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Michigan football loss to Oregon reveals a real CFP follow-up: mediocrity

Vaseline November 3, 2024

In case you hadn’t noticed yet, folks, the beautiful dream is over. Michigan football fans who have been burying their heads in the pillow since September, clinging to the sweet smell of a national championship, can no longer avoid the smell from the Big House kitchen.

And it’s not coffee.

It’s mediocrity.

That trait was on full display Saturday in UM’s fourth loss of the season, when Oregon, the No. 1 team in the country, trailed the Wolverines on their home turf, 38-17. The Michigan offense couldn’t keep up, and the Ducks gobbled up the UM defense like real ducks swallow breadcrumbs as they pecked and prodded four touchdowns before halftime.

The last of which came from Oregon’s Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who took a shortcut and ran 23 yards into the end zone untouched. You rarely see a quarterback run so straight, so alone, for that distance. A monk has more company.

It was one of many embarrassments Saturday for a Michigan program that at this point last year was two-thirds of the way to an undefeated season and saw stunning excellence from its quarterback, running back, defensive line and secondary. Not anymore. We all know that UM lost 18 starters. We all know Jim Harbaugh went to the NFL and left the cupboards empty, especially under center. We all know that Sherrone Moore, the new coach, has his hands full. We all know that UM’s best defensive back, Will Johnson, was out on Saturday.

We all know that last week the Wolverines saw one of their quarterbacks retire from football and a top QB recruit opt out.

We all know that. We knew it was coming in.

Didn’t make it any easier to watch.

“The most important thing is winning a football game,” said Davis Warren, who finished in his second round as starting quarterback Saturday with 165 yards passing and two touchdowns. “As an offense, we have to start faster… to be better on third down… keep our defense off the field. … But our most important job is to win the football game.”

And that didn’t happen.

Again.

A painful trick

Saturday was a chance to make a big contribution to UM’s legacy for 2024. Oregon looks a bit like last year’s Michigan team, on the rise, believing in the program, riding a hot quarterback and undefeated when it number 1 team in the country. A disruption could have changed everything in Ann Arbor.

Unfortunately, the Ducks matched their billing (sorry, too easy) and the Wolverines matched theirs. UM’s woeful passing game couldn’t keep them on the field early, especially on third downs, and the defense had no answer to Gabriel and his accuracy on the run.

“They executed well,” Moore said. “We have to continue to focus on small details.”

Yes. And big ones.

Give UM credit for not giving up. That hardly sounds like much. But with the way the Wolverines played the first half, they might have been excused for coming out with their feet for the second. They surrendered touchdown drives of 63, 75, 80 and 94 yards. And their offense had numerous three-and-outs.

“We actually had a heart-to-heart at halftime,” Warren recalled, “and said, ‘We’ve got to go now.’ ”

And indeed, they improved. Warren made some nice throws, Colston Loveland (seven catches, 112 yards) had some great catch-and-runs, and the Wolverines kept things interesting and even came close midway through the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game to make.

But a 70-yard drive ended with a silly trick play call on fourth down, a reverse to Semaj Morgan that saw him throw the ball out of the end zone as his intended receiver, quarterback Alex Orji, crashed into a TV camera.

It was painful to watch.

On different levels.

A few moments later, Gabriel once again scrambled away from Michigan’s defense (he threw for almost 300 yards and they didn’t sack him the entire game) and fired a 47-yard strike to Traeshon Holden. From then on it was just a countdown until Oregon went home undefeated and Michigan just went home.

“What are you playing for now?” Moore was asked after his team fell to 5-4 on the season. “What is the motivation?”

“The motivation is being in Michigan,” Moore said. “That you wear a winged helmet, that you have a block ‘M’ on your chest.”

It’s a good, defiant response from the college coach.

The problem is not the answer.

The problem is he gets the question.

That’s it for a CFP whiz

Saturday’s loss officially closes the door on any miraculous playoff dreams. Of course, if the Wolverines had somehow stunned No. 1 Oregon, and then come back the next week and shut down No. 13 Indiana, and two weeks later upset No. 4 Ohio State in Columbus, you could claiming that, even with three losses, they deserved a spot in the last 12.

And if Kamala Harris wins 49 states on Tuesday. …

The point is, it didn’t happen. And most likely, Michigan will end up with five or six losses and get a minor bowl game. But there’s a chance even that won’t happen. Either way, it’s quite a drop from last season’s high. And you wonder how the players who remember last year’s sunshine will deal with this year’s mud.

“Our goal at the beginning of the year is to beat Michigan State, beat Ohio State, win a Big Ten title and win a national title,” Warren said. “This is obviously disappointing, but it’s not our job at this point to feel bad for ourselves from that perspective. …

“If you look with that wide lens all the time, you’re going to get stuck.”

That’s why players don’t buy it. But fans do. And I have to disagree a bit with Warren’s “wide angle” assessment. Michigan can no longer just set its sights on MSU and Ohio State. Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington will now regularly get in the way of all his dreams, Big Ten and national, and UM coaches would do well to generate the same sense of rivalry among the Ducks, Huskies and Trojans as they do for the Spartans and Buckeyes.

“Is there a specific goal you can rally your team around right now?” Moore was asked.

“Win,” he snapped. “How do we win the next game and the next and the next?”

Even if they do (and it doesn’t seem likely if you’ve been watching Ohio State), nothing significant will change. All titles are gone. The best trophy they can hope for has a scale name on it.

And Wolverines Nation is generally not a patient bunch.

Yet there is relatively little outrage about the slow decline of the 2024 season. Does that seem strange to you? Perhaps last year’s joy is a shadow on this year’s glasses. Or maybe fans want to give Moore a longer runway. I have a friend who is a huge Michigan fan and says that this year he is watching last year’s games week by week and reliving the joy.

Whatever floats your boat. A national title buys grace (though programs like Alabama expect them every year). But considering how Oregon went from Heisman finalist Bo Nix last year to Heisman candidate Gabriel this year, it seems criminal that the Wolverines, at the most important position, went from JJ McCarthy to a three-man committee.

What a difference a year makes. The dream is over. Wake up and smell the record. Four losses against five wins, and then watching Oregon dance off the field Saturday, reveling in an undefeated record and imagining what’s to come, should leave Michigan fans nostalgic. Or at least wish they could go back to sleep.

Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.