Iowa Prediction
Been away from the site this week. I am not so sure Michigan took "The Leap" in destroying Rutgers. Iowa looks locked and ready while Michigan seems to still be figuring things out. Unless Dwumfour is 100% healthy, the DL may get pushed around by Iowa. May be Hinton gets more minutes. Not feeling great about the matchup. I hope to god we light them up and announce ourselves as legit in the race for B1G championship.
Iowa 24 Michigan 22
What say the board?
October 3rd, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
Iowa 35
Michigan 3
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
gee mr. maize-n-blue glasses, how do you suppose we even get the 3 points? are you predicting iowa fumbles on their own goal line?
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
I think the Rutgers game gave me some irrational confidence in our offense.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:34 PM ^
As jokes go, that is really funny!! Gold star for the wit!
October 3rd, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
Alcohol is going to stay undefeated against me.
October 3rd, 2019 at 4:34 PM ^
It always wins, always.
October 3rd, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
It's so hard to tell. Win or lose, I just hope Michigan looks like they know what they're doing. That Wisconsin game was really concerning.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
Year 5 game 5 and people are only concerned with “looking like we know what we’re doing” my god how far we’ve fallen. A win Saturday will help with the team and fanbases confidence
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
It's definitely not where I thought I'd be when Harbaugh got hired. Just look at all the "at least we win 10 games" posts. People were talking about winning championships when Harbaugh got here.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
Those trolls are just buckeye and spartan fans who pretend to be wolverine fans. They want us to burn. Unfortunately I have no confidence that Ward will put any pressure on harbaugh
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
Yeah I’ll never forget the media anointing Harbaugh as the 3rd best coach in college before even stepping a foot in Schembechler Hall. Urban Meyer was gonna run scared. We’d be crooting 5 stars non stop.
good times.
October 4th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
This ENTIRE board was saying the exact same thing.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
Why do people keep referencing "year 5" as though JH has been trying to get his players to look like they know what they have been doing for years.
The looked like they knew what they were doing A LOT the last few years.
JH hit a complete reset on offense. Now they have transition costs.
This is everything we begged and pleaded that Carr would do before he left. Get the offense to change with the times. Takes us to the next level from 10 win seasons to championship.
Why don't people ever put these things in context?
What if Dantonio hit the rest button in E.L.? Most of their fans would love it. What if it came with a transition cost?
Anyway, yeah... this is really year 5. I guess that is factually accurate, if not completely disgenuous.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:32 PM ^
UM has some toxic fans. UM isn’t getting a better coach or fit for the position than JH so I don’t know what people think would happen if he were to leave.
They must like 5-7, 6-6.
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
For better or worse UM will always be compared to OSU and will never be happy with 0-4. I know the bad call and all, but there will always be some angst until we get over that 0-fer.
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^
8-4 or 6-6 is exactly the same thing. They both mean no titles for conference play and certainly not a national title. Don't tell me the results JH has produced so far are what you were expecting when he was tripping up to the microphone five years ago.
We all had titles dancing in our heads. He hasn't done anything like it. I can't think of anything that has been more disappointing to me.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:27 PM ^
They aren’t really. Also he has gone 10-3 most seasons.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:44 PM ^
Still, no wins vs OSU. We still lose another game to another good competitor. Sometimes two. It's just not good enough. Unless the university decides it is.
They are happy with the income they are generating now. If there is no hope to ever compete for titles, you're not going to make the same money going forward.
And when another school adds on to their stadium and Alabama passes U-M in wins, we won't have any meaningless nostalgic items to reaffirm our "greatness".
The school has to decide what it wants to be. Champions or a better than average team?
October 3rd, 2019 at 8:34 PM ^
I think player compensation will change the landscape of CFB a bit and it will go into a new era. How UM was during the last 20 years won't necessarily be how they are in the player compensation era. Will they be better or worse? I have a feeling better, but only time will tell. This could be what's needed to get past the OSU's & Bama's of the world...formerly the USC's of the world.
October 3rd, 2019 at 11:49 PM ^
Possibly. Good point.
But if pay for play is as regulated as current rules are, the current cheating programs will still stand out. It will be a shift that maintains the reasonable status quo. It will just limit the number of teams that will continue to be continuing powers.
