Mississippi State came out on top in their game against Michigan to finish the season at 9-4 and pretty much surely end the career of Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. the game was out of hand from the second quarter on. The first quarter ended with a score of 10-14, Michigan lead, but they were unable to score another point throughout the rest of the game, allowing Mississippi State to put up 21 in the second, 14 in the third, and 7 in the fourth.

Relf had a great game completing 18 of 23 passes for 281 yards on the game with three touchdowns and one interception. He spread the ball out very well, with no receiving catching more than four balls in the game and all of them having less than 80 yards on the game. Ballard helped Relf to secure the victory, rushing the ball 20 times for 76 yards and three touchdowns. His longest run was only eight yards but his downhill, hard, running style made him a popular option for the team when they were looking to control the clock.

Meanwhile, Robinson’s two touchdowns came in the first quarter as he completed 27 of 41 for 254 yards and two touchdowns on the day. He also spread the ball out quite a bit, but Roundtree was the favorite receiver with nine catches for 53 yards and a touchdown.

All in all, it started out as an interesting game but quickly got out of hand and Michigan was unable to keep up with the constant attack that Mississippi State threw at them. Michigan didn’t play so bad offensively, but defensively they were unable to slow them down. Michigan remained in the game through the first quarter but things quickly got out of hand in the second quarter of the game.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Rich Rodriguez. He is considered to be one of hte smartest coaches in the NCAA because of his time at Virginia Tech but he is working with a different set of talent here that was ultimately unable to institute a great spread attack for the Wolverines and was force dto change his game plans as a result of the lack of his talent.

Michigan will be facing the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the upcoming Gator Bowl. The match up was announced on Sunday evening. The Wolverines will be relying on their great quarterback, Denard Robinson, to help them get past a Mississippi State Bulldog team that has been at the center of the Cam Newton scandal throughout the season. Some representatives for the school had claimed that either Cam Newton or his father Cecil Newton had tried to receive payment from the school for his commitment there.

The game is played on New Years Day, and the Michigan executives said that they would wait til after the game to review their struggling coach Rich Rodriguez. A win in the game would certainly go a long ways toward securing his job, but a loss would not help him to keep it, and he would likely be replaced.

He led the team to a two win improvement in his first year with the team but did finish 2-5, which has the university questioning whether or not he is the man for the job. Mississippi State was 4-4 in their conference, but in the SEC that is not all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Both teams have very different offensive styles which should make for a very interesting game. The Wolverines will look to run the ball effectively. They have a very potent offense, but were ranked102 in the country in total points allowed. They are currently ranked 11th in the nation in rushing while Mississippi State is ranked number 16.

Although Michigan is, for the most part, favored to win the match, they will first have to slow down the rushing attack of the Bulldogs. It will be a challenge for both teams to remain balanced given the fact that they both rely heavily on their rushing attacks. The Bulldogs undoubtedly have a better defense, but is it good enough to keep the Wolverines in check. The key for the Bulldogs will be to stop the running game, and run the ball as effectively as possible.

No D and all Denard?   No, not this time around.

On Saturday Michigan won in a way that not too many thought was possible.  On a very rainy day in West Lafayette, IN at Ross-Ade Stadium, the Wolverines were able to overcome a miserable performance from Denard Robinson, their star quarterback, and relied instead on their heavily depleted defense to defeat Purdue by a score of 27-16.

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan coach said, boy that sure was an ugly win.  We will take it though.

Both ways, it was really ugly.  If the game was judged on ball security, then neither one of the teams deserved a win.  Each of them committed five turnovers in the game.

Robinson himself committed four- two were interceptions and two were fumbles.  Things got so bad that Rodriguez started to rotate Robinson, a Heisman trophy favorite, and backup quarterback Tate Forcier, beginning mid third quarter.  On six possessions in a row they alternated possessions.

Robinson, however, even having such a bad day did come back and convert two critical third downs during the last minutes of the game to set Michigan’s clinching touchdown up.  He first connected on a pass of 25 yards with Kevin Koger, tight end, on third down and seven.  Next, on third down and nine he had a run of 11 yards.

The Wolverines (7-3, Big Ten 3-3) iced the game with a touchdown run of 3 yards from freshman Stephen Hopkins with 1:58 to play.

