Bob Wojnowski: Pigskin Picks

There's hope at U-M, MSU: Basketball season starts soon!

Has it really come down to this? I mean, really?

Michigan now regularly loses Big Ten games by 25 points and tosses the ball away as if scattering flowers at a wedding. And now it must beat Purdue just to have a shot at a bowl game in Detroit or Saskatoon?

Michigan State so repeatedly tortures its fans with staggering losses, it might as well conduct water-boarding clinics at halftime. And now it has to beat Western Michigan just to have a shot at salvaging a shot at salvaging the season?

Excuse me for a second. I need to brighten the mood by flipping through my college basketball previews, the ones with Michigan State ranked second in the country and Michigan 15th. Nice, nice. Tom Izzo, John Beilein, good, good. Kalin Lucas, Manny Harris, impressive, impressive. Michigan might move its new luxury boxes from Michigan Stadium to Crisler Arena? Interesting, interesting.

Ah, basketball season can't arrive quickly enough, can it?

Listen. I know we sometimes joke around here, and I know you'd rather read how Iowa needed an inexplicable reversal from the Big Ten's nutty replay officials -- and also an interception that bounced off 17 players before lodging neatly in Herky's mascot beak -- to beat Indiana. All that "moxie" and "grit" and "laughable good fortune" officially elevated Iowa to the Darn Scrappiest 9-0 team in major sports history.

But we need to figure out what's going on in our own humble state, before Michigan and Michigan State become Montana and Montana State before our very eyes. Remember way back to five weeks ago, when fans were chanting Rich Rodriguez's name and Michigan was 4-0 and freshman Tate Forcier was doing an impersonation of the Heisman Trophy (actual size)?

Now the Wolverines are 5-4, and while I didn't expect them to be great in the second season of a new regime, I expected them to occasionally hinder the progress of opposing ballcarriers. I expected them to be able to score on four attempts from Illinois' six-centimeter line and not leave their fate in the hands of replay officials who may or may not be watching Nickelodeon at the time.

Rodriguez needs patience, sure. But along the way, he and the Wolverines have to handle adversity with a bit more toughness. I'm fairly certain the Michigan marching band twirlers could have held Illinois to fewer than 406 yards in the second half, especially if allowed to use their batons.

Here's a statistic I spent so much energy digging up, I had to take a nap afterward: In Rodriguez's 13 Big Ten games, Michigan has lost five times by 25 or more. Do you know how many times Michigan lost a Big Ten game by 25 or more in the previous 40 years? Twice (both to Iowa, oddly).

This game against Purdue is huge, and not just because a fifth-straight Big Ten loss would send Michigan careening toward a hot seat in last place. When a season crumbles, fans want to see evidence players are still trying, and not busy updating their Facebook pages in the huddle. (From MaizeDguy: "Out of breath. Just chased other team down field. Almost caught em!")

At least the Wolverines have shown the good sense to get blown out lately. What the daffy Spartans are doing to their fans is downright cruel. They've lost on last-second touchdowns, last-second field goals, last-second interceptions, last-second drops, and one time, on a last-second locust invasion.

Michigan State is 4-5 and Mark Dantonio has been downgraded from steely-eyed to glassy-eyed. The Spartans, like the Wolverines, must avert disaster Saturday to stay in bowl contention, and for some reason, I have faith both will pull it off. Each lost to Iowa by only two points, which shows the distance between Loser and Lucky isn't as far as scientists once theorized. And if it really gets tight, they always could ask to borrow the Hawkeyes' replay officials.

The picks

• Michigan State, 38-13

• Michigan, 24-16

• Ohio State at Penn State: The Buckeyes have lost to the Boilermakers, while the Nittany Lions have lost to the Hawkeyes, and I'm not sure which was more embarrassing. (Note to Iowans: I'm probably kidding.) This will be old-fashioned Big Ten football, when defenses ruled and it actually was considered manly to get stuffed at the goal line on four straight runs. Pick: Penn State, 20-10

• LSU at Alabama: Its offense mostly stinks, but Alabama sure blocks field goals darn well. Former Michigan State coach Nick Saban will try to hang on against Les Miles, who maybe, sort of, almost, perhaps, nearly was the head coach at Michigan. Pick: Alabama, 17-6

• Navy at Notre Dame: Notre Dame throws the ball all the time, while Navy throws the ball only if ordered by the Commander in Chief. If the Midshipmen are nice, they'll pull the upset and keep the Irish from embarrassing themselves in a big fancy bowl game. Pick: Notre Dame, 27-18

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com