BY: DREW SHARP (Detroit Free Press) –  Progress wasn’t asking too much from Michigan on Saturday.
It was Rich Rodriguez’s 20th game with the Wolverines, an appropriate barometer for gauging the evolution of his radical transformation of the football program. Victory wasn’t mandatory against 13th-ranked Penn State, but was simple competiveness too much to ask?

This was a blown opportunity for Rodriguez.

Lloyd Carr emerged from seclusion Saturday and gave his first public benediction to his successor, but Rodriguez needed much more than a blessing.

His team needed a clue.

It wasn’t bad enough that Michigan absorbed a 25-point home loss against a Big Ten opponent for the second straight season, but Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark painted a searing portrait of defensive confusion and ineffectiveness. Clark told reporters following the game that several times Michigan couldn’t even line up properly. The Wolverines couldn’t even adequately disguise their man coverage, making it that much easier for Clark to riddle the secondary.

If they can’t figure out the basics, how long will it take them to grasp more advanced theory?

“We obviously didn’t play well in any phase,” said Rodriguez. “It’s disappointing. It starts with us as coaches.”

Rodriguez remains 0-for-October against Football Bowl Subdivision teams in his two years at Michigan. He’s 1-6 against the Wolverines’ Big Four regular-season foes: Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State and Michigan State. And they needed a final-minute miracle against the Irish last month for that one aberration.

This performance won’t quell the constant baying from Rodriguez skeptics.

But at least his predecessor had his back.

Carr granted the Free Press a quick interview after leaving the Michigan Radio Network booth during the first quarter Saturday.

“I’m not going to worry about stuff like that,” he told me regarding former Michigan star Rick Leach’s recent comments on an Ann Arbor radio station that Carr basically stabbed Rodriguez in the back with his fraternizing with Iowa officials before the Wolverines’ loss in Iowa City two weeks ago……

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