Michigan Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke defends QB Devin Gardner

The Michigan Wolverines have been playing with fire all season. After earning an early season victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Wolverines had to come from behind to defeat the lowly Akron Zips and the winless Connecticut Huskies.

After a 42-13 blowout victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers earned the Wolverines the little brown jug on October 5, it looked like the Wolverines were coming out of their funk.

Then on Saturday, the Wolverines had to rally again after falling behind the Penn State Nittany Lions 21-10. They did just that, but gave up a last second rally of their own and the game went to overtime. After the first portion of the fourth overtime, the Wolverines had a three-point lead, but the Nittany Lions scored a touchdown to earn a 43-40 victory. The Nittany Lions were coming off a home loss to the Central Florida Golden Knights and a blowout loss at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers.

During Michigan’s funk, quarterback Devin Gardner has played very poorly. Over the last four games, Gardner has six touchdowns and seven interceptions.

On Monday, head coach Brady Hoke defended his quarterback.

“If I didn’t have confidence in our quarterback, with our interceptions that we’ve had, he wouldn’t be our quarterback,” Hoke told Angelique S Chengelis of the Detroit Free News. “I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Devin Gardner. I’ve got all the confidence in the world in our offensive linemen getting better. I have a ton of confidence in Devin.

The Wolverines will try to bounce back from their first lost of the season when they host the Hoosiers Saturday at 3:30 pm EST.
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