Are Excitement Levels About Michigan Football Down For 2021?
Even though we are enjoying Michigan's current basketball season, I have to ask everyone how excited they are about football and the changes that have taken place? Although it has been great to see our recruiting take an uptick so far, I am not buying into any of the hype of having great players and youthful coaches. I want results on the field. It seems that many on here are also not really excited and have grown tired of the spring and summer hype machine. Is this true across the fanbase right now?
I need to watch High Fidelity now.
“If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier.”
Get your patchuli stink out of my shop, now, moveit lardass!
No not at all. More excited than I have been in a while to see the new look of our team, a lot of young hyped prospects and a restart after the weird 2020 season.
Even though people want to poo poo it, Michigan is still a football school. Once August gets here the hype will be through the roof and Covid willing, we will be starting a new streak of 100,000 fans.
I'm excited for next year, because I have no idea what to expect. Who will be the QB? Who will be the starting RB? How will our D be better? Will we actually have capable DB's.
I wouldn't be shocked if we were .500 or below, and I wouldn't be shocked if we had only 3 losses.
Aidan Hutchinson interview today:
Brad Hawkins interview today:
I have to agree with that. My daughter is a junior and so bummed that M football last year basically didn't even happen in her eyes. She's vaguely aware of the basketball team, and she's even met some of the players (because she lives with 5 other girls on Hill St.)
Nonetheless, to quote her from last week, "I will have a normal football season in 2021. I am demanding it. If I have to get tested every day leading up to it I will, but they better let me in the damn Big House!"
Covid willing and the cases don't rise.
Not for me... This is the type of staff he needed when hired. Feels to me finally the continuation from Carr, and now we will get top recruits that percolate. Carr made his living with ace recruiters and average coaches, who weren't head coach material.... although I do think Bellamy and Macdonald are.
but... FOR THE LOVE OF G-D, I hope Jim smartens up and ditches the queer font on the uniforms, and returns us back to the late Carr year mesh uniforms.
Really? That was necessary?
There are a minimum of three reasons to neg this post.
one strike and out situation here.
Thank you and well overdue.
I’ve found the day drinking thread!!?
I'm a graphic designer and typography nut with 40 years of professional practice under my belt. Your insinuation that bold slab serif numerals and bold sans serif names somehow embody what you think are stereotypical "queer" qualities—femininity, delicateness, over-the-top ornate preciousness—isn't just homophobic, it's also just fucking stupid and nonsensical with respect to typography.
You're just a shitposter trying to stir things up. Go peddle your nonsensical codswallop on Facebook and MLive.
It was definitely strange; odd
Then use those words instead of one that certain people just will not be able to look past. I’m as tired of people refusing to assume positive intent as anyone else(no idea about this posters history), but this is a pretty easy controversy to avoid, especially knowing your audience.
Don, I have the same qualifications minus about 30 years of experience.
And I couldn't agree more.
+1 codswallop
Did he mean "odd" instead of "gay"?
Don- there is nothing homophobic about the word queer- you seem to be attaching that meaning to this word- it means odd, bizarre, different. calling a font odd I think is ok!
Calm down cancel culture afficionados!
While I'm a fan of the actual definition of words rather than what popular culture had foisted off on them, I'm going to say that nobody at all ever uses the actual meaning of queer and being called out on it is appropriate.
Amen to this, RealElon
Even if I accepted your contention that he’s using the word in the way you describe—which I don’t—calling the straightforward and entirely ordinary fonts used on the jerseys “queer” or “odd” or “unusual” is straight out fucking stupid. It’s like calling a baked potato “queer.”
That was a strange and peculiar take.
I am excited for the changes and was pumped to see how recruiting closed for the 21 class and has begun for the 22 class, but it is difficult for me to get excited about the results.
I am SUPER excited to see Michigan play football again and to hopefully have the marching band in the stands and fans in the stands and gamedays like somewhat normal. One of the many things the pandemic taught me is that those days are always a gift.
lol ya I would say so. The football team will not be good next year. If McCarthy is the real deal he has a chance to make us good in his second year.
While I've wanted Harbaugh gone yesterday, if the team is bad next year, I think the vast majority of the fan base will have turned on him.
Harbaugh, in year 7, absolutely cannot have a bad year. If the team sucks again, he has to go- and we can say the experiment is over.
