Michigan is for real. A for-real loser, that is…

[Update a few minutes later]

A comment over at rec.sport.football.college…

[The Wolverines] are absolutely *killing* Appalachian State’s strength-of-schedule.

Heh.

At the half, they’re down four scores (32-7). I’d sure like to be a fly on the wall in the Michigan locker room.

Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t spend twenty bucks on ESPN game plan to watch the slaughter. It’s not like there were any other games there that I wanted to watch.

[Update a couple minutes later]

OK, last week, it was clear that the defense was weak. But this week, it’s clear that the offense is as well. Both Henne and Hart have produced in past seasons, so I have to think it’s the O-line.

Either way, I was laughing off suggestions that Lloyd would leave over this, but if it keeps up, and Michigan has a losing season (when was the last time that happened?), it could happen. Interestingly, his early years were his best.

[Update at quarter to six Eastern]

Well, it turns out that it’s the local ABC game, so I don’t have that excuse not to watch. Apparently, senior quarterback Henne’s been injured, and replaced. It’s unclear whether that’s a good or a bad thing. But he can’t be feeling very good about his senior season at this point…

[Update after end of game]

OK. It’s pretty clear that Michigan completely sux. The question now is, what will the Athletic Department do about it?

Now this is just mean:

In the wake of their embarrassing loss to Division 1-AA Appalachian State, Michigan has announced they will play the Barton Hills Blue Birds of the Ann Arbor-area under-10 youth division in next year

Now this is just mean:

In the wake of their embarrassing loss to Division 1-AA Appalachian State, Michigan has announced they will play the Barton Hills Blue Birds of the Ann Arbor-area under-10 youth division in next year

Now this is just mean:

In the wake of their embarrassing loss to Division 1-AA Appalachian State, Michigan has announced they will play the Barton Hills Blue Birds of the Ann Arbor-area under-10 youth division in next year

When was the last time that Michigan wasn’t ranked in the top twenty-five in football? I guess the question is now, how many teams do they have to beat to get ranked again? If they go undefeated through the Wisconsin game, that seems like it should be enough. In fact, assuming that Wisconsin is undefeated at the time, it should put them back in the top ten, and Saturday’s game will be viewed as a fluke. That is one advantage of an early loss. But that loss will haunt them all the way through the end of the season, in terms of what bowl they go to, even if they’re undefeated from here on out. Not that I expect that, of course.

When was the last time that Michigan wasn’t ranked in the top twenty-five in football? I guess the question is now, how many teams do they have to beat to get ranked again? If they go undefeated through the Wisconsin game, that seems like it should be enough. In fact, assuming that Wisconsin is undefeated at the time, it should put them back in the top ten, and Saturday’s game will be viewed as a fluke. That is one advantage of an early loss. But that loss will haunt them all the way through the end of the season, in terms of what bowl they go to, even if they’re undefeated from here on out. Not that I expect that, of course.

When was the last time that Michigan wasn’t ranked in the top twenty-five in football? I guess the question is now, how many teams do they have to beat to get ranked again? If they go undefeated through the Wisconsin game, that seems like it should be enough. In fact, assuming that Wisconsin is undefeated at the time, it should put them back in the top ten, and Saturday’s game will be viewed as a fluke. That is one advantage of an early loss. But that loss will haunt them all the way through the end of the season, in terms of what bowl they go to, even if they’re undefeated from here on out. Not that I expect that, of course.

They sure deserved to win that game. It’s not the end of the Wolverine’s season, but it almost certainly wipes out any title hopes. It wasn’t clear to me whether the defense just stank, or whether Appalachian State was that good. The coming weeks will tell.

[Update a few minutes later]

It wasn’t just the defense. Special teams fell down, too, losing in the final seconds. You don’t win national championships by having two field goals blocked in a game.

[Another update]

One more thought. When was the last time Michigan lost three straight games (over two seasons, of course). And it’s been a long time since they lost an opener as well. They usually stumble when they play the Irish in the second or third game.

[Sunday morning update]

As I note in comments, it just occurred to me that the Wolverines haven’t won a football game since Bo Schembechler died.

And Iowahawk kindly sends along this song. There ain’t no freude like schadenfreude.

“Hail To The Victors” it’s not.

[Update on late Sunday morning]

Should Michigan even be ranked now? I think not. Just shows the stupidity of pre-season polls. They can earn their way back into the top ten, but they have to run the table now.

[Afternoon update]

Here’s a Michigan fan, drowing his sorrows in…kittens.

Well, they are cute.