theathleticuk
EUGENE, Ore. — The sounds told the story of Michigan's season without a single play being seen. First came complete silence — no cursing, no yelling, no helmets hitting the ground, no players consoling one another as they left the field. There was no sign that a 31-7 blowout loss at No. 16 Oregon had any emotional impact whatsoever.
Then came the heckling. Boos were audible when Kyle Whittingham left the locker room and entered the media tent outside Autzen Stadium. A throng of Michigan fans who made the trip to Eugene waited for Whittingham to finish his postgame remarks, then unleashed a torrent of venom: "Fire Whitt! Go back to Utah! Blame the players again, you ahole!" This is the sound of a season and a coaching tenure that have gone horribly wrong. It's also the sound of a fanbase that still cares.
Whittingham and athletic director Warde Manuel couldn't have enjoyed the message, but perhaps they took solace in knowing that Michigan fans have not reached total apathy, even with their team sitting at 5-5 and 2-5 in the Big Ten. If Michigan's players and coaches shared fans' distress about Saturday's result, it wasn't evident in their words or body language. Last week's loss to Michigan State made everyone angry. This one left everyone numb.
The biggest indictment of Michigan's current state is that a blowout loss to a team on the fringe of the College Football Playoff race now feels routine. While the Ducks are getting back at everyone who wrote them off at midseason, Michigan's doubters remain undefeated. Every week, the Wolverines provide more evidence that the coach and the program are all wrong for each other.
Do these guys even like each other? That question has become unavoidable when watching Whittingham interact with his team — or not interact, as the case might be. If Whittingham and his team are still fighting for each other, no one is displaying it in a way that shows up on the scoreboard or on the sideline.
"I thought we were certainly ready to play," Whittingham said. "The locker room was very passionate. When I'm coaching the game, it's tough to see everything that's going on behind you, but I didn't see any lack of effort or anybody quitting at all. We just didn't make enough plays."
Michigan showed some grit by not folding after Oregon took a 14-0 lead. The Wolverines were 18 seconds from getting to halftime with a seven-point deficit, but a busted coverage gave the Ducks a wide-open touchdown to Dakorien Moore when it seemed Oregon might be content to run down the clock. The big plays Michigan surrendered, including five of 30 yards or more, were killers.
"That's when the energy leaves," defensive tackle Jonah Leaea said. Michigan's defense has been the only good thing the Wolverines have going, and even that is starting to fade. The Wolverines gave up touchdown passes of 49, 59 and 60 yards to Dylan Raiola, who has found his rhythm after a rocky midseason introduction as Oregon's quarterback. It's no wonder that Michigan's defense looks to be wearing out after carrying a lifeless offense for 10 games.
Saturday was Michigan's worst passing performance of the season, and that's saying something for a team that's had the worst passing attack of any Power 4 team. Quarterbacks Tommy Carr and Bryce Underwood combined to go 6-for-20 for 71 yards and posted Michigan's worst completion percentage since an 8-for-28 performance against UCLA in 2000.
Firing Jason Beck and installing offensive line coach Jim Harding as offensive coordinator didn't fix much. No one thought it would, as Beck was the only assistant coach on Michigan's staff with significant playcalling experience. The Wolverines went all in with Beck and his offense and had no Plan B when it didn't work, which ultimately falls back on Whittingham.
Whittingham wasn't hired to be a long-term solution, but no one expected his future to become a topic this quickly. It's hard to believe that Manuel would consider pushing out the coach he hired less than a year ago as his last act before departing as Michigan's athletic director at the end of the year. Michigan also would be hard-pressed to hire Manuel's replacement and get that person in place in time to make a decision about the direction of the program. For all of those reasons, Michigan could end up giving Whittingham another year to show what he can do with a roster that is likely to undergo major changes.
But with each loss, Michigan fans get close to the point when misery turns to apathy. Michigan Stadium is full every Saturday. The Wolverines will get another crowd of 100,000-plus next week because the opponent is undefeated UCLA and most people already have their tickets. Will those people show up next year if Michigan is coming off a 5-7 season with an unpopular coach and a reconstructed roster? Michigan might not have many other options.
It's hard to imagine Whittingham winning back the portion of the fanbase that he's already lost, though it's worth remembering that a significant percentage of Michigan fans were done with Jim Harbaugh before his run of three consecutive CFP appearances that culminated in a national championship. If next week's game goes like this one, the hecklers who showed up outside Whittingham's postgame news conference will get louder. Ideally, fans would find more constructive ways to voice their disapproval, but the booing shows they still feel something when Michigan gets blown out. The only sound worse than that is silence.
Originally reported by theathleticuk.