I know this is a high school sports website, but there’s a lesson in Michigan’s loss to Appalachian State for all of us- and it’s not just that it’s pronounced Apple-ahchin, not Apple-aychin.

You gotta show up.

Michigan got fat and happy, believing they could just run anyone onto the field and be successful against the Mountaineers. Ranked fifth in the nation, Michigan clearly knew nothing about ASU, but they learned very quickly that they were as fast as anyone the Wolverines will play this season- and that they came into the Big House believing they had a shot.

And that’s the key, isn’t it? You can’t take the field against anyone unless you believe you can be successful. It’s too hard, it’s too much work to show up at a field somewhere and think you’re going to lose 70-0.

You gotta show up. And you gotta believe. From day one, you have to put on the shoulder pads and believe underneath them that you can be successful. Otherwise you’re not accomplishing anything. Believe in yourself, and believe in your teammates.

No sport, I think, is more team-oriented than football. Offensive linemen know nothing about catching a football in traffic or running a perfect route, receivers know little about blocking schemes. The two groups must work together in their completely different disciplines to be successful. The offense and the defense have different goals, yet one complements the other.

In basketball, everyone has the same objective- put the ball in the hole. In football, the objectives of the quarterback, the receivers, running backs, offensive and defensive linemen, linebackers and secondary seem disconnected, but when each group executes to their full potential, good things happen.

Appalachian State understood all of this maybe better than any team I’ve ever seen, and you can bet it will be a long, long time before any NCAA D-1 team schedules them. They were reluctant to schedule them before they knocked off Michigan.

I would love to know what Mountaineer coach Jerry Moore said to his team all week, what he did to motivate and to make them believe, to make them show up in front of 109,000 screaming Maize and Blue fans and shock the world.

It’s a great story, and an even better lesson.

As for Michigan, it’s time to regroup. You had your eyes on a National Championship and that’s not going to happen now. Some of your stars even came back, forsaking the start of their NFL careers to take a run at that crystal football.

The crystal football will go to someone else come January, and Michigan’s athletes have to come up with another reason to show up for work every day. They started talking about the Big Ten title right after Saturday’s loss, but I’m not sure they meant it just yet. They were likely still in shock. Michigan’s goals going into this season were sky high and now they’re the butt of jokes and you can bet every opponents marching band from here on out will learn Appalachian State’s fight song.

Michigan has some housekeeping to do, some internal work, before any talk of titles can resume. They need to learn how to show up no matter who the opponent is, and maybe most of all they need to learn to believe again.