ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan’s football team has much bigger problems, including No. 11 Oklahoma, than a clock controversy.
The dramatic ending to the formerly 16th-ranked Wolverines’ 13-12 win over Western Michigan — with a disputed second on the clock that gave Bryce Underwood another chance to complete a Hail Mary — has been one of the most talked about topics in sports for nearly a week.
“That was a crazy game,” said Sooners linebacker Cole Sullivan, who transferred from Michigan after last season.
The conclusion and fallout from Michigan’s last game has overshadowed, to some degree, how poorly it played in all three phases during coach Kyle Whittingham’s debut with college football’s winningest program.
“We got plenty to fix,” Whittingham said.
And not a lot of time.
The Wolverines, who fell out of the Top 25, are 6 1/2-point underdogs on Saturday at home against the Sooners in a Big Ten-SEC matchup.
Underwood walked out of the locker room and down the tunnel for last week’s prime-time kickoff with a music and light show during his energetic entrance, slapping his helmet and pumping his right fist in a demonstrative display of emotion.
The closely watched quarterback, in his second season after being the nation’s No. 1 recruit, got off to a great start with his arm and legs on a game-opening touchdown drive.
Underwood struggled for the rest of the game — his game-winning, 47-yard touchdown throw notwithstanding — and was often seen expressionless and speaking to no one on the sideline.
“I just feel like we’ve got to come out and dominate and be aggressive — how we were the first drive — every single play,” Underwood said. “We can’t get down, our energy can’t get down.”
When asked earlier this week how firmly entrenched Underwood is as Michigan’s QB1, Whittingham said the sophomore has to improve to keep his job.
Underwood, who appears to be very active on social media, insisted later in the week that he was unaware of what Whittingham said about him.
“I didn’t see that,” Underwood insisted. “It’s cool.”
Underwood’s seat could get hotter if he doesn’t make better decisions and throw more accurately against the Sooners, especially if they shut down Michigan’s running game as the Broncos of the Mid-American Conference did last week. Michigan’s No. 2 quarterback is Tommy Carr, whose brother CJ is Notre Dame’s quarterback and grandfathers are in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Western Michigan was also in control on offense against the Wolverines. In the second half, the Broncos had a 20-play touchdown drive that took nearly a quarter off the clock and possessed the ball more than twice as long as the Wolverines did.
Special teams contributed to Michigan’s misery too, with Andrew Marsh losing a fumble on a punt return.
Making matters worse for Whittingham, his team was flagged nine times for 80 yards.
But the Wolverines’ tepid performance didn’t diminish Oklahoma coach Brent Venables’ view of them.
“We’ve put Michigan in a great light like they deserve for a long time here for the last several months,” he said. “This isn’t the first week that we’ve been preparing and talking about Michigan and Georgia and Texas and many other teams that are on our schedule.”
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