Throwback post (to further show how far the program has come)
I saw a tweet listing the superstar Buckeyes that will head to the NFL this year (or likely will, depending on their decision to stay or go) without ever beating Michigan.
JT Tuimoloau is on that list. I specifically recall when he announced for OSU (several months after signing day), serving as the cherry on the top of an already ridiculously stacked signing class. This board once again was apoplectic. This was coming off the disastrous COVID season when Michigan stumbled to 2-4 and OSU made it all the way to the championship game, so any further pro-OSU news was of course going to be met with bile.
I was looking for that thread, but instead came across this post from the Hello post for Colston Loveland that really summarizes the mood of the fanbase in the summer of 2021. I won’t share the poster’s name, as I’m sure his feelings were not unique, and I’m sure he feels much differently today. But here’s to better appreciating the miraculous job Harbaugh had done these past three seasons turning the program around. Enjoy.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we are simply not going to be competitive with OSU for a long, long time and that's depressing. I'm 42 years old. I've been watching UM football for as long as I can remember. UM has been losing to OSU for a while, but the losses weren't that bad consistently prior to 2018. And, it always felt like if they got the right QB or just started playing up to their ability or had the right coach they be could beat OSU again. It just feels like beating OSU is such a distant goal that will take years to ever draw near again. UM just landed a 3-star recruit. OSU just landed 5-star DL JT Tuimoloau. OSU has the #1 class with 8 guys in the top 100. UM has the #12 class with 2 guys in the top 100. The talent gap is undeniably getting wider. I wanted Meyer to be gone. That has changed nothing. Day continues to win and recruit better than Meyer. Where is our Meyer/Day? JH was supposed to be that. UM has all the resources OSU does. It is just a sad realization that hit me. I'm not sure when I'm going to ever see UM beat OSU again. OSU is the Bama of the midwest and UM is helpless to do anything about it. I hope NIL and playoff expansion will change things, but I have my doubts. :/
November 27th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
Post the guys name and have him come back and write something.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
better yet, the vast, vast majority of posters here are good dudes/dudettes and i'd bet that whoever posted that would voluntarily raise their cyber-hand and claim it along with providing a great response to what many of us felt at that time.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
I didn't write it, but will raise my hand as one who felt like what was expressed in that post.
This year, it was great watching the game with quiet confidence!
November 27th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
I'll raise my hand too. Didn't write that post but probably wrote a dozen just like it. I was a Campbell stan (and yes, I'm embarassed by that).
Harbaugh turned this team around and deserves all the credit in the world for defeating the mighty Ohio State football machine
November 27th, 2023 at 11:26 AM ^
I am Spartacus...
November 27th, 2023 at 11:45 AM ^
I'm the gladiator who is so bad that I compete in a half-empty arena and lose to almost everybody.
I am Spartancus.
November 27th, 2023 at 12:41 PM ^
Same. Halftime of 2021 I thought OSU would come back. 2022 I wasn't expecting another win. This year, for the first time in a long time, I EXPECTED a UM win, and goddamnit it was great.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
The username does not appear to be active. Not quite sure how you would defend a reply like that that in a Welcome post.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:42 AM ^
Here's the post. Looks like he was banned at some point since.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:52 AM ^
I remember him as a generally reasonable poster. I can't recall the details of his banning.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
https://www.mgoblog.com/comment/244127631?sort_by=thread&items_per_page=50&page=17
MGoStrength was banned in 2021 for "trying to argue their politics in the mod sticky".
November 27th, 2023 at 11:04 AM ^
The cherry on top turns out to be that it was a complaint on a hello post for a 3-star complaining about OSU's 5-stars, but for two games OSU has been shredded by that 3-star.
(Note that the cherry is a sweet one for me, too, but this is not an I-told-you-so, as I of course had called for Harbaugh's firing that same year).
November 27th, 2023 at 11:17 AM ^
Garbage 3-star Colston Loveland, I don't know why we even bother recruiting! Fire everyone!
November 27th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
Maybe I'll reach a point as a Michigan fan where I'll get excited about a big athletic flex TE, but now is not that time because I know he's not gonna be utilized well
This take in that thread aged like milk lol
November 27th, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Gold pants have ostensibly gone out of style anyways.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:28 AM ^
But parachute pants are always in style
November 27th, 2023 at 10:22 AM ^
Something else to note:
If Michigan wins on Saturday, then the senior class will have officially averaged 10 wins per year during their four years on the team.
During their first year, they had two wins.
Just unthinkable.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
Those who stay will be champions.
November 27th, 2023 at 9:45 PM ^
"And those who don't will be doctors, lawyers and captains of industry."
