Fast Break

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

No luck for Irish; Michigan in rout

All week, all this year, heck, all last year, Michigan heard about what it couldn’t do.

It heard about all the small things, over and over again.

But above all else, the Wolverines heard they couldn’t win the big game – or, after their 7-5 season in 2005 – nearly any games.

Was this big enough?

Michigan, led by Mario Manningham’s three TD catches, answered all of its doubters with a dominant first half Saturday on its way to a 47-21 win over Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

That win knocked off the No. 2-ranked Fighting Irish, ended the streak of going winless in South Bend since 1994.

–Detroit Free Press

PRO FOOTBALL

Branch will sit today’s game out

Deion Branch will not make his Seattle Seahawks debut today against the Arizona Cardinals, after all.

The NFL has given the Seahawks a two-week roster exemption for the former Super Bowl MVP, acquired Monday from the New England Patriots in a trade that ended Branch’s 45-day contract holdout. Seattle would have had to release a player from its 53-man roster by Saturday afternoon in order to add Branch for Sunday’s game. A Seahawks team spokesman confirmed they did not.

That means Seattle’s wide receivers will again be Darrell Jackson, Nate Burleson, Bobby Engram and D.J. Hackett.

–Associated Press