There’s no more talk about how the preseason predictions of a 6-6 record were way off base.

No more talk about a "second season" or a Big Ten championship.

Not much talk about a bowl game.

Two days before Michigan faces fellow Big Ten cellar-dweller Purdue, the Wolverines said their main goal this week is just to play well for the seniors.

But facing Purdue in a must-win road situation, it seems like some of them don’t even think they can do that.

"You really can’t get inside someone’s mind and let them know how important it is when it’s your last year or when you don’t get a chance to play in the Big House again," senior defensive tackle Terrance Taylor said quietly after Michigan’s 35-21 loss to Michigan State Saturday. "My sophomore year, playing with (Lamarr) Woodley and (Alan) Branch and (Leon) Hall and all them guys, I understood that."

Sure, there have been major personnel and culture changes in the Michigan football program. While the transition has been tough, attitudes have remained mostly positive.

But Taylor’s frustration illustrates that now, even one of the Wolverines' emotional leaders doubts the mentality of his teammates.

His comment was unnervingly honest, but he's blaming the wrong people. The seniors’ job is to make the rest of the team feel like they have something to play for, even if the Wolverines are only playing for three more weeks.

And that job comes down to simple leadership. It comes down to getting “inside someone’s mind” and making sure the team knows exactly why it's playing. It comes down to making every player care about the seniors’ last season, even if that isn’t a top priority for some underclassmen right now.

The Wolverines finished 7-5 in Taylor’s freshman year. The next season, the seniors were sick of losing. They let the underclassmen know that all the way to an 11-2 record.

But this year, that leadership just isn’t there.

"I just had that mentality that I understood that it was their last year and I wanted to do everything I could to help this be a good year for them," Taylor said. "And I can’t say any more."

This year's disconnect and frustration isn’t because the team lacks official captains, even though so much was made of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez’s decision not to appoint them before the season. The emergence of the Wolverines’ natural leaders — Taylor, Brandon Graham, Obi Ezeh — have made the naming of game-by-game captains only ceremonial.

It’s just that the seniors aren’t sure how to deal with losing, and the number of young players makes it hard for the team to be on the same page. Right now, Michigan is more focused on dealing with individual personnel shuffles than playing as a cohesive unit — or uniting for a common goal.

“I can’t speak for anybody else about playing for the seniors,” redshirt junior right guard David Moosman said Monday. “It’s just a youth thing. They have a lot of time. Everybody always says when you’re a freshman, you don’t see that you have four years, five years. You feel like you’re forever.”

Yes, the upperclassmen have occasionally made that clear. Taylor was responsible for the impromptu, impassioned halftime speech to his team when Michigan was losing to Wisconsin, before he became one of the heroes in the 19-point comeback.

“Terrance came over and talked to the offensive line about doing it for the seniors,” redshirt sophomore right tackle Stephen Schilling said after the Wisconsin win. “And doing it for them, it motivated us in the second half and we knew we had to send the seniors out with a win today.”

The freshmen understood how to play for the seniors then, when a little luck and a lot of heart turned into a victory. But four straight losses later, it’s obvious there is frustration, regardless of how many players say the morale is still high.

This week, Rodriguez tried to do what the team’s leaders haven’t consistently been able to — provide focus for both the underclassmen and upperclassmen. Freshman Mike Martin described how the coach lined the Wolverines against the wall of the indoor practice facility after Sunday’s practice and told them to throw a punch. He told them to take a step forward, throw another punch and feel how much more powerful the punch could be when they had some leverage.

“We have to fight, fight, to get our backs off the wall,” Martin said.

Maybe the seniors don’t have many more speeches like Taylor's halftime rally left.