Are Excitement Levels About Michigan Football Down For 2021?

It's exciting in that we have no idea what we're going to see on the field. It's not exciting because the ceiling for the 2021 team feels like it's probably at the level of going to an Outback or Citrus Bowl. 

Is water wet?  Not sure how we can continue to get hyped up to be constantly let down and then beat down by OSU.  I know I know, negative Nancy... but god damn.  Win a few big games and I'll start to get a pulse again.

Hell yeah I'm excited for the start of the season.  I will always be excited about the start because you never know what could happen.  Honestly speaking though, I don't have much hope about the team being great, and I will no longer blindly follow the team.  Last year's MSU game officially ended my blind allegiance.  If they suck this year, I'm doing other shit with my Saturday's

Yes.

I’m pretty excited about our offense this year. I think Harbaugh is going to be refocused this year. We have options at QB, a RB who has proven able to be a bell cow, and young options to spell him. WR has speed and size is coming along. 

Excited to see the new look on D and see future Sunday players like Hutch and Hill get the chance to show out.

I'll believe it when I see it

I think our football team next year is going to be good. 

I have nothing to base that on so you should believe me and jump on the hype train.

Excited, no.  Hopeful, yes.

100% down on excitement levels. I like what they did with the staff but that is something that I feel is going to take 2-3 years to really see the effect. We got rid of a lot of veteran coaches to bring in a lot of ace recruiters. Sure it will be nice to have an uptick in talent but that is going to take a couple recruiting classes with them at the helm before it takes place.

In the meantime we have a lot of inexperience in position coaches that I don't see how it could be much of an upgrade for next season. Next year seems like a find your footing and tread water while waiting for the young guns to arrive type season.

Looking forward to a chance to put 2020 behind the football team, but honestly, I don't know how good we are going to be. I did notice the apparent uptick in recruiting, which was good to see (though I don't know how much of this was objective vs subjective).

I'm optimistic about the new coaches and the new enthusiasm from Jim. I think he finally hung up his NFL coaching dreams and will be here for the long run. I still think this will be a growing pain type season with all the young players but 7-5 or 8-4 record would be a good start. If we have another sub .500 season,  then I will start to doubt Harbaugh's future as Michigan's  HC. I don't think we will reach the elite team level until the NCAA expands the playoffs. If the playoffs remain at the top 4 teams, then we will always be below those 4 or 5 elite teams.

The football team was really bad last year, as was the coaching.  The head coach is the same which leads me to temper my expectations for next year.

Not really excited tbh as its only spring ball, and basketball is killing it.

I am sure I'll be more excited when Fall camp starts or the start of the season

None of the recent hires have really moved the needle for me. I mean Michigan is basically Iowa-east but in a tougher division and as much as I'm sure Iowa fans look forward to football every year I assume their expectations are reasonable and not 'playoff-or-bust' so that's about where I am.

Im as excited as I am every single year!

We have a QB who shows promise, and an offense that gained some valuable PT last year. 

We have a completely revamped defensive staff who hopefully can get the best out of the current roster. If anything you have coaches who can relate and motivate their team. 

We will see how this team responds during the first game. I fully expect them to have a chip on their shoulder and a coaching staff who can build on that energy. 

I am always excited to see the team take the field and my excitement level is neither higher nor lower than previous years. Will this team win the B1G? Beat Ohio State? Or have heart crushing losses to our rivals? I don't know, and neither does anyone here.

I do know that there have been some solid hires in the off-season. I also think that Harbaugh knows he needs to adapt to the new college game and will make the appropriate adjustments. These two factors alone make me excited to see what this team will look like. Will they pay off? Again, I don't know. But I'm not gonna let this, or the disappointment of previous seasons, dampen my enthusiasm. Hope springs eternal here.

Ultimately, there is just something about the beginning of football season that has always brought a feeling of anticipation that I don't get with any other sport. The smell of freshly cut grass, the crispness of the air in the morning, the days gradually getting shorter... Above all, I love the smell of football season in the morning. It smells like...

Go Blue!

Count me in the group that wanted Harbaugh replaced last year.  Nonetheless, I'm onboard the train for the year, if not ambivalent towards JH long term.  I do like the staff changes, and the recruiting emphasis.  It looks like they've targeted the actual positions in need (specifically DT and CB), and seem to be on a better footing with regard to common direction.  

I believe the shitty season last year was the result of coaches not getting along with coaches, players not getting along with players, and coaches not getting along with players.  The MSU game, whatever the hell that was, is the point at which the finger pointing was obvious and all care was lost.  The players broke in to cliques, the coaches stopped communicating, and the locker room was lost.  Hopefully, staff changes and some transfers/firm handshakes will improve things.

It's my contention that there is enough talent to win a lot of games (even last year).  I can assume that team comradery and communication will be significantly better than last year.  But, for me to remain on the train, I need to see improvement in the regime-long trends of Michigan football: player development across the board (esp QBs); clock mgmt; tempo; consistent offensive philosophy; player usage that matches capabilities and highlights strengths; coordinated and diverse run/pass play calls.

Show me those improvements, and I'll stick out a rough W-L record.  Don't improve them ... don't ask for my continued support.

My support aside, barring another 2-x season, JH is coaching Michigan through 2023 at the least.  Warde doesn't have the horsepower to fire him.

