About Last Week I feel bad for Mel Tucker right now. Not THAT bad, of course. There is a limit to how bad you can feel for someone making $26,000 per day to produce Indiana-level results. But I do have some sympathy. After all, while many things that have been his fault this year, this one is on the previous regime. Mark Dantonio built a machine. An amazing machine. A powerful machine. A wonderous, marvelous, fantastical Michigan-Hating Machine. An energy-producing perpetual aggrievement device that violated the first law of thermodynamics (which was fine, because “laws,” and the enforcement thereof, weren’t really a relevant construct for that machine). And he didn’t just use that machine to take on Michigan. He used that machine to power every aspect of his program. And it made that entire program better, at least if you limit the scope of “better” to on-field success. When Mel Tucker came in, he went a different direction. He tried to power his program on hope and hype. On slogans and mantras. On “Deep Water” and “The Woodshed” and #RELENTLESS and #TuckComin and the “Keep Chopping” hand signals. He was Bigger Balder Harold Hill, bringing all the shiny new non-fungible band equipment to the children of Red Cedar River City. But he knew about the Michigan-Hating Machine. And when things started to go poorly, he plugged it in, not knowing exactly what it did or how it worked. He didn’t know how complicated the machine was, or the possible consequences if the control rods were removed from the core. And he lost control of it. And it went critical. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how a season explodes The problem Tucker has now is that the Michigan-Hating Machine drew strength from both success against Michigan AND from failure against Michigan. It was the genius of the system, where old grievances could be recycled into new fuel. It continued the reaction. The Hope Machine doesn’t work like that, and you can only keep choppin’ for so long without fuel. The Road Ahead Rutgers (4-4, 1-4 B1G) Last week: Lost at Minnesota, 31-0 Recap: The worst part about the MSU tunnel assault situation, obviously, is that it is a distraction from the real story right now: IT’S RUTGERS WEEK. A sacred time for all. The reason for the season. The siren song of cable subscribers everywhere. Don’t lose focus, people. Eyes on the prize. Anyway, on Saturday, Minnesota Minnesota’d, Rutgers Rutger’d, and that about enough of that. The Gophers outgained Rutgers 375 (5.1 YPP) to 134 (3.0 YPP), and did so almost exclusively on the ground. Minnesota’s backs, led by Mo Ibrahim, rushed for 233 yards at 4.8 yards per carry. Minnesota’s set the tone from the opening whistle; their first two drives combined to span 32 plays and 17:30 of game time. Meanwhile, the Rutgers’ offense continued to struggle, gaining a total of 7 first downs on the day. Rutgers started sophomore Gavin Wimsatt, who is still not quite ready. He went 6 of 17 for 68 yards (4.0 YPA) and a pick before being replaced by Noah Vedral… who was somehow even worse. This team is as frightening as: Donald Duck. Always really angry, but in an endearing kind of way. Hard to understand. They’ve been the way they are for so long that you sometimes gloss over the fact that they aren’t wearing pants. Fear Level = 3 TFW Pete the Cat knocks over your garden fence Michigan should worry about: Michigan has to prepare for four different quarterbacks; Wimsatt, Vedral, Evan Simon, and Johnny Langan. Sure, they are all bad… but they are differently bad. And that’s a lot of practice reps that could otherwise be used to prepare for Ohio State that now might have to be spent on “what happens when their starting Tight End lines up under center?” Michigan can sleep soundly about: Football games are determined by the number of points on the scoreboard. Rutgers hasn’t scored more than 24 points in an FBS game this year. Michigan hasn’t scored fewer than 27 in any game this year. 27 > 24. When they play Michigan: Rutgers has announced that Wimsatt will start. For whatever that’s worth. This week: vs. Michigan, 7:30 p.m., BTN (Rutgers +25.5) [AFTER THE JUMP: Into Thin Air.]