MICHIGAN VS EVERYBODY: INDIANA

 INDIANA

Friday, October 13, 2023

Friday the 13th: I made a mental note, upon waking, to tread cautiously on this inauspicious date. Fittingly, it rained all day, a cold rain that foretold of winter. The soggy weather meant that my Pre-K class had to stay inside all day, making for a long day. I had to close at work; my last preschooler got picked up at 6:37 p.m., seven minutes after closing time, thank you very much. 

From St. Paul I drove west on I-94 to Minneapolis. At my apartment, I took a quick bath, made a cup of coffee, and changed before I headed back out for a night at Kara’s. From Hennepin I hopped back on I-94, taking it east across the river, and exited onto University Avenue near Greek Row. When I got to Kara’s townhouse, we placed an online takeout order with Stray Dog, a nearby restaurant that she recommended. Both of us ordered burgers and fries, and a few minutes later we started walking to Stray Dog to pick up our food, holding hands in the drizzly rain. After dinner, we watched Friday the 13th, the original, in part because it was Friday the 13th, after all, but also because Kara, to my consternation, told me she had never seen it. 

Around midnight I drove back to my apartment, crossing the Mississippi River for the fourth time in a day. The rain had finally ceased but the roads were wet and glossy. Back in my ground-floor apartment I turned on the television and found that the lowly Stanford Cardinal had come back from a 29-0 halftime deficit against Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes. After gaining only 115 yards in the first half, Stanford looked like a different team in the second half in all facets, prompting one to wonder what was said in the Stanford locker room. Taking advantage of Colorado’s weak secondary, the Cardinal scored four unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter – the second came on a 97-yard touchdown pass from Ashton Daniels to Elic Ayomanor, the third on a 60-yard pass between the same parties – to cut the lead to 3. Colorado answered with a touchdown of their own to start the fourth quarter, but Stanford swung right back. That cut the Colorado lead to 39-36 with five minutes left in the game. A wicked Colorado punt pinned Stanford at their own 1-yard line with just under three minutes to go, but Colorado’s defense, suddenly Swiss cheese, was unable to take advantage of it. Stanford drove 71 yards in 13 plays, setting up an opportunity for a last-second field goal to force overtime. Cardinal kicker Joshua Karty nailed it.

Both teams scored touchdowns in the first overtime frame: Shedeur Sanders threw his fifth TD pass of the night on the opening possession; Ashton Daniels, not to be outdone, threw his fourth of the night on the very next play, forcing double overtime. Then Shedeur Sanders, who had been brilliant all game, made the critical mistake in double OT, throwing an interception in the endzone. Sanders’ turnover meant Stanford needed only a field goal to win. The Cardinal refused to throw, at that point; Ashton Daniels ran the ball three times for a total of 12 yards before Stanford sent out the kicking team. Once again, Karty nailed it, sending the fans at Folsom home in a somber mood, one exacerbated by the fact that Coach Prime’s team had dropped three of its last four games after starting the season 3-0 (their schedule wouldn’t get any easier, either, as their next three opponents were all ranked in the top 25). What a game, what an upset. What a way to kick off the football weekend. 

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Having stayed up late to watch Stanford’s comeback victory, I slept in a bit Saturday morning. These days, that means like 8:30 or 9:00. FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff crew visited South Bend, Indiana, this week, to preview the Notre Dame – USC rivalry game. In a lengthy pregame segment, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn, two of the hosts, reminisced about the infamous 2005 game they played in. That game culminated in a controversial last-second touchdown in which Reggie Bush physically pushed Leinart into the endzone for the game-winning score. While heroic, Bush’s assistance constituted an illegal act, a violation of Section 3, Article 2b of the NCAA rulebook. Referees, therefore, should have thrown a flag, negating the go-ahead score, but no laundry appeared, hence the controversial but unforgettable finish. Nicknamed the “Bush Push” game, it is widely considered one of the greatest games in college football history.

Despite FOX’s visit to South Bend, NBC actually had the broadcast rights for that game, and it didn’t start until 7:30. What followed Big Noon Kickoff instead was the Michigan versus Indiana game from the Big House, with Joel Klatt and Gus Johnson – two of my personal faves – calling the game for FOX. Ranked second, nationally – behind only Georgia – 6-0 Michigan took the field in its all-blue uniforms, with most players sporting knee-high yellow socks. This alternate look has grown on me a lot, especially after we wore them during the magical 2021 Ohio State game. Indiana, coming into the matchup with a lackluster 2-3 record (their two wins came at the expense of Indiana State and Akron, the latter requiring four overtimes), wore all-white uniforms with candy-apple red helmets. Michigan kicked off in a light rain, the thermometer hovering just below 50 degrees on an overcast day in Ann Arbor. Many of the 110,000 plus packed inside Michigan Stadium wore ponchos or light jackets.

Going back to 1988, Indiana had lost 27 of their last 28 meetings with Michigan, but they had frequently tested us during the Tom Allen era, winning outright in 2020. This year, Vegas listed Michigan as a massive, 33-point favorite, yet the first quarter suggested this one would be another tight one. The Hoosiers defense gave Michigan trouble early on, forcing three-and-outs on Michigan’s first two offensive possessions. In fact, Michigan’s net yardage after those first two drives amounted to -8 yards.

Indiana’s offense looked competent early, too. On their second possession, they drove the ball all the way to the Michigan 10-yard line before a false start penalty pushed them back, forcing a 3rd and 12. Subsequently, Hoosiers QB Tayven Jackson, a transfer from Tennessee, threw an errant ball towards the end zone; Mike Sainristil tipped the ball and Rod Moore picked it off, running 38 yards before being brought down by an offensive lineman at the 40-yard line. 