October 4th, 2019 at 7:06 AM ^
That's possible too, but it's hard to predict right now. If the only thing that's allowed is letting players accept endorsement money it's hard to think big UM donors, such as the ones funding overseas trips, wouldn't just fit the bill to have recruits endorse some product to get them to UM. The big question will be which coach's are able to "manage" this. If JH takes a back seat and doesn't do anything, meanwhile the Sabans, Smarts, & Fisher's have a plan in place, yes UM will still be second fiddle. But, if JH and his staff are able to communicate their needs to get endorsement deals to the right players, it could be a game changer.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^
Well considering that it's starting to look like Harbaugh has been insanely overrated.. and has an awful record vs our rivals and other good teams.
You really don't think at worst we could find another coach to come in and do as good as he's been already doing?
I think the chances we get another Hoke or Rodriguez are very low.
If we have a bad year with all our returning offensive starters then it would be retarded to keep Harbaugh.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:33 PM ^
The chances would be pretty high actually. There are more bad coaches than good ones.
Whomever UM would hire would be a greater risk than keeping Harbaugh.
You people are killing Michigan football with you irrationality.
October 3rd, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^
No we are not!!! We want to go back just a few years where we used to be competitive with THEEEE ohio and now and then win a B1G title and a bowl game. Our last title was 2004 and since then the following teams have either won it outright are shared it:
- THEEEEE ohio - 8 times
- Wiscy - 3
- staee - 3
- ped state - 3
Is it too fucking much to hope and actually win a title given our resources, facilities, coaches, budget and "HISTORY"??? FUCK NO!!!
Yes, going to CFP every year is completely unrealistic, but a title once every 15 years is not good.
October 3rd, 2019 at 6:22 PM ^
All hail salvatore - a man that can be critical in evaluating where we're at but also recognize we should be grateful for what we have.
Cheers.
October 3rd, 2019 at 11:52 PM ^
Sadly, our average coach is killing our program.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:32 PM ^
The reset button will give Jim another five years of 10 win seasons. Here’s an idea: stop changing OCs every year and he won’t have to keep pressing the reset button.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
He has never tried to redo the offensive philosophy and never handed control over to an OC before.
October 3rd, 2019 at 9:39 PM ^
This was the first time he changed philosphy on offense, but we can never keep an OC to save our fucking lives.. the outlier here is harbaugh, we have no sustainability.
So the coaches either suck, or they are good enough where they have success with us and leave once finished.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
The team hasn't looked good since Jedd Fisch has been gone. They were fun in 2016! They were approaching what I thought Michigan would be when I first saw the news Jim Harbaugh was going to be hired.
And now it's not just Jedd Fisch gone, it's Greg Mattison. So now the offense isn't just hurting, the defense is too.
I don't think anyone would have said 5 years ago the team would be like this 5 years down the road.
October 3rd, 2019 at 1:52 PM ^
You might be inflating Mattison’s current ability level. Mattison is culpable in the D line not having enough bodies ready to perform to expectation. He recruited and attempted to develop them. Carlo Kemp as the irreplaceable starter is as much on Mattison as anyone.
Please remember after winning the Big Ten Mattison’s first year (1992) they didn’t win the Big Ten again until he left. Greg Mattison has been on staff of 13 Michigan teams, been D coordinator 5 of those seasons and has 1 BT title. Name another coach to spend 13 seasons in AA and only have 1 Big Ten Title? worth noting Michigan won at least a share of the Big Ten the year before Mattison arrived and all 4 years after he left (including 1997 National Title).
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:22 PM ^
How many Michigan D Linemen are in the pros?
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:41 PM ^
Mattison didn’t succeed in building a deep and talented line for this year. He left the cupboard bare. Mattison didn’t get it done with a half dozen plus players who either aren’t here or in over their heads. Guys he recruited and trained.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:52 PM ^
Where's Aubrey Solomon? And who recruited him? You are blaming Greg Mattison for him?
James Hudson is supposed to be on the D Line. He was recruited by Mattison. And Hudson left Michigan because he was taken off the defensive line. Are you blaming Mattison for that?
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:54 PM ^
And I ask, how many Michigan defensive linemen are in the pros because of Greg Mattison?
October 3rd, 2019 at 9:05 PM ^
Mattison’s job was to build a defensive line. I blame him for there not being a functional line with 8-9 player depth this year. As the recruiter and the coach that is his job. Mattison himself would always say, “the expectation is for the position -next man up!” Except he left the cupboard bare this year. If he were still the Dline coach right now the Dline would still be a problem. What do you hold position coaches accountable for?
based on your posting it’s clear you have strong feelings that Michigan should never have let Mattison leave. I think Mattison has a career to be proud of but I can also see that he’s fallible and that still means accountable to the program.
your NFL question is silly. Mattison has helped a lot of kids on their journey. So has Brady Hoke and Clemson’s coach and Larry Johnson and many others.
