Hail Yes!

Quite a game. Michigan looked really sloppy, and its defense was shredded, but somehow it managed to put together a win, 38-34. And beating Notre Dame makes it twice as sweet.

A few weeks ago, the question was could Michigan field a decent team. Now it looks likely we'll have a winning season, and maybe even manage to avoid losing more than two or three times. The Wolverines are not a top ten team, but they might even finish ranked.

From the start Notre Dame seemed more powerful, but Michigan managed to finish the first quarter ahead 14-3. Could they hold on?

No, it seemed. By the end of the half, they were behind 20-17. But they held off Notre Dame in the third quarter and with 14 minutes to go were somehow ahead 31-20. If they could just stop the Notre Dame offense once, they'd probably win.

But Notre Dame, once again, had no trouble running and (especially) passing against the Wolverines, and within 10 minutes they were ahead again, 34-31. (Michigan dropped an easy interception which should have put the game away).

Michigan got the ball and blew their plays, and had to kick. Luckily, they had three time-outs left and a (too timid?) Notre Dame offense gave them the ball back with about two minutes. Suddenly, this too-young, untested team looked like pros, and put it in the end zone with 11 seconds left.

If you look at the final stats it was a close game with Michigan only slightly outplayed. But the point is they did what they had to do, and with all the screw-ups, they didn't get rattled. (Notre Dame screwed up plenty too. Michigan can't count on all those dropped passes from better teams.)

Best of all, it looks like Michigan finally has a quarterback. Freshman Tate Forcier. 22 for 33, and he also ran for 70 yards. And not a bad punter, as it turns out.

For the first time in over a year, I feel hope for the Michigan program. I wonder how Coach Rod feels?