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What a great way for Lloyd Carr to go out.  This is what this team was supposed to be capable of before everything fell apart the very first week.  The Wolverines made their fans proud today and allowed their coach to leave with on a positive note and with fond memories.  I am happy to see Chad Henne and Mike Hart win a bowl game after all they have been through.  A tinge of regret that they could have stayed healthy this year to see what they could have accomplished.

But I will certainly have a smile on my face this week.  Now, the program can look to the future and a fresh start.

Brian at MGoBlog:

The opportunity represented by the Carr retirement is to take the program in a different direction. Michigan has stagnated, allowing Ohio State to pass it both off the field and on. Ohio State has better facilities, has won six of seven against Michigan, and has fewer disciplinary problems. The Horror was supposed to be a wakeup call inside the department and amongst the heavy movers; Ferentz represents the snooze button, especially if his hiring is contingent upon retaining certain key assistants who have done nothing to suggest they are capable of coaching out of a wet paper bag.

As an insanely expensive backup plan, Ferentz is fine. The program is unlikely to fall apart under his watch. At Michigan he'll have the talent and depth to beat Western; he won't put up with Michigan's stone age strength and conditioning program, and he's likely to have a level of success comparable to Carr over the long haul. And that's not bad.

As a primary option, Ferentz is indicative of a diseased thought process that hasn't watched the past three years. Lloyd Carr was a very good coach, but the emphasis is on was. It's over. "Eff you, try to stop us, oops you did let's punt" is over. Ohio State has raised. Picking Ferentz is, essentially, folding.

Yes.  I was not a big fan of Miles for a variety of largely hard to express reasons.  I would prefer a hire that shakes things up; that says "Wow, things won't be the same at Michigan anymore."  Kirk Ferentz is not that kind of hire.

I'd like to see Chris Petersen, or Brian Kelly.  I would love to see a more creative offense.  Sure, a tough defense would be great too, but give the talent offense should be easier to take from occasionally impressive to scary. 

This should be a low scoring basketball game not a football game.  Nebraska has now given up 40, 41, 49, 45, 65, and 76 points this season.  That's 40 or more points in half their games!  The once proud Cornhuskers are pathetic.

This seems to be a problem around college football.  Have the offensive rules and athletes simply take defenses out of it?

I approach the 104th edition of The Game with much trepidation.  I can't remember wanting to win a game more than this one.  So I need to stoke the good vibes this week.  Here is a good start:

After an enjoyable, but largely meaningless, romp over a pitiful Notre Dame Michigan reached .500 with a typical hard hitting win over Penn State. If Lloyd Carr can count on anything it is beating Penn State. Saturday's win was the ninth in a row for Carr over Jo Pa's boys. Long suffering fellow contributor Jeff offered a few choice words last night about the practically pre-ordained outcome.

The defense seem to be back on track having returned to playing against traditional offenses. Penn State is better than ND but their offense lacks creativity and the spread formations that seems to give UM so much trouble.

Carr simply fed the ball to Mike Hart and pounded away. The Penn State offense could really capitalize and eventually the defense began to tire. Hart ended up with 153 yards on a career high 44 carries. Freshman QB Ryan Mallet did enough to cement the win. He scrambled for a touchdown and completed key passes in the fourth quarter converting first downs and forcing Penn State to use all their time outs. The passing game kept the defense honest enough that Hart found space. But he is going to need a hot tub because he earned every yard.

Michigan now head into a few easier games facing Northwestern - who was absolutely destroyed by Ohio State - and Eastern Michigan. This gives them the luxury of making sure Chad Henne is completely healthy and ready to go before getting back into the lineup. Plus, Mallett gets some valuable playing time. I have to say I like what I am seeing so far from the freshman. He has a strong arm and good pocket presence.

Michigan needs to use the next few weeks to get ready because the end of the season will determine whether they win the Big Ten or go to a bowl game. After Northwestern and Eastern Michigan they face Purdue who should have a strong offense and then at Illinois who has an athletic and mobile QB. They finish at MSU, at Wisconsin, and then Ohio State at home.

Beating Penn State is a great way to start the conference schedule and winning the Big Ten would be a rewarding way to redeem the season. But for me everything comes down to the last game. The only way this season will be worth it at this point is to beat Ohio State. I would gladly trade a loss to Appalachian State to get a win against Ohio State. But to lose them both would be epically disappointing.

Bruce Hooley has an interesting, and damning in my mind, article at ESPN on Lloyd Carr. After some paragraphs on Carr's rye humor these days, he notes that being too tied to tradition and "Michigan men" might be finally catching up to the football team:

"Right now, they can't tackle in space," ESPN "College GameDay" analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "For the life of me, I don't understand it. Every February, Michigan recruits really well. But I think their strength and conditioning program has cornered the market on taking five-star guys and somehow finding a way to slow them down. It's mystifying to see it every single time they line up against that type of spread look."

