Sixty-five points.
The glass-is-half-full folks will say, "Yeah, but 20 of those points came in OT."
Whatever.
The University of Michigan football team -- historically known for its smash-mouth, stingy defense -- surrendered 65 points in last Saturday's OT victory over Illinois.
If the "Ghost Hunters" team were in Ann Arbor, Jason and Grant would have captured plenty of exasperated EVP evidence from an apparition named Bo: "HIT SOMEBODY! MAKE A STOP! PLEEEASE!"
Again, the optimists will comment on the 67 points the Wolverines racked up to win the game.
Swell. Kudos to coach Rich Rodriguez for building one of the best offenses ever to grace the Big House.
Still, nearly three years into Rodriguez's tenure, the Wolverines are essentially half a football team. Seriously, the block "M" in the middle of the field should be chopped in two and one half of it put in storage until this maize-and-blue mess is cleaned up.
While some clearly don't like Rodriguez's "outsider" resume, his shoot-from-the-hip press conferences and his perceived disregard of NCAA rules, none of that is really relevant here.
His resume -- although lacking a Michigan connection -- is solid, his demeanor is often refreshing, and the NCAA last week pretty much cleared him of doing anything outside the ordinary in college football.
What matters most is Rodriguez's defense, or lack thereof, and his overall record -- 13-19 going into Saturday's game at Purdue.
It's an embarrassment to a former perennial powerhouse, a team whose final game under Rodriguez's predecessor, Lloyd Carr, was a 41-35 victory over a Florida team that would win a national championship the next season.
A little more perspective here. Michigan's last national championship team, in 1997, held its first eight opponents combined to fewer points (60 total) than the Wolverines gave up last week in a single game.
Again, it wasn't until a 34-8 victory over Penn State on Nov. 8, 1997 -- in game No. 9 of the season -- that Michigan's opponents cracked the 65-point barrier.
Sure, it's unfair to compare Rodriguez's current defenders to arguably one of the best defenses ever assembled in college football.
The point is, at this stage in Rodriguez's tenure, you'd expect at least some defense.
Instead, the 6-3 Wolverines have been defenseless in victory (against weak-to-mediocre competition) and defeat (vs. more stout opponents) this season -- half a team.
The 65-point question now: Is doing half a job so far enough to keep it?
Nov. 12, 2010