For the very first time in the three years that Rodriquez has been their head football coach, Michigan has won back to back conference games.

Next Saturday the Wolverines will play at home versus Wisconsin, who this Saturday defeated Indiana 83-20.  Michigan will wrap the regular season up on the road by facing Ohio State.

The young defense of Michigan started gaining some confidence during the triple overtime win last week over Illinois, contrary to popular belief and despite allowing 65 points (the most in school history).

In the Illinois game the Wolverines defense was being constantly put into tough situations due to poor special teams play and turnovers.  However they were finally able to complete on third downs, which for much of this season has been their biggest weakness.  On the two point conversion Michigan’s defense was also able to make a clinching stop.

For Michigan’s defense these were baby steps.  For three years in a row the defense has been atrocious.  However, they were able to carry their progress over to the game on Saturday versus Purdue (4-6, Big Ten 2-4).

Being able to stop the Boilermakers isn’t a big accomplishment certainly.  The offense of Purdue’s is the Big Ten’s worst ranked team, and is also depleted due to injuries just like the Michigan defense.

Someone in this game needed to look good.  It had to be either the league’s worst defense or worst offense.

For the Wolverines, fortunately, their defense was the one that looked good.  They didn’t allow any touchdowns.

That isn’t a misprint.  The defense of Michigan didn’t allow any touchdowns.

Purdue’s scoring came from an interception return of 94 yards along with three field goals.  The defense for Michigan, which was averaging 453.7 yards allowed per game, only allowed 256 yards on Saturday.

On their third down conversions, Purdue went 2 out of 17.  Last week Illinois was 6 for 16.

That was quite a turnaround after Penn State two weeks ago went 10 out of 16 on third downs and 2 for 2 on fourth downs in their win over Michigan.

Also, the Wolverines defense had been quite inept when it came to creating turnovers, but in this game got a touchdown score when safety Cameron Gordon returned a fumble 58 yards during the first quarter.

Most astonishing of all, is Michigan played nearly the whole game without Mike Martin, nose tackle and top defensive player, as well as Jonas Mouton, linebacker and leading tackler, due to injuries.

Rodriguez said, I am very proud of the team’s defense.  Our young guys really did hang in there.

It’s a good win for us.  Anytime you get a Big Ten win on the road, that’s a good win.

Watching the game, you may not have thought the win was so good.  It was actually fairly nasty.

However when your defense has to play without their most experienced and best players, and the team’s quarterback, who is supposedly unstoppable, keeps stopping himself, then yes you will take the win and cherish it.

The cardinal rule of college football is do not commit turnovers.  However, don’t give up long third down conversions isn’t too far behind.

Both principals were violated by Michigan today in their 38-28 defeat to No. 15 ranked Iowa.  They failed to complete their spirited comeback with Tate Forcier leading the charge.

Iowa made a lot less mistakes and was able to make big plays when they really counted, particularly on third down and long.  Iowa got outstanding performances from Ricky Stanzi, quarterback, Adam Robinson, running back, and wide receivers Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt.  Robinson, out of all of them, was the most impressive.  As the only proven and healthy back he continues to take a pounding but keeps on producing.  The Hawkeyes converted 7 out of their 13 attempts on third down.

Iowa, however, probably isn’t too pleased with their performance on defense, despite forcing the Wolverines to turn the ball over four times.

Michigan’s performance on offense was outstanding against one of the best defenses in the nation.  They gained 522 total offense yards in addition to 29 first downs.  Early second quarter Denard Robinson had to leave due to an injury.  However Michigan’s offensive didn’t skip a beat, as Tate Forcier took over, leading the Wolverines on three scoring drives during the fourth quarter.

However good teams can not excel in one phase of the game while being terrible in two others.  The Wolverines, after sevens games this season, are horrible on special teams and defense.  For a football program such as Michigan, their inability to execute the basics on the kicking game and get stops is staggering.  During the team’s bye week Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines have lots to work on before their pivotal road game versus Penn State.  Iowa is returning home next week to face Wisconsin.

Mark Dantonio, in his four years of coaching Michigan State, has emphasized the rivalry his team has with Michigan.  The Spartans have certainly responded by beating the Wolverines in their last three matchups.

