The team is "close"? Really?
Harbaugh thinks his team is "close". The questions to ask are which team is he talking about and what are they close to?
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30273668/even-loss-indiana-1-2-record-michigan-jim-harbaugh-says-wolverines-just-need-push-forward-keep-going
I just finished watching Arizona State play USC. ASU is a team that's close and very well coached. They deserved to win their game.
Our team isn't even in the same stadium as the other teams. Does anyone else think we are "close"?
November 7th, 2020 at 5:42 PM ^
Tells you how bad of a coach he has become.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:05 PM ^
Fucking delusional and in denial, it's as if he's in a canoe on a river in Egypt.
Saying we're close is just giving everyone from the players to the fans false hope or trying to anyways. Honesty with your players and assistants would go a long way in facing reality and doing something about it.
He's just saying shit to say shit at this point, only thing we're missing is the clapping, SMH!
November 7th, 2020 at 6:50 PM ^
Michigan is not a great football program. Expect 7-4 and be surprised if the team surpasses that
November 7th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
I should expect a regular season and our bowl game to be canceled every season? If you say so
November 7th, 2020 at 7:59 PM ^
I did not expect UM would be playing in the last place vs last place game on Championship Saturday... Might be setting up to play Scott Frost and Nebraska.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:45 PM ^
He is accurate. We are close. ‘Close’ to falling off the cliff into the unknown.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:46 PM ^
I read this article a few minutes ago and literally laughed out loud. Weren’t they saying the same thing last year?
November 7th, 2020 at 5:50 PM ^
And the year before that, and the year before that... well you get the picture.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:55 PM ^
I mean we were close two years. 10 straight wins and curb stomped Penn St and Wisconsin. The debacle in Columbus is when we should have fired DB. His D was the reason we lost Week 1 to ND spotting them 21 when they had a god awful QB in Wimbush.
When JH fired Pep and Drevno he should have done the same with Brown. We were close. We brought back most of our stars in 2019. Instead we stuck with DB and he expectedly shit the bed on the road vs Wisconsin and Penn St; and of course vs OSU.
We were close in 2018 and we were right there in 2016. Now in 2020, we are so far from close it’s sad.
November 7th, 2020 at 8:06 PM ^
Michigan isn’t close to championship level football. In the top tier, there’s Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, and Ohio State, and then everyone else. Oklahoma would be part of the “everyone else” if the Big 12 wasn’t such a bad conference, but they keep winning championships. There isn’t a dominant PAC12 team, so there really isn’t a steady fifth team. LSU, Oregon, Florida State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Washington, and Michigan State are the only other teams to make it since the CFP launched in 2015. Nearly 3/4 of the CFP spots have been filled by Alabama, Clemson, OSU and Oklahoma. It’s going to be really hard to crack into that club, and the best you can hope for is to do it once a decade. We had our shot in 2016 and missed, and again in 2018, and missed mightily. OSU was on the ropes with the Urban scandal and we could have turned the momentum. Instead, Ryan Day became the QB whisperer, brought Fields in, and is now poised to keep the dominance at full throttle after last year’s debacle. Michigan is far from close and Harbaugh knows he missed his chances. I don’t think he can recover. It’s time to move on.
November 8th, 2020 at 12:30 AM ^
Florida looks like they,ve got a shot...with our plan B hire in 2014 ?♂️
November 7th, 2020 at 5:46 PM ^
November 7th, 2020 at 5:49 PM ^
He could say I have work to do and I’ve failed these kids. The actual truth. It’s year 6
November 7th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
Is love to see him say this.
”We got our asses handed to us 2 weeks in a row and that is absolutely unacceptable. The coaching staff, and above all myself, have failed the fans, the school, and more importantly, the players.”
November 7th, 2020 at 6:03 PM ^
You’ve heard him talk right? He can’t get all that out
November 7th, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
But, seriously, what would be the point of him saying this at a press conference. Other than to placate angry fans.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:49 PM ^
Placating the people that are responsible for him making millions of dollars seems like a good idea right now.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:01 PM ^
I’m sure someone in the AD will let him know if the university starts to lose money because he’s the head coach and he needs to placate us. Which will never be a situation that needs to happen.
He’s just giving a little hope to his team in a short, meaningless public appearance. But fans want a pound of flesh because their football team lost and it’s unacceptable!!, but most coaches are too professional for that dumb anger, so they keep it short and stay positive and then try to deal with the negatives behind closed doors.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:44 PM ^
Nah, sorry, but that's bullshit. What good does it do to build up hype around Milton or to repeatedly claim that Grey is the best CB on the team when anyone with eyes can see it's Green? What good does it do when you build up unrealistic expectations when you know the QB has accuracy issues on deep passes and the CB runs a 4.6+?
If they'd come out before the season and said, this is a work in progress--we've lost a of talent have patience, people would have been more accepting of this result.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
People would not have been more accepting of the result.
Also, we built the hype. Harbaugh didn’t. He never guaranteed a certain result. He never said Milton and Gray were anything other than what they were on the depth chart. The fans heard some good things from camp from various sources. Then fans made this team a world beater after Minnesota, when it was obvious they were running super simple stuff on O and had some deficiencies on D.
November 7th, 2020 at 8:22 PM ^
Doesn't matter. 10-8 in last 18 games is going entirely in the wrong direction.
And that will be more like 10-14 after this season, maybe 11-13.... or how 'bout 12-12. Is that ANYWHERE NEAR good enough?
Nothing more to say. It's time to move on.
