Harbaugh: No red items or beverages allowed at workouts or practice.
https://twitter.com/EJHolland_TW/status/1403492038683906055?s=19
I prefer blue or grape Gatorade anyway. No skin off my bones.
Sorry for the mgoposters who get irrationally mad at things like this but also get mad when they don't happen.
We honeymooned in Italy at New Years and it is there tradition to give new "clean" red underwear for New Years'. So I have lots of red boxers. I don't wear any of them during football season.
Further proof that Harbaugh is still living in the 70s, when people took this sort of thing seriously n
It's about time.
Bring it, Harbs! I welcome some healthy competition to The Game again.
Of course, banning red doesn't immediately impact the team's performance on the field; but it does work toward establishing a culture that will result in an impact on the team's performance on the field.
Cooper came in wanting the treat The Game like just another game and spectacularly flamed out in the rivalry because of it. Tressel instituted culture ("...in 310 days") and used Cooper's players to beat Michigan with an inferior roster than Cooper's best teams ('95-'97) that couldn't beat Michigan.
Hoke brought the culture, which resulted in a win, a nearly historic upset, a one-score game, and a 5-7 team that was down only one score in the 4th Q against the eventual NC. The Hoke regime had other...uhh...obvious blemishes.
I would have thought Harbaugh would've effectively brought the culture from Day 1. Perhaps he did, but the course of events went otherwise and now he's more desperate to institute a culture of rivalry with this seemingly insignificant pettiness. But it's all about culture change.
I think you're spot on, BuckeyeChuck. OSU definitively has the on-field talent advantage, and they probably have a better all around coaching staff as well. What absolutely should never happen is the observable gap between OSU's preparedness for The Game and Michigan's lack there of. That is purely a function of effort and time on task for a competent staff, which is an extension of the program culture.
It's painstakingly obvious (for Michigan fans) that OSU has scouted Michigan's roster and tendencies down to the granular detail. They know exactly where they want to attack and how they are going to do it, and they consistently predict what Michigan's adjustment will be and have a plan for that as well. Michigan, on the other hand, looks like they're trying to figure out how to respond in real time like a deer in the headlights, especially defensively. Michigan typically isn't going to be able to match OSU's talent on the field, but the culture piece you mentioned is the preparation leading up to The Game. Michigan may be outgunned on the field, but they should be equally prepared, mentally and schematically, for The Game on Saturday.
Yeah. I dont think any aspect of this team has been anywhere near competent enough to begin playing at that level since 2016.
Nice try Chuck. UM does not have a program identity and you love/know it.
Why? Why would you want healthy competition?
I know you are trying to portray someone level-headed; I just don't buy this for a second.
If I were you guys, I'd want to win the next 100 games, each by the score of 80-0.
Any OSU fan posting on MGo probably has a pretty healthy respect for UM... so most likely they (we) lived through the 90's. Do we like Michigan... hell no! Do we respect Michigan... absolutely. I never want to lose to UM again... but that doesnt mean UM and The Game don't command my attention, or respect for the rivalry.
Just one OSU fan's take.. but their are many more of us out here that think the same way than most UM fans expect.
No Coke cans/bottles or Mountain Dew Code Red allowed
Next should be, Michigan gases up the buses in Temperance, MI so they don't spend any money in Ohio
Fans are going to roll their eyes at this and putting up a sign in the weight room but something needs to happen. The teams mindset needs to change. They may lose this year but at least we are seeing proof early on that The Game is not just another game.
Back in the day, Woody Hayes was running on an empty tank while recruiting in Michigan and was very emphatic that he would not buy any gas until he was back in Ohio. True story.
He should try beating them...I'm sure it's great hosting kids for "The big game" when most of our stadium is scarlet.
Other than W-L, this is the thing which pisses me off most about this fanbase. It's fucking Senior Day and yet a home game for the visitors.
If you sell your tix, you're essentially giving a middle finger to those senior student athletes that gave so much to the program you claim to be a fan of.
Anyone who sells their tickets to someone from ohio should be permanently banned from the stadium.
Agreed. The problem is Buckeye fans are willing to pay more - at least until we beat them and it’s no longer a guaranteed victory. You can either sell two tickets at face value to a fellow Wolverine or sell them for $1,500 to a Buckeye fan. - No joke, I had two tickets to the 2018 game in Columbus (I live in Ohio) and my daughter didn’t want to go so I posted them for $1500 on FB and the guy who came to pick them up was driving an old Chrysler LeBaron that had rope holding the trunk down or the bumper up, maybe both. The car wasn’t even worth $1500 but he had no problem handing over the cash.
I think this is great and it certainly helps our cause by getting everyone psychologically and emotionally invested in beating Ohio State.
I'm sure the Suckeyes are quaking in their boots.
Great.
In 2001 the record was UM leading 56-34-6.
It's now UM 58-51-6 and it's not a rivalry.
OSU will take back a 22 game deficit in less than 30 years.
When you win twice in 20 years, banning red Gatorade is key.
They lost their QB. We finally have a QB. The opportunity is there.
Please share exactly who this QB is that we have that is going to beat Ohio St.
