Ohio State: Where whatever

Michigan's season is not so mercifully over. There were highs and lows and eventually, Michigan ended up about as good as everyone thought they would: 7-5 with a terrible defense and a great offense. No one expected the offense to be quite this prolific or the defense to be quite this bad, but Michigan fared about exactly as they should have.

Saturday's game, though pretty demoralizing, shouldn't change anyone's opinion on Rich Rodriguez. Three of Michigan's five losses came against one-loss, BCS top-10 teams. One came on the road against a resurgent Penn State team and the other against a middle-of-the-road Iowa team.

Asking that Michigan be more competitive against Ohio State sort of misses the point. Were it not for a 170-pound Ray Vinpoal being a 170-pound true freshman that gets trucked by 200-pound junior running backs despite being in perfect position, Ohio State averaged 3.8 YPC. Terrelle Pryor looked, well, like Pryor, and not some manfreak that the defense turned him into. Michigan's four-man defensive line was functional. The offense only stopped when it killed itself (which was frequent). It was a lack of execution and inexperience that made this game uncompetitive, not schemes, raw talent, or fluke plays. Ohio State is basically perfection in terms of doing what they're trained to do. Michigan isn't yet. Whether that's a function of starting mostly underclassmen or poor coaching is a debate, but I'd be willing to bet it's 85% inexperience and 15% coaching.

I have very little else to say on this topic right now and am in the middle of a conference for work, so content on the game will be scarce until Thursday or Friday.

Bullets

• I feel at least somewhat confident saying this: Greg Robinson will be your defensive coordinator next year. It won't make you want to die. I think there's been enough improvement on the defensive side of the ball in the last few weeks that Robinson, working at the talent disadvantage he is, may be given another shot.
• Roy Roundtree will be wearing #12 next year.
• Vincent Smith will be your starter in the bowl game and 2011.
• The defense looked good in this game until it was clear that all of the momentum was going Ohio State's way. Michigan failed to score in the red zone twice early, and that's when it all started going downhill. You just can't give a team like Ohio State more chances than they already have.
• Denard finally scrambled and it was awesome. Except when he fumbled and it wasn't.