November 7th, 2020 at 10:42 PM ^
“Our players are working hard all week during practice and during the games. This was a weird, shortened time to get time together, but they made the most of it. As a staff, we need to do a better job of putting them in a better position to succeed. We haven’t done enough or the right things up to this point. That starts on me and that changes now.”
I’ve had 3/4s of a bottle of wine and I did that in 3 minutes. It’s not hard and doesn’t require throwing anyone under the bus. Fan apathy is a real problem, even if it doesn’t show up on the balance sheet. And no one is upset over just losing - we’re upset of looking like shit two weeks in a row, sick of the same offense that puts us behind all game and opens up when it’s too late, and sick of getting torched in defense. Nice strawman.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:48 PM ^
Close to perdition, maybe.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:49 PM ^
I just hope we can beat Rutgers at this point.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:02 PM ^
Me too, but I doubt we can assume a win is likely against anyone. There is at least a chance that we don’t win another game.
November 7th, 2020 at 8:34 PM ^
They’re no longer Rutger?
November 8th, 2020 at 11:50 AM ^
No, they took the "partan" S after week 1.
That joke was pretty funny until week 2 happened....
November 7th, 2020 at 10:53 PM ^
I dunno, I hate to lose to Rutgers but it’s no worse than losing to this years MSU team. I don’t think I can take another year of Harbaugh. I think whatever outcome is most likely to have Harbaugh “resign” is probably the best course. It’s not going to be a good season and our trend is not good. Everyone sees it, especially recruits. Maybe he announces his resignation now, effective after the OSU game so we can actually have a planned transition instead of another coaching search debacle and botched handoff.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:51 PM ^
To be fair, he said the same thing last year after before the Penn State Game and he wasn't horribly wrong. OSU aside which I don't know how you look at that game.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:12 PM ^
He said the same after the worst offensive gameplan I've ever seen against Iowa last year. At least we won that game.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:27 PM ^
First sober, than write.
November 7th, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
First learn the difference between than and then, then write.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:57 PM ^
First sober, than write.
November 7th, 2020 at 7:59 PM ^
I can see OSU making it respectable in the hope Harbaugh isn't fired.
Lloyd Carr was right about JH,
November 7th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
The reality is he has nothing left to say. Sure there are flashes during the games where we see the potential for good/great football from this team. But you can't say "we're close" when you just got curb stomped by Indiana.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
Close to the bottom of the Big Ten and the bottom of ESPN's Bottom 10.
Yikes.
They looked competent against Minnesota. I know Minnesota isn't very good, but Michigan did well running and passing and Milton looked comfortable in the offense. WTH happened between then and now? It's all a flaming hot mess.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
MSU happened. They got punched in the mouth by a team that had nothing to lose, and since then they’ve had no idea how to respond.
They also have no one at DT or CB who can make a play and everyone and their mother recognizes that now. The blueprint to beat Michigan is so bafflingly easy that a 10 year old playing Madden could recognize what to do.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
Do you think Harbaugh is aware but not fully aware of what a shit show this has become?
November 7th, 2020 at 5:56 PM ^
We are slipping farther away from ever winning the B1G. Our defense has been regressing and I thought our offense would be good this season but our OL is awful even though we do have depth and talent. Our RB were suppose to be the strong point of the team but our running game in is in the dumps.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:16 PM ^
Why would anyone think our offense would be good:
- New qb who has thrown 10 passes
- 4 out of 5 new starters on the OL
- Top 3 receivers gone
November 7th, 2020 at 6:25 PM ^
The hype around Milton and the offense preseason was insane. Like you said, brand new OL, no offense weapons anywhere, and a brand new QB thrown into the fire.
Milton has actually been decent all things considered. The complete lack of a running game has been the most stunning development. 256yds vs Minnesota, 152 vs MSU, and 13 vs. Indiana.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
I'm starting to feel like the Milton hype was strictly based on how he performed in practice against these corners.
November 7th, 2020 at 8:02 PM ^
Have you seen his deep balls to wide open receivers?
November 7th, 2020 at 9:34 PM ^
I like Joe Milton, but I would prefer not to see any QB's deep balls.
November 8th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
The prevailing false notion amongst most Michigan fans is we reload, not rebuild. Myself included, because I am dumb. We think we're like OSU or Alabama when in truth we are much closer to the likes of Illinois and Northwestern than any of the top tier.
November 7th, 2020 at 5:56 PM ^
Sounds exactly like Hoke saying he believes his team can still play for and win the Big Ten championship after getting his ass handed to him by Minnesota, and then after Gary nova goes all Tom Brady on Michigan’s defense, Hoke says all of his team’s goals are still in front of it.
it’s like, who are you trying to convince here? Us or yourself?
November 7th, 2020 at 5:58 PM ^
Coach speak blah blah blah blah blah blah blah need to eat more steak blah blah blah blah blah chicken is a nervous bird blah blah blah blah blah whose got it better than us.....FUCKING EVERYBODY!!!!!
November 7th, 2020 at 5:58 PM ^
The offense might be "close" with our tackles back. But maybe not given our inability to get any interior run game going. Also our unwillingness to run Milton.
November 7th, 2020 at 6:19 PM ^
The playcalling makes it so easy on other teams. Not until it's late in the game and we are desperate do we start running an offense like the rest of the teams in the 21st century...
November 7th, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
It's also late in the game when Michigan is losing by multiple scores that defenses relax and let them chew up time. Not a coincidence they've looked good then.