In a cavernous and crestfallen Michigan locker room, amid the stunned silence of a dream season gone unexpectedly and unfathomably awry, an unlikely protagonist waited for the inquest he knew was coming. Inch by inch, reporters tiptoed closer and closer to running back Kalel Mullings, a converted linebacker whose goal-line fumble in the second quarter had swung momentum even further toward the emboldened underdogs from Texas Christian. The media members danced around the ball security-shaped elephant in the room with questions about the stunning nature of the Wolverines' second consecutive loss in the College Football Playoff semifinals and about Mullings' move to tailback following a season-ending knee injury to starter Blake Corum.