Suddenly there is a new challenge for Dantonio’s team.  For the remainder of the season, Michigan State needs to attempt to make the Michigan game on Saturday appear to be just one win on their schedule, one of several big victories for them in this memorable season.

Dantonio said, when we came in, we wanted to be able play the best and play at a very high level.  What that means to me is you need to have the ability of playing the top 20.  Over the past two weeks we have done that.  Our conference is a really difficult one and we still need to play through it.  Next week our next challenge will await us.

The more wins we have, the bigger the games become.

Michigan State, after defeating Michigan by a score of 34-17, is 6-0.  The last time they had a 6-0 record was in 1999.  Also, after defeating Wisconsin and then Michigan back to back, the Spartans have moved into the No. 13 spot on the AP poll.

The Spartans have continued to win over a tough stretch that started with Dantonio suffering a mild heart attack on September 19.  He had to miss two games before he returned to coach on Saturday from a box over the field.

Dantonio said, coming into this game I said it like it was a kind of winner take all game, in terms of bragging rights for the conference and rising in the polls.  We decided not to play this game close to our vest.  We played to win.

Although it was an emotional victory, as all wins are versus Michigan, Michigan State will need to put this game behind them quickly.  The impressive start by the Spartans has raised the stakes in next week’s game at home versus Illinois.  On Saturday Illinois routed Penn State by a score of 33-13.

Kirk Cousins, Michigan State quarterback said, we know from that alone we are in for a big challenge.  We’ve only made it halfway.  There’s still lots of work for us to do.

Michigan State will have to play without Chris L. Rucker, starting cornerback, who the team suspended on Sunday for one game at least for violating team rules.

Cousins passed for 285 yards along with one touchdown versus Michigan.  Unlike Denard Robinson, his counterpart, Cousins was able to avoid costly turnovers.  Lately Cousins has looked very sharp, complementing Le’Veon Bell and Edwin Baker, running backs.

Don Treadwell, offensive coordinator said, without question Kirk Cousins is for our program a tremendous leader.  It’s not just the things he does on game day.  He does so many things that are behind the scenes.  He is team’s and offense’s emotional leader.

1999 was the last time Michigan State had a 6-0 record.  Their winning streak was emphatically snapped when Purdue defeated the Spartans 52-28 when Drew Brees passed for 509 yards.  Ron Dayne then rushed for 214 yards against the Spartans defense to lead Wisconsin to victory by a score of 40-10.

The last time the Spartans had a 7-0 start was in 1966.  That year they went 9-0 before their famous 10-10 tie with Notre Dame.

Michigan State this year still has six remaining Big Ten games.  At this rate however, they may be the underdog in just one of those games- their October 30 contest in Iowa.  This season Michigan State is not playing No. 1 ranked Ohio State.

Dantonio said, we are halfway through.  Things are going well however, it doesn’t make the whole season.

Joey Elliot was able to do what no other Purdue quarterback had been able to so since Bob Griese in Michigan Stadium.

Elliot won.

Elliot threw for 367 yards, his career high. He ran for one touchdown and threw for two others and led Purdue to their 38-36 comeback victory over Michigan for Purdue’s first Big House win since 1966 when Griese did it.

A grinning Elliot said, he is a native of Evansville, Indiana just like me.

The Boilermakers were all smiles, but the Wolverines were left crying. Their impressive 4-0 record to start the season might very well turn out to be a 5-7 flop.

Zoltan Mesko, punter for Michigan, said anytime you invest a lot of effort and time into something, you are bound to cry.

Rich Rodriguez, head coach for Michigan, was very emotional during the news conference when Bill Martin, retiring athletic director, tried sharing encouraging words.

Purdue (4-6, 3-3) trailed at halftime 24-10. During the third quarter, Michigan collapsed once again. It was the second time in two weeks they allowed 21 points.

With 5:04 minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Boilermakers grabbed the lead and held on for good on a 54 yard pass from Elliot to Cortez Smith, who was wide open. On the play before they had surprised Michigan with their onside kick.

Danny Hope, head coach for Purdue, said all season we had had that play ready but hadn’t used it. You need to wait for just the right moment.

