If you watched Saturday night’s Michigan-Western Michigan college football game, you witnessed the Crime of the Season.
But first, a quick rewind. With nine seconds remaining in the non-conference game in which Michigan was favored by 27.5 points, UM quarterback Bryce Underwood attempted a Hail Mary pass from the Western Michigan 47-yard line. The pass went beyond the end line of the end zone, and the game clock showed triple zeroes, meaning the game should have been over.
But wait. After reviewing the play, officials ruled there was one second remaining. The Wolverines had one more shot at a win, and Underwood’s second-chance Hail Mary was caught by J.J. Buchanan, who landed on his backside in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. Final score: Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12.
By now, it’s ancient history (not really). But what is lost in the drama is the fact that Michigan was expected to win by heavy double digits and was outplayed and outcoached the entire game. Perhaps the scales will balance out next week when Michigan hosts Oklahoma at 12 p.m. on FOX.
What began as an upset win for the Broncos ended in an improbable win for Michigan. It was new head coach Kyle Wittingham’s debut with the Wolverines. After the game, Wittingham said he thought he saw one second left on the clock. WMU coach Lance Taylor said he did not see any time on the clock.
Forget the Big Ten’s concocted explanation. The game was over. NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay said, “The ball isn’t even close to touching a player when it goes to zero… Their system, their hawkeye system, apparently had a different sync or whatever, and they came up with one second when it touched a player. I didn’t see that happen. Assuming our clock is correct, it is clearly not touching a player. The ball is clearly still in the air when the clock goes to zero on our screen. The Big Ten is going to have to tell a lot of us how did they get to one second on this play.”
You can look up the statement from the Big Ten, which cites NCAA Football rule 4-2-3-a, stating, “A ball not in player control, other than scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touched the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out-of-bound, or that is on or outside a boundary line.”
The glitch to this explanation is that the clock was already at zero when the ball touched a Western Michigan player.
Does the tuna taste good, or is it good-tasting tuna?
And more…
Now that football season is here, baseball season still won’t go away… What are the odds that the Seattle Seahawks (there’s no such thing as a seahawk) will repeat as Super Bowl champions?… What are the odds that the Philadelphia Eagles will do any better with a new offensive coordinator (Sean Mannion) than they did under Kevin Patullo in 2025?… Is it hockey season yet?
This eternal summer weather is getting to me… Is it me, or is anyone not quite believing that Penn State football is really Penn State football? Do folks believe that head coach Matt Campbell will call University Park home for as long as James Franklin, or will he head off into the sunset after a couple good seasons to pad his resume? I’d like to believe he’s committed, and that Penn State is committed to him. But, for me, I’d like to see how the coaching staff can recruit top-notch talent from Pennsylvania and beyond. After all, and it’s not Campbell’s fault, 40 players on the 2026 roster are from the transfer portal (including 24 from Iowa State). Only nine are high school recruits.