They should be down, we went 2-4 and would have been blown out by Ohio State and Iowa had we had a chance to play them.  Maryland would have been a 50-50 game.  So 2-7 or 3-6 is how good we were last season. We're returning a 3-9 or 4-8 level team that lost some talent off from it and will be learning a brand new scheme on defense.  

So yeah, I can't wait to see football and am still excited, but my expectations are very low.  6-6 or 5-7.  So maybe it will be a year we are all happy that we exceed expectations and win 7 or 8 games.

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

I save the hype for after spring ball when I learn about the walk-ons who looked great and should be major contributors in the fall.  

It's hard to get excited when EVERY year we have all this hype surrounding the newest class, spring practice, any new coaching staff, fall practice and the newest Heisman "hopeful" on the squad. But then we get the same results on the field year after year. We seem to be getting further and further behind OSU not to mention we are getting outclassed by mid-tier programs.

I for one am past the point of being excited about off the field changes, yes the recruiting has been a nice sign, but the coaching changes are a mixed bag to be honest. IMHO, the only thing that will get me pumped at this point is on the field results, nothing else matters.

Changes are good, in and of themselves, when things aren't working. And whatever they were doing before was clearly NOT working, so I'm at least happy that the status quo is not being maintained.

That said, in the immortal words of Neil Peart, "show me, don't tell me." Let's see these changes manifest themselves into actual RESULTS on the field.

I have not for a longtime..2016..been excited about anything to do with Michigan Football.  Realistically optimistic about possibly being 8-4 or 7-5 is kind of where I am at.

You started a football related thread in early March to tell us you're not excited for football season? Almost makes sense.

Personally, since the end of the 2018 season, I've settled into the mindset that we're basically an Iowa-caliber program. So I've adjusted my expectations and excitement level accordingly. I ignore the hype.

Football will always be king in college athletics, but based on the past ten years (not exactly a small sample size of data), it looks like Michigan Basketball has a higher ceiling than Michigan Football.

I mean. Yeah, man. Way down.

How could it not be after last season? The program is a national joke. As terrible as last season was I would have been fine with it if they beat MSU. 3-9 next season. 

I'll always have excitement about Michigan football and it will no doubt build leading into late August, but it has definitely been tempered for me. The 2020 season was depressing on so many levels, and I'm less invested in spring football this year than in recent memory.   Having a historically good basketball team to follow might have something to do with that as well though.

No.

Excitement is almost non-existent for me.  Been beaten down by 20 years of mostly mediocre to bad results, constant coaching/philosophy changes, and college football in general losing much of what previously made it great.  

"Fool me once..." well, you know. Go blue?

I don't have massive expectations, but part of me is still hopeful that this team could outperform expectations. I mean, just looking at the STARZZZZ, it's not like this isn't a talented roster. As far as I can tell, we *could* start a 4* or better player at every position on the field, with most positions having one, if not multiple 4* players behind them.

Sure, some spots are thinner than others, and there isn't a wealth of experience everywhere - but it seems like with this level of talent we should at least be able to mold an above-average offense and defense. Hell, with the talent level I don't think it's unreasonable that some position groups would be legitimately good to very good. For example, how many blisteringly fast receivers are on this team? Or, how many high ceiling OL are there (Jones, Hayes, Zinter, Persi, Barnhart, Keegan)?  

I guess what I'm saying is, yes, my excitement level has been diminished but hope springs eternal.

I will never lose excitement prior to the season.  Now, during the season I've lost interest, but every year I get excited with the anticipation for the new season.

Until we finally decide that scoring points is overwhelmingly the best path to victory, no other change really matters. All the evidence I've seen suggests they're no where near such a realization.

I have to admit it no longer plays the same role. I've made my career essentially being a sports fan (and a journalist, and a computer programmer) and I always had trouble applying that to Michigan football because growing up in Ann Arbor (my dad was a professor - and hated being called doctor, to reference another popular post today) and going to Michigan - it felt like part of my DNA.

So the RichRod years hit hard. And now this inability to compete with OSU.

Unfortunately, the tail of the schedule wags the dog here. After last season's mess, I'm not sure I could get excited about this season until there's a win or two against the Buckeyes. Just doesn't feel the same as it did before that fateful opener in 2007 that signaled the end of an era.

I mean...yeah.

But it's not unique to Michigan. My excitement for college football is down in general. Next year's playoff is going to be Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and either OU, ND, or SEC runner up. Woo hoo.

Yup. Not excited. We were not good at all last year, and the coaching was even worse. The head coach is the same, so not expecting much difference regardless of new assistant coaches. 

That said, definitely will be watching and cheering U of M on. Hope to make it to the Big House too. 

But we are a basketball school now, at least until the football team actually proves itself, which I'm not holding my breath for. 

Did Covid really happen?

I’m excited to go back to the big house. But as far as the team goes give me something to be excited for? Will this team win the big ten, beat Ohio state, beat sparty, win 8 games? None of those questions are guarantees after the shit show of 2020. I’m focused on Juwan and the 2021 basketball team. Football can take a back seat until April!

I don’t really expect much from the football team other than to disappoint.

The scary thing to me is that with a young team and young staff, if they get a record around 7-5 Harbaugh can say that is a big improvement over 2-4 and convince Warde to keep Harbaugh for 2022.