Michigan Football: Why This Year's Hot Start Is Different Than Last Season's

The Michigan Wolverines must have felt a strange sense of deja vu as they prepared for today’s battle with in-state rival Michigan State.

The Wolverines found themselves in the exact same situation last season, when they entered the matchup with the Spartans undefeated and looking to make a statement to the country. The only problem was they ended up getting rocked 34-17, and then they subsequently proceeded to take a nose-dive in the second half of the season, finishing 2-5 in their last seven games.

That late-season collapse ended up costing coach Rich Rodriguez his job and it taught the team a valuable lesson.

It’s one thing to get off to a hot start; it’s quite another to maintain that momentum for a full season.

Now, with many of the same players back from last year’s squad, the Wolverines will be looking to avoid another disastrous second-half swoon this year.

Michigan couldn’t have asked for a better beginning to the 2011 season. After starting off the year unranked and firmly off the radar, the Wolverines have sprinted out to a 6-0 record and earned a No. 11 national ranking.

Yes, you can say that winning six straight home games against unranked opponents isn’t exactly all that impressive, but let’s at least give this Michigan team some credit for rebounding and putting last year’s late-season troubles behind it.

Once again, you have to be impressed by Michigan’s star quarterback Denard Robinson, who is slowly starting to transition from being just a typical spread signal-caller.

Robinson has already totaled 1,850 yards of offense and scored 18 TDs, and although he’s thrown nine interceptions, he’s starting to make some strides as a passer.

We expected that from Robinson, though. What we really needed to see was if this Michigan defense could actually man up and stop somebody.

So far, the Wolverines have shown improvement on the defensive side of the ball, which admittedly isn’t all that hard considering they were putrid last season, and the defense currently ranks eighth in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 12.5 points per game.

Now it’s time to see what this team is really made of, though.

Beating up on the likes of Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Minnesota will only get you so far.

The Wolverines have six games, three of them against ranked opponents, to prove that they’ve learned their lesson on how to properly close out a season after last year’s debacle.

It starts with Michigan State today and ends with a tilt against arch-rival Ohio State on Nov. 26.

In between, there are matchups with Purdue, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska mixed in, and needless to say, we’re going to find out if this Michigan team is legitimate or not.

So far, the results have been encouraging and the future looks promising. Now all Michigan needs is for Denard Robinson to continue developing as a passer and for the defense to stay steady and consistent.

If the Wolverines can get those two things, the 2010 season will begin to seem like a distant memory.

Michigan may not be ready to contend for a Big Ten championship quite yet, but the maize and blue are definitely starting to build toward something big and a strong second-half finish will really set this team up to be in great shape for 2012.