It has been a rough week for Michigan. Not just the team. The state.
The news that Michigan State basketball point guard Mateen Cleaves will be out eight to 10 weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot isn’t all that surprising considering the black cloud that has been hovering over East Lansing and Ann Arbor lately.
Three weeks ago the 5-0 MSU Spartans met 5-0 Michigan in a game for the ages. Michigan State prevailed 34-31. Since then MSU has been clobbered by Purdue 52-28 and by Wisconsin 40-10. And Saturday, after an off week, Michigan blew a 27-7 third-quarter lead against Illinois.
After last-place Iowa (1-6, 0-4), which has dropped four straight, Michigan State (6-2, 3-2) and Michigan (5-2, 2-2) own the second-longest losing streaks (two) in the Big Ten. Head coaches Nick Saban and Lloyd Carr are feeling the heat.
“I think the first six games our team had a purpose,” Saban said. “But after we were 6-0 and beat Michigan the emphasis changed. For our players it became where they were ranked, who they were and we lost our focus. We didn’t have that same kind of attitude and execution. We need to get back to the relentless spirit we had.”
Saban and the Spartans have a week to figure out how to do that. Michigan State is off until Nov. 6, when it hosts Ohio State. Carr will try to take his frustration out on Indiana–and former Michigan coaching colleague Cam Cameron–when the Wolverines take on the Hoosiers (4-4, 3-2) Saturday in Bloomington.
Carr accepted part of the blame for his team’s loss to the Illini. With second down and 5 at the Illinois 28 and 1:48 remaining, center Steve Frazier snapped the ball over quarterback Tom Brady’s head, resulting in a 25-yard loss that took the Wolverines out of field-goal range. Illinois, which led 28-27 at the time, intercepted Brady two plays later. Two plays after that Rocky Harvey scored from 54 yards out.
“The biggest mistake in that game,” Carr said, “was made by me. When we got first-and-10 at the 29, I should have gotten us out of the shotgun.”
Indiana’s bad luck: A week after brushing off a 59-0 annihilation to Wisconsin to defeat Iowa 38-31, Cameron’s Hoosiers must face an angry Michigan team that has lost probably any hopes of a Big Ten championship.
“No Michigan team has lost three (regular-season games) in a row in over 30 years (1967),” Cameron said. “It’s ingrained in those coaches. You don’t accept losing. I personally wish everyone up there would stop talking about it. All I know is that we caught them at the worst time possible–I’ll promise you that.”
Iowa’s bad luck: For the second week in a row, Iowa lost on the last play of the game Saturday. Quarterback Scott Mullen, subbing for the injured Randy Reiners, was stopped by Indiana’s O.J. Spencer just short of the end zone as time expired. In his first start of the season, however, Mullen completed 36 of 60 passes for 426 yards. Which means he could start again Saturday at Ohio State.
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“I was very impressed with the way Scott handled himself, based on his relative inexperience,” coach Kirk Ferentz said.