Aaron Torres is a writer whose work has been published by Sports Illustrated.com, AOL.com, and USA Today.  To see all of his work, including this article in its entirety, please click here or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com

I’ve got a new reason to love college football.  And in a year when Tim Tebow returned to Florida for his senior season, Pete Carroll and his crew sing “Lean On Me,” like they’re trying out for American Idol, and Ed Orgeron continues to rip off his shirt at a record setting pace, that’s saying something.

His name is Tate Forcier, and he’s the quarterback at Michigan.  He’s short, thin, and looks more like a Jonas Brother than a major Division I college football player.

Of course, put shoulder pads on him and Forcier becomes Clark Kent with a football helmet; athletic, nimble, and can leap over giant defensive linemen in a single bound.  Nothing—short of Joe Paterno’s press conferences—will be more entertaining in Big Ten football this year than the kid from San Diego, I promise you that.

If you missed Forcier’s performance Saturday against Notre Dame, well you missed the coming out party to end coming out parties.

Because with all the hype this past week about another true freshman in Big Ten country, it was Forcier who stepped out of the shadows and stole the show.

Sure Matt Barkley won a road game in the Horseshoe, but he had Joe McKnight and the best offensive line in college football to take the pressure off his shoulders. 

Forcier?  All he had was his arm, his legs, and most importantly, an oversized heart—one that I have to assume is a pretty tight fit in his 6’1", 185 lb. body.

It’d be easy to just look at Forcier’s stats on the day: 22 for 33, 240 yards with two passing touchdowns and one rushing, and say he was the star of Saturday’s show.  But sometimes even statistics can’t paint the picture of a player’s true impact on a game.  If we learned anything this weekend, it’s that there isn’t a play this kid can’t make.

Need a fourth down conversion?  Forcier’s your guy.  How about a long run to keep the chains moving?  Put the ball in his hands.  Want a pooch punt?  I’m not lying; Forcier put one inside Notre Dame’s five-yard line. 

To pick your favorite Forcier play from Saturday afternoon would be like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.  Where would you even begin?

Maybe it was the play right before halftime, when coach Rich Rodriguez elected against attempting a long field goal, and let his freshman quarterback try to convert a 4th-and-11 near midfield.  A 4th-and-11!  Would Jim Tressel ever do that?  Can Joe Pa even count to 11?

Forcier didn’t disappoint, completing a 15-yard pass to Greg Matthews as he was being viciously slammed to the ground by three Notre Dame defenders.  A couple of plays later, kicker Jason Oleshavage attempted a much more makeable 39-yard field goal, putting it through the uprights, and cutting Notre Dame’s halftime lead to 20-17.

Later, there was the play where a hard Forcier ball fake put a Notre Dame defender two feet in the air, allowing the Michigan quarterback to scamper by and pick up seven yards on a run.  In the grand scheme of the game it didn’t mean much, but on the Richter scale of “wow,” it definitely registered at right around an 8.0.

Then of course, there was Forcier’s touchdown run early in the fourth quarter; that may have best exemplified his day, but it got lost in the shuffle as the afternoon went on.

What most people forget about the run was that just a play earlier Notre Dame came up with a huge stop on 3rd-and-2, putting the drive in jeopardy.  I even wrote in my notebook, “3rd-and-2, one yard loss. Turning point in the game?”

Turning point?  It might go down as the turning point of Rodriguez’s tenure at Michigan.

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