Nine months after the Michigan Wolverines season ended with another humbling loss that defined the Lloyd Carr era, the Michigan season is effectively over again, before Labor Day.

 

There were a lot of reasons to "Go Blue" for Saturday's season opener. 107,000 screaming fans eager to replace last year's memory of back-to-back losses to rivals Ohio State and USC; Mike Hart kicking off his Heisman Trophy campaign; and a showcase of the #5 team in the country. But there was a group that had "Gone Blue" and they were the Michigan Wolverine football team.

 

The 34-32 loss at the hands of FCS champion Appalachian State has forced the Wolverine Nation to realize the nightmares of Columbus and Pasadena might not be a bad dream at all. The mystique is tarnished. The 0-1 record is salty. And the potential of the Henne era will remain just that.

 

Prior to the latest string of embarrassing defeats, Lloyd Carr's tenure of underachieving seemed like a thing of the past. Clearly it's not.

 

This past Saturday required Michigan fans to once again groan at a predictable offense and a defense that was out of position. To be reminding of what it is like to get outplayed by inferior talent. To confront the reality of yelling "One time!" as you stage a late game comeback to beat a team that was paid $400,000 to be your opponent.

 

Thousands of fans left The Big House forced to ignore cell phone calls while sauntering to their tailgate party's to try and make sense of it all.

 

"Can our defense stop anyone? Did our wing blocker on the field goal attempt really not block down? Do you think we can lure Greg Schiano from Rutgers?"

 

Michigan faithful will confront this and more while figuring out whether to laugh or to cry. Whether to get pissed or to get sarcastic. Whether to buy into the lie and say "at least we got the loss over at the beginning of the season."

 

While Ann Arbor seaches for answers to these questions, what we can say for certain is September 2^nd 2007 officially marked the first day of the 2008 season...preseason.