If coach Lloyd Carr can take any solace while he shops around for retirement homes this week, he can take note that his Michigan Wolverines’ humiliating, mind-boggling 34-32 loss to Appalachian State on Saturday wasn’t the biggest upset in college football history.
I’ll take Oregon State 21, Washington 20 on Oct. 19, 1985. The host Huskies were 36-point favorites, coming off an 11-1 Orange Bowl season, and 2-4 Oregon State, perennial Pac-10 doormat, had lost its previous two games by a combined 97-0. No team has ever won a game facing a bigger point spread.
Besides, Appalachian State, the two- time Division I-AA champion, is better than Oregon State was and is. And, the way Michigan played at home Saturday, it’s not as good as the 1985 Huskies.
But keep in mind what Appalachian State accomplished. In tiny Boone, N.C., located in the Blue Ridge Mountains 25 miles from the Virginia border, Appalachian State has 63 scholarships to Michigan’s 85. Appalachian State’s football budget of $2 million is less than one quarter of Michigan’s.
Michigan has 10 Parade All-Americans. Appalachian State hero Armanti Edwards didn’t even start playing quarterback until his junior year at Greenwood (S.C.) High School. Michigan’s lines outweighed the Mountaineers by 23 pounds a man.
So how do you explain Appalachian State rolling up 387 total yards, with Edwards’ arm and legs accounting for 289? First, the Mountaineers have developed talent. Last year, Edwards became only the fifth player in Division I history to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000. Corey Lynch, who blocked the game- saving field goal, is a two-time I-AA All-America safety. Julian Rauch, who kicked the go-ahead field goal with 26 seconds left, is a four-year starter and all-conference, and Saturday became the school’s all-time leading kick scorer. Dexter Jackson, who left Michigan’s entire secondary in the dust on a 68-yard TD reception, is the Southern Conference 200-meter dash champion.
Second, the Michigan staff is losing it. Maybe it’s a hangover from the crushing regular season-ending loss at Ohio State last year but Michigan has lost three straight, including a 32-18 Rose Bowl pasting by Southern California and now to a school with a 16,000-seat stadium.
“Losing, that’s bad enough,” Carr told reporters after the game. “But to play the way we did, that’s an even greater disappointment.”
Word around Michigan all preseason, even while experts picked the Wolverines as Big Ten favorites and national title contenders, was this would be Carr’s last season. Carr, 62, would go out with senior stars Chad Henne and Mike Hart.
But Michigan’s organization was a mess Saturday. On one field-goal attempt, only 10 Wolverines were on the field because the 11th player was in a meeting on the sideline. On the next offensive series, they lined up only 10 men again. On the second blocked field goal, Michigan blew the assignment so badly Lynch blocked it with his chest.
The bigger question is the job status of defensive coordinator Ron English. He has gone from the hot coordinator in the country last November to sharing Carr’s hot seat. Ohio State’s Troy Smith, USC’s John David Booty and Edwards showed English can’t scheme against smart, athletic quarterbacks.
Meanwhile, Appalachian State students ran into Kidd Brewer Stadium and tore down the goalposts. The score was announced at the Boone Wal-Mart, producing cheers that rattled the Tupperware.
Michigan must not only regroup, it must heal. Hart suffered a thigh bruise, and the offensive line is banged up.
Irish eyes aren’t smiling
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis started quarterback Demetrius Jones, who had two fumbles and one completion Saturday. Evan Sharpley was sharper but constantly mauled – Georgia Tech had nine sacks – and freshman Jimmy Clausen went 4-for-6 but his arm still is questionable after offseason elbow surgery.
“There’s a whole litany of problems that we have to fix,” Weis said.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