I don’t disagree but I think the school has committed to him for at least a couple more years. At the least to see how the new coaching staff works out. I don’t think it will because the disappointment of the Harbaugh era had persisted through numerous assistant coaching changes but I think we have him for a few more years.
I don’t see next years team being good. There is a dearth of talent on defense and our offense lacks an identity. Hard to see better than scraping for bowl eligibility but I don’t think it’ll be the end of Harbaugh.
To your second paragraph, I think it really depends.
If the team does the standard 8-4, 9-3 stuff and has a close lose to OSU and a good bowl win, sure, he will probably stay.
But if they look awful, lose to MSU, get blown out by OSU, go 6-6 (ish)- yeah, I could see the two groups (Harbaugh and U of M) mutually parting.
I think the only way Harbaugh goes (short of a complete bottoming out) is if he leaves on his own accord. Which he may do. But he just signed an extension and was given the opportunity to do a complete makeover of the coaching staff. To me that shows that the university is committed to him beyond just next year. But we’ll see
Extension tells me that next season is make or break year for Harbaugh. Lower buyout means Warde can move on from him on year 1 into the contract. I don't see two years at minimum especially if Michigan lose 5 or more games next season which could very well happen.
That's part of the reason why Harbaugh brought in a QB transfer because he needs to win now due to the pressure. Long term, the smart play would be to start McCarthy but he's not guaranteed to start next season.
I agree. Harbaugh went out a made hires that won’t pay dividends on the field for at least two years. I don’t think he would’ve made those moves without some assurance that he has at least some short term job security.
While I agree with you, I don't think you can really call this an experiment. An experiment is like RR coming to introduce an entirely new style, or an unproven guy taking over like a Kingsbury or Chip Kelly in the NFL. Taking a chance on potential. Harbaugh was universally regarded as a can't miss, home run hire, with massive success at all levels and emotional ties to the program. And he's failed. The experiment will be what comes next if he continues to fail, and while normally I'd say that's much scarier, the expectations have been set so low the last decade and a half that I would actually welcome a start from zero. This is the type of environment in which RR might have actually been accepted and succeeded (gross behavior excluded of course). I never thought I would be this apathetic about Michigan football. Really hoping Cade/JJ can get me excited again at least on one side of the ball, but the cornerback situation especially does not give me great confidence about how this season will go.
Nope. Changes all look positive. Obviously needs to translate to the field. Hype comes with the territory, believe me. My wife is a prof at FSU, and a relative is on FSU's board of trustees. This looks low-key in comparison.
I'm not sure what the barometer of fans is across the board, but the excitement about coaching staff changes is muted on my own personal end. It is not about wins and losses (necessarily) or what OSU is doing for me - until I turn on the TV and see a coach that understands the law of large numbers and how tempo use can be used to our advantage or disadvantage depending on the opponent, competent end of half clock management and defensive schemes that are more focused on trying to contain the explosive passing game OSU has opposed to knocking dead the Rutgers and MAC opponents of the world I will refrain from getting too excited. Don't get me wrong, I think the coaching changes were solid but I also think bigger issues are at play here.
I have lacked excitement for the football team for awhile now, because I have been watching the same patterns for a decade. I watch, I get intrigued, I hope for the best. But I'm not going to emotionally commit until they show they can win a big game (same way I feel about the Lions now, sadly).
Great recruiting class, lots of talk, hype, sprinkle in a big non-conference W. Confidence swells, players start chirping, planting stakes in grounds, talking about revenge tours. Play someone good (OSU, sometimes MSU, PSU)- get planted into the ground, recycle.
For me, just prove it at this point.
My motto with a lot of my posts is repetitive but true: basketball says nothing, wins a lot. football says a ton, wins nothing.
The basketball team talks plenty and have for years (with the exception of the head coaches). They also have the benefit of playing a schedule with 30 games, where they get multiple cracks at each team, and a high-variance tournament at the end of the year that can change how we perceive an entire season. Before this year, we have not finished above 3rd in conference W/L in basketball since 2013-14. Isn't that what everyone complains about Harbaugh doing?
The basketball team won back to back conference tournaments, has won a lot in the postseason, and has been around .500 against our biggest rival. That’s all stuff that Harbaugh hasn’t achieved and the biggest difference between basketball and football.
Well, this is a silly comparison.
