A call for calm
I have seen a ton of panic and negativity on this board since Saturday, but I think that if everyone can take a step back, there is a larger picture that explans so much of our struggles this season, and which and might provide a ray of hope.
It is fairly common after a coaching change for a coach to take a step back in year 3 because the exiting coach almost always recruited poorly during his last year or so (by virtue of being on the hot seat). As a result, while a new coach often comes into a situation in which he has talented upper classmen on the roster, by year 3, most of those players are gone and there is a gaping hole where the senior and junior talen should be.
That is precisely what we are going through right now. For Harbaugh's first two seasons, he was able to somewhat benefit from the upperclassmen that were on the roster from Hoke's first few successful recruiting classes. Those guys are gone, and in their place, our upperclassmen are made up of Hoke's much weaker last two classes. Those classes were followed by the disaster of a transition class that resulted from Michigan hiring Harbaugh almost on the eve of National Signing Day.
Harbaugh is not the first coach to experience initial success, followed by a tough 3rd year. The same thing happened to Hoke based upon RR's last few classes. While that may not be comforting, perhaps the following few examples will make everyone feel better:
Dabo Swinney - went 6-7 in his 3rd year, following a 9-5 2nd year. From year 4 forward, he hasn't won less than 10 games.
Urban Meyer (Florida edition) - following a 13 win national championship season in 2006, the program took a step back in 2007 and only won 9 games. That 3rd season was an outlier as it was followed by consecutive 13-win seasons in years 4 and 5.
Nick Saban (LSU edition) - followed a 10-win second season with an 8-5 3rd season, only to win 13 games (and a national championship) in year 4.
Nick Saban (Bama edition) - Hist first two full seaons were 12 and 14 wins (with a National Championship in year 2). In year 3, he took a relative step back to 10 wins, only to follow that with 12 and 13 win season (and 2 more national championships).
Mark Dantonio - after taking MSU to a 9 win second season (which, historically, is a great season for them), Mork went 6-7 in year 3, only to rebound to an 11-2 conference title season in year 4.
A few observations:
1. Each of those guys is a massive douchebag. Not necessarily relevant, but it jumps off the page.
2. Harbaugh may not recover as quickkly in year 4 as these guys because his transition class was really small and weak (not on him), and moreover, his first few classes really whiffed on OL).
3. Look at some of the young players on our roster. Aside from OL, which we need to fix ASAP (and which should resolve itself as our young line matures over the next 2 years), we are STOCKED with young talent. Unfortunately, this season, that talent is playing against older, stronger, more experienced players who are more fundamentally sound just from being older, stronger and more experienced. As these guys get older, stronger and more experienced, I think that the sky is the limit for our team.
tl;dr version - everyone chill out; we are really young; coaches struggle in year 3, even great coaches. history is a guide, will be rebound nicely over the next year or so.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:37 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 2:31 PM ^
Talent > repetition
October 10th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^
This space for rent.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:50 PM ^
Poor Bama took a step back to a 10 win season..what an embarassment
October 10th, 2017 at 5:53 PM ^
I get that the negative nancies and chicken littles are annoying as hell, but so are the condescending posters like the OP lecturing us on how to feel. The issues we're seeing, like bad playcalling and OL repeatedly busting / unable to block walk-ons, can't be explained away by youth.
If you're a parent of a QB and you want him to suffer a season ending injury, send him to Michigan.
It's the same as Borges, if the coaches insist on overload teenage starters with complicated schemes then they are making the problem worse. Full stop.
tl;dr: no thanks.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:53 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:13 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:01 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:51 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
Good example. They were crushed Notre Dame because they turned the ball over horrendously. If MSU had handed us the ball an equal number of times, we would have won comfortably.
Now to all those who say "coaching caused the turnovers!" , how do you explain Sparty's performance at home just a few weeks ago? Michigan shot itself in the foot over and over again for 60 minutes. This is why they lost.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:28 PM ^
Two weeks preparation given the bye week. Then again Purdue played dirty and I believe some of our players were banged up. Still, two weeks to prepare and internalize. It's fair to speculate.
October 10th, 2017 at 8:40 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 4:00 AM ^
Agreed. People keep making way too much of the bye week. Pretty sure someone showed that it at best has a very very small effect, like you're 1 or 2% more likely to win your next game.
October 10th, 2017 at 9:32 PM ^
MSU turned the ball over a ton, while getting whooped by Notre Dame...and, that was after their "improvement week."
So...I guess Dantonio was an "average-Joe" coach on 9/23/17 and the second coming of Vince Lombardi on 10/7/17.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:53 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
Wisconsin last year was a good win. How many big games have we even played with Harbaugh here?
October 10th, 2017 at 6:01 PM ^
Do we count Florida? b/c they're just SEC Michigan at this point given their offensive woes.
Outside of em....
Iowa @ night L
Wisconsin W
FSU Orange Bowl @ night L
OSU 2015 L
OSU 2016 L
MSU 2015 L
MSU 2017 @ night L
I guess PSU last year was a W?
And no I do not consider Minnesota or Rutgers at night big games.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:47 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
I guess PSU last year was a big game* W
But from what I recall they were in a tailspin post-Pittsburgh loss and Michigan fans weren't really apprehensive about beating them fairly easily.
