The Michigan Wolverines suffered one of the worst losses in modern program history on Saturday, falling at home to the Michigan State Spartans, who came into the game sitting at 2-6 and on a six-game losing streak, 15-6.
I’ve floated the phrase “rock bottom” around a couple of times this year, but this is it. We’ve hit rock bottom, and now the Wolverines have to go on the road to take on the Oregon Ducks.
Last week, I predicted Michigan was going to lose to Michigan State because I didn’t think that
Kyle Whittingham was going to get his team motivated for a rivalry game. The Spartans are a bad football team, but they clearly have a coach who is trying and who cares. Sure enough, both teams embodied their head coach in that game. Michigan was lifeless, unenthusiasic, and just flat out looked like a team that didn’t want to be there.
After the game, Michigan fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck, which needed to be done. However, nothing will change until the Wolverines find a new head coach who embraces the program and actually wants to do his job. With a road test against a ranked team looming, things are only going to get worse. Here are a few predictions for this weekend’s contest against the Ducks:
Michigan will get shut out
We almost saw this happen last week at home against one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, so why should we expect a better performance out west against the Ducks? Players have checked out and the head coach doesn’t want to be here. The recipe going into this game could not be worse. Before the Michigan State game, things were bad, but a win would’ve made the Wolverines 6-3. And the losses, while painful and self-inflicted, were somewhat forgivable. However, there is no coming back from the atrocity we witnessed last weekend. It will only get worse.
Kyle Whittingham will be fired after the game
The one positive that will come from last week’s disaster is that I can’t see any scenario where Whittingham is Michigan’s head coach on Dec. 1. The fan base is now completely against him, and the program is at its lowest point in over a decade. It’s going to happen within the next month, and I think Saturday might be so bad that the school decides to get it over with before the end of the season.
Oregon wins 17-0
I think that the defense will once again do enough to put Michigan in a spot to win a football game, but the offense isn’t going to get it done. It will be another frustrating watch, but we will move one step closer to putting this dumpster fire of a season in the rearview mirror.
