Rodriguez's Big House of pain

Labor Day weekend produces another stunner in Ann Arbor as Wasatch State (Utah) upsets Michigan!

OK, maybe it was stunning only in Detroit, and Flint and Grand Rapids.

Maybe Michigan was favored by only three points this year at home, and maybe Utah was actually the higher-ranked team in the preseason Associated Press poll, No. 29 to No. 32.

But Utah's 25-23 win at the Big House was certainly a Big Deal.

For more details, ramifications and season-ticket refunds, click to FireRichRodriguez.com.

You know someone burned a couch in Morgantown, W.Va., where Rodriguez has been vilified for leaving his alma mater, West Virginia, for the ka-ching chance to lead the nation's winningest college football program.

For what it's worth, West Virginia's offense looked terrific in a 48-21 win over Villanova.

So how, Rich, is it going so far?

"Not all is lost," Rodriguez said afterward.

Patient fans are willing to give the new coach 15 to 20 more minutes to get the program turned around.

Utah clearly played like the better team and looks to be a serious Bowl Championship Series at-large threat.

It took a furious fourth-quarter rally just for Michigan to make a game of it.

This is no time to panic in Ann Arbor, but, of course, people might.

Last year, Michigan rallied from the Appalachian State debacle to finish 9-4 with a Capital One Bowl win over Florida.

Michigan is going to win with Rodriguez, but not until he gets the right players to implement his spread offense. Rodriguez started quarterback Nick Sheridan against Utah, and then went to Steven Threet.

The player Rodriguez really needed was Terrelle Pryor, the phenom freshman from Pennsylvania, who spurned Rodriguez's recruiting overtures and ended up scoring a touchdown Saturday for . . . Ohio State.

More Saturday headlines

* USC beats Virginia, 52-7.

We can't reiterate any more how good USC is relative to how good the Atlantic Coast Conference isn't.

* Don't be fooled by "fake" upsets.

East Carolina's triumphing over No. 17 Virginia Tech and Bowling Green's beating No. 25 Pittsburgh were, at most, mild surprises.

Neither Virginia Tech nor Pittsburgh cracked Rankman's preseason top 25 . . . now you know why.

Virginia Tech is the defending ACC champion but lost a ton of players and represents a conference that has gone 1-9 in BCS bowl games.