Thanks for another great season of content Brian.  Enjoy Miami and safe travels back home.  

Thanks Brian - I think U of M football and your writing were next-level this year.  

And I'm more optimistic about the state of this program than at any point in my life.  We've finally seen a Harbaugh team with a good team culture, and that alone closed the gap with Ohio.  In the next couple of years we should add an elite QB to the mix for the first time, and if recruiting momentum builds we could see a Michigan Harbaugh team with a great team culture, an elite QB and a top-5 type recruiting profile.  I'd put even money on Michigan winning a national championship in the next 5 years - I think Harbaugh has it figured out now. 

Thank you Brian! Mgoblog is a treasure that you created. I appreciate you

I do, honestly, feel bad for the fans who went that the game wasn't more enjoyable. I am, otherwise, basically ok with how things have gone.

Yesterday was disappointment. But I'd still rather have been in that game than where I thought we'd be, which is, uh, playing in one of the early games today with a roster depleted by early NFL draft departures and transfers, cobbling together a game against Arkansas or something.

This was a lot better than I expected.

Now, there's a lot of frustration that we are not at Georgia's level. In seasons like 16 and 18, I'd be right there, too; but a couple years of really tough results re-centered most of our expectations and hopes to just "let's be competitive with OSU again" and "We'd like to make a B1G championship game." National aspirations? Get to "good" first before we get to "great."

Well, now we've gotten to "good." We've beaten OSU. We won the B1G, convincingly. 

The next level? There is no guarantee that Michigan can get there. A lot of programs haven't. But every step Michigan needed to take this season to begin to approach that level has been taken. A strong staff? Check. Growing out good gameplans on both sides of the ball that can win games in multiple ways? Check. Winning big games on the road and against our biggest rival? Check. Conference titles, proving to the nation and recruits that we belong on that level? Check. Strong locker room leadership that makes Michigan a place players want to play? Check. Upgrading our recruiting both from a staff/organization standpoint and a program appeal standpoint? Check, and hopefully bigger checkmarks in the next two years.

It was a wonderful season. One of the best of my life as a fan. Sometimes you get beaten by a better team. If Michigan is to be that better team, it takes certain steps to progress there, and Michigan has taken them this year. 

Hope the time in Florida is enjoyable all the same, Brian. 

If it had to happen, so glad that we can now call it "last year."  Great (I suppose, if it had to happen) to enter the New Year with a blank slate and nothing but hope, a good recruiting class, a newly learned coaching staff, and some seniors + 5th year players who want to correct what happened yesterday.  May Peace bless us all!

I've wondered with the way demographics are if this isn't the peak of Michigan football. We are a very good team, but individually we probably average like 3.5*s amongst our starters I'd guess. Even in 2016ish when Hoke's great classes were maturing you're still looking at mostly 4*s and a few 5s. I think I saw Georgia was rolling out seventeen 5*s yesterday. Bama probably has a similar number. Michigan will never have a roster like that.

Recruiting is still very regional for the most part and the midwest just does not have the talent that California, Texas, or the southeast has. Cry bagman all you want, but even if you nuke Georgia's program, most of those 5* guys will end up at other programs in region. OSU has been able to recruit at a high level nationally in a way Michigan probably never will consistently and unless global warming makes everyone move to the north, it feels like we have a recruiting disadvantage that will always make a football title out of reach barring the stars aligning with a mix of roster talent, coaching, and favorable opponents.

Overall, wonderful season. Can't wait for next fall

This game was like Mayweather fighting Holyfield. Both great, but just different weight classes.

GA has 20 five stars compared to our 3 five stars.  It showed last night.

I’m sitting here in the beach at the Diplomat and couldn’t agree more. We lost to a juggernaut at the conclusion of what was an incredibly fun and entertaining season. I’m not nearly as disappointed as I thought I’d be. Go Blue! 

Thank you for the write up, Brian. I always enjoy your game columns, win, lose, or draw. Hope you enjoy some R&R in Miami...not a bad place to be at all.

Like most here, I'm disappointed in the outcome of the Georgia game, but that won't be what I remember from this season. I'll remember the heartbreak of the MSU game, All running for that late, game winning TD against PSU, and that euphoric bludgeoning of OSU, and the unbridled joy of celebrating that win with my son. I so love this Big Ten Championship team. And thanks especially to Seth to conducting the Hassan Haskins fan train. HH became an all timer for me these last two years.

