Let’s not lose sight of Michigan football history

Submitted by MGoGrendel on

I don’t start many OP’s, but two things prompted me to throw this up on the board.

  • We’re posting a lot of ideas/complaints about what’s currently wrong with the program.
  • Sparty is Facebook bragging about (8) 10 win seasons in their school history

 

**EDIT - sorry!  Didn't intend to make everyone extra salty!

 

Let’s not lose sight of the rich history we have at Michigan...

...and the bragging rights we hold.  For comparison, here all time 10+ win seasons by Michigan and selected rivals

Michigan – 27  (11 by Bo in 21 years)

OSU – 25  (5 by Woody in 28 years)

PSU – 23  (21 by JoePa in 45 years)

Notre Dame – 16  (2012 and 2013 vacated)

Wisconsin – 12  (all since 1993)

Iowa – 8  (5 by Ferentz; 3 by Fry)

MSU – 8  (6 by Mork)

Illinois – 3, with (6) 10 loss seasons

Rutgers – 2, with (4) 10 loss seasons

 

Yeh, but... that’s history.  What about the relatively short period of time I’ve been a fan.

 I get it, we are all salty.

Since 2000, OSU has (13) 10+ win seasons, Wisconsin has 9, Michigan and MSU both have 6 while Iowa, PSU, and Notre Dame all have 5.  Our Rivals have recent success; Michigan has success and a proud history.

(Notes: in 2016, the NCAA vacated ND wins for 2012 and 2013; the same years PSU was ineligible for bowls.  OSU's total doesn’t include their vacated year.  Very bad news for three of our rivals while we got caught for stretching.) 

In the long history of Michigan Football, we have only (1) 9 loss season, (0) 8 loss seasons, and (5) 7 loss seasons.  Of course, two of the 7 loss and the lone 9 loss season happened very recently under RR and Hoke.  Which, along with all the recent OSU 10 win seasons, is a big reason for the saltiness around here.

 

So, what’s your point?

Jim is a winner.

We’re all aware of the program turn-arounds at Stanford and San Francisco.  He totally changed the culture here and is bringing in better players.  We finished in the Top 10 last year.  We were one healthy shoulder and 4 points away from a 12-0 start in 2016.   Some “experts” are predicting we will be a playoff team next year!

He will get the OL, QB, and position coaches to make us successful.  The defense reloaded this year after sending a boat load of starters to the NFL.  We are going to be reloading on the offense, too. 

As I said before, we all expected an 8 or 9 win season this year but are pissed that it comes with 4 or 5 losses.  Harbaugh has two 10 win seasons in three years here and I expect 10 win seasons to become a regularity for us.  Not that 10 wins will guarantee less saltiness… 

 

Go Blue and Happy New Year!

 

MGoBoard
Football

I Just Blue Myself

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

It's a lot more fun to look back at the tradition when we are winning. "We are kicking your ass right now like we always have!" is much more satisfying than saying,"Oh yeah! Well we USED to be good! Take that!" 

Do you think students at the University of Chicago find joy and satisfaction that they have more Big Ten titles than five current Big Ten schools, and more Heismans than over half the Big Ten?

Joined: 08/10/2015

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evenyoubrutus

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^

The history is part of the program. That's one reason I find it ridiculous when people call Michigan a mediocre or average program. Programs like Michigan that have the history will always have periods of being down but the foundation is what will keep Michigan going. Will MSU continue this success once Mork is gone? They are basically the kid from Troy who was sent to wake up Achilles 

 

[I don't know if that analogy even works I just wanted to reference it]

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evenyoubrutus

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^

I don't know. I grew up in the '90's and saw 1 national championship, 2 heisman trophy winners and 6 Big Ten championships, not to mention pure domination over our rivals. OSU is going through a similar period of success right now. Every program waxes and wanes.

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evenyoubrutus

January 3rd, 2018 at 3:15 PM ^

My only point is that most of us DO remember Michigan being a winning program. Even up until the last couple of years Lloyd Carr had a ridiculously good record against top 10 teams.

Until 2002, Ohio State had not won a national championship since 1968. Michigan had a very solid winning record over them in that time period and they probably seemed to be a similar program that Michigan is now, or maybe a bit better. But they were able to get back to back head coaches who are elite and a perfect fit for the program. Things are always changing, and they often happen when it's least expected.

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UMxWolverines

January 3rd, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^

We have never won a single game because of tradition. Notre Dame is still trying to win like they used to. Clemson has no where near the tradition of us and look how great they've been the last three years. We'll win again once we realize tradition means nothing and you just have to outwork everyone else.

Joined: 03/01/2009

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Tex_Ind_Blue

January 3rd, 2018 at 3:44 PM ^

You have seen a lot more Michigan football than I have. The first game I saw was UM-Purdue in 1999. Never thought I would like the "football" as my students were talking about. But things changed and the Daily headline of "Drew who?" got me hooked. So I have not seen or lived through the 70s, 80s and 90s. For most of my time, I have seen UM losing to OSU. I have seen MSU keep beating UM. I have also seen UM being on the other side of that equation from 2002 - 2007. 

