As Devin Garder hobbled off the field one final time after receiving yet another Sparty beat-down, the image of his dirty and stained uniform surrounded by the much cleaner jerseys worn by his offensive linemen told you all you needed to know about this afternoon.
All week long leading up to the game I was one of the most pessimistic posters on here about the potential outcome of this game. And Michigan managed to actually perform worse than I anticipated.
There was never a juncture when this game was truly competitive from a physical standpoint, despite what it said on the scoreboard. This looked like the JV versus the varsity. Sparty looked bigger and more physical, and played accordingly. They broke Michigan's will.
They are a dramatically better team than Michigan. If the two teams played 10 times on a neutral field Sparty would win at least 7 of them. The only reason this wasn't a 40-point loss is because the Sparty quarterback missed too many throws. The game was an infomercial for negative recruiting.
If this was supposed to be a benchmark for our program, we didn't just fail, we set the program back. This was the most embarrassing display of Michigan football since the shellacking in the Gator Bowl by Mississippi State. The game that got Rich Rodriguez fired.
Sparty has played us tough in recent years in East Lansing. But I cannot remember a time when it was so clear they were physically superior. You'd probably have to go back to the Duffy Daugherty-Biggie Munn days, and now you're talking almost a half century.
There is nothing positive about this game. Nothing. We showed nothing to build on. Nothing to take away for the rest of the season, and now the rest of the season is largely meaningless. At Michigan it doesn't really matter if you're 9-3 or 7-5. It's championship or bust, pass or fail, and those are the words right out of the head coach's mouth himself.
Even more disconcerting is Sparty played with the poise that comes from knowing you're better that we used to play them with. We were the team taking most of the cheap shots. I thought Taylor Lewan's Dimitrius Underwood/William Gholston impersonation was not befitting of a Michigan captain. We were the team that seemed to be trying to trash-talk its away into being relevant. The aura of arrogance Mark Dantonio showed in his halftime interview revealed a coach who knew the game was over with still two quarters to play.
And now with a fourth of the season to go you struggle to find anything to hang your hat on. Other than Devin Funchess, I can't find a single player that is definitely better now than they were at the start of the season. I see few, if any, signs of player development despite the fact we've had two -- count em, two -- bye weeks already.
By contrast, look at how Sparty has developed their players, who were mostly lesser-regarded recruits compared to Michigan's. We're almost through year three, and other than Blake Countess and Devin Funchess I can't think of a single Brady Hoke recruit who is an impact player at this point in their careers.
Let's look at our team unit-by-unit:
QB -- We have a tremendously talented QB that is almost impossible to evaluate given the play of the OL in front of him. Capable of a mind-numbing turnover and an eyebrow raising big play simultaneously, he's usually the best quarterback on the field for both teams.
RB -- We lack a true playmaker here. We have no one an opposing defense has to fear. Fitz Toussaint looks like he's running in quick sand and takes too long to get his motor going.
WR -- It's pretty much Jeremy Gallon or bust here.
TE -- Funchess is a great receiving weapon, but every time he tries to block its a liability.
OL -- This unit, despite the presence of two likely NFL draft-worthy tackles (one a high first round draft pick), thus far ranks among the worst to ever don a winged helmet. Frankly, the player and coaches of this unit ought to be embarrassed. Their play all season has been spotty at best, but what Sparty did to them (Lewan included) is a misdemeanor in most states. It seems as if every time Kyle Kalis is in a game these days something bad happens. We just has the worst rushing performance in the history of the program.
DL -- They're fairly stout at the point of attack but make very few big plays.
LB -- Our linebacker play in space has been a joke since Shawn Crable and David Harris wore a Michigan uniform. These guys fall for every play-action fake, take terrible angles, and consistently allow receivers to get behind them in zone coverage.
DB -- Despite athleticism, you could see the overall superior ball skills of the Sparty DBs compared to ours. It wasn't even close.
There are supposedly a lot of good young players on this roster according to recruiting services. It's time to see them all. You're not winning anything meaningful this season, so they might as well get all these guys as much experience as possible to build for the future -- again.
Developing that talent seems like the only way to make this season meaningful at this point. The lack of developing positives is making it less and less fun to watch the games each week, even when we win. If that's the way we as fans feel, imagine how the players and coaches must feel. The combined winning percentage of the teams Hoke has beaten in his career at Michigan thus far is just .473.
The good news is basketball season starts this week, and we might be even more talented overall than we were last season. Perhaps Hoke needs to take a page out of John Beilein's playbook and make some changes to his coaching staff. Seems to have worked for him.
At some point you hope they'll put it altogether, and at the same time you fear they won't. This is life at the crossroads. We're almost all the way through year 3 and we're no closer to being the program Hoke said he wanted than we were the day he took over.