The Michigan Wolverines (5-5, 1-5), with 2:10 minutes to go in the game pulled to within two points on the third touchdown for Brandon Minor. However on a 2 point conversion attempt, Tate Forcier got sacked. They had been forced to go for the conversion due to an earlier missed extra point.

A Michigan onside kick was recovered by Purdue. They punted and then held on to end their 11 game losing streak on the road. Their skid had placed them in a tie with Utah State as the longest active road losing streak. With their victories over both Ohio State and Michigan for the first time since 2000, Purdue has the chance to rally from a 1-5 start to a bowl bid if they are able to finish the season with victories over Michigan State and in Indiana.

Hope said, this is a huge win for our team.

Michigan’s loss could be devastating. There is the possibility of the Wolverines going without a bowl game for two seasons in a row. It would be the first time that had happened since 1973-74.

Rodriguez said, the season’s not over.

If Michigan doesn’t get a win in Wisconsin or at home against Ohio State it will be over.

Minor insisted that mentally we can handle this. None of us are in need of seeing Oprah or Dr. Phil.

Rodriguez, however, probably is in need of having someone to talk to regarding his frustrations.

In his first season with the winningest program in college football, Rodriguez endured nine losses last season, which was a school record.

This season the Wolverines started out strong, but could end very poorly. Their finish could also become compounded with more problems. There is an NCAA investigation underway to determine whether or not Michigan violated NCAA rules regarding offseason workouts and practice hours.

However, Rodriguez is focusing on the on-field challenges that Michigan faces. He say that none of these can be fixed overnight.

Rodriguez said, I don’t have any magic wands.

To fix Michigan’s defense he would need one.

During the second half of their last three games, the Michigan team has been outscored 75-12 by Penn State, Illinois and Purdue.

Brandon Graham, defensive end for Michigan, said it’s embarrassing. We know that we are better than this. We are trying to prove this.

In September, Tate Forcier was able to show he could win while a freshman. However, the Wolverines and Forcier have gone 1-5 since their undefeated first month.

Forcier threw a touchdown pass and also had a running touchdown. However early second half he also fumbled while attempting an option pitch. Purdue recovered the ball which sparked their comeback.

Forcier said, it hurts. I have never lost so many games in all my life. It is my job getting the team back to playing like we did before.

Roy Roundtree, receiver for Michigan, cradled the football as he sprinted towards the end zone.

Seventy six yards down field Terry Hawthorne caught up with him finally right at the goal line. On the scoreboard points went up. It looked like it was going to be another long day for the Illini.

Then a video review of the play ruled that Roundtree had been down on the one yard line. On four runs in a row, Illini stopped Michigan. Then Juice Williams responded with a drive of 99 yards for a touchdown to give Illinois the lead and ultimately a 38-13 victory over Michigan.

Ron Zook, Illinois coach, said a lot of guys on a play like that would have quit, but Terry didn’t. He just kept going and made the biggest play in the game, maybe the play of our entire year.

Before the turnaround at the goal line, Michigan had only give up 94 total offensive yards. They appeared to take a lead of 20-7 twice on what they had hoped to be their first win on the road this season.

Instead Illinois (2-6, 1-5), had 500 total offensive yards, and Michigan appeared to be nearly as lost as they were during last year’s 3-9 disaster of a season.

Rodriguez said, it changes the momentum, especially on the road. It’s tough when you get a chance of seizing the momentum and it reverses while on the road.

Over half of the second half surge from Illinois came during three drives for touchdowns surrounded by a couple three and out ugly possessions that were led by Tate Forcier, freshman quarterback.

A majority of the drive of 99 yards came on the 70 yard run up the middle by Mikel LeShoure. However Williams, who had three drives in the first half end with sacks coming on third down, was able to lead Illinois on two additional drives, putting the game away for Illinois.

A 79 yard drive was capped by a Williams two yard touchdown pass to London Davis. On their next possession Michigan went backward and the Illini scored another touchdown on a 45 yard drive. Williams scored on a third yard run to give Illinois a lead of 28-13.

Michigan (5-4, 1-4) had three turnovers. Two were second half turnovers from Forcier.