Michigan's director of conditioning is Mike Gittleson, who's in his 30th season. He was the program's first such coach in 1978, a Vietnam veteran who completed his master's in exercise science on the campus where he works.

Gittleson may be the very best in his field, or he may not be. Who can tell in the world of reps, sets, sweat and supplements?

What's obvious is, he's a Michigan man, and Carr is never going to sell out one of his own for some flavor-of-the-month replacement.

When the Wolverines' offensive and defensive coordinators were artfully eased out following a 7-5 season in 2005, where did Carr go for new blood?

His own staff, of course.

Look elsewhere in the Big Ten -- to the programs annually picked with Michigan atop the conference -- for a contrast.

Jim Tressel spent three seasons at Ohio State as an assistant in the mid-1980s. When he returned in 2001, he didn't have a continuous 20-year relationship with every person who'd been in the athletic department since the Reagan administration. Tressel let go a longtime assistant who played for Woody Hayes and coached under both Earle Bruce and John Cooper, while also overhauling the team's medical staff and, twice, its strength and conditioning staff.

At Wisconsin, Bret Bielema spent two seasons as an assistant to Barry Alvarez, but essentially cleared out the staff upon taking over as head coach. Bielema kept only two assistants and named a pair of new coordinators.

Even at Penn State, where working for Joe Paterno often comes with the longevity of a Supreme Court justice, Galen Hall was brought in from the outside to revitalize the team's offense four years ago.

I think the fact that Michigan has been unable to stop the same type of offense year in year out now for at least five years and has yet to make radical changes is proof that tradition has become complacency. Michigan needs to shake things up and bring in some new blood.

Think Michigan's season is over? Well, maybe not. I know the first two losses seem sui generis, bu this tidbit from a Big Ten notebook in the Columbus Dispatch of all places offers some hope:

Carr, 62, has been at Michigan 28 years, 13 as head coach. "There have been a number of times ... that we've started slowly and were able to fight our way back and win a Big Ten championship," he said.

The 1998 team rallied from losses to Notre Dame and Syracuse to share the Big Ten title with Ohio State and Wisconsin and finish 10-3. The 1988 team lost to Notre Dame and the University of Miami, didn't lose again and won the conference title outright. In 1980, Carr's first year on the staff, the Wolverines were 1-2 after losses to Notre Dame and South Carolina and won out for an undisputed conference championship.

"Those are all things that I'm trying to look back on and see if there are any parallels and any messages from that part of our tradition," he said.

The changes are mostly mental it seems to me. Focus and discipline are needed to execute while passion and desire are needed for motivation. Get those things going - and fix some bad schemes and predictable play calling - and the Wolverines can dig themselves out of this hole. Then maybe Carr can go out on a somewhat happy note.

The first five paragraphs say it all:

Michigan got embarrassed again, just in a different way.

A week after being upset by Appalachian State, the Wolverines were handed their most-lopsided loss in 39 years as Dennis Dixon and the Ducks cruised 39-7 on Saturday. Dixon accounted for 368 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Michigan (0-2) has opened a season with two straight losses at home for the first time since 1959 and has dropped four straight, dating to last season, for the first time in four decades.

Unlike the stunning loss to the second-tier Mountaineers, the Wolverines didn't even keep it close against Oregon. The 32-point setback was Michigan's worst since losing 50-14 at Ohio State in 1968, the season before Bo Schembechler's debut in Ann Arbor.

Michigan hasn't won a game since Schembechler died the day before the Ohio State game last year.

Another loss; most lopsided in 39 years; two straight home losses for the first time since 1959; four straight losses for the first time in four decades; the list seems endless. This program has to be nearing bottom. Only time will tell how low it can go. A loss to lowly Notre Dame next week and Michigan fans might die of embarrassment. At this rate, I wouldn't bet against it.

I literally can't imagine a more embarrassing start to the college football season. Losing to a Div. 1aa team at home is pathetic. Those players and coaches should be ashamed. Game on the line and you can't get first down or make a field goal? Two missed two-point conversions when extra points means the game is tied? Mike Hart had 188 yards and three touchdowns and the defense can't stop the opponent from going 69 yards for the go ahead field goal with no timeouts? Miracle deep pass to Mario and you again can't get a field goal? !@#!@#!@#!@$#@#@!!!!

I think Coach Carr is officially on the hot seat if he doesn't resign in shame. With Oregon and Notre Dame coming up this team has a chance to prove something. If they don't, expect Michigan fans to get ugly (not that they aren't already) and then some.