Scroll down or click here to join the Doc's weekly live blog.

Michigan 27, Wissconsin 25. At halftime, you could have driven a stake in Michigan's season: down 19-0, with exactly one first down in 30 minutes, en route to a 1-3 start and -- if they're lucky against the rest of the Big Ten's middle class -- a bowl game named for a sporting goods or automotive company. This is the business end of the stick everyone expected to accompany the transition to the Rodriguez administration.

The second half, though, was the other end of that stick, the one aimed at the old school regime as much as at opponents: it's probably no coincidence that the greatest comeback in the history of Michigan Stadium occurred almost immediately after the lo-fi, grind-till-you-die philosophy of the Shembechler Dynasty left the building. The Wolverine offenses of the past 40 years didn't fall into the kind of funk Michigan was in in the first half very often, but they certainly never came to life as suddenly as Rodriguez's misfits against Wisconsin. If you were watching another game, you may have seen the highlight of the Wolverines' defensive touchdown to take the lead, off a caroming Allan Evridge pass early in the fourth quarter, and thought "fluke." But surrounding that were touchdown drives of 79, 85 and 77 yards, from basically a dead start. Wisconsin will lay the loss on four turnovers -- the last inside the UM ten-yard line -- but Michigan is still despairing the transition if Steven Threet didn't hit another gear around the middle of the third quarter.

It's always good for the Big Ten when Michigan is successful, although winning one tough game may not necessarily mean that. It does mean the conference lost one of its potential bellwethers: with the Badgers' loss and Ohio State in the doghouse until at least November, no matter what, the Big Ten's only mythical championship banner is carried by Penn State. For the sake of the league, the Lions had better look good tonight against Illinois.

- - -
Photo of Rodriguez dunk via the Associated Press.