Michigan football. Not good

After starting out the season with a rousing 50 point beat-down over mid-major Central Michigan, then following it up by handily dispatching Notre Dame -- something has gone horribly wrong with Michigan football.

True, their record remains unblemished at 4-0, but consider what has happened the last two games. Against the lowlier than low Akron Zips, UM barely escaped with a win -- at home in their Big House. In fact, they likely should have lost that game.

Just a while ago, the Wolverines again barely eked out a 24-21 win against UConn. They probably should have lost that game too. Yet somehow Brady Hoke and his boys managed to win by the peach fuzz on their maize and blue chinny-chin-chins. Prior to this contest, UConn was 0-2, had no running game, a porous defense, and had been beaten by 15 points at home by Towson. Towson?  To boot, Michigan was an 18 point favorite. It was supposed to be a romp, just like the week before against Akron.

Yet heading into one of their "bye" weeks (they have two this year -- talk about a soft schedule), UM looks like a race car with a shaky oil pump and a bunch of loose lug nuts. In other words, it could blow up at any time, and/or the wheels might fall off. In still other words -- these guys aren't very good, and appear to be living on borrowed time.

Many thought QB Devon Gardner would be an improvement over Denard Robinson of last year. With Robinson, UM was basically a one man show. But one trick ponies won't get it done at the higher levels of college football -- hence Michigan's 2012 mediocre 8-5 record. Good enough to qualify for a second-tier bowl game (which they lost), but hardly outstanding.

However, it could certainly be argued Gardner has hardly distinguished himself. The junior QB appears to be a turnover waiting to happen. Even against not-so-good UConn Gardner threw a couple interceptions, likely should have had a couple more picked off, and coughed up the ball with a few fumbles. Some were lost, and some were not, but it's certainly not going to get any easier once the Wolverines are done with the patsy part of their schedule and start playing serious competition in their conference.

A quick look at some of the things UM did against UConn....

Threw 2 interceptions.
Lost 2 fumbles.
Botched a punt return.
Had a kick-off sail out of bounds.
Throw in the usual variety of poorly thrown or dropped passes, bonehead penalties, highly questionable game management by Brady Hoke and his staff, lack of a feature running back, overrated line play on both sides of the ball, a secondary that apparently can't cover ANYBODY, special teams that sometimes look like they belong in the special Olympics, and a few other intangibles -- and what do you have?

I don't know either, but right now Michigan needs to drastically improve in just about all areas of the game before they can be taken seriously as any sort of contender -- in their own conference -- let alone nationally.

They remain in the top 20 by name recognition only. In reality, yours truly suspects they are once again vastly overrated, and likely not amongst the top 40 in the country.

Maybe the Wolverines should cancel one of their bye weeks and play Towson.

That might be an interesting litmus test.....