For Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, today is the first day of the rest of his contract.  Following the Wolverines 17-10 loss to Notre Dame, Lloyd must surely feel his days are numbered.  The reality of big time collegiate sports has arrived with a cold slap in the face, something a lot of Michigan fans might not mind administering personally. 

NCAA football no longer has any breaks.  Ties were done away with 10 years ago.  Win and there's a long line of well wishers to shake your hand and greet you.  Lose and the same people are only too happy to drive you to the unemployment office.  This man got an eight year deal?  Some alumni would like to give him eight minutes... to clean out his desk and leave the building. 

Naturally the administration in Ann Arbor will have some long and hard decisions to make.  Should he be dismissed prior to 2006, Carr earns a tidy severance package starting with $2.6 million next year.  Given those circumstances, it would make sense, barring a major bowl game appearance, that the pink slip would be slid under his door sometime after midnight January first. 

This doesn't imply the Maze and Blue would welcome back former coach Gary Moeller and all his DUI's either.  His execution was set in place back in September, 1994 on a last second one point loss to Colorado.  How much proof does a person need that the road to college football excellence is not without its share of head on collisions? 

Pressure, either real or imagined, began for Carr last season during the Michigan State game.  Hopelessly behind by three scores well into the second half, it took less of a miracle comeback by the Wolverines and more of a brain cramp by the entire Spartan coaching staff for Michigan to rally a tie late in the fourth quarter and win in overtime.  No matter how wealthy Browns rookie Braylon Edwards might be, Carr should be sending him monthly checks for the next few years for pulling that game out single handedly. 

If misery really loves company, Lloyd has it in Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.  Happiness in Ames can only mean despair and frustration in Iowa City.  Getting smoked by Iowa State on a hot Saturday afternoon isn't something he'll want to add to his resume.  Slowly or maybe not so slowly, the truth will bear itself out. 

Some in the Hawkeye state might be shocked to learn the Iowa football coach is earning more than twice as much as the university president.  Of course such an arrangement is justified considering the president doesn't have to worry about replacing an injured left tackle with 12 minutes left in a tie game at Purdue.   Change chemistry professors halfway through a semester and no one will say a word.  But try switching quarterbacks at halftime and you'll be second guessed all winter. 

Michigan having been to far more Rose Bowls than Iowa only makes Wolverine fans tougher to satisfy.  Lloyd Carr may not realize it but he's about to endure his own trial by fire.  And in this court, it doesn't take a unanimous jury to hand out a guilty verdict.