There is less sympathy, however, from those casting ballots in the USA TODAY coaches' poll.

Michigan, ranked No. 5 in the preseason poll, fell from the Top 25 this week, the latest fallout from Saturday's 34-32 upset-for-the-ages by Appalachian.

Twenty-two of the 60 head coaches kept the Wolverines on their ballots — one putting them 10th — but the total points were not high enough to keep them from disappearing from the rankings for the first time since the end of the 2005 season.

The poll's top three remained the same: Southern California, LSU and Florida. West Virginia's 62-24 rout of Western Michigan moved the Mountaineers from No. 6 to No. 4, and Wisconsin rounded out the top five.

Michigan also dropped out of the Associated Press media poll, where it was ranked fifth last week. Since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989, no team has taken a bigger tumble in one week.

How much better will it get for Michigan, the first ranked team from the NCAA's I-A (now called Football Bowl Subdivision) to lose to an opponent from Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision)?

TCU (in 2002), Navy (in '03) and New Mexico (last season) rebounded sufficiently from early losses to lower-division opponent to reach bowls. But no team from at least as far back as 1996 in one of the six marquee conferences — Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern — came back to post so much as a winning record. There were 14 prior to Michigan.

Carr today acknowledged the phoned support from his coaching brethren, declining to specify who has called him since Saturday.

Going into this week's game vs. Oregon, though, he was frank about his and his team's uncomfortable situation.

Among other things, the loss to Appalachian State has fueled speculation about his coaching future beyond this season.

"Regardless of whether you've won or lost, there's a lot of issues. It's just a lot more fun dealing with those issues coming off a win," Carr said.