Everything WMU HC, President Said After Controversial Loss to Michigan, Clock Ruling, More

Many college football fans across the country who were hoping to see an upset are likely blaming the officials for Western Michigan's stunning 13-12 loss to Michigan on Saturday, but Broncos head coach Lance Taylor isn't.

"Ultimately the refs did not cost this game, and if we make the mistake of making an excuse it allows us to be bitter instead of getting better, and I think that that's (not) where we want to go as a football team," he told reporters Sunday.

Western Michigan president Russ Kavalhuna also addressed the situation:

It would be easy to blame the officials considering it appeared as if Western Michigan earned a 12-7 win that would have been among the best and most memorable in program history when Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's Hail Mary fell incomplete with 0:00 showing on the clock.

While the players started to celebrate, officials eventually put an extra second on the clock and gave the Wolverines one more opportunity.

Western Michigan Broncos - Michigan Wolverines Highlights

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And they took advantage of that opportunity when Underwood unleashed a second Hail Mary attempt that JJ Buchanan caught to give the home team the victory. The fans then stormed the field after a controversial one-point loss to a MAC team, and the Broncos were left thinking about the upset that wasn't.

The Big Ten released a statement that was accompanied by a video replay and explained Western Michigan's defensive back Micah Davis started his leap from out of bounds and touched the ball with a second remaining.

The statement cited NCAA rule 4-2-3-a that states, "A ball not in player control, other than a kick that scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out-of-bound or that is on or outside a boundary line."

More notable, though, was the timing aspect since the broadcast of the game appeared to show zero seconds remaining before anyone touched the ball. 

The statement addressed that as well and said, "As shown in the provided video of what was viewed during the replay process, a side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling."

The MAC also released a statement that said it reached out to the Big Ten for clarification and said, "The Big Ten explained that the ball touched a player who was out of bounds before the clock reached 0:00, resulting in one additional play being awarded. The Big Ten subsequently provided video and audio of the replay, which confirmed the explanation provided to us."

While Michigan escaped with the controversial win Saturday, it will need to get much better quickly if it wants to have a successful season.

It faces No. 10 Oklahoma in the second game of a schedule that also includes challenging matchups against No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Oregon, No. 6 Indiana, No. 18 Penn State and No. 22 Iowa.

If the Wolverines play like they did Saturday the rest of the year, they could be in a struggle to even make a bowl game in Whittingham's first season.

As for Western Michigan, it will look to bounce back from the disappointing loss in Week 2 against Monmouth.