No one's having a rougher season than Kyle Whittingham

With 50 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press has called it: Utah has won the divorce with Kyle Whittingham.

Not only are the Utes about to be the No. 2 (or No. 1?) team in the country on Tuesday night following their 28-20 win over No. 9 BYU on Saturday -- snapping a 3-game losing streak -- they get to watch from afar as Whittingham's first season at Michigan may very well turn into his last. 

Saturday night's home loss to Michigan State was seemingly a low point, until Whittingham spoke afterward. 

"The players we have in the program are very prideful. They're hurt right now and it's my job to lift them up and get them ready to compete for these last three games. Are there any trophies in these last three games? I don't know. I don't think there's any more trophies." 

Michigan lost the Little Brown Jug to Minnesota last month, a game that caused one-time franchise quarterback Bryce Underwood to lose his job. On Saturday, the Wolverines lost the Paul Bunyan Trophy to Michigan State 15-6, in which Michigan did not crack the scoreboard until the 1:35 mark of the fourth quarter. True freshman Tommy Carr was 14-of-26 for 138 yards with two interceptions, and the run game scratched out 54 yards on 26 attempts.

Michigan had won four in a row against Michigan State and five straight versus Minnesota. The Wolverines hadn't lost to both teams in the same season since 2014, Brady Hoke's last in Ann Arbor and Michigan's last full under .500 season. 

Now at 5-4, Michigan has nothing to play for except this little-known rivalry with Ohio State that the head coach is apparently unaware of. 

For the semantic among us, Michigan and Ohio State do not play for an official trophy but, c'mon man.

The Game is shaping up to be the most bizarre in recent memory. The last time neither side was ranked entering the contest was 1987, and that's definitely on the table after the Buckeyes fell to 6-3 with a home blowout loss to Oregon. In its own way, the lack of conference and national title stakes will bring its own importance to The Game, with both sides looking to extract something meaningful from a lost season.

It's also quite likely Michigan is playing for a bowl trip in Columbus. The Wolverines visit red-hot Oregon on Saturday, then host undefeated UCLA on Nov. 21. 

And if Michigan doesn't make a massive U-turn immediately, The Game could come with its own personal trophy for Whittingham: the remainder of his 5-year, $41 million contract.