Expectations: Beilein Standard and Harbaugh
February 5th, 2018 at 8:47 PM ^
what?
February 5th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 8:50 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
Nice South Park reference! +1...
February 5th, 2018 at 8:50 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 8:53 PM ^
Both Beilein and Harbaugh have the same standard: win. Win against rivals, win big ten championships, and win national championships. Beilein has had his up and down years, but he has gotten 2 of the 3 goals, and was damn near getting the third (it was a clean block damn it). Harbaugh has had 2 very good years, and one down year. The biggest knock against him right now is that his record against rivals is paltry. However, we were in the conversation to win the big ten east until the OSU week in the first 2 years. Let's not even talk about national championships in football right now. Their expectations are the same, but Harbaugh has had only 3 years. Have some patience and be happy when it pays off.
February 5th, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
February 6th, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
I don't think his statement implies "If we were only more lenient on assault, then we would beat OSU and MSU." It's pointing out that rivalry games have not been pretty lately for Michigan football and there is no comfort in close losses.
February 6th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^
ST3, in no way am I saying "Win at all costs", but I am simply saying that most fans don't care that our standards are higher for athlete / student acceptance to the school come the last game in November or the Bowl Game. Losing to OSU over and over doesn't get any easier by saying "Well, our student athlete's standards are higher".
February 6th, 2018 at 9:10 AM ^
How you coud possibly glean from my original post that I think gross systemic immorality is ok as long as we win is mind boggling. I am simply stating that it brings me little to no comfort as a fan that our standards are higher for the student athlete in AA than the student athlete in Columbus come the last game in November.
February 6th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
Maybe it was the "Just win. Period." that gave the impression.
February 6th, 2018 at 11:37 AM ^
Or did you read the following line about how that's all anybody cares about when it comes to OSU?
He's right. Beat OSU. Period. Exclamation mark. 100 Emoji. Somebody really got "Feel free to rape" out of that? Do people seriously need to specifically rule that out? Remind me - what did Mitch McGary's whiteboard sign say?
"WIn The Game* (*but if we fall short, we can take pride that we don't systematically condone rape culture within the athletic department, especially with regard to Olympic sports)"
Was that it? Or did it say:
"Win The Game* (*remember, we have to adhere to very tough academic standards, so losing is actually okay too. I don't mind because we don't have bagmen and that helps me cope with losing because I'm a basket case on the internet)"
Hmmm... I dunno. I thought it was simpler than that.
February 6th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
That's what Dantonio does.
February 6th, 2018 at 4:15 PM ^
You're almost there. Keep trying.
February 6th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
I'm late to the conversation here and was confused to see that you got blasted and he's got a billion upvotes. You said nothing of the sort and I agree with your original statement.
It's a huge stretch to bend your statement into "I don't care if we approve of mass sexual assault".
We can beat OSU. Regularly. I've seen it. I find no consolation in winning team GPA or Forbes' bi-weekly Best College Ever poll.
February 5th, 2018 at 9:40 PM ^
Agree mostly... but Harbaugh has not had two "very good years".
2015 was fantastic given the turnaround/context, but viewed on a raw scale without context, 9-3 with two home losses to rivals, one of which was the worst in history, is not "very good".
Given the boatload of talent in 2016, losing 3 of our last 4 was disappointing. Solid year, but not "very good" considering what it could've been and yet another loss to OSU.
If Harbaugh had beaten OSU in 2016, the 8-5 2017 would've mattered far, far less. It may not be fair, but it's true.
The problem is that we haven't won anything to help with the patience. Even mediocre teams (i.e. Iowa) typically win one big game every year or so that helps them weather the bad losses. Michigan has no such thing; we haven't won a game as an underdog under Harbaugh's tenure.
February 6th, 2018 at 1:16 AM ^
but how many games have we been an underdog in?
2015
Home OSU is probably the only one (mayyyybe at Utah to start the year?)
2016
At OSU had to be the only one.
2017
at PSU, at Wisconsin and home OSU.
0-5 is bad but that's a small sample and I'm pretty sure those were all top 5 teams except OSU this year (which was still top 10).
February 6th, 2018 at 9:16 AM ^
2015 @Utah, v. OSU
2016 @OSU
2017 @PSU, @Wiscy, OSU
0-6 in 3 years is not good, but not terrible.
February 6th, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
Yes, exactly. Definitely, bad, not horrid. But 5 losses as a favorite in 3 years isn't great either, especially with 2/5 being to Michigan State.
February 6th, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^
Squad, you hit the freaking nail on the head. I think most of the fan base will have patience through this year. If in 2020, 5 years into his tenure, he still hasn't beaten MSU and OSU in the same year it may be time to look for different options. Unless the fan base is willing to capitulate the idea of being / becoming and elite program.
February 5th, 2018 at 8:53 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
We're on to ND
February 5th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:03 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:13 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:25 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:14 PM ^
So what, exactly, are these "antics"? Seriously - I really have no clue what he does that qualifies as "antics".
He coaches football. He recruits kids to play for him. He teaches football to anyone that wants to learn. He trys to do right by his players. He lives his life as best he can.
He doesn't call the press to tell them to follow him. So seriously, what "antics" are you whining about?
February 5th, 2018 at 10:50 PM ^
February 6th, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
So he's not supposed to care enough to defend his program against known cheaters? The only "beefs" he's had were with people who attacked his program. He has never once made a first strike against anyone. I'd rather have a coach that feels strongly enough to react to idiots than one that just lets everything bombard the program.
February 6th, 2018 at 8:54 AM ^
You want mature discourse on Twitter? Mature discourse in 280 characters or less? Twitter's entire format is designed to encourgage flamewar-style debate. To quote the WOPR
February 5th, 2018 at 9:58 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:41 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 11:42 PM ^
You seem like a fun guy.
Or not...
February 6th, 2018 at 10:48 AM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 8:59 PM ^
The JB standard is solid, but not elite. Based on this, it could be said that Harbaugh is more or less meeting that standard to date.
February 5th, 2018 at 9:03 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
February 6th, 2018 at 2:07 AM ^
to OSU football (in terms of a quality opponent and rivalry importance).
For Beilien to be 8-7 against MSU in the past 8 years is impressive. BUT, in Beilein's first three years, he was 0-4 against Izzo. So Harbaugh is on par with that standard, and would need to go .500 from here on out to keep up.
February 6th, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
Beilein walked into a significantly worse situation vs. MSU than Harbaugh did though. Izzos teams in the late aughts made two Final Fours.
More importantly, Hoke did recruit well, besides the last year, whereas MBB recruiting had been bad for a decade at U of M before Beilein arrived.
February 6th, 2018 at 8:59 AM ^
MSU has yet to produce a game plan sufficient to defeat Michigan under Jim Harbaugh. Frustratingly, we have seen fit to hand two wins over to them by shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes and turnovers. We go into East Lansing next season and play a clean game, we're going to win.