This was a fun season...let's do it again next season!!

Go Blue!

Thanks for all you and the Blog staff do!  Have a wonderful 2022 AND STAY SAFE!!!!

Somewhat related: I am acquainted with an older man who served, in the past, as Athletic Director for several big-name programs.  He's been retired for many years, but he stays in close contact with many still in the college game, including many current athletic directors.  He said the story he hears is that NIL is creating a system that borders on being "out of control."  It's turning into an outright bidding war for talent.  The schools are willing to offer whatever NIL type deals are needed to land the talent, and the top talent knows this and they're playing school against school.

Maybe this levels the field.  Or maybe this allows consolidation further still.  My sense is it will solidify the consolidation around a very few schools: six to eight, or a dozen at most, with two or three in that group being the dominant teams. 

I don't know ... maybe it's a healthy evolution to have the lesser teams -- the ones that have no realistic hope of competing nationally -- of just accepting that and returning to playing the game for the fun of it.  I went to the WVU vs. Minnesota bowl game last week, and it was fun because there was no expectation of championships or being the best.  I saw two teams of young men playing football and, for the most part, enjoying themselves while doing it.

If the offense would have played better it could have been a semi competitive game. Everyone knew UGA was focused on stopping our running game. It seem like a lot of our slot receivers seem to be open as UGA LB blitzed on almost every play. Cade was shell shocked by the end of the first quarter. The only way Michigan has a chance against Alabama and Georgia is to have an elite QB, may be JJ will develop into one. Cade is not elite but good to compete against B1G competition. Hopefully, we will have a good season next year.  I thought we would transition from football to a good basketball season but it looks like our basketball team may only be a .500 NIT bound team. 

Thank you, Brian.

So what was the difference for Michigan? The near 4 week layoff that lost all of that momentum?

It was like Michigan was in the Twilight Zone against Georgia. Our guys execution was bad while Georgia's was near perfect. Something's weird here. Yes, there some bad omens in that first Georgia possession.

Also, Michigan did not admit they had the same flu bug as Ohio State did after the Nov 27th game as an excuse for losing. Harbaugh was most gracious in praising Georgia on their win last night.

The simple answer is Georgia is so much faster than Michigan on both sides of the ball but somehow, Michigan still lost a step or two compared to how well they played against OH State and Iowa.

There's a good nucleus on this team in 2022 for both the players and coaching staff. Lessons will be learned and it will have to simmer all winter and spring. At least this offseason won't be as cold and dark as last season's was.

So this will end up being a bit of a long take, but hear me out:

Fully agreed that the issue was basically one of "weight class", in that SEC/Clemson/OSU are just different beasts than basically everyone else right now.

My big question is if UM hangs in a generally middle ground, where we're not ready to say "wins are just another number" like Northwestern, but are not ready to do what we think the SEC is doing and just backing up the brinks truck (I assume we could probably do that if we wanted to). I'm not saying that's a bad thing; it may be a sweet spot to be where we seem to be trending: winning 9-10 games a year against other schools that are basically doing what we're doing, occasionally beating OSU and making a good bowl, while producing good draft picks of high caliber humans.

I just sort of think that's a soul searching thing we need to do as a program. Don't get me wrong, I see we're getting NIL deals, but there's a difference between the amount of money that buys some needy family turkeys on Thanksgiving and something that buys your family a house. I don't know where we are/where we're going/where we want to be, but I think until we officially say we're going the Georgia route, we probably can't compete with that kind of program.

That being said, don't get  me wrong, I don't actually think adding money over the table changes a ton; maybe it allows a couple historically relevant teams with wealthy alumni a chance to get back in the game legitimately (us, USC, Texas, etc.), and I think there's definitely a bit of that feeling around our program right now still, that money taints until what was until now a pure, moral endeavor.

Honestly, it's...not. Money has been around college athletics for a long time, and given who tends to play these sports and the risks they undertake to do so, there are far worse things that could be happening than basically buying someone's mom a house. That's why I always shake my head when the NCAA basically levies similar penalties for when a program enables rape (Baylor, PSU), and when a program buys a family a house (USC), which somehow get treated as morally equivalent.