Are Michigan's Mental Errors Brady Hoke's Fault?

For a brief moment late in the first half versus Miami (Ohio), it appeared that Michigan was still dazed from its 31-0 drubbing at the hands of the Notre Dame Irish.

A series of Wolverine miscues allowed Miami to tie the game at 10, and fans unleashed a cascade of boos from the stands. Michigan roared back to take a 17-10 lead at half, but fans again let the team have it after a stalled drive in the final minute was punctuated by two delay-of-game penalties on fourth down.

Tony Ding/Associated Press/Associated Press

Three games into its season Michigan has played one solid game (Appalachian State), one poor game (Notre Dame) and a one decidedly mixed performance (Miami). The team also already has seven turnovers continuing a trend from last season's disastrous 7-6 finish.

For the last three years Hoke's teams have struggled from a combination of youth, lack of depth and bad locker room chemistry.

Entering his fourth season those excuses are wearing thin.

Michigan’s performance versus Miami stood in stark contrast to Big Ten rival Ohio State, which took a 45-0 halftime lead on the way to a 66-0 drubbing of Kent State.

Brady Hoke had no answer for his team’s first-half struggles.

“I wanted to see our guys come out with energy,” Hoke said.

But whatever energy his team had quickly evaporated after a Devin Gardner interception resulted in a Miami field goal, quickly followed by a RedHawks touchdown after recovering the subsequent kickoff.

Hoke addressed the fans’ displeasure, saying, “We have great fans and they have high expectations.”

Down in Columbus, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer had set a clear goal for his team after its 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech, as reported by the theozone.net:

"

We haven’t started particularly fast and we had a pretty good reputation for a while there coming out of the gates real fast, real hard and we haven’t done that yet…So we gotta go take the lead and play Ohio State-style football.

"

Hoke talked about energy, while Meyer talked about results.

After last week’s loss, Michigan fans expected the Wolverines to make similar quick work of Miami, a team that hasn’t won a game since the 2012 season. A paltry 17-10 halftime lead wasn’t what they expected.

One more tune-up game remains versus Utah, a squad that averages 57.5 points per game.

Hoke might not personally throw the interceptions but he's responsible for his team's performance.

Meyer has experience leading high profile programs, he understands the need for a great showing to put his team back on track after a disappointing defeat.

Michigan and Ohio State will meet at the end of the Big Ten season. Right now Ohio State is looking like a team getting ready for a conference championship while Michigan is still trying to put together a complete game versus an overmatched opponent.

Hoke is on the hook to eliminate his team’s mental errors. If he can’t, then Michigan may be heading for another loss—and a lot more boos—before the Big Ten season starts.

Phil Callihan is a featured writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations obtained firsthand.

All season statistics from MGoBlue.com, the official University of Michigan athletic department website.

Follow @PSCallihan.