8-3 Record

Are absolutely the worst. A down year with freshman and sophomores across the board and people are freaking out. We will be fine, trust the process.

8-3 Record is average. It's neither good or bad, it just is.

have all of these fair weather fans, with short memories, eat some crow in a week.

I'm fine with the record.   I am extremely disappointed that it seems to be within the rules for other teams to be perfectly allowed to tee off on our defenseless quarterbacks.

A healthy Wilton wins that MSU game.    A pre-injury Brandon Peters probably wins that MSU game.  Everything else plays out how it has and we are a ranked 9-2 right now with this beautiful defense.

Yes, injuries happen, but the way they are happening to our QBs is disgusting.   A roughing the passer penalty is no consolation for losing the player, but its unbelievable still that both of those plays weren't flagged.  

Now Michigan has to play Ohio State with John O'Korn who has shown us all he can't get the job done.  

The reason folks are panicking and the media is (in my opinion unfairly) ripping on Harbaugh is because we lost to Sparty. We win that game and I think nobody really notices anything about the program. Fact is we just have to beat Sparty and OSU. Edit to add: if we were the same 8-3, but with a win over Sparty and a loss to one of Purdue, Minnesota or Maryland I don't think anyone would bat an eye or be nearly as negative towards the program currently.

400+ days since a win against a team with a .500+ record. Where's the trajectory?

I figured we would be. I don't like our QBs at the top much. Wilton isn't bad but he is just ok. Losing him pretty much shot our 2nd half of the season.

I’ve calmed down a bit since last night and after pouring over some comparables, I’m not as upset. Yes, this year has largely been by the book as far as beating the teams they should beat and losing to anyone with a pulse. Yes, Harbaugh hasn’t yet hit the level of Meyer, Saban, Fisher, Petersen, and maybe one or two others. I’d much rather be in this spot than the Hoke/RichRod years. Here’s what helped me sort of step back: Let’s say JT Barrett is short or Speight doesn’t fumble on the 1 last year in Columbus. Let’s say O’Neill handles the punt against State. If those games just shake out a little differently, the following things are true: - Michigan beats Ohio State and Harbaugh is 1-1 against OSU and 2-1 against MSU. - Michigan wins the Big 10 Championship and goes to the CFP last year and makes a BCS bowl in 2015 How much better do we feel if last year ends like that? It sucks and it is somewhat of an excuse, but a dropped snap and an inch is the difference between greats d good.

The losses aren’t embarrassing, but it’s embarrassing that our pro protection has let two quarterbacks suffer serious, scary, injuries. These weren’t flukes. When you get crushed multiple times per game, injuries are going to happen.

But, the reasonable predictions next year will be much higher. If UM doesn't win 9+ games next year, questions will be asked of the staff, as THEY have set the bar, not just the fanbase.

Harbaugh is 1-6 vs ranked opponents at Michigan. That is unacceptable. Not calling for anything just that’s gotta change.

The first two years, we had a veteran team of many guys Harbaugh never would have recruited. He coached them back up and took full advantage of their mostly all becoming upper classmen at the same time. Good not great players who improved and had success. 

It was NOT a program. It was a great coach and good not great veteran players together having success.

Colin Cowherd referred to it as the Little Leaguers with the mustache. Winning because they are older than most other teams and expertly coached. It was unlikely to sustain itself perfectly beyond 2016 because of the poor recruiting of the classes behind them.

Now we're young with players Harbaugh did recruit. We are BECOMING an actual program. The reality of our recruiting cycle, (the gaping needs from prior coach mismanaging the roster) meant the bill of that mismanagement came due in year 3.

Yesterday we played an established 20 year program with good not great players.  A system created mix of program veterans while sprinkling in some talented younger players. All on the exact same tract. We played against a program with something not yet a program.  

When we become an actual program over the next two years, games like yesterday will very likely see different results.

A real established program has veteran playes who have been with current coach and were recruited by the current coach. It has quality depth. It has younger players who play based on merit not necessity. And those young players won't destroy your chances with the common young player mess ups. In other words, young players plugged in but surrounded by program veterans.

The above paragraph does not describe Michigan 2017 in any way. It does describe OSU, Wisconsin. MIchigan is not yet a real program. 

We can point to this rival or that program and try to create weak equivalence to bomb on Harbaugh, but the reality is the reality. The situation of other programs are not the situation at Michigan these first three years.

Griping won't change reality. Jim Harbaugh is a fantastic coach working his butt off. His staff is the same. But they are not miracle workers. The laws of program building don't make exceptions for even a coach as good as him.

 

 

MSU loss is the only reason anyone is really upset. UM should have won that game despite being down our starting qb and playing in a monsoon. People (and I wouldn’t say I agree or disagree) believe JOK should have been coached up better and the O line should be better than it is, particularly in the MSU game. Plus with PSU and OSU looking beatable at times this season, it’s more about another missed opportunity in the division. But that’s college football man.

and weather, but many of the coaching decisions for games and in games has also cost this team opportunities for a better season.

Speight wasn't lighting the world on fire at QB and replacing him with John O'Korn has proven to be a disaster.  Aside from one half against a mediocre Purdue team, JOK has proven he simply doesn't have the skills to play FBS football.

Waiting so long to put in Peters may have cost us at least one game this year.

Having said all that, the coaching decisions and game-planning cost us at least the MSU game and probably the PSU game as well.

