Herbstreit tells Rich Eisen that while Michigan plays for each other, OSU plays for individual glory and the NFL draft

Their inability to accept what amounts to gentle and well-intentioned constructive criticism from a friend will continue to undo them.  

I like for them to remain delusional. Hopefully that continues to permeate the program so they never actually fix the problem.

Blame weather, flu, "only 5 bad plays", cheating. Don't examine whether you are recruiting the right kind of kids, developing them correctly, creating a culture of toughness and togetherness. Just keep doing what y'all are doing. Seems to be working well.

I am not so sure about OSU players not having a team mentality.  Can't possibly prove this statement.  But I will say that if you look at the demeanor of the OSU QBs over the past 3 seasons -- Stroud and McCord -- specifically when playing against Michigan, they are almost stoic throughout the game.  Then you look at JJ in the same games and he is Michigan's best cheerleaders both on the sidelines and in the game.  I could say the same for Cade.

I think the attitude of the QB rubs off on the rest of the team.  The greatest QBs tend to be the most demonstrative -- Brady, Mahomes, Montana.  Stetson Bennett and Trevor Lawrence were like that.  Tua and Jalen Hurts amped it up during big games.

I don't know, this seems like it could be a thing.  I think the guy that is transferring in for next season, Will Howard, is a step in the right direction.  But Ryan Day might end up giving him a frontal lobotomy too.  And for Michigan's sake I hope this happens.

They are really holding on for dear life to the "Michigan is only where they are because they cheated" thing.  It's their binkie, it's all they have.

Does it also piss anyone else off how the vast majority of their posters completely dismiss the last 3 years? I guess we'd do the same

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed the hell out of that thread. Those nutjobs are so broken. All they can resort to is delusional “but they cheated!!” remarks and wet dreams of the “hammer” coming down on Michigan. Great content. 

11W is chock full of dissonance, though it sure as hell ain't cognitive. Aren't we just a few days removed from their cult leader shouting about how they need to be a cutthroat business and the whole site doing Kool Aid shooters in response?

It’s amazing that every comment on the board that isn’t 100% positive or that isn’t 100% rippingnon Michigan is greyed out and suppressed.  Obviously we’re just talking CFB message boards, but that’s some seriously fascist stuff.  It’s honestly a bit disturbing 

One bad half, guys.

While I wish we were pulling in top talent like the current Haves, I'm glad we are not littering our locker room with those types of attitudes. Obviously we still need to snag a 5 star here and there every year. But team chemistry and attitude seems even more important. 

Culture is not cut and paste.  It is inherent and has to be created from grounds up.  However, Day shouldn’t mess with what he has built.  Working great for us.

I wouldn’t definitively know if that’s true or not. A guy like MHJ seems like a genuinely good dude, and the fact that he was even remotely considering coming back when he had absolutely zero reasons to do so tell me that he isn’t all about himself. 

I do know this, that fanbase is soft AF. For years they were telling Michigan fans to stop whining, stop making excuses, and just accept that they were a lesser team getting beat by a better team. Here they are, the shoes on the other foot, and all they have are the excuses of “THEY’RE CHEATERS!” 

Like a bunch of fucking five-year-olds we’re only ever used to getting what they wanted, and now they are whining because their toy got taken away and they don’t know how to handle it.

Maybe Michigan beat you because it adopted a defensive scheme that was specifically designed to play against your style of offense. Maybe because your defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed in ‘21 and ‘22. Michigan could’ve handed you its entire playbook, and held up a sign all game saying “HASKINS IS RUNNING UP THE MIDDLE, WE ARE NOT PASSING” and you still wouldn’t have been able to stop him. 

At a certain point, your problems with losing to Michigan are on you. Not Conner Stallions. But if you need to tell yourselves that Michigan cheated so you can sleep at night, then go for gusto, I guess. The problem for you is that nobody’s listening anymore.

Nice….Those Champions Up North

He’s exactly right. While OSU wants to beat Michigan, they think it’s just a given that they will.  It’s a level of entitlement that Michigan doesn’t have.  

After the 2002 national championship, Ohio State held a championship celebration in the horseshoe. One of their linebackers sang Carmen Ohio. You need not be an Ohio State fan to be moved by the passion of his singing, the beautiful lyrics, and the obvious love and admiration he has for his Alma Mater.

After the Cotton Bowl, coaches had to pull Ohio State players out of the locker room to stand for Carmen Ohio.

I think of the transfer portal timing like the NFL draft, the early your season ends the more options you have, those teams playing in the finals will have the scraps ( ala late round picks). 

When I look back at JH's time at UM (hope it isn't ending next week), he really seemed to have a strong team culture the 1st few years. The team went "into the submarine" for a few weeks in August 2015 to avoid any noise. That team exceeded expectations with 10 wins with a transfer QB. 2016 was pretty strong but some spotty QB play at the end of the year (plus "the spot") ruined what should have been a playoff run.

I don't think leadership was the problem in 2017, just some really bad QB play.

Not sure exactly when the culture started to slide for us, but the 2019-style loss at Wisconsin happens when you have people playing for the draft. No way should we ever be behind anyone 35-0. Higdon sitting out the bowl at the end of 2018 as a captain (and then not getting drafted) was another sign that something was missing in the locker room.

This board has pretty much dissected the mess that was 2020.

I suspect some of the "me first" attitude that crept in was partly due to a few coaches own attitudes (DB, Warinner, Gattus - who did have a good 2021 but showed his arse on the way out the door). JH's decision to bring in the two Mikes (Macdonald and Hart) really did wonders. JH knew what it was like to take over a team in the doldrums, including having to fix UM both after 2014 and post covid. Meanwhile, 3rd base is finally feeling the wrath and is throwing people under the bus.