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    • The arrogance of Michigan football is bringing it down, not No. 1 Oregon
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    The arrogance of Michigan football is bringing it down, not No. 1 Oregon

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    The play that sealed the fate of Michigan football in a 38-17 loss to No. 1 Oregon on Saturday was a testament to the Wolverines’ arrogance.

    There they were, ten yards from the Ducks’ end zone and within striking distance of making it a one-score game midway through the fourth quarter. It was fourth and it took five meters to keep hope alive.

    On a team with weak quarterback options and a running game that was dysfunctional for most of the afternoon, the assumption was that Michigan would turn to the one man, Davis Warren, who had shown himself to be at least a decent forward could pass. Before this do-or-die moment, Warren had yielded 12 completions, including two that resulted in (gasp!) goal-to-go touchdowns.

    But no: using Warren at that moment would have made too much sense.

    Instead, offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell added Alex Orji, a backup who had used his arm just once in live action since being benched during an Oct. 5 loss at Washington.

    What followed went as poorly as anyone expected.

    Orji took the photo and of course didn’t drop back to pass. Instead, he faked one handoff and turned the ball to receiver Semaj Morgan, who was running an end-around. Morgan, who had never attempted a throw during his college career, then turned, backed away and shot.

    The ball floated towards the sideline… floating, floating and floating again until it was so far out of bounds that its intended target, Orji, crashed into a camera post yards beyond the white edge of the field.

    QUICK RESPONSE: Michigan football has so many problems in the loss to Oregon that it’s hard to pinpoint the biggest one

    A confused crowd groaned in pain, watching the turnovers on the downs. They then watched Oregon slowly sink a stake into the heart of their beloved Wolverines as they marched the length of the field to produce a final touchdown in the final minute.

    After Jordan James rammed his way into the end zone to complete the execution, the Ducks’ running back flexed and roared — reminding everyone that his team, not Michigan, rules college football right now.

    It’s something the Wolverines are having a hard time accepting.

    On Monday, the players were reluctant to show much respect for the Ducks, a rising power that is starting to resemble the juggernaut that resided in Ann Arbor last fall.

    “We don’t consider them the No. 1 team in the country,” safety Quinten Johnson said. “We think of them as Oregon. So in the end they were allowed to come and play with us.”

    It was a surprising statement, considering Johnson’s team had already suffered three losses and no longer had the same rarefied aura as the mighty Ducks.

    But head coach Sherrone Moore explained, “You are Michigan. You are always being hunted, regardless of the year, the record.”

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    “This is a big program,” Warren added. “We have a lot of great players in this building and I am confident we are more than capable of beating any team in the country.”

    Few, if any, outsiders shared the same beliefs. The Wolverines were deeply flawed, and it showed even after Michigan rebounded last Saturday with a tense, tight 24-17 win over Michigan State — a mediocre rival that Indiana destroyed Saturday at the same time Michigan was getting its lesson.

    As Johnson, Warren and Moore were reluctant to admit, UM had shown surprising shortcomings in all areas by the time they reentered the Big House for their showdown with the Ducks. The offense had become a permanent liability, the defense had become vulnerable, the special teams were no longer healthy and the coaching across the board was starting to raise red flags.

    This offseason, Moore and his staff downplayed concerns about the Wolverines’ perceived shortcomings while taking few steps to upgrade a roster that lost 18 starters who helped win a national championship.

    “We have plenty of talent, and we’re going to develop them,” Moore boasted in mid-August.

    But they don’t and they haven’t — at least not to the point where Michigan can compete with elite opponents like Oregon.

    UM FIGURES: Coaches are at their worst when they make major replay blunders

    On Saturday, UM’s top two cornerbacks, Will Johnson and Jyaire Hill, were ruled out. Their absence further exposed the lack of depth in a defense that isn’t nearly as solid as the one that ranked first nationally in yards and points allowed last year.

    Dillon Gabriel, Oregon’s dynamic passer, took advantage. He flamed UM’s patchwork as he completed 22 of 34 attempts for 294 yards – 217 of which came during the first half as the Ducks built an insurmountable 28-10 lead. Just as Texas’ Quinn Ewers showed Michigan in the Big House Longhorns massacre in Week 2, Gabriel once again demonstrated the tremendous value and fortune-changing impact that a quality quarterback provides.

    Somehow that went unnoticed by Moore and Campbell during an offseason as they faced the reality of replacing JJ McCarthy, a top-10 pick in April’s NFL draft in Detroit.

    The two men, who had seen McCarthy up close as he went 27-1 as UM’s starter, decided to pin the program’s hopes on a number of unproven options vying to succeed him. It was a huge miscalculation. Warren, Orji and Jack Tuttle — a 25-year-old who retired from football in October midway through his seventh collegiate season — have taken turns commanding an offense that has allowed fewer than 20 points four times this season. Each of these matches resulted in a defeat.

    The mismanagement of the team’s most important position was again on display Saturday toward the end of the game, when the Wolverines still had a glimmer of hope.

    That’s when Campbell thought he could outsmart Oregon and its defensive head coach, Dan Lanning, by pulling off a trick with Orji as one of the key players. It was a decision born of sheer hubris. Still, it wasn’t a surprise at all, coming from a man who predicted in the spring that this offense – now ranked 109the in the country – would be ‘extremely explosive’.

    Campbell’s brazen play calling, which seemed to taunt the football gods, backfired royally. That left Moore with a number of uncomfortable questions afterwards.

    But rather than admit guilt or question Campbell, Moore instead said he “wouldn’t regret” the choice he made.

    It was a stunning response.

    After all, Moore should have a lot of regrets about that move and so many others that have gone sideways this year — from his inept handling of the quarterbacks to the short-sighted management of the roster to the frequent in-game blunders that have proven detrimental.

    All of this has led the Wolverines to this point where they are 5-4 after losing to a much superior opponent. The program’s decline over the past ten months has been pronounced.

    But as a rival coach once said of Michigan, pride comes before a fall.

    Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.

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