Big chance slips by: Michigan claws from hole, Iowa QBs struggle

IOWA CITY -

The interview room door shut and coach met with athletics director. Presumably, they vented. There was plenty to go off about.

Start with crucial injuries, move to big plays and penalties and, how can you forget the quarterback, or quarterbacks, more to the point. Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz and Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby could vent all Saturday night about the little things that added up.

But the one thing that might have kept them in the Kinnick Stadium underbelly until Tuesday is the colossal missed opportunity.

Iowa had No.8 Michigan. It didn't look like it for a lot of the second half, but, oh, Iowa had Michigan. After all of the vent-worthy mistakes, the Hawkeyes had Michigan.

But Michigan, this large, lumbering football team with odd helmets you can't miss, somehow slipped through their hands.

With two Wolverines at his heels, Iowa quarterback Kyle McCann launched a desperate pass for wide receiver Chris Oliver.

It missed by a mile.

Michigan sneaked onto the team bus with a 32-26 victory before 70,397 fans at Kinnick Stadium.

After the play, McCann pounded the ground. A long day for McCann, whose day included two interceptions that turned into two Michigan touchdowns and an earful of boos from the Kinnick crowd.

A good pound of the ground was in order. Michigan defensive end Dan Rumishek patted McCann on the helmet.

"At that point, it's just frustration," said McCann, who completed 15 of 26 for 169 yards and two crushing interceptions. "I thought there was the potential there for a huge play. Just frustrated it didn't happen."

It didn't happen. Despite a locker full of gaffes, the Hawkeyes (4-3, 2-3 Big Ten) had the Big Ten Conference in its hands. They had No.8 Michigan (6-1, 4-0 Big Ten) with a second-and-1 at the Wolverines' 39-yard line. They had 1 minute, 15 seconds left on the clock.

They had a 26-21 lead after running back Ladell Betts' 8-yard touchdown with 12:56 left in the game. They had a 10-0 first-half lead and a 20-7 third-quarter lead after C.J. Jones' 65-yard punt return and Nate Kaeding's 40-yard field goal in a 3-minute span. They had Michigan's offense in a vice.

They had it.

They really did.

"Bottom line, we just didn't make enough plays," said a drained and pale Ferentz. "We had to play a smart football game.

"We didn't do that."

Steady yourself for a fuel-injected quarterback controversy in Iowa City.

Junior Brad Banks directed the Hawkeyes to a pair of first half scores, going 2-for-2 and giving the Hawkeyes a 10-0 lead after Kaeding's 26-yard field goal with 3:43 left in the second period.

McCann directed a pair of interceptions, giving the Wolverines two touchdowns and a get-out-of-jail free card.

In the second half, both quarterbacks shuffled in and out and made their share of mistakes.

Banks pulled up out of bounds at the down marker instead of the first-down marker on a third-down play.

McCann's mistakes were obvious and airborne.

Iowa coaches were grasping for a hot hand and found gloves.

So who's the quarterback?

"That's not my answer. You have to ask coach Ferentz that question," Betts said.

Coach Ferentz?

"Kyle McCann is our quarterback," Ferentz said.

Plays and penalties. Michigan made plays; Iowa was called for penalties.

Michigan made plays.

THE WOLVERINES blocked a punt. That's a play that pulled the Wolverines within 10-7 at halftime. Quarterback John Navarre completed a 76-yard pass to wideout Tyrece Butler, giving the Wolverines a first down at Iowa's 3. That was a play that Michigan pulled on red-shirt freshman walk-on Chigozie Ejiasi, who replaced senior Matt Stockdale, who left with a sprained foot in the second quarter.

"Michigan found us out in a couple of places," Ferentz said. "They hadn't made a lot of big plays that hurt us to that point."

That's a play, and it led to tailback Chris Perry's 3-yard TD and pulled the Wolverines to 20-14 with five minutes left in the third.

Two more plays were interceptions by cornerback Marlin Jackson and free safety Cato June. Both turned into touchdowns.

"It didn't help us," Ferentz said. "One, he (McCann) was under duress. The other was a bad read. It shouldn't have gone out there."

It took a couple of plays to turn June's interception into its first lead.

On third-and-8 at Iowa's 21, Michigan ran a funky, bunched up single-wing sort of thing and tailback B.J. Askew gained 14 yards to Iowa's 6. Three plays later, Marquise Walker, Michigan's sterling silver wideout, made a catch that will run on SportsCenter from here until Dan Patrick runs out of hair dye.

Walker, who was held to one catch before Stockdale's injury, stretched every fiber of his 6-foot-3 frame and snared the ball with his right hand, cradling it before he hit the turf for a 6-yard TD and a 21-20 Michigan lead with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.

That, maybe, was the play.

"They made plays," senior defensive end Aaron Kampman said. "You make a one-handed catch like that, that's making plays. I don't think our guys could have played that any better."

After Walker's play, the Hawkeyes made a few of their own.

Outside linebacker Grant Steen and strong safety Bob Sanders crunched wideout Calvin Bell, causing a fumble that Steen recovered

at Michigan's 35 with 14:53 left in the fourth. McCann hit fullback Jeremy Allen for a 30-yard gain to Michigan's 8, and Betts scored to give the Hawkeyes a 26-21 lead.

AFTER THE Hawkeyes held Michigan to a three-and-out, McCann let loose a pop fly sort of pass that June walked under and returned to

the 50. The Wolverines cashed in with Navarre to tight end Shawn Thompson for a 13-yard TD and a 29-26 lead with 8 minutes left.

Michigan made more plays, and Hayden Epstein drilled a 51-yard field goal with 3:57 left.

Iowa took over for its last gasp at its 10.

A holding penalty on the kick return put the Hawkeyes at their 10.

Not long after that, the doors shut and the fists pounded turf.