Post-Franklin renaissance, I have no idea
October 10th, 2017 at 6:53 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^
October 12th, 2017 at 7:24 PM ^
Going into the game, no one thoiught that it was a big game. You cant look back at a game 3 months later and say "yeah that was a big game" we arent talking about good wins. no one will disagree that psu was a good win. We are talking about big games which psu wasnt at the time
October 10th, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:01 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:15 PM ^
Iowa was not considered a big game at the time. The consequences of losing it were big, but that's another story.
October 11th, 2017 at 4:01 AM ^
Dude, we crushed the B1G champs last year.
October 12th, 2017 at 7:25 PM ^
You cant look back at a game 3 months later and say "yeah that was a big game" we arent talking about good wins. no one will disagree that psu was a good win. We are talking about big games which psu wasnt at the time
October 10th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
You are full of shit. Funny how exceeding expectations leads to inflated expectations and ridiculous insight into information you simply don't have.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:00 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:07 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:13 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:19 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:19 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:17 PM ^
You do remember that Michigan was 4 pts and probably a few inches from being 11-1 or 12-0 last year, right?
Michigan lost to MSU last week because of 5 turnovers - something that has never happened under a Harbaugh team before and is unlikely to repeat again this season.
As for Peters getting a start at qb, you will probably get your wish granted, but don't be pissing and moaning if a RS Fr. QB reminds you quickly why coaches don't typically start RS freshmen at QB unless they absolutely have to.
O'Korn is going to start against Indiana on Saturday FWIW.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:26 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:36 PM ^
It's not that you can't question going 5 wide in the rain or the play calling that's what fans do, but I think we are heading in the right direction we need to fix the O-line and the QB issues and to be fair 2 turn overs really were on the passing game just guys not securing the ball
October 10th, 2017 at 8:49 PM ^
just because a few other people have latched on but it's not a great point you're making. We had to throw the ball because running wasn't going to get us first downs. Rain is not a death knell for football but after Saturday, from some of the comments here you'd think no player on any team, anywhere, can play in the rain. I watched O"Korn somehow, throw the ball in the rain and oddly enough, the ball traveled through the air. Maybe it got wet, but it was somehow able to defy the laws of physics. The interceptions would have happened wet or dry - they can work on that. McDoom not being focused enough to hang on to the ball, had little if anything to do with rain. Also can be addressed with experience, coaching, confidence, and so on. The people here who do have knowledge from playing or coaching have provided hundreds of comments trying to explain - yet people like you, and MxWolverine who is most assuredly not a Wolverine supporter - ignore every bit of evidence they don't like and regurgitate the same old worn out talking points.
We all know it's year 3. Yes, you're allowed to ask questions. No, there is not some weird conspiracy or dark undercurrents happening with the football team. Harbaugh is not leaving.
After someone posted a comment... can't remember who or even the exact context, but now that every troll thinks that someone in Schembechler Hall will read their posts... it's gotten crazier here than ever. Or maybe that coincides more with sparty week, hard to say.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:30 PM ^
Thanks for the voice of reason, people have taken a dropped punt and turned it into Harbaughs fault and I'm not blaming Blake either he was a hell of a punter for us, they turned some sketchy things at the Shoe into Harbaughs fault or the injury to Speight last year. Things happen in football games that aren't the coaches fault these are still kids and sometimes they make mistakes.
Harbaughs is 10-3, 10-3 and 4-1 so far he took over a mess
Dantonios was 7-6, 9-4, 6-7
October 10th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
Why wasn't that punt in max protect? Coaching blunder. We had gunners outside lined up against no one. Also could have called timeout and fixed it when we saw sparty was going all out block.
Additional, a theory is that it was a fake punt - pass to rub in in sparty's face. It kind of looks like it after watching the replay.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:54 PM ^
But I would have taken the delay of game, and then fixed the formation. My conjecture is that's why Baxter 'went' back to USC at the end of the season.
That being said, our RB's fail consistently to pick up the blitzer on pass plays. That is directly on the RB coach, we'll see if it gets addressed in the upcoming weeks.
And, finally, let's simplify the playbook a bit to get the offense some confidence. stop trying to outsmart the other team and let's get back to what Harbaugh is known for out physicaling the oppositiion.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
nftxt
October 12th, 2017 at 7:27 PM ^
But we didnt get those 4 points or few inches did we? every team can say some bs like that... except rutgers
October 10th, 2017 at 6:20 PM ^
but important detail...
The fact that JH benched senior Pritchard for RS freshman Luck shows that he will play the guy that is most likley to get wins, regardless of class/experience level.
The fact that Peters is behind O'Korn tells us that Peters is not the guy that is most likely to help the team win (at least not yet).
This does not mean that JH suddenly forgot how to develop QBs. It means that Peters is not yet ready becasue he came in talented but raw and/or is just a guy that does not master everything as quickly as Andrew Luck did.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:57 PM ^
Dominated Florida twice, they did win the SEC EAST, Wisconsin they did win the BIG 10 west and PSU by 6 touchdowns wasn't because they were down 3 LBs PSU couldn't cross the street against our D so not sure how that had anything to do with injured LBs
October 10th, 2017 at 8:51 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:51 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:51 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:54 PM ^
Yes, there are many factors. Harbaugh isn't going anywhere. They will be in every game this year, but this will end up disappointing without improvements on offense. We are not going back to the woeful Hoke years, but frustration at not winning the Big 10 may persist longer than we wanted. I hope they exceed whatever modified expectations we have just to shut up the trolls and bottom feeders, but I'm not holding my breath.