Michigan 31, Western Michigan 7, Notre Dame 35, Nevada 0. It wasn't hard to see Notre Dame's offense coming: ND's offense is stacked with blue chips in their second or third year in the system at every position, and one of the most veteran offensive lines in the country; every indication on paper was that these Irish would evolve into something very similar to the consistently productive, star-laden lineup in Charlie Weis' first two seasons. I even predicted the Irish would score on their first possession, and so they did, and on their second, and on their third -- five of their first six drives went for touchdowns, covering 67, 72, 79, 80 and 99 yards.
For Michigan ... well, for Michigan, there were no indications of anything -- even with every member of a bad offensive line and almost every skill player en tow, an alleged quarterback shuffle between two true freshmen and a nonviable junior paperweight shrouded the entire operation in mystery. Intangibly, there was the quasi-scandal of the past week and the lingering sting of two straight opening-day home upsets.
So no fans tonight are breathing sweeter sighs of relief than Michigan's, and no coach improved his position in one day as much as Rich Rodriguez. The freshmen couldn't have played their roles more effectively: Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes in the first half -- two of them relatively long throws to Junior Hemingway -- with no interceptions , and Denard Robinson did his "Next Pat White" thing with a 43-yard touchdown run. Michigan had touchdown drives of 52, 38, 68 and 80, all in the first half, for 31 points. Last year's Wolverines only scored 31 points in an entire game once, in a loss to Purdue, and that was with a punt return for touchdown.
The caveats in both cases are the suspect defenses from Nevada and Western Michigan, especially the latter, which came in with 10 new starters. But there are no negatives for programs that needed the kind of big, convincing wins they used to consider as routine, or where the hype for next week's game in Ann Arbor is concerned: The Irish scraped their projected ceiling coming in, and Michigan busted a hole in theirs. And speaking of ceilings and roofs, he expectations for next week's winner will be through them both.
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