With 33 seconds left in another miserable Michigan football season, the freshman quarterback who was hailed as Michigan’s savior just two months ago stood red-eyed on the sideline.

Running back Mike Shaw had something to say about that. He marched up to Tate Forcier, gripped the sides of the freshman’s helmet with both hands and forced him to listen.

Keep your head up, Shaw told Forcier. You’re young, and you have a lot of work to do. Work hard.

The game ended, but neither moved. Shaw gave his quarterback a few last words and a hug before leaving to face the postgame locker room scene.

“I told him, he’s a freshman. This is his team,” Shaw said. “Rebuilding is over. Michigan is gonna be back.”

The freshman who led his team to two early-season, last-minute comebacks ended his team’s chances for one when it needed it most — in Saturday’s 21-10 loss to Ohio State. Forcier’s mantra this week was that he “had to get the seniors to a bowl game,” but after throwing three straight interceptions in the fourth quarter, the Michigan coaches put Denard Robinson behind center as the 5-7 season wound down.

Offensive coordinator Calvin Magee’s postgame talk with Forcier sounded similar to Shaw’s.

“These exact words: It's tough. You gonna hurt. But you got to learn from it,” Magee said. “Now he has time to sit back, see it, study more, get his coverages more and learn from those mistakes.”

The freshman finished the game 23-of-38 for 226 yards, and looked much more effective on paper than Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor (9-of-17, 67 yards). But after factoring in five Forcier turnovers — four interceptions and a fumble that gave Ohio State its first touchdown — the Michigan offense disappointed.

It was a sharp departure from last week against Wisconsin, when Forcier had one of his better games of the year, finishing 20-of-26 with 188 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. But the missed red zone opportunities were again a problem — Michigan converted on just one of its three chances Saturday. The Wolverines converted on a dismal 66 percent of their red zone chances this season, good for dead last in the Big Ten.

“We had to settle for field goals and we turned the ball over,” redshirt junior offensive lineman Steve Schilling said. “It hurts when you're so close. It's a rough one.”

With a little more than 13 minutes left in the game, Forcier looked ready to lead another come-from-behind effort. He started the drive by throwing the ball to redshirt freshman wide receiver Roy Roundtree, who made an excellent play by finding a hole for a 43-yard gain. But two plays later, at the Ohio State 35-yard line on third down, Forcier overthrew a pass to the 10-yard line. Buckeye defensive back Kurt Coleman intercepted the ball with a leaping catch to end the Michigan drive.

The Michigan defense then forced the Buckeyes to go three-and-out, and down two scores with 10 minutes left, the Wolverines got the ball back at midfield and drove it to the Ohio State 6-yard line. But with the maize-and-blue faithful in the Big House ready to celebrate, Forcier faked and then threw the ball to Ohio State cornerback Devon Torrence. That drive proved to be Michigan’s last real chance for sealing bowl eligibility, and Forcier left the field visibly rattled.

“You can't be excited on one play when he scrambles and finds a guy for a touchdown, and then he does it again and throws a pick,” Magee said of Forcier's inconsistency. “You can't praise one and be mad at him on the other one. You just kind of teach on both of those.”

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez re-emphasized after the game that it is a rarity for true freshmen to play at the college level, let alone as a starting quarterback. And next year, Forcier will be likely be the poster child for what experience can do for a team.

But for now, the decision to put Robinson in for Saturday’s final five minutes showed that even after a year of experience, Rodriguez may still be looking for an answer at quarterback during crunch time. The Robinson-led offense went three-and-out on Michigan’s final offensive drive. He finished with 31 yards rushing on 10 attempts, and was just 2-of-4 for three yards in the air.

“The boy was bouncing off the walls the last three or four weeks, inching to play, wanting to play. And we just wanted to utilize him today,” Magee said of Robinson. “I think we used him how we wanted to, how we planned to.”