It's the arrogance of Michigan football that's bringing it down, not No. 1 Oregon

The play that sealed Michigan football's fate in a 38-17 loss to No. 1 Oregon on Saturday was a testament to the Wolverines' arrogance.

There they were, 10 yards from the Ducks' end zone and within striking distance of a one-scoring game midway through the fourth quarter. It was fourth down and 5 yards were needed to keep hope alive.

On a team with weak options at quarterback and a game play that didn't work for most of the afternoon, the assumption was that Michigan would turn to the one man, Davis Warren, who had shown he could at least throw a decent forward pass could. Before that vital moment, Warren had racked up 12 completions, including two that led to (gasp!) scoreless touchdowns.

But no – it would have made too much sense to appoint Warren immediately.

Instead, offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell used Alex Orji, a backup who had used his arm only once in live action since being benched in an Oct. 5 loss at Washington.

What followed was just as bad as anyone could have expected.

Orji took the snap and of course didn't drop back to pass. Instead, he faked a handoff and threw the ball to receiver Semaj Morgan, who ran an end-around. Morgan, who had never attempted a throw in his college career, then turned, reared and fired.

The ball floated toward the touchline… drifted, drifted, and drifted some more until it was so far out of bounds that its intended target, Orji, crashed into a camera post just a few feet beyond the pitch's white boundary.

A confused crowd groaned in pain and watched the turnover unfold on downs. Then they watched Oregon slowly drive a stake into the hearts of its beloved Wolverines as they marched down the field to score a final touchdown in the final minute.

After Jordan James rammed his way into the end zone to complete the completion, the Ducks running back flexed and roared – reminding everyone that his team, not Michigan, is running college football right now.

It's something the Wolverines have found difficult to accept.

On Monday, players were hesitant to show much deference to the Ducks, a rising power that is beginning to resemble the juggernaut that resided in Ann Arbor last fall.

“We don’t consider them the No. 1 team in the country,” safety Quinten Johnson said. “We think of them as Oregon. So at the end of the day they got to play against us.”

That was a surprising comment considering Johnson's team had already suffered three defeats and no longer had the same classy atmosphere as the mighty Ducks.

But head coach Sherrone Moore explained, “They’re Michigan. You are always being hunted, regardless of the year, the record.”

“This is a big program,” Warren added. “We have a lot of great players in this building and I am confident that we are more than capable of beating any team in the country.”

Few, if any, outsiders shared the same beliefs. The Wolverines were deeply flawed, and that was evident even when Michigan bounced back last Saturday with a thrilling, narrow 24-17 victory over Michigan State – a mediocre rival that Indiana beat on Saturday while Michigan learned its lesson .

As Johnson, Warren and Moore were slow to admit, UM was already woefully deficient in all areas when they returned to the Big House for their showdown with the Ducks. The offense had become a constant liability, the defense had become vulnerable, the special teams was no longer stable, and the coaching staff across the board had begun to raise red flags.

In the offseason, Moore and his staff downplayed concerns about the Wolverines' perceived deficiencies and took few steps to improve a squad that lost 18 starters who helped win a national championship.

“We have enough talent and we will continue to develop it,” Moore boasted in mid-August.

But they don't and they haven't – at least not to the point where Michigan can compete against elite opponents like Oregon.

On Saturday, UM's top two cornerbacks, Will Johnson and Jyaire Hill, were sidelined. Their absences further highlighted the lack of depth in a defense that isn't nearly as solid as the one that ranked first nationally in yards and points allowed last year.

Dillon Gabriel, Oregon's dynamic passer, took advantage. He ignited U-M's patchwork secondary while completing 22 of 34 attempts for 294 yards – 217 of which came in the first half as the Ducks built an insurmountable 28-10 lead. Just as Texas' Quinn Ewers showed Michigan during the Longhorns' Big House Massacre in Week 2, Gabriel once again demonstrated the immense value and fortune-changing impact that a good quarterback provides.

Somehow Moore and Campbell didn't realize that as they spent an offseason grappling with the reality of replacing JJ McCarthy, a top-10 pick in April's NFL draft in Detroit.

The two men who had seen McCarthy up close as he went 27-1 as UM's starter decided to pin the program's hopes on several unproven options vying to replace him. It was a huge misjudgment. Warren, Orji and Jack Tuttle — a 25-year-old who retired from football in October midway through his seventh college season — took turns commanding an offense that scored fewer than 20 points four times this season. Each of these games ended in defeat.

The mismanagement of the team's most important position was on display again late in Saturday's game, when the Wolverines still had a glimmer of hope.

At the time, Campbell thought he could outwit Oregon and its defensive-minded head coach Dan Lanning by planning a trick play with Orji as one of the featured players. It was a decision born of sheer hubris. However, it was also entirely unsurprising considering it came from a guy who predicted back in the spring that this offense was now ranked 109th^Th in the nation – would be “extremely explosive”.

Campbell's cheeky play call, which seemed to mock the football gods, royally backfired. That left Moore confronted with some more uncomfortable questions in retrospect.

But instead of admitting guilt or questioning Campbell, Moore instead said he “won't regret” the decision he made.

It was an amazing reaction.

Moore should ultimately have a lot of remorse for that move and so many others that have gone sideways this year — from his clumsy handling of quarterbacks to myopic leadership of the roster to the frequent in-game mistakes that have proven damaging .

All of this has led the Wolverines to this point where they are 5-4 after a loss to a far superior opponent. The decline in the program over the past 10 months has been significant.

But as an opposing coach once said of Michigan: Pride comes before ruin.

Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.

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