One year after Michigan’s streak of appearing in bowls for three decades came to an end and finishing 3-9 in Rich Rodriguez’s first year as coach, the Wolverines are still one win away from being eligible for a bowl. However they have lost four Big Ten games in a row and won a game versus Delaware State during their last five games.

Rodriguez said, we really have not given ourselves too much of an opportunity due to our own mistakes. You need to give them some credit as well. They made some plays. However we need to play more efficient in order to have a chance.

Illinois had not defeated any Bowl Subdivision opponents this year. However, Michigan had three turnovers and appeared to give life to a team that had barely seemed competitive while losing five games in a row to begin their Big Ten season.

Williams said, lots of teams in that situation would usually quit, just give up, after Illinois snapped their losing streak of five games. Among ourselves we made the pact that we wouldn’t stop until the season was over.

Last season Williams went crazy against Michigan with his 431 total offensive yards, went 8 for 11 for 123 passing yards and ran for 97 yards in 21 carries and had two touchdowns.

Michigan started their season out with a 4-0 record and defeated Notre Dame. Next Saturday they will host Purdue then travel to Wisconsin and wrap up the season at home playing Ohio State.

Troy Woolfolk, safety, said we are not winning games we should. Now we playing for our pride. We know we can’t win the Big Ten. There is still a chance we can get into a bowl.

Finally during the next drive Forcier was able to get the Wolverines moving. Things appeared to be promising until he got sacked and then fumbled the ball at Illinois’ 16 yard line.

Forcier went 13 for 23 for a total of 257 yards. Carlos Brown rushed for 110 yards in 25 carries and scored a touchdown.

Roundtree caught four passes for a total of 92 yards, which included the 76 yard play where he was stopped.

Illinois got a field goal to add to their total as well as another stop. With just 3:49 left to play in the game, Michigan blocked an Illinois punt. At that point they were in the hole by three scores and only had a very faint hope left.

Those hopes were ended when Forcier fumbled the ball again on Illinois’ 15 yard line. Jason Ford, six plays later, scored on a 79 yard play.

Before the turnaround play on the goal line, Michigan had shut Williams down for the most part. Last season in the 45-20 Illinois rout, Williams had over 400 yards in offense.

It’s still possible for Illinois to get six wins. However, it isn’t going to be easy. They will travel to Minnesota and then host Northwestern. Then they travel to face No. 5 ranked Cincinnati and then host Fresno State.

Zook said, this game does not mean that everything is ok. We still have four more games.

Three of Daryll Clark’s four touchdown passes were to Graham Zug, leading the No. 13 ranked Penn State team to a 35-10 victory over Michigan for the Nittany Lion’s first Big House win since 1996.

On Saturday Penn State (7-1, 3-1) shut down Michigan (5-3, 1-3) after the Wolverines opened the game with a drive of 70 yards for a touchdown.

On the next possession Clark connected on a touchdown pass with Zug, tying the game. During the third quarter, Clark threw another two touchdown passes to Zug, giving the Nittany Lions a 32-10 lead, and then took off over 10 minutes from the clock in the fourth quarter before kicking a final field goal.

Michigan struggled on offense and also had four turnovers in the game.

Tate Forcier went 13 for 30 for a total of 140 yards and one interception, while Denard Robinson went 0 for 2 and had one interception and one fumble.

Clark went 16 for 27 for a total of 230 yards and also tied his career record for touchdown passes. Zug had five catches for 59 yards and had more touchdown receptions than all of the prior games of the season combined as well as the entire season last year.

Evan Royster rushed for 100 yard in 20 carries.

Meanwhile Michigan was unable to run or pass effectively versus Penn State and also had trouble holding onto the football.

Tate Forcier threw many bad passes and then when his passes were on target, his receivers would often drop the ball. After the game Forcier declined to comment.

Robinson didn’t have a lot of opportunity to show what he is capable of, but hurt his chance to earn some more playing time with his two turnovers.

Brandon Minor had a one yard rushing touchdown on the first drive of the game, but finished the game with only 48 rushing yards in 12 carries. Carlos Brown rushed for 35 yards in eight carries.

Following the game, Penn State celebrated in a corner of the stadium with hundreds of Nittany Lions fans.

The last win for Penn State in Ann Arbor happened 13 years ago. After that they lost nine games in a row versus Michigan they defeated the Wolverines at home last season 46-17.

