John O’Korn got off to another awful start for Michigan Saturday as the Wolverines played against Rutgers, so Jim Harbaugh benched him. In his stead, redshirt freshman Brandon Peters stepped right in and engineered the first touchdown-scoring drive for the team’s offense since Sept. 23.
Peters, who had attempted just one pass in his career before Saturday, came into the game and went 5-of-7 for 69 yards and a touchdown.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Harbaugh handles all this going forward. Even when Wilton Speight struggled mightily early this year, Harbaugh stuck with his guy until an injury took him out for what could be the rest of the year.
But following an effort that saw O’Korn go 3-of-6 for just 12 yards with an interception, against Rutgers, no less, this could be the end of the road for the senior quarterback.
Michigan is in must-win territory this week. Following two losses in three games, including last weekend’s blowout loss to Penn State, another loss would be devastating. In fact, this is going to be the case going forward. The playoff is likely already well out of reach. But a couple more bad losses would also likely mean a significant downgrade when it comes to bowl season.