Michigan rallies around Denard Robinson after loss

The unranked Wolverines have quickly rallied around Robinson.

"You make sure he understands that we took 69 guys to the game and we've got 115 on this football team," coach Brady Hoke said Tuesday night after practice. "We're all responsible — coaches, players, everybody."

Running back Fitzgerald Toussaint recalled Robinson telling teammates "it won't happen again," following a loss that dropped the team to 2-2 and out of The Associated Press college football poll.

"We all make mistakes, not just Denard," Toussaint said. "We apologized to him, too."

Michigan began the season ranked No. 8 with Robinson leading a team that went 11-2 last year in Hoke's debut in charge of college football's winningest program.

The Wolverines, who are off this week, are off to a shaky start. They were routed by Alabama, barely beat Air Force, got past lowly Massachusetts and struggled a lot offensively against the Fighting Irish.

Hoke and his players, though, are confident a Big Ten title is a realistic expectation even though the team has already lost as many games as it did all of last year.

"I'm very optimistic going into the Big Ten season," safety Thomas Gordon said. "It's kind of like a fresh start."

Michigan took advantage of the beginning of the Hoke era with more victories than the program has had in a season since 2006 and by winning a BCS bowl for the first time since 2000.

"We had high expectations to live up to," Gordon acknowledged. "We already lost two games, but that doesn't define our season.

"We haven't lost Big Ten games."

The Wolverines haven't won one this year, either, and they will open conference play with a tough test Oct. 6 at Purdue. They haven't won a Big Ten title since 2004 in what has been the school's longest drought between winning conference championships since titles in 1950 and 1964.