-- John Prusiecki, who left as a freshman OL and became an outstanding lawyer. My guess is that some of his former teammates did, too, or the equivalent, and they beat OSU twice.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:24 AM ^
To be fair, there was several posters in the last month that said the season was over. I recall Ed Shuttlesworth as the biggest naysayer.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
I am almost positive that particular poster is a professional naysayer, if you will, but I don't have proof of it other than the anecdotal evidence from their posting history.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:04 AM ^
professional naysayer = troll
November 27th, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
As an expert on the subject, I agree. Can't prove it of course. But that's OK because once the bar is set to that level, all parties involved are liberated from the burden of proof, so as to avoid asymmetrical warfare yielding a guaranteed L to whichever side gives a damn about information integrity.
Incidentally, looking at comments on YT videos and seeing obvious bot accounts dropping "cheaterz" comments is just baffling. Who is dedicating resources into automating this anti-Michigan PR campaign on social media? Someone must see a lot of upside to go there. Makes a fella wonder.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:24 AM ^
I remember when we were clamoring for Matt Campbell
November 27th, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
Don't lump me in with that royal "we"
November 27th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
Agreed. I barely like Dan Campbell. I've never liked Matt.
And don't get me started on unrelated Canadians Clarence or Neve Campbell!
November 27th, 2023 at 11:29 AM ^
I’ll go a step further and say that I heartily disliked the idea of Campbell and thought everyone else was silly
November 27th, 2023 at 12:15 PM ^
No soup for you!
November 27th, 2023 at 10:27 AM ^
I remember those days all too well. Things got so dark on the board I'd stay away from it for several days at at time to keep from going down that hole.
Jim Harbaugh refreshed his staff, created a new plan and implemented that plan which has us all in a much better place today. Still wish we could get a few more Top 100 recruits like JJ, though.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
I checked out from sports in 2020 and didn't come back until fall of 2021. It was just too weird watching teams play in empty venues. I think it was the right decision.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:49 AM ^
There was a comedian (who currently does Walmart commercials) that released a stand up performance done in an empty venue. Paper people cutouts in the first few rows and canned laughter. His "statement" fell flat with me.
As a diehard baseball fan, I did watch MLB games when the fans were paper cutouts.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
I did as well. I think the only Michigan game I watched was msu game which I DVR'd due to my kids having soccer games that day. There was nothing enjoyable about sports that year. Empty stadiums and fake crowd noise was when I checked out.
November 27th, 2023 at 9:16 PM ^
The worst time on the Board was the 2019 season. So many posters were trolls, and many who were not trolls were equally negative.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:28 AM ^
While I’ll gladly take a few more 5 star players (who wouldn’t) I think this coaching staff has been able to recruit the right players for the kind of football Harbaugh wants to play. These guys will run through a brick wall if asked.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
Check out some of the Fire Harbaugh threads from that season. They're full of emotional hot takes. There were posters that wanted Harbaugh fired the last two off-seasons for interviewing with NFL teams too. Overreactions will crater a program. Emotional Buckeyes are all in thier feelings pushing for the same shit right now.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
OSU today is where we were in 2020.
People arguing that you can't keep a coach who always loses to your rivals, and others arguing that it's insane to fire a coach with an incredible record outside of their rivals.
They're both right.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
It is endlessly fascinating to watch that brittle, spoiled fanbase currently rehashing all the old arguments we used to have about Harbaugh. So much happier to be on this side of the rivalry coin than the other
November 27th, 2023 at 10:33 AM ^
Hats off to Harbaugh. It really seems like he looked at what he was doing, and who he surrounded himself with, and changed a lot. That may not have been easy for someone who was as successful as he'd been.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
Right you are. He turned over virtually the entire coaching staff. Some of the dudes he had to fire had been with him since the Stanford days. Then he loosened up and let the coaches break away from Doing It Bo's Way. Music during practices, the Turnover Buffs, whatever the chair thing is about, all of that came with the new staff. Harbaugh's willingness to adapt everything except the tight end heavy, run offense--which is certainly working for us so don't!--made all the difference. And the team and Moore at least clearly love the guy.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^
I was wondering about raising the chairs at kickoff too. Does anybody know the backstory of that?
November 27th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
I was a downer.
My feelings, at the time, were that Harbaugh is CAPABLE of coaching brilliance, but we saw that brilliance less and less as the seasons went on, and it wasn't clear why. I was also pretty peeved at the mis-management of the Shea Patterson/Joe Milton/Dylan McCaffrey situation.
I won't say that I was wrong; I don't think I was. I WILL say that the 2021 team, and especially the 2021 coaching staff, pulled this program together in a HUGE way. Absolute clinic in leadership from both the coaches and the players.
