Click here for linkSometimes, particularly among those college football teams with a long history of success, it is hard to recognize the difference in "getting better" and "being there." At least until you get a cold slap in the face to remind you.
Michigan got that cold slap on Saturday night - the only thing that was remotely cold in the sizzling Dallas area - as Alabama almost off-handedly doled out a 41-14 beating.
Michigan had higher hopes. The Wolverines won 11 games last year and had an exciting quarterback and a fan base, not so very different from the Alabama fan base, that wants more than anything to proclaim themselves "back" at the elite level of college football. But the Wolverines aren't back, not from a full-roster standpoint, and Alabama, which has been there since 2008, showed them in stark terms what that level really looks like.
Michigan coach Brady Hoke understood when he said that his team was "on the short end of the measuring stick" against Alabama...