October 3rd, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
So I see you want to stick with minimizing him.
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
They didn't look good last year? I thought they looked GREAT...right up and until OSU showed them a more modern offense approach.
Harbaugh left the Game having been woken up a bit to what is possible for real RPO teams. He wants that type of offense.
I think that is good.
I have no idea how anyone can have an opinion on what Mattison leaving means so far. Jump wildly to conclusions one way or another.
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
Harbaugh left the Game having been woken up a bit to what is possible for real RPO teams.
That's a nice story, but in reality Harbaugh has been talking about RPO since the Eagles won the superbowl... in Feb 2018.
October 3rd, 2019 at 4:10 PM ^
Talking about it with his then current staff and actually DOING it are two different things.
October 3rd, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
You've been here a long time, but you clearly haven't been paying attention lately. They talked all off season about installing RPOs for 2018, ran a few here and there, and then we harballed all the rest of the year.
If you're the sort of person who needs Brian to tell you something, feel free to look up all his posts talking about "where is the RPO that they supposedly installed?"
October 4th, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
I’d argue the OC isn’t the problem. What’s needed is an ELITE QB coach. The performance at that position has been shaky st best during Harbaugh’s entire tenure, especially when you look at the rankings of the players at that position. It doesn’t matter how good of an OC the team has if the QB play is mediocre.
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:48 PM ^
Why did JH feel the need to reset his offense? Maybe he should have been able to look at what was holding it back and fix that instead of scrapping the whole thing.
And what's going on with the defense?
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:42 PM ^
But they aren't with the times. They are doing things that were new 4 years ago.
It's like Brian has mentioned a bunch of times in different podcasts and in his articles here - we are behind the times again.
Harbaugh should have gone and gotten someone that worked under Riley or a Ryan Day clone.
UM is installing a new offensive philosophy that is almost half a decade old and any DC worth a shit already knows how to defend it. Add in transition cost timing and we are looking at being fully weaponized in another 2 years and now this damn scheme is almost a decade old.
If we are going to put things into context, that is the context. We are installing an offense that is too old already. If that isn't UM football, I guess I don't know what is.
October 3rd, 2019 at 4:55 PM ^
Because in year 5 we shouldn’t need a total reset button. This team needs to be better then they are. As far as the game I think it’s low scoring Not sure what team comes out on top yet but final of 20-17 sounds about right. Probably who ever gets more breaks wins
October 4th, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
Keep this same energy if Michigan loses to Iowam apparently 28-0 down at half to wisconsin is "transition costs"
October 3rd, 2019 at 2:35 PM ^
Year 5 game 5 and people are only concerned with “looking like we know what we’re doing” my god how far we’ve fallen
Fallen? When were we better? We are tied for the 2nd most talented team in the conference with PSU, but both significantly behind OSU. We will probably lose 4-5 games this year. This is nothing new for UM. Even if we ignore Hoke & RR, Moellar and Carr before were not much better. In 4 years Moellar had two 4-loss seasons. In his 13 years Carr and 5 4-loss (or more) seasons. If JH has 2 in his first 5 years combined with 3 10-win seasons, that's about par for the course at UM. The only problem is as UM continues to do what they've always done, OSU just keeps getting better and better. Such is life. Maybe player compensation will change the balance of power, but this is how it's been for as long as I've been alive and I'm 40.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
....but this is how it's been for as long as I've been alive and I'm 40.
It's not just number of wins and losses. It's who you beat and what you win for beating them. Carr beat OSU, won the B1G, and got a national championship. When Harbaugh has done ONE OF THOSE THINGS, a lot people will shut up. Until then, people will bitch.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
Carr also lost App State when we were #5 in the country and slated to be in the hunt for the MNC. OSU was a bit different Cooper than under Tressel and Meyer. Can't really compare them to be honest. Once Tressel showed up, it was over for Carr.
October 3rd, 2019 at 3:37 PM ^
And Harbaugh got blown out by OSU worse than any other coach in Michigan's history. Do you really want to compare Harbaugh's time at Michigan with Carr's?
Carr's 2006 season looks very much like a more successful version of Harbaugh's entire time here. Maybe sometime in the next 5 years he will be able to get 11 wins in a season.