ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Lloyd Carr retired Monday after 13 years as Michigan's coach, following a season defined by a startling loss to Appalachian State and yet another defeat by Ohio State.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr shouts instruction from the sideline in the second quarter of their 14-3 loss to Ohio State in a college football game Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007 in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Carr, groomed for the position by Michigan coaching great Bo Schembechler, led the Wolverines to 121 wins, five Big Ten titles and a national championship.

"On this week of Thanksgiving no one has more to be thankful for than I do," Carr said at a news conference.

The departure by the 62-year-old Carr opens a job at the nation's winningest football program. Les Miles, the coach at No. 1 LSU, seems to be at the top of the list of potential successors. He played for Schembechler at Michigan, where he met his wife and later became an assistant.

"Coach Carr was a great coach at Michigan," Miles said in Baton Rouge, La. "As an alumnus of that school, I am happy for the things coach Carr did there."

Miles added that he is not looking for a job.

"I love LSU," he said. "Michigan has not called. It would be unfair to Michigan to say they have called.

"What I'm doing is what you (the media) should do, and that's let it rest."

Carr said he hopes that whoever follows him will continue the long Michigan tradition of winning "with integrity."

"That's what we want to do," he said. "In the big picture the character of this institution will be defined by the way this program is run, and that really is what Michigan is about and what I hope will always be about."

Other candidates might include Kirk Ferentz of Iowa, where Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman was before coming to Ann Arbor, and major college coaches with Midwest ties such as Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, a native of Youngstown, Ohio.

An Iowa spokesman said Monday that Ferentz would not comment.

Carr said it will be up to athletic director Bill Martin to decide what role, if any, he will have in choosing the next coach.

Martin said he had 20 candidates in mind and would form a committee to help him in the search process.

"I want to get this done as soon as I can," he said.

Carr has one game remaining at Michigan. He will coach the Wolverines in their bowl game, mostly likely the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio or the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla.

The move was not a surprise. Last winter, Carr altered his contract to pave the way for this to be his last season and later made sure the school gave his assistants unprecedented two-year deals.

At his news conference, he joked about speculation that he is tired.

"I'm not tired," he said. "I may look tired, but I still have a great passion for the game, for the players and for the competition. But I also know that there are some things that I don't have anymore, and so it's time. That's all I can say to you."

Carr had a 121-40 record for a .752 winning percentage, seventh among active coaches behind Florida State's Bobby Bowden and ahead of South Carolina's Steve Spurrier.

Michigan opened the season with a 34-32 loss to Appalachian State in one of college football's biggest upsets. A 39-7 loss to Oregon, Michigan's biggest home defeat since 1968, immediately followed.

The Wolverines rebounded with eight straight wins and closed the regular season with two more losses — to Wisconsin and Ohio State. Saturday's 14-3 defeat was the fourth straight loss to the Buckeyes, matching Michigan's longest losing streak in the storied series. Carr was the first coach in school history to lose six times in seven years in the rivalry.

The Jim Tressel-led Buckeyes beat the Wolverines on Saturday, dropping Carr to 6-7 overall in the matchup that matters most.

"Lloyd Carr is one of the true gentlemen of college football," Tressel said Sunday. "His legacy is extraordinary and his leadership in the coaching profession is greatly appreciated. He made a difference in collegiate athletics."

Carr took over a program shaken by Gary Moeller's sudden resignation following a drunken confrontation with police in 1995. Carr led the Wolverines to the 1997 national championship. He won 77.9 percent of his conference games, trailing the success rate of just two coaches that were in the Big Ten for at least a decade: Schembechler and Fielding Yost. Against top-10 teams, Carr was 17-9.

The Wolverines were ranked No. 5 before this season started by voters who thought returning stars on offense would make up for inexperienced players on defense and special teams.

Then came the loss to Appalachian State, making Michigan the first ranked team to lose to a team from the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA. That led to an unprecedented fall out of the poll.

Michigan has lost its last four bowl games, including three Rose Bowls, the longest postseason skid since Schembechler dropped seven straight in the 1970s.

Michigan won Big Ten titles in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004 under Carr.

The Wolverines were 7-5 two years ago, their worst season in two decades, and bounced back in 2006 with 11 wins and a third trip to the Rose Bowl in four years.

___

AP Sports Writer Luke Meredith in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.