I'm waiting with you. Been listening to this shit for two decades now. OSU losing their QB to the NFL draft or eligibility used up. Their next RS freshman or sophomore QB steps in and absolutely TORCHES our ass.
They could run out their head cheerleader at QB- it doesn't fucking matter.
They could run out their head cheerleader at QB- it doesn't fucking matter.
They lost their QB.
Yep, just like in previous years.
I fail to see how that has had an impact on the final score.
Just like when barret got hurt and in comes Haskins and lights us up!
I guess now that we're over six years into this, it feels a little more gimmicky than anything else, but it is certainly a gesture that was perhaps a long time coming in what was supposed to be a rekindling of this rivalry. It probably will get a few people off his case when it comes to the cultural trappings of the rivalry, although obviously the desired step is to pepper the rivalry with the occasional win.
The tweet link isn't working so I wasn't able to see it, (and therefore some of this may have been addressed) but there is so much to unpack here.
1) Other than maybe NFL scouts, why the f*&! has red clothing been allowed at practice in the first place? This is a football TEAM which wears a UNIFORM. The only colors that should have been allowed are blue, maize, and neutral colors like white, gray, and black. Coaches and staffers should have been held to these same standards.
2) Ignoring the above, this move just feels like grasping at straws from a coach with no answers at this point. Michigan can't out-recruit them or outscheme OSU, let's find some made up motivation.
3) Team culture is about establishing what you are as a program and how you approach things. Early in Harbaugh's tenure, we heard stories about guys winning a competition in practice and then "earning the right" to condition to "get the opportunity to get better." Whatever you think about that in particular, the belief in using every opportunity to get better was something to be relished, appreciated or earned is/was a Michigan football cultural touchstone (no idea if they are still doing this). This move just feels clownish.
4) If your team culture is going to be about beating a singular team (and I, for one, don't think it should be), then one idea might be to start seriously ramping up your Ohio recruiting and negative recruiting the shit out of Ohio State. But I guess Michigan fans will have to settle for no red gatorade at practice.
Re #1. Recall that Michigan fired the head coach who didn’t wear red, even at his other coaching jobs.
Great ! Victory is now assured against Tosu and now we wont even have to watch the game .
Cool. That plus actually trying to score points and maybe we'll be on to something.
It’s sad that people think this makes a difference, especially seven years in. These aren’t gradeschoolers.
Fans are having fun college banter. It's truly a travesty and unacceptable.
Well it's about damn time.
Good
Zzzzzzzzzzz. Beat OSU and then I’ll get excited.
Good. That covers Nebraska and Wisconsin as well.
You left out Rutgers.
#disrespekt
And Indiana I guess
YES! This is long overdue.
The rest of the B10 doesn't have a chance having to go to class as well as football practice while Ohio State players are all taking on-line classes and most of them are not there to "play school". That's per one of their past quarterbacks I recall.
You left out the spot, non-noon kickoffs, the refs, and bagmen.
He also left out competent coaching, not being baselessly arrogant and full of yourself, not living in your own world where catchphrases and an obsession with the past are acceptable substitutes with actually competing, not making excuses all the time, etc.
It'll be nice if this gimmick works to bring about a win over the Buckeyes, but considering the results of the past 20 years, I'm still skeptical that the curse will be reversed anytime soon.*
What’s next? A clock in the locker room that shows the elapsed time since the last time Michigan beat Ohio State in football? Time dedicated in each practice to preparing for Ohio State? Covering up all the “Os” on the Michigan campus during the week of the -hi- State game? During that week, will Michigan fans have to write and say "G- Blue!!!"
* I lived through the pain of being a Red Sox and Giants fan from 1957 through 2003 and never expected to see results like the 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018 World Series championships before I died, so I guess that there's always a chance of an upset victory in 2021.
Maybe they could do something unique, like let every fan kick a coach in the junk for every TD OSU scores this year...maybe that would motivate a change in the rivalry??
May be Harbaugh will start game planning against OSU from the first week of the season. We know OSU does that and will want to blow us out every time we meet. Michigan looks so unprepared playing OSU the last 3 season. About time Harbaugh took the game more serious.
Michigan looked unprepared against Michigan State last season.
This won’t make a difference, but it’s fun. And the team has lacked intensity against OSU.
I had real question about three of the coaches on staff last year. One is now gone, and two have had their roll on the staff changed/reduced. There will be a difference in play in the team this year.
Harbaugh...game planning? What is this of which you speak?
Because Wisconsin crushed them last year?
The new playoff should help. M can not change its demographic disadvantages. Academic reputation matters. However, it's not like M is competing for lots of aerospace engineering students. Academic reputation, funding, tradition, a big stadium, and name recognition provide a good base to build on.
But, and this is a big BUT
until M modifies policies like its non-competitive transfer rules, institutes progressive cutting edge NIL practices, and buries once and for all Michigan Man entitlement mentality, M will not be competitive with the top CFB programs.
Academic reputation matters.
Ahhh the 'ol academicz excuse.
Michigan football players are not pulling down 3.8/32 ACT like the rest of had to.