The offensive game planning has been horrible and Drevno and Hamilton are mainly the cause of that with a large portion to also go to Harbaugh because he is the CEO of this program.

The absolute tire fire of an offensive line cost us the Wisconsin game becuase Peters got lit up and now is probably o0ut for the OSU game.  Peters has gotten destroyed at least 5 times this season by defenders coming at him untouched, Speight and JOK had it happen too.  That is inexcusable.  Greg Frey has done very little to improve this O line.

In the end, yes injuries (luck) has not been on our side this season, but I believe coaching has put this team in far worse situations and they have to be held accountable.  Mainly, JH needs to find a new OC and O Line coach NOT FROM THE NFL.

The passing game plan in a monsoon cost us the MSU game, Oline inepitude cost us the Wisconsin game (we were completely in the game until Peters got drilled), and the offensive and defensive game plan for the PSU game seemed to be concocted by drunks and drug addicts.

After the certain defeat against OSU (if JOK) plays, HArbaugh needs to take a hard look at the offesnive coaching staff and make some serious changes.  Drevno, Hamilton and Frey need to go.  And there needs to be some major attention pasid to recruiting to get some O linemen with an upside.  It's inexcusable that Dantonio can produce better teams every year than Michigan with 2 and 3-star recruits.  

 

we will have injuries to overcome next year too. it always happens. It may ne a few years before we're good. or we might gwt lucky and have an amazing year. keep speculating your little hearts out, but no one knows. thats the truth.

I liked the comment Harbaugh made about Nordin after the Maryland game. 

I expect the anger to be intense within the weight room, film room, practice sessions, etc. during the off-season. I'd rather this season never happened and we'd be at least 9-2 with a win over Sparty, but alas it isn't the case. Let's face it, Sparty clearly came in focused this year. 

A long time fan, I remember the negativity (pre-message boards) after '79 (8-4), '84 (6-6), '87 (8-4), '96 (4 staright 4 loss seasons), '05 (7-5), etc. 

The next season was uplifting (with the exception of the end of '06 Crable hit out of bounds, etc.) 

I'm not addicted to the Kool-Aid here - but realistic that one BAD season (8-4 w/bowl) DOES NOT mean we bought a snake-oil salesman. 

Besides beating rivals and winning championships, another quality of a great coach is picking up the pieces after a crappy year. We didn't want this - but that's what we'll know this time next year - whether we can do what past Michigan teams did after lousy years.

Not upset about the record, upset that our offensive line has still made no progress. And don't give me the "well they're improving" line. No, they're not. They're playing bad teams just like Hoke's teams did later in the season when people called it "improvement". Northwestern just beat Minnesota 39-0. So we're about on par with Northwestern this year, if you're okay with that. Oh and Northwestern beat MSU at home.

When Harbaugh was molding his 1st team in '15, I loved how the team went off the radar screen at the midpoint of August practice. I'm hoping this year we do the same during the off-season - no Rome visits, minimze the camps in Florida, etc. - just quietly get the mindset back to making every play our best play.

Yesterday - think about TWO plays in the Wisky game that killed us on D. Two long 3 and 10+ conversions ahead 10-7 that flipped the momentum. Mo Hurst was pissed about letting the team down. He'll be earning his millions next year, but the D needs to have the mindset next year that 3 and 10+ will not happen again. Get to the Qb quicker, get a hand up in his face, etc. ANYTHING but allow that to happen again.

Might be a little easier to take if we didn’t blow the game against OSU last year.

Oh really?

Catchafire on October 11: "MSU will not win the BIG. Michigan will."

Catchafire on July 15: "I think PSU is overrated"

Catchafire on October 20: "We are going to beat PSU. The end."

Catchafire on October 21: "35-21 Michigan wins."

Catchafire on October 21 after the game: "We have a young team, not completely surprised." ... "This was a game we all expected would be tough."

It's not just Catchafire that's trying to retroactively adjust season predictions. I've seen repeated assertions by a number of commenters over the past two weeks that "Hey, we all thought we'd have 4 losses, amirite?" This very typical predictions thread from July 15 breaks down like so:

8-4: 2

9-3: 6

10-3: 2

10-2: 12

11-1: 9

12-1: 1

That's 22 predictions of 2 losses or less vs 10 of 3 losses or more.

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/pre-fall-camp-season-prediction-thread-2017

I agree that predictions on a blog are just for fun and not that important in the big scheme of things, and don't have any impact on how the season actually goes. Just don't try to bullshit that "we all thought the season would go like this."

While I expected both Speight, the WRs, and the o-line to be better, we all knew they were question marks. So far, we are exactly who we thought we'd be with the only difference is we should have beaten MSU and Florida is worse than we thought. We still win 8 games, go to a bowl, get an extra month of practice, and should be much improved next year. My only major concern is the OT position, especially if Newsome is not ready.

Well, I initially thought we'd be about 8-4, but that was because I thought the defense was going to take a huge step backwards losing all those guys. The offense was sorta a tire fire this year, and that is somewhat concering. Still, the people rumbling about Harbaugh drive me nuts. That's our guy, there's nobody better we're going to get, and as much as some fans would love to, you can't really put a clock on returning Michigan to its former glory.

I'm not angry, but I'm a little disappointed that the squad likely won't transcend the 8-4 floor that I envisioned. Losing the MSU contest was bitterly disappointing.