Notre Dame trounces struggling Michigan

No one would blame Rich Rodriguez if he’s having second thoughts about his decision to leave West Virginia for a big payday as Michigan’s head coach. It’s been one disaster after another as his team has limped to a 1-2 record. His team looked undisciplined and unfocused in an opening game loss to Utah, managed a victory over a Miami-OH team they should have dominated and in perhaps the worst development, suffered a blowout loss in his first meeting with the Wolverines’ hated rivals Notre Dame. The Irish scored the first 3 TDs as they sprinted to a 21-0 first quarter lead before coasting to a 35-17 win.

For Michigan, it was more of the same—their offense looked productive at times and the Wolverines held most of the statistical edges including passing yardage, rushing yardage, total yardage, first downs and time of possessions. On the other hand, they continued their style of sloppy, undisciplined play that resulted in 6 turnovers and 7 penalties for 79 yards.

The Irish was far from impressive on either side of the ball, but in some ways that just makes the one sided loss more difficult to rationalize from Michigan’s standpoint. It would have been one thing for Rodriguez to lose a one sided decision to a dominant Notre Dame squad, however the Wolverines were blown out by a team that they certainly had the ability to beat. The Notre Dame offensive output was pedestrian at best—147 yards passing, 113 yards rushing, 14 first downs. Jimmy Clausen threw two TD passes, but netted only 147 yards and threw two interceptions.

Rodriguez’s horror show of a season gets even uglier next week, as #10 Wisconsin travels to Ann Arbor. This game begins a stretch of three ranked opponents in four games—after the Wisconsin visit the team will host #24 Illinois on 10/4 and travel to #17 Penn State on 10/18. They should be able to get past Toledo on 10/11, but as they’ll be playing a Rockets team with a potent offense that’s not even a game they should pencil in as a victory. Notre Dame will travel to Michigan State next weekend, followed by games at home against Purdue and Stanford.