By now we've heard all the Monday Morning Quarterbacking on Michigan's ill-fated punt attempt. They should have had quarterback Jake Rudock throw the ball as high in the air as he could. They should've run a fullback dive. They should've put a skill position player back there instead of the punter.
No, no, no, and no.
The play was the punt. That's the only play there is. Imagine the reaction Jim Harbaugh would've received had any of those other options been struck by the same bolt of invisible lightning that hit punter Blake O'Neill's hands at the worst possible moment. It would've been remembered as the all-time coaching gaffe in college football history.
You can quibble with the formation - the Wolverines aligned in a regular punt formation while Michigan State went for an all-out block - but you can't argue with the decision. The ball was at the 47-yard line, well within Connor Cook's Hail Mary range if the ball turned over on downs.
One coach has contradicted Harbaugh's decision, and it's the last person you'd expect: Brady Hoke. Normally coaches are like ex-presidents: they, more than anyone else, understand the particular pressure their successor is under, so they're the last people on earth to criticize any of his decisions. Except, apparently, Hoke.
Not only wouldn't have Hoke punted, he would've done so for under most backward logic conceivable.
"Personally, if we have the No. 1 defense in the nation I'm going to test those guys," Hoke said on his SiriusXM radio show, via the Detroit News. "You've got to play to the strength of your football team and the strength of the Michigan football team all year long has been their defense."