College Football Plus: Showtime for Wolverines
OK. The preliminaries are over.
If the University of Michigan football program was a Broadway show, the past several weeks have akin to giving performances in New Haven.
Not any more. The Wolverines survived a few missteps before putting away pesky Maryland, 31-26 on Saturday.
That leaves Coach Jim Harbaugh's "team'' with an 11-0 record going into the annua border war against Ohio State (also unbeaten) for what will be the last Big Ten title.
Win that one and Michigan takes on Iowa in the Big Ten title
game. Win that and Michigan will find itself in the Final Four for a third straight year.
Under the best of circumstances that's an ambitious task.
Add the chaos surrounding the investigation into Michigan's sign stealing allegations,, which include Harbaugh be suspended from coaching Michigan's final 3 games of the regular season and you have the ingredients for the most talked about and controversial Ohio State-Michigan game in history.
The story will linger far past Saturday as more and more evidence is gathered and news filters out about what actually has happened in the inner sanctum of Wolverine football for the past few years.
Oh, lost in the translation on Saturday was that Michigan enhanced its reputation as the "winningest'' program in college football history with its 1,000th victory
Fascinating stuff, with much much more to come.
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Who's Hot
New Mexico State
A great story. The forever hapless Aggies--until this season--raised their record to 9-2 with a stunning 31-10 win at Auburn. The same was scheduled as one of those ""guaranteed'' games schools such as New Mexico State schedules against power power 5 schools--getting a huge sum of money $1.85 million for getting pounded by the big schools.
Not this time. Led by much traveled coach Jerry Kill, New Mexico State won its first ever game against an SEC opponent. ""We got the $1.7 ($1.85) AND won the game,''' said a delighted kill.
Not so funny for Auburn. ""Our fans deserve a better effort,'' said Auburn coach Hugh Freeze. "And that's my job to make sure that they get that. And we did not do that today.'''
Northwestern
The Wildcats were 1-11 last season, became involved in a messy hazy scandal during the summer, which led to the dismissal of Coach Pat Fitzgerald and a horrid start, which did not bode well for the future of interim coach David Braun.
On Saturday, Braun, who had the interim tag removed week, watched his team beat Purdue, 23-15, which gave them a 6-5 record and made them bowl eligible. Well done.
Who's Not
USC
The Trojans finished their regular season with another whimper, being embarrassed by cross-town rival UCLA at home, 38-20 which dropped them to 7-5.
Last year's Heisman Trophy winner, QB Caleb Williams most likely ended his career with another appearance and once sizzling young coach Lincoln Riley is being exposed as a coach with the qualities of an offensive coordinator and not much more.
Up next is a minor bowl bid for the Trojans (whether they accept it remains questionable) and a move to the NFL for Williams who is trending in the wrong direction.
Miami
Another close game, another loss for the Hurricanes who dropped a 38-31 decision to Louisville, which dropped the Tropical Depressions (no longer Hurricane status) to 6-5 with regular-season closer at BC next week.
Another over expectation, under achieving season for Miami which has been relevant in college football in 20 years.
Play it Forward (Games of Note next Week)
Ohio State at Michigan--Can't much bigger than this with titles at stake and a major controversy over the ethics of Michigan football on display.
UTSA at Tulane--Winner gets a spot in the AAC title game against probably SMU, with a probable New Year's Day bowl bid at stake for the champ.
Oregon State at Oregon--Huge game for Ducks who have ambitions of a Pac-12 title and Final Four bid. Oregon State's loss to Washington put the Beavers in the role of spoilers.