The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/382426
A ngry fans took to message boards and talk radio following Michigan's loss at Notre Dame, and it was as ugly as anyone might expect following a 31‑0 drubbing. For a non‑ conference game, the stakes were huge — a chance to erase the "can't win on the road" rumblings that have now grown into a roar, and an opportunity to stick it to Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick for the smarmy way he ended the series (with a letter to U‑M athletics director David Brandon just before the 2012 game in South Bend). One fan's angry rant was so epic (in a "this guy needs help" sort of way) it even made it to the popular website Deadspin.com. There was no sugarcoating in the Michigan postgame locker room, nor any reason to try. Redshirt junior center Jack Miller summed up what everyone loyal to the Maize and Blue — from the top down — was feeling. "It's embarrassing," he said. "It's definitely not the way we wanted to end the series and perform tonight." And then came the reality some factions don't want to hear so early in the grieving stage. "It is over," Miller said. "We are fresh off it and it hurts, but all we can do is move forward the next week and try to be better. It's a long season, and by no stretch of the imagination are we down and out." Nope, just down — but in some fans' eyes, with no chance for atonement. The latest setback is just more proof of an epidemic, they'd say, the evidence too much to ignore. The Wolverines haven't won a significant road game the last three‑plus seasons, and the Sept. 6 drubbing showed no indication that Team 135 was any different than the three preceding it. U‑M is now 0‑5 in its last five road rivalry games (Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ohio State), and there are two more to come this year in trips to East INSIDE MICHIGAN CHRIS BALAS The 2014 Season Is Far From Lost Head coach Brady Hoke and U-M lost at Notre Dame, but they still have the opportu- nity to win rivalry games at Michigan State and Ohio State. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN