How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like Michigan.

Seriously, thank God they got the ship steered back away from the rocks this week with a 38-0 victory over Notre Dame, otherwise I would've had to strongly consider renaming the roundup something clever involving the words "clever" and "suck."

This game was never really a game, with Michigan tailback Mike Hart running pretty much wherever he damn well pleased to the tune of 187 yards (127 in the 1st half), while backup Brandon Minor tallied another 85 yards for good measure. First time starter Ryan Mallett looked like exactly that, though he did still manage three touchdown passes, which was more than the Wolverines needed to take down the Irish.

What a mess Notre Dame is becoming. Jimmy Clausen continues to get pummeled, going down to the turk eight times yesterday and bringing Notre Dame's total sacks allowed up to a stunning 23 after only three games (compared to the 49 D-I teams that didn't reach that total all of 2006). Only Syracuse (18) is nearly as bad.

To top it all off, Notre Dame's original starting QB this season Demetrius Jones didn't make the trip for this game. Prior to the game, coach Charlie Weis said that he had no idea what was going on other than the knowledge that Jones had not made the trip, and Weis also mentioned he has considered using Jones during the Michigan game (this after getting benched one quarter into the season.

Well, it turns out the reason Jones didn't make the trip is because he's no longer with the team. He decided this weekend to head back closer to home and applied for a transfer to the University of Northern Illinois.

It's going to be a long fall for Notre Dame.

What about the rest of the top 25, you say? Well, it was a weekend marred by sluggish performances, that's for sure. Of the 19 ranked teams playing unranked opponents, five of them trailed after the first quarter, four were tied, and five were ahead by a field goal or less. Some teams recovered better than others:

• 4th ranked West Virginia took some time to get rolling, but once they did there was no looking back, as they took care of sometime-rival Maryland by a final of 31-14.
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