Miami Ohio v Michigan

Brady Hoke is under fire -- deservedly so -- for how he handled a quarterback's injury in a humbling loss to Minnesota.

(Leon Halip/Getty Images)

Two teams will play in Piscataway this weekend. One is a program that, based on its awful results on the field and serious questions on how it handled the health and safety of a player, has become a disgrace to college football.

The other one is Rutgers.

Funny, isn't it, how the narrative has shifted? Rutgers was the program that so many commentators and college sports fans didn't think belonged in the Big Ten, the one that brought all the baggage, the one that supposedly would never be able to compete with the blue bloods on the schedule.

Well, here is Rutgers at respectable 4-1 heading into its game this weekend – not a national title contender, but a solid football team with realistic postseason hopes and no off-the-field concerns – and look at the train wreck that's arriving at the New Brunswick station.

From, of all places, Michigan.

It's bad enough that Michigan has lost three games for the first time in its long history before the calendar turned to October, or that fans were elbowing their way up the Big House aisles in the third quarter of a humiliating loss to Minnesota. Teams have bad seasons, even one with more victories than any other Division 1 school.

The real concern is that damning video of the dazed and wobbling quarterback, supporting himself on the frame of an offensive lineman, being allowed to stay in the game for another play in that loss. And even worse: The continued denial from the head coach that Shane Morris' health was his responsibility.

That head coach, Brady Hoke, won't survive this – not given that he already was fast becoming a long-shot to make it through the season based on the results alone. His press conference Monday to explain what happened with Morris was such a mess, he made Roger Goodell look composed and contrite by comparison.

A good sign that you should update the old resume? USA Today and the campus newspaper are calling for your dismissal on the same day. “Brady Hoke’s actions were indefensible, and we can no longer stand behind his employment at Michigan,” wrote the Michigan Daily, a high-water mark for student journalism.

Hoke should have apologized. Instead, he was defensive.

“I don't make decisions on who plays, who doesn't play, as far as injuries, in particular head trauma,” Hoke said. Sorry, but blaming the medical staff for a decision when anyone watching on TV could see Morris was either concussed or at least badly shaken after a huge hit isn't going to cut it.

It's the head coach's responsibility to protect his players, a responsibility that comes before anything else, and Hoke failed. That likely cost him his job, sooner or later, which means the Wolverines will have to start over with a new head coach.

This is a Michigan problem, but ultimately, it's a Big Ten problem, too. Yes, we're the new guys in the neighborhood here in New Jersey so forgive us for critique the landscaping so quickly, but can the Big Ten really be the Big Ten if that famous block M stands for Mess?

Michigan is essential for ratings, for prestige, for attention, and ultimately, for the bottom line. College sports is constantly changing, but if Michigan enters a phase of irrelevancy – and it sure looks headed there based on recent results – that's a far bigger concern for Jim Delany and Co. than anything Rutgers could do.

Kyle Flood called this game "an opportunity to play against one of the most storied programs in the history of college football," and that's still true for Rutgers. But it must have been a great relief for the Rutgers head coach, given the controversies in Piscataway during his three years, to answer a question about how turmoil might affect somebody else for a change.

"We have to focus on our football team," is what Flood said. That team is a 3.5-point favorite to claim its first Big Ten victory in front of its home crowd on Saturday and inch one victory closer to bowl eligibility.

The other team? That team is making the Big Ten look really, really bad right now. That team is Michigan.