In the long tradition of college football's most humbling upsets, Michigan nearly added another chapter to its own cautionary tale on Saturday night, escaping Western Michigan 13-12 only through a last-second Hail Mary born of a controversial clock review. The game, expected to be a comfortable homecoming for a heavily favored program under new coach Kyle Whittingham, became instead a meditation on the fragility of expectation and the strange mercy of a single second. That one reclaimed moment — debated, disputed, and decisive — is now the lens through which Michigan's season will be examined