My point is, yes it's difficult to sale a losing product to kids who have never seen you win. But as fans, there is no reason we should forget who we were. No need to only bask in that glory, no need to pooh pooh it either. 

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UMxWolverines

January 3rd, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^

Can we live in the now please? And also not make guarantees for something that is not guaranteed to happen? Wisconsin plugs in whoever at coach and still wins. Hell Cryst did nothing at Pitt and just went 13-1. If they hire Narduzzi they more than likely will be just fine.

Joined: 03/01/2009

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Tuebor

January 3rd, 2018 at 8:04 PM ^

Objectively speaking, they beat our 10 win teams while we beat their 3 win teams. Our wins against Dantonio have come over his 1st, 3rd, and 4th worst teams. We haven't beaten an osu team with more than 6 wins since 2003. We haven't beat an msu team with more than 7 wins since 2003 too. Since 2003 osu has beaten our 3 out of our 4 10+ win teams. MSU has beaten 2 out of 4 of our 10+ win teams. At some point we need to start beating good msu and osu teams, they dont seem to have a problem beating good UM teams.

Joined: 03/14/2011

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Jed Eckert

January 4th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^

Sounds a bit like generalization without looking at the all the results.  Implying MSU beats our 10 win teams, then following with our wins against dantoinio's poor teams.  Dantonio has beaten 2 of our ten win teams - one with a fluke play.  In his tenure at MSU, Michigan has only had 3 10 win seasons.  Its not like he has seen a large number of good Michigan teams (3 of his wins were against michigan teams with more than 7 wins).  Seems as though maybe MSU beats our poor teams.

This dantonio love gets really tiring.

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redhed

January 4th, 2018 at 9:16 AM ^

At this stage, I think it is first and foremost about fielding teams that are BiG championship contenders.   We potentailly had that last year, but failed.  The fan base spends each offseason and September talking about history and how we will win, but haven't yet participated in a B1G championship game.  We need a culture where people (and players) are pissed and play with an edge, not a group that talks about MSU being "a fly on the windshield" when Harbaugh gets his guys.

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UM Fan from Sydney

January 3rd, 2018 at 10:39 PM ^

Been with this line of thinking for years. I just could NOT give any fucks about when Michigan used to be consistently good. With the exception of few bright spots, Michigan football has been mediocre or worse since the turn of the century (2001....yeah, correct math never lies).

Joined: 09/17/2015

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UMAmaizinBlue

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^

And optimistic about the future without delving into the not-too-recent-past. Besides, knowing we haven't won shit since half my life ago only makes me more depressed. All I have left is optimism, but the past doesn't hold it as well as the future.

Joined: 09/23/2009

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mGrowOld

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^

Everybody here KNOWS we have a wonderful, rich tradition of winning football.  Which is why 8-5 sucks so badly!   Jesus people it's like starting a thread to "remind us" we've got really cool helmets and oh....did you guys know that our fight song The Victors is pretty damn awesome too?????

I feel like we're a guy in high school getting his ass kicked in a fight wanting to remind the dude kicking his ass that back in kindergarden he wasnt so tough and from pre-K all the way through 5th grade we were 14-3 in playground fights.

I. Dont. Fucking. Care.

And everybody else is laughing at us for bringing it up.

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BG Wolverine

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^

The problem is it is going to take a good 7 - 10 year run of us beating osu and msu about 2 out of 3 times to shut up all those fans.  A large hole has been dug and it will take awhile to fill it in.  does anyone think if we had beaten either of those 2 teams this year their fan bases would have stopped gloating?  MSU perhaps as it would have been 2 years in a row, but not OSU, they would still be yapping.  And MSU acts as if the circumstances of the 2015 loss and this year don't exist.  Its as if we got pummled by 21+ points each game.

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lbpeley

January 3rd, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^

That's what makes this "remember our history" thing so useless. My 20 yr old nephew doesn't give a rat's ass that my 40 yr old self remembers UM's dominance over his spartans and the bucks. In his memory span msu has won. That's all that matters to him. Really, it's all that should matter. Someone above posted that U of Chicago fans probably aren't bragging about their wins from early 1900's anymore.

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SeattleWolverine

January 3rd, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^

First, if Sparty fans on Facebook or Michigan fans on Facebook for that matter bragging matters at all you should seriously reflect on why you care in the least about what strangers on Facebook are saying about football, or anything else.

 

Second, can we please stop with the "As I said before, we all expected an 8 or 9 win season this year but are pissed that it comes with 4 or 5 losses. " revisionist history. We've been over this before and the mean and median predictions in the preseason prediction thread were 10-2. That thread needs to be a sticky. 

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