Moore’s interception should have shifted the momentum in Michigan’s favor, but it didn’t. Michigan’s second three-and-out to start the game forced them to punt it back to Indiana, who turned to backup QB Brendan Sorsby for its third possession. Indiana finished, this time. On 1st and 10 from the Michigan 44, Sorsby threw a wide receiver screen to Donovan McCulley, and McCulley then launched a deep ball to a wide open Jaylin Lucas, who hauled it in for a 44-yard touchdown. With 2:17 left in the opening quarter, Indiana took a shocking 7-0 lead, silencing the Michigan faithful and causing my blood pressure to rise. 

Yet the first quarter proved a fluke. Michigan thoroughly owned the remainder of the game, scoring touchdowns on 7 of their next 8 possessions. In a drive that ate up nearly six minutes of game clock, JJ McCarthy finally found a rhythm on Michigan’s next possession. He completed two passes to Colston Loveland for 13 yards each, one to Cornelius Johnson for 15, and another of 15 yards to Blake Corum, methodically moving Michigan into the redzone. From there, Sherrone Moore leaned heavily on his most reliable player, Blake Corum, who concluded the drive with a patented one-yard smash for the equalizer. 

As proved the case in the preceding weeks, Michigan’s defense tightened as the game progressed. They forced another punt on Indiana’s next possession, then JJ and the offense picked up right where they had left off, executing another imposing drive that saw Michigan march 87 yards in five and a half minutes. Faced with a fourth down and goal from the 2-yard line, Moore kept his offensive unit on the field. Indiana was probably expecting another run from Corum, and for precisely that reason Moore dialed up a pass play. The stout Wolverine offensive line gave JJ plenty of time to read through his progressions, and he eventually found a wide open Roman Wilson in the back of the endzone for an easy touchdown pass. Michigan regained the lead, 14-7, and the crowd started to roar back to life. 

Michigan’s defense promptly forced another three-and-out, the last thing Indiana’s tired defense needed. On the ensuing punt, Tyler Morris fielded the ball off of a bounce, split two defenders, and broke free for a 31-yard return that gave Michigan excellent field position, setting up JJ and co. at the Indiana 46 with just under two minutes remaining in the half. With precision Michigan chewed up most of that clock. Once again they pushed the ball to within a yard of the endzone, and once again Corum smashed it home from there. His second touchdown of the game gave Michigan a 21-7 halftime lead and more or less erased any anxiety I had built up in the course of the first quarter. I packed a bowl, put on my smoking jacket, and went out to the alley to power up.

The second half of the game followed the same script as the second quarter, with Michigan’s offense wearing down the opponent’s defense with long, grueling drives and the defense shutting the Hoosiers offense down. It took the Wolverines only two and a half minutes to open the scoring in the third quarter. This time McCarthy connected with an open Colston Loveland downfield for a 54-yard touchdown, putting the home team up 28-7. Indiana ran three plays for a net total of -13 yards on their next possession, promptly giving the ball back to a Michigan offense that was now firing on all cylinders. Indeed, within three minutes of game time Michigan had added another touchdown, this one a touchdown pass to Semaj Morgan. Indiana trailed 35-7.

That was pretty much how the rest of the game went. Indiana fumbled on their next possession, and the Michigan offense scored their sixth touchdown. Indiana turned the ball over on downs, and Michigan kicked a field goal. Tayven Jackson, reinserted as QB for the second half, threw his second interception, and Michigan answered with yet another touchdown, a touchdown pass from backup QB Jack Tuttle to Karmello English. Michigan scored on all five of its possessions in the half. Final score: 52-7. 

To me, a biased observer, JJ McCarthy looked just as impressive as both Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix, the two Heisman front runners who squared off directly after the Michigan game in the matchup of the day. Granted, I took a nap during the first half of the Washington – Oregon game, so I cannot claim to have watched both quarterbacks intently, but I woke up during the second half and watched the rest, including a dramatic finish. Nix and the Ducks overcame an 11-point second half deficit, storming back to take a 33-29 lead with 12 minutes remaining, but Oregon played with fire by going for it on 4th down and 3 at the Washington 47-yard line with only 1:38 left. Nix threw an incompletion on the 4th and 3 play, and Penix needed only two plays and 33 seconds to take advantage. In what might have been his Heisman moment, he threw a 33-yard pass to Ja’lynn Polk for a first down, then connected with Rome Odunze in the endzone, giving the Huskies a 36-33 lead and prompting mass frenzy at Husky Stadium, truly a beautiful stadium right on the water in Seattle. When Oregon missed a 43-yard field goal attempt as the clock expired, the purple and gold faithful stormed the field. Prince’s “Purple Rain” fittingly blasted from the loudspeakers. It looked like a special season at UW. 

“In my estimation,” Paul Cav wrote in the BOX House group chat, responding to questions about McCarthy’s standing in the race, “Penix leads in the Heisman race but won’t win come November.” I tended to agree with the first part of that statement, at least, especially after the nightcap games, Saturday night. In the big one, USC at Notre Dame, Caleb Williams flat out laid an egg. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner threw three interceptions in a blowout 48-20 loss to Notre Dame, a loss that put USC’s title hopes in serious jeopardy. 

A bonus game for us fiends, the Aztecs of San Diego State played at Hawaii at 11:00 p.m. ET. I found it streaming on YouTube and watched in bed until I drifted off to sleep.