Can Michigan Ever Recover From Embarrassing Defeat?
CBS reports that University of Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr may never live down last week's huge upset when Michigan was defeated by the Mountaineers from Appalachian State. We constructed the graph on the right to illustrate the point made in the CBS article. It shows how the embarrassment factor just keeps on rising for Lloyd Carr and the University of Michigan fans and team.
Now, think about the most embarrassing moment of your life, then multiply it by a factor of Carr. Lloyd Carr. The Michigan coach is the other side of Appalachian Fever that has struck the country this week.
See the drunk students in Boone. See the goalpost torn down by students and deposited in the driveway of App State chancellor Kenneth Peacock. Salute the aw-shucks Mountaineers coach Jerry Moore. Compare the schools' spending power. App State's football budget is $1.5 million. Michigan is in the middle of a $226 million renovation of its stadium.
We said it was embarrassing. Now see the 62-year-old Michigan coach who has delivered both a national championship and, on Saturday, the competition for arguably the biggest upset in the sport's history.
"I wouldn't want to be on their practice field Tuesday," Moore said.
The aftermath isn't about retribution at Michigan; hopefully it's about sympathy. It's not clear if even a victory over Ohio State this year can save Michigan's season. But one thing is sure 48 hours later: Lloyd Carr will never live this down.
Coach Carr will need a win in next week game to redeem himself and his team from last weekend's tremendous embarrassment. Turn in a solid season or even win the Big Ten and some of the pain caused by last week's defeat may subside. However, the pain of the incident may apparently never completely go away for Carr and the University of Michigan. Carr may even feel like he is "running down the street naked for the rest of his life" according to the CBS story.
It goes a little too far to call the Michigan team an embarrassment, a joke and a team of losers for eternity. Yes, this game will be pointed to for years to come as one of sport's greatest upsets ever. Yes, even decades from now when Michigan is doing better people will still point and laugh at University of Michigan fans and talk about that game years ago when Michigan lost to a Division I-AA team. Yes, the jokes will continue indefinitely. Years from now a Michigan fan may say "I'm a Michigan fan" only to hear someone start chanting, "high on the mountains above the rest there's a university that's going places... Hot hot hot...Appalachian is hot hot hot." It is true that Michigan will never ever be able to forget this defeat and fans of other college teams are sure to help them never forget it.
As huge as Michigan's loss was Appalachian State earned a win here.
It was almost as if Appalachian State was a menacing balrog and Michigan had brought the baby wolverines out to play. Appalachian State proved they were the better team. They worked hard on finding holes in Michigan's defense and excelled on special teams -- especially by blocking Michigan's field goal attempt at the end of the game. The score was close but during the game it felt like ASU was in control. Appalachian State deserves to bask in the glow of this marvelous victory.
As much as Michigan fans would like to forget this game it will be discussed for decades to come and it will be written about over and over again in historical books and sports columns. Disney is probably working on the movie right now. Find more bloggers discussing the historical upset here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Updates:
The University of Michigan paid Appalachian State $400,000 for them to come to the Big House. (via Epic Carnival)
CBS 
As huge as Michigan's loss was Appalachian State earned a win here.
It was almost as if Appalachian State was a menacing 
