Michigan gives up Hail Mary to Nebraska because of huge coaching blunder

The Michigan Wolverines gave up a Hail Mary on the last play of the first half of Saturday’s game against Nebraska, and it all happened because of some terrible clock management.

The Wolverines had a 17-10 lead over Nebraska with just over one minute left in the second quarter of the game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Michigan had all three of its timeouts left, and sacked Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola on first down to seemingly kill off any chance of Nebraska driving quickly downfield to get points before the half.

Michigan could have used one of two of its timeouts to ensure that Nebraska would have to punt and give the ball back to the Wolverines before halftime. Instead, they let the Cornhuskers dictate the clock. Nebraska ran the ball on second down with 56 seconds left, then let the clock run down to 23 seconds before using another timeout. On third down, they got the ball near midfield and let the clock run down to one second before using their final timeout.

This allowed Nebraska to try a Hail Mary without any consequences, as they would not be able to turn the ball over on downs with one second left. Sure enough, it worked.