A game that started out interesting turned into a matchup that was very lopsided.

During the opening drive of the game, Michigan was able to do what they wanted to and became the first team versus the Nittany Lions to score a touchdown this season during the first half.

The first time Penn State had the ball they were able to move at will, as well as on several other drives.

The Wolverines were unable to offensively keep up and their defense left far too many of the Nittany Lions receivers open for Clark and were also unable to stop the running game of Royster.

On their second drive Penn State took the lead 10-7 and got a safety during the second quarter when a Michigan shotgun snap sailed over Forcier through to the end zone. The Nittany Lions opened up a 12 point lead on the 60 yard touchdown pass from Clark to Andrew Quarless, tight end, two plays later.

Towards the end of the first half, the Wolverines got a field goal and during the second half were shut out. It left the winningest program in college football one win away still from becoming eligible for bowl games. Last season Michigan lost nine games, a school record, and didn’t win a bid in the post season for the very first time in over 30 years.

Penn State was able to keep their hopes alive of appearing in one of the marquee bowls at the end of the season.

Saturday was the record breaking day for Michigan, as they trounced Delaware State 63-6.

The 5-2 Wolverines set school records for 442 yards during the first half as well as 727 total yards for the game. With their 28 points in the first quarter they tied a school record, and their 49-3 halftime lead was the second most points ever by halftime.

The 1-4 Hornets didn’t even come close to Appalachian State’s 2007 upset at Michigan’s Big House. However the second tier collegiate program was paid $550,000 to provide a tuneup for Michigan and forfeit a game in the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference.

Tate Forcier started at quarterback, one week after suffering a concussion. He led Michigan on a drive for a touchdown during his only possession, leaving the game still healthy.

Denard Robins had two touchdown passes on only four attempts and also fumbled. The Wolverines also played their third string quarterback as well as their fourth and fifth.

Forcier had been listed as questionable, but did play for one drive. His two pass attempts were both completions for a total of 39 yards.

None of Michigan’s quarterbacks threw over nine passes. Instead they handed the ball off frequently, maybe trying to avoid letting the score get even more out of hand versus the clearly over match team from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Michigan rested the top two of their running backs- Brandon Minor (injured ankle) and Carlos Brown (concussion), and some of the more inexperienced players were able to take advantage.

Vincent Smith rushed for 166 yards, his career high, and had one touchdown. Michael Cox rushed for 82 yards and had two scores, while Michael Shaw had 73 rushing yards as well as a touchdown.

In the highest scoring game for Michigan since 1992 when they scored 63 points versus Minnesota, the Wolverines saw two brothers score.

Kevin Grady has a rushing touchdown and brother Kelvin, who originally came to play basketball at Michigan, had a receiving score.

In the first half’s last minute Delaware State was able to avoid being shut out. Larrone Moore had a kickoff return for 51 yards and Riley Flickinger kicked a field goal. Early fourth quarter Flickinger had another field goal to make the score 49-6.

Delaware State did not start their quarterback, Anthony Glaud, one week after suffering a concussion while losing to Bethune-Cookman. They started Nick Elko instead.

On the first four drives Delaware State only had 14 yards gained. After that it didn’t really get a lot better.

The lucrative payday for Delaware State did cost them. They had to forfeit their scheduled conference game versus North Carolina A&T.

Ricky Stanzi, Iowa’s quarterback, always seems to be able to make up for any early mistakes. Tate Forcier, Michigan’s quarterback, didn’t get the opportunity to do that.

Stanzi passed for 284 yards and had two touchdowns after being intercepted on his very first pass as No. 12 ranked Iowa was able to survive another very close call, defeating Michigan on Saturday night 30-28. The win gave Iowa its best start of a season since 1985 and their first wining streak of 10 games in over 80 years.

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan head coach, pulled the ineffective Forcier from the game in the fourth quarter. Denard Robinson, another freshman quarterback, led the Wolverines on a touchdown drive which was capped by his three yard run. With 1:30 left in the game, Michigan got the football back, but Robinson threw an interception that was picked off by Brett Greenwood with just 46 seconds left in the game, leaving the Hawkeyes (6-0, 2-0) as the only undefeated team remaining in the Big Ten conference.

