Everyone has seen the baking soda volcano thing by now.
Because of YouTube and social media and whatever else, by the time kids approach double digits it is essentially impossible to surprise them with basic rote science experiments; your Alka-Seltzer in a liter of sodas, your dancing raisins, your balloon-powered cars. But in the 1980's and 90's, that was the bread and butter of edutainment directed to much more easily amused kids. Throw in some stuff about roller coasters, and you've got Newton's Apple, a show that for 15 seasons enthralled viewers with segments about Rube Goldberg machines, sea lions, and what happens when you chew tin foil.
That's kind of what it was like watching Michigan beat the hell out of Colorado State 51-7 on Saturday; a captive audience that gets to enjoy a cool segment about a rocket car, but the rest of the time will be spent on an experiment that goes on twice as long as it needs to.
THE OFFENSE
Said experiment, of course, is the quarterback audition that Harbaugh has decided to let play out over the first three games of the season. Cade McNamara was first up, and he was... serviceable? Middling? I'm trying to think of a word that conveys the feeling of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth. You're annoyed, but fine with it because it's still peanut butter.
Anyway McNamara was 9/18 for 136 yards and a touchdown behind an offensive line that did a fairly good job against expectations; they were dealing with some injuries but still kept quarterbacks upright and opened up holes for running backs Donovan Edwards (12 carries for 64 yards) and Blake Corum (13 carries, 76 yards). The Wolverine wideouts were also solid, if not spectacular, although Harbaugh declined to challenge Colorado State all that much downfield.
Then J.J. McCarthy came in and immediately become the most electric Michigan offensive player.
I wrote last year that if Michigan wants to get to the next level as a team, McCarthy is the only guy on the roster capable of getting them there from the quarterback position. He's dynamic, exciting, and forces other teams to account for him in a way that opens up the offense more than McNamara ever could.
But hey, it's fine! Let's ask Cade about how all of this is shaking out:
"I would definitely say it's pretty unusual," McNamara said after the game. "It was kind of a thing I wasn't expecting by the end of camp. I thought I had my best camp. I thought I put myself in a good position, and that was just the decision that Coach went with."
See? Nothing to worry about! It's fine, nobody is mad, everything is fine.
THE DEFENSE
This game taught us precious little about the Michigan defense. Colorado State's offensive line is cobbled together with bits of string and half-chewed Juicy Fruit. Even by Mountain West standards it is terrible, and Rams quarterback Clay Millen was running for his life most of the game. Colorado State's fun-and-gun offense would, in theory, help mitigate some of that, but that's assuming their quarterback would have more than a tenth of a second to release a pass. Which he did not.
Because of this, it's also probably not a shock that Michigan rotated in an assload of dudes on defense. Over 25 different players tallied at least one tackle in the game, and it's to the Wolverine's credit that they still kept the Rams on lockdown throughout, only allowing a total of 219 yards.
But again: Colorado State is a very bad team. Michigan was favored by 30 in this one for a reason.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
That J.J. McCarthy has already won the quarterback battle and there's going to be a lot of hurt feelings until Harbaugh gets the stones to admit it publicly. Overall Michigan played well on Saturday, but here's one ominous stat: the Wolverines were only 3-10 on 3rd down. McCarthy gives them an added dimension on offense to improve that stat that McNamara simply doesn't have.
Maybe Harbaugh just wants to give the team captain an opportunity to be the clear second choice, and maybe he realizes that literally anybody on the roster could play well enough to beat their next couple of opponents, but it's still not a choice completely without risk.
As a professional hater, my personal hope is that McCarthy somehow looks like butt against Hawai'i (a team Michigan is favored to beat by 40) and nobody knows what to think going into the UConn game after that. But until that happens, Michigan still looks much like they did last season, and the Threat Level will remain HIGH.
