One of the most prestigious names in all of college football has fallen on hard times lately and I’m not talking about Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had their own forgettable season last year, but with a 4-2 record are well on their way to recovery.

The University of Michigan is the school finding itself in an unusual position half way through the season as the Wolverines have notched just two wins under their belts. Perhaps most telling about Michigan was its performance this past Saturday when they hosted the Toledo Rockets of the Mid American Conference (MAC). Prior to Saturday’s game, Michigan was 24-0 against MAC teams, but they’re now 24-1 thanks to a missed Wolverine field goal from the 26 yard line as time expired.

Shades of Appalachian State!

Like last year when Appalachian State pulled an upset, a “no name” team went to the Big House and knocked off the Wolverines. Like last year, a missed field goal on the final play preserved the win for Toledo, a team that isn’t even that good in its own conference play. Deja vue!

With six games left, the Wolverines will likely find that they aren’t bowl bound this year — the first time in 33 years that Michigan has failed to win the minimum number of games (6) to be bowl eligible. Next up is #3 Penn State who is having one of their best seasons in years, followed by #20 Michigan State. At season’s end the Wolverines will be at #12 Ohio State, so you got to believe that the Wolverines will be the underdog in all three contests. Perhaps worse is that of the three other remaining games on their schedule, only Purdue looks to be beatable, suggesting that the Wolverines could finish as bad as 3-9!

Look for Wolverine coach Rick Rodriguez to make an early exit from U of M after this season.

This Weekend In College Football

Once again, there are a lot of good games this weekend starting with #9 BYU playing at TCU on Thursday night. BYU needs to be careful in this one as the 6-1 Horned Frogs could pull an upset. But, I’m going with the Cougars in by the score of 30-21.

Other predictions:

• Georgia over Vanderbilt
• Utah over Colorado State
• Alabama over Mississippi
• Oklahoma over Kansas
• Michigan State over Ohio State
• Navy over Pittsburgh
• Missouri over Texas
• Arizona over California

I picked Missouri to upset the Longhorns on the road, not likely to happen, but something I thought I’d throw out there to mix things up. Navy beating Pitt is a stretch, but they did it last year on the Panthers own field.

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Tags: college football, Michigan Wolverines, sports

Whether you call it the NCAA 1-AA Football Championship or by its new name the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), the Appalachian State Mountaineers have won their third consecutive title defeating the Delaware Blue Hens in convincing fashion, 49-21. The Boone, NC Mountaineers completed what amounts to be a truly historic season, one that began way back on September 1 when they shocked the then #5 ranked Michigan Wolverines 34-32 in Ann Arbor. The Mountaineers are the FCS first team ever to win three straight national championships.

Yesterday’s game was expected to be much closer than what it actually was, with Delaware fired up and ready to unseat AppState. Unfortunately for the Blue Hens, the Mountaineers were eager to complete what they had started out to do earlier in the year — win it all once again.

Delaware was never in the game as the Mountaineers jumped out to a 21-0 early in the second quarter. On the strength of Armanti Edwards’s arm and legs (3 td passes, 198 yards passing, 89 yards rushing) the AppState offense controlled the game throughout. Although Edward’s performance fell short of his record-breaking performance in last week’s semi-final contest against Richmond, the Mountaineers had all of the fireworks they needed to rout Delaware.

Two of the more notable plays by the Mountaineers included a 99-yard drive in the first quarter that put the team up 14-0 and a 60-yard bomb just before the half which effectively canceled out the Blue Hen’s lone touchdown of the first half which Delaware had registered less than a half of a minute earlier.

Delaware QB Joe Flacco had a decent game, throwing for 334 yards and one touchdown. However, when it counted the most, the Blue Hens could not keep up with the Mountaineers with AppState’s defense stopping Delaware deep in Mountaineer territory three times in the first half.

Congratulations, Appalachian State!

Tags: Appalachian State, college football, Football Championship Series, Michigan Wolverines, NCAA, University of Delaware