Wolverine Blogging: The Pillow Fight of Destiny

Time for another look into that sad alternate universe that's occupied my thoughts lately. A world where this weekend's game between Michigan and Notre Dame does feature the latest battle between the two winningest programs ever. But instead of the titanic showdown between two undefeated teams that I'll be watching the inhabitants of this strange other world have a match-up between two winless, deeply flawed teams both starting a true freshman quarterback. Both at the bottom of the national rankings in several key offensive and defensive statistics. Weep for them.

Because the truly sorrowful thing here is that one of these teams has to win. One of them has to walk away from their epic slapboxing on the big block M with an unblemished record of futility, the other with a 1-2 record. That team is likely to be Michigan because in this battle of weakness against weakness, the awful nature of the Wolverine defense is counterbalanced by the pisspoor status of the Irish offense. Meaning Michigan should manage to score enough points, even by accident, to walk away with that single, season saving victory.

That means it becomes possible for them to run the table, to finish off the season with a sterling record in the Big Ten and walk away with the conference title. Means that their fans and supporters can dream about salvaging a horrible season. Talk about the last year they started by dropping their first two games, 1998, when they were crushed by Syracuse and Notre Dame in turn. That year, they did manage to wind up with the league title.

But, if you ask me, that's a false hope, a pipe dream. The desperate grab by the fans for anything that float as the season is circling the drain. Because this Michigan team is a lot worse than that one from '98. They were at least competitive in those games they lost. There were at least glimmers of promise that would play out further down the line. And there's been precious little in this figmentary season to suggest that the team's fortunes can turn around.