UM regroups after thrashing

Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich.

Brady Hoke wants to make sure his team bounces back mentally from Saturday’s 41-14 loss to No. 2 Alabama.

“The important thing is that we can’t let Alabama beat us twice,” Hoke said. “This is a week where we will learn about our team’s leadership and our motivation. There are only 11 more guaranteed opportunities for University of Michigan football games, so we have to learn from what happened in Dallas and start focusing on Air Force this weekend.”

Center Elliott Mealer thinks the Wolverines can learn a lot from the dominant Crimson Tide.

“Their defensive line is great — their whole defense is great — and it is going to set a bar that we can compare everyone else we play against,” he said. “If we figure out what we needed to do against them, it is going to help us a lot against anyone else we come up against.”

Hoke confirmed that starting cornerback Blake Countess will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL on a special-teams play early in the game. Countess, who will take a medical redshirt, will be replaced by Courtney Avery, according to the depth chart released Monday. Raymon Taylor is listed second, but both he and Avery struggled against the Crimson Tide.

Tight end Brandon Moore is also expected to miss Saturday’s game against Air Force with a strained MCL, but left tackle Taylor Lewan is OK after leaving the Alabama game with a leg injury.

Michigan will get two key players back, as both starting tailback Fitzgerald Toussaint and second-string defensive end Frank Clark have been reinstated. They had been suspended after offseason arrests.

Toussaint, a Liberty High School product, is expected to boost a rushing game that gained just 69 yards against the Crimson Tide.

“We have to do better, but a lot of that is on us,” Mealer said.