Lloyd Carr to Chad Henne and Mike Hart:
“You’re Injured. Sit down.”
“But coach, we feel great!”
“I said you’re injured. Take a knee.”
And so it went. While his players may not have been looking past Wisconsin to Ohio State, Lloyd Carr was. With a tie for the Big Ten lead going into next weekend regardless of how they played against Wisconsin, why even bother? The only thing left for Michigan is a win over Ohio State and if by some miracle, they pull that off, a bowl win. Two things this senior class has not done.
After two possessions including an interception, Chad Henne was out for the game with an injured shoulder. Henne played along well even taking off his pads the first half and making sure the cameras saw him putting heat pads on the shoulder.
Mike Hart wasn’t so amiable. Hart spent the better part of three quarters following Carr up and down the sidelines going like a third string Pop Warner player begging the coach to let him play. At one point, he even had his helmet on thinking that he would go in.
Meanwhile, freshman quarterback Ryan Mallet when he wasn’t taking abuse from the Wisconsin defense, took nothing but abuse from teammate Mario Manningham who had him so shaken by the end of the game Mallet didn’t know which way was up.
Bottom line, Carr was afraid to play Hanne and Hart in a pathetic attempt to save them for the Ohio State/Michigan game. Henne injured? Maybe. Hart wanted to play. In the end Michigan looked like punks.
It is obvious that Carr has started his annual mental breakdown. I doubt there will be much left of him by next Saturday.
Update
From Brian at MBoBlog.com:
“Could either have played? Absolutely. If Wisconsin was Ohio State they both would have, but it was not and they did not. You can debate the wisdom of this move, but not the result: the Wisconsin game was a glorified exhibition to Michigan. Both lines took their cues from the stars on the sidelines and took the game off. So did Ryan Mallett’s brain. The kick coverage team, way ahead of the curve, continued its season-long vacation. In ways literal and metaphorical, Michigan did not show up.”
Make of it what you will.
Related Articles:
[...] PATHETIC! [...]