Bryce Underwood was — and still is — supposed to be the difference.

Yet, the Michigan football team returns from the West Coast in parallel with last season. Despite all the recruiting wins and lessons learned from being a first-year head coach, Sherrone Moore’s flight home from Los Angeles was as somber as last year’s from Seattle.

In a season-by-season lens, a 4-2 record means there is no margin for error and the team’s College Football Playoff hopes are on life support. But two losses at this point in the season carry an entirely different meaning for Moore and the state of his program than it did last year — and Underwood is why.

After traveling three time zones last year in the newly expanded Big Ten, the Wolverines were down 24-17 late in the fourth quarter against Washington. The

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