If there's one thing you can say about Harbaugh, it's that he's *intellectually honest* with himself.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
I mean, 3 years ago I was thinking the same thing. At that time I felt Michigan needed to be at home and have a miracle game with a last minute score to beat osu. I never thought they were close to dominating them in a game, never mind 3 years in a row.
IMO 3 things that have turned it around-
1) Harbaugh getting the right coaches in place. Once he realized it wasnt going to take the hype of a recruiting classes he got the coaches that could develop players that weren't chasing money bags and full of their own hype. They recruited players that fit their system.
2) Recruiting players that wanted to play for Michigan. Choosing hard working and respectable young men that give it their all for the team and coaches. 2021 and 2022 teams got that ball rolling and the current players are the ones running the team with their leadership. They know what has to be done and they are molding the next men up.
3) Ryan Day is not as good of a coach as people were thinking. He replaced Meyer and went to the NC in 2020 and they thought osu was better than Urban. After 3-4 years of loading up on talent and out recruiting Michigan heavily, people have started to realize you can't coach toughness, you can't beat Michigan and win B10 titles out-recruiting Michigan anymore. Day was handed keys to the kingdom by Urban and has shit the bed after losing Urbans players. He truly was born on 3rd base.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:28 AM ^
I'd rather have a coach who can identify and develop talent than a guy who can recruit 5* players out of HS and then do nothing with them.
FWIW, I was definitely one of the doomsayers in 2020 (mostly as a lurker). Fortunately, I was wrong.
November 27th, 2023 at 10:59 AM ^
I had many debates with friends between the 2020 and 2021 seasons re: Harbaugh.
They will all tell you I never gave up my belief that he was the right coach for the team. Between 2015 and 2019, he had the team back to its historic level of success (70%-ish winning percentage- 9-3, 10-2, etc.)...and had the team in contention for a Big Ten championship (and a spot in the Playoff) at least a few times.
Where I was wrong was my contention that Michigan would never be able to compete on a regular basis with OSU. I felt that a 10-2 or 11-1 record with a nice bowl game was the team's ceiling. I thought that if Michigan could beat OSU 1/3-1/4 of the time, that would should be considered a success.
Happy to have been wrong about my latter assertions!
November 27th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
Same. That's exactly how I described Harbaugh's tenure to my PNW neighbors in the 2021 summer: good enough to never get fired at Michigan because the program was respectable again even if not a powerhouse. Hutch and Haskins, Ojabo and Corum, and that OL had other plans.
November 27th, 2023 at 5:13 PM ^
I’m with you. I remember thinking, if not Harbaugh, then who? And coming up blank. The secret seemed to lower expectations. As Patches O’Houllihan was fond of saying, “aim low boys”
November 27th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
I was definitely broken from football at that time. At least we had basketball for a lot of those down years. Imagine if the football team hadn’t turned it around, how down in the dumps we would be having nothing to look forward to outside of hockey. Which I really don’t follow. Truly appreciate the last 3 seasons, they we desperately needed. Go Blue!!!
November 27th, 2023 at 11:10 AM ^
There is a stark difference in the program from 2019 to now, you see it on the field and you see it off the field. It didnt seem like a "team culture". Guys were leaving early back then just to be a late round pick. Wisconsin absolutely throttled Michigan that year, people forget how bad of a loss that really was.
Whenever a mistake would happen it seemed to snowball and things just got worse. The 2019 version of The Game was full of those, from a missed extra point to a bunch of penalties to dropping wide open passes.
Michigan teams now don't hardly make mistakes anymore, and when they do they don't let it bother them. And they make the little plays in between the big plays that they never used to make. Probably the biggest one I can think of was Mike Sainristill knocking the ball out of Stover's hands last year in the end zone.
Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit for basically starting over after 2020, he absolutely got it right.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
I was a big Harbaugh guy - he was QB at Michigan when I was there, I was at the 1986 "Harbaugh Guarantee Game" in Columbus, he wrote me a nice letter for my birthday once - but even I had my doubts by 2020.
But the one thing I honestly did believe, and commented on here, is that I thought the Covid year and canceling the Ohio State game would be the "Great Reboot" for Michigan. It was a pause we really needed, and I thought we would come out of it a different program.
Once Harbaugh signed up for the incentives-based contract, it was a different program. The pause "reboot" and the incentive contract lit a competitive fire.
November 27th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^
As a follow on to this . . . in 2020 I wanted to write him a personal letter of support when he was under the gun. Just a little "thanks for all you do, Coach" note of support. It's easy to be a bandwagon fan when everything is going great, but a real fan shows support when it's not popular.
But with kids and a busy work schedule . . . I never got around to doing it.
I have always regretted that.