The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN FOOTBALL a loss on their home turf. Everything was going exactly to head coach Mark Dantonio's plan, and then half- time ended. Oregon outscored the Spartans 28-3 in the second half to win by 19, 46-27. Michigan State actually pushed its lead to nine after an early third- quarter field goal went through from 42 yards out. All the Ducks did from that point on was hold MSU scoreless for the rest of the game and chalk up four touchdowns of their own. That same day, Ohio State fell to Virginia Tech by two touchdowns at home. Urban Meyer felt the pain of his first regular-season loss as Ohio State's head coach. The Buckeyes faithful watched their team lose at home for the first time since Meyer has been at the helm. Virginia Tech's defense was in the backfield all night, sacking freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett seven times. The Buckeyes coaching staff had no answers against the Hokies. Then there's Michigan. Notre Dame made the decision to end the rivalry a couple of years ago, so the 42nd meeting between the two storied programs promised to be the last one for a while. U-M had defeated Notre Dame six of the last eight times, while being consid- ered the underdog in four of those contests. Michigan was coming into South Bend as an underdog again, despite entering South Bend following a con- vincing week one win over Appala- chian State. The Irish were favored by 4.5 points on their home field, but ended up winning 31-0. It marked the first time Michigan had been shut out by Notre Dame, and also the first time in 30 years the Wolverines hadn't scored any points at all in a game. Meanwhile, Penn State and Wis- consin did their jobs. The Nittany Lions beat Akron 21-3 and the Bad- gers destroyed Western Illinois 37-3. Against Akron and Western Illinois, Penn State and Wisconsin should win, logic whispers. Tell that to Northwestern and Pur- due. Northern Illinois went into Evan- ston and knocked off the Wildcats 23- 15. The Boilermakers hosted Central Michigan and got rolled 38-17. Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Rut- gers and Iowa all won, but only by single digits against Western Ken- tucky, McNeese State, Middle Ten- nessee, Howard and Ball State, re- spectively, in that black eye second week of the season. That's not exactly a murderers' row of college football heavyweights. The Big Ten has taken some shots from pundits and coaches of other conferences in recent years, and a showing like in week two is more fuel for the fire. Conference teams know they need to quiet the talk by winning games that should be won, winning big over inferior opponents, and playing competitively in toss-up games. If those criteria aren't met in the future, a Big Ten team will face a dif- ficult time making it into the new playoff at the end of the season. ❏