It's great they won the conference tournaments. They got hot at the right time and it's impressive. If they were the best team, why weren't they first in the regular season? Why weren't they second? Go on wikipedia and look at the standings:
Last year: 9th
2018-2019: 3rd
2017-2018: 4th
2016-2017: 5th
2015-2016: 8th
2014-2015: 9th
2013-2014: 1st
2012-2013: 4th
It's basic statistics that a larger sample size will give you a better estimate: So, over our ~20 game conference schedule, we've been consistently around 4th or 5th place for a decade. How does that compare to how Harbaugh's done (hint: it's worse)? Harbaugh doesn't have the benefit of getting to play each team twice (for the most part). Harbaugh doesn't have the benefit of an end-of-the year tournament, either in the conference or nationally. The football team's main rival is OSU who has been historically good. Our two best teams in the Harbaugh era had to play them in Columbus -- does that affect whether it's a fair comparison? Is there anyone in the B10 basketball who can compare to the OSU-level of dominance? of course not. We've been trading wins/losses with PSU and Wisconsin. We're 3-3 against MSU, but I don't think anyone can tell me with a straight face we haven't been the better football program than them since Harbaugh game. The snuck out 2015 and won a ridiculous, pandemic-season 2020 game. I'm hardly going to put Harbaugh to the stake for that.
Post season success? Does it change the calculus that the basketball team is playing for a chance at a national championship in the most beloved playoff system in America, whereas the football team has been playing in worthless bowl games after losing to their big rival (and chances of winning the B10) while the players prepare for the draft?
It doesn’t change the calculus really. You have to beat really good teams to get to the Final Four. Michigan had to beat Kansas and Florida in 2013, both top 5 teams. When’s the last time Michigan football beat anyone of that caliber? As to the regular season, basketball has to play everyone. That’s not the case for football and the football team can avoid a good west opponent like we did with Minnesota in 2019.
Maybe Michigan should stop getting smoked by OSU and then carrying that negative energy over into their highly televised, prestigious bowl games against marquee opponents. I think a win against FSU in 2016 and Florida in 2018 there’s a bit of a different perception.
Notre Dame's last 3 losses are to Clemson, Alabama, and... wait for it...
Michigan. Two years ago.
But I guess we should just conveniently ignore that to make a point.
So what?
They got a nice non-conference win against Notre Dame.
Did it do anything for them? Did it lead to them winning the Big Ten? Playoff game?
Notre Dame finished outside the top 10 that year. So again, when is the last time Michigan football beat anyone on the caliber of a 2013 Kansas or Florida?
We went to the championship game in 2018 by beating a 14 seed, a 6 seed (we should've lost), a 7 seed, a 9 seed, and an 11 seed. Please tell me where the really good teams you need to beat are. Because, you literally said, word for word, "You have to beat really good teams to get to the Final Four."
In 2013, Florida wasn't a top 5 team. They were a 3 seed. Kansas was a great win. I mean, it was definitely lucky and if we played 10 times we'd probably lose 8, but it was a great win. But I don't get what your point is? That was in 2013. The basketball team (improbably) won a big game in 2013 on a neutral court (before Harbaugh was even hired), so the football program sucks? Is that what you're trying to say?
Your basketball point about having to play everyone is pretty dumb, tbh. In football the East is the tougher division. So what, we get to skip the shitty teams in the Big Ten West every year? That benefits Wisconsin, not Michigan. And it's not like the other basketball teams don't play all the other teams as well? We've been consistently 4th or 5th because we've been consistently the 4th or 5th best team in the regular season.
Ok, how about: In 2016, Michigan beat Penn State 49-10. Penn State went on to win the Rose Bowl and was ranked #7 at the end of the season. We beat Wisconsin. They won the Cotton Bowl and finished #9. We beat Colorado who wound up #15. That's 3 top 15 wins that year. Does that compare to beating Kansas 8 years ago in one of the most improbable finishes in Michigan history? In 2019, Notre Dame and Iowa ended the season #12 and #15. Beat them both. That would be like a 3 and 4 seed in NCAA tourney. Are those good wins?
Dude, stop.
Michigan football has won nothing of relevance.
Michigan basketball has won a Big Ten title in the modern era. They've won the tournament and gone to a couple F4s in the last ten years.
Reading through the tea leaves, I think this is just you being a bigger football fan and trying to defend them at any cost. Anyone trying to say they've had equivalent success in our recent lives is silly.