Michigan’s loss cast a shadow wide enough last weekend to cover the wreckage of several programs.
But out of the darkness and into the critical light this week they appear, and in order of damage, these are the programs emerging from the body shop. And not all opened with a loss.
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Notre Dame
If it’s a panic move to start freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen on Saturday at Penn State, well, it’s as good a time as any to panic. The Irish were breathtakingly bad in the 30-point loss to Georgia Tech.
Coach Charlie Weis said Clausen has been ready to be the starter since arriving on campus, but recovery from elbow surgery in the spring slowed his progress. There’s no holding back the kid now.
“If I didn’t think he was ready, I wouldn’t do this,” Weis said.
For Clausen, who played the final two series against Tech, to have any kind of success he’ll need better protection than what the Irish blockers provided last week, when three quarterbacks went down a total of nine times.
Virginia
It’s getting ugly in Charlottesville. By the time the team arrived home from Saturday’s 23-3 loss at Wyoming, somebody spray-painted on a campus bridge, “Groh must go” and referenced coach Al Groh’s $1.7 million salary.
Groh said he didn’t see the messages, which had been painted over by Tuesday.
“You know by the nature of the position that you’re going to take your hits,” Groh said. “If you can’t get hit and get back up, then you can’t play the position.”
The Cavaliers’ offense was embarrassing, accumulating 100 total yards, including minus-3 on the ground while the Cowboys collected 452 total yards.
Virginia should get better Saturday when it plays host to Duke, which hasn’t defeated a I-A program since 2004.
Syracuse
Coach Greg Robinson is certain the Orange will recover quickly from a 36-point home loss to Washington that opened his third season. A year ago, Syracuse was ugly against Wake Forest and then lost to Iowa in overtime.
The Hawkeyes again are the second-week opponent, this time Iowa City is the setting.
“The second time around is going to help this team,” Robinson said. “We’re going to be a better team than we were last week.”
The Orange need to be because Big East play begins later this month, and Syracuse owns one conference triumph in the Robinson era.
Florida State
Five new coaches, including former LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, were supposed to invigorate the program. Instead, Florida State’s offense was on life support through most of the Clemson loss on Monday. The first half produced one first down and 14 plays of negative yards or no gains.
“I’ve never seen us so inept on offense,” coach Bobby Bowden said. “It seemed like everything we did was wrong.”
But quarterback Drew Weatherford was spared the rod. He had a better grasp of his assignments than the rest of the offense, film showed. The numbers should improve greatly this weekend when the Seminoles entertain Alabama-Birmingham.
Texas
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Coach Mack Brown got fed up with hearing about the Longhorns “loss” to Arkansas State, a game in which Texas won 21-13.
“We needed to be humbled,” Brown said. “We needed to be kicked in the face. We needed some bad things to happen to us.”
Not sure Lloyd Carr, Charlie Weis or the other coaches whose poor play cost them shocking losses in the first week feel the same way.