Iowa has won their three home games by six points total. Then again the Hawkeyes haven’t ever been very interested in getting style points.

Stanzi said, we have to fight off adversity. In our games we have had to do it a lot. That helps to build character. We are excited about our record, but we still have a lot of football to play.

Iowa won for the 10th game in a row, which is the longest winning streak for the Hawkeyes since 1920-1923 when they won 20 games in a row.

Michigan (4-2, 1-2) had five turnovers, a season high. Forcier completed 8 out of 19 passes for a total of 94 yards and one interception. Rodriquez said Forcier, who has a shoulder injury, was not at 100 percent.

Michigan’s head coach tried to squash any ideas that there was a quarterback controversy and also denied that Forcier and he had had words over on the sidelines.

Rodriguez said, Tate did make some plays that he would probably want to have back. We wanted to get a spark so we made a change. Denard did give us that spark toward the end, but we didn’t finish it.

Wolverine Donovan Warren ran the Stanzi interception back for a touchdown in the opening minute of the game, and Brandon Minor had two scores for Michigan.

Iowa’s Tony Moeaki caught two wide open touchdown passes, but those were the only things that cam easy for the Hawkeyes.

Trailing in the game 23-21 early fourth quarter, Michigan stopped Iowa on the one yard line on fourth down and goal, which ended a drive that had been kept alive by a muffed punt by Michigan on their 16 yard line. The play would have had a roughing penalty anyway. Stevie Brown was able to break up the pass from Stanzi on the fourth down and goal play.

The defense of Iowa then was able to force three plays and out. Then Stanzi connected with Moeaki on a touchdown pass of 42 yards on the first play following the punt to make the score 30-21 with 12:56 minutes left to play in the game.

Although Robinson was able to lead Michigan on a 59 yard drive for a score, his interception sent Michigan down to defeat for the second week in a row. Both losses have come on the after after Michigan got off to a 4-0 start.

Jeremiah Hunter, Iowa linebacker said, we knew that Robinson isn’t that good of a passer and was coming in so he could run. When he threw we got the pick.

The offense for Michigan, which had stalled since their score late first quarter, was able to put a 57 yard scoring drive together mid third quarter. Minor scored on a one yard play to make the score 23-21. He finished the game with 95 yards rushing and had the first two rushing touchdowns scored against Iowa for the year.

Iowa, despite only rushing for a total of three yards during the first half, lead at the break 20-14.

Mid second quarter the Hawkeyes took the lead behind Stanzi’s play. On third down and 24 Stanzi connected on a 47 yard pass with Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, setting up a one yard leaping touchdown score from Brandon Wegher.

The first pass from Stanzi went right to Warren, who was able to take the gift interception for 40 yards and score a touchdown just 46 seconds into the game.

The Stanzi interception was the third this season that has been returned for a score. However, on the next Iowa possession he made up for his error.

Sensing that a blitz was coming, Stanzi changed the original play, sending Moeaki into the flat. Stanzi found a wide open Moeaki for a touchdown pass of 34 yards to tie the game at 7-7.

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa coach, said it is hard to rattle him. I am very proud of how he has led our team.

Then on Forcier’s first pass, he threw an interception, setting up a field goal of 28 yards from Daniel Murray.

Michigan was able to immediately answering, taking the lead back 14-10 on a three yard run for a touchdown from Minor. It was the first running touchdown that Iowa had allowed in 33 quarters.

It was the first time the Wolverines and Hawkeyes had met since 2006, and only the seventh game at Kinnick Stadium that has been played under the lights. The stadium does not have permanent lighting. At kickoff the temperature was mid thirties. For Forcier, who is from San Diego, it was his coldest college game.

The game was also the first since 1985 that Iowa was facing Michigan as the team with the higher ranking. In the 1985 contest, the number one ranked Hawkeyes defeated number two ranked Michigan 12-10.

The Hawkeyes have won 10 games in a row including last season, with their victory over Michigan solidifying them as legitimate contenders for the Big Ten title, despite the fact that Iowa has had a habit lately of ekeing out their wins.

Stanzi said, we are staying together, and that is what it really comes down to. You cannot focus too much on every little play. If we all stick together, that is when we are at our best.