Let's revisit an old thread: "What are your real expectations if we get Harbaugh"?

Hindsight is always 20/20, and the disappointment is real - but I am still firm in that Harbaugh is the guy and the cons of moving on from him outweigh the pros (pros being 10 wins/year, cons being significant chance of being Nebraska/Tennessee/2008-14 fulltime)

Harbaugh gets full credit on one and then say, half credit for two more of those goalposts

....and yet there are maybe 6 programs in the country that are consistently put out better teams than Michigan under Harbaugh.

So, like, whatever man. It's still all about the G.D. Buckeyes.

OSU ascended while Harbaugh was playing catch up. We lost 4 years of potential progress on offense but I think we've finally found the right scheme. We were snakebit to not win the conference and make the playoffs once. It's a combination of bad luck and shitty circumstances (our rival has peaked).

Self examination is well and good, but anyone demanding wholesale HC and coordinator changes is being reactionary. 

Look at Harbaugh's W-L records/SP etc  and stack it up to this program's overall performance from 1969 to Hoke. Yes, we currently lack conference championships and wins over OSU that were more common through mid-Carr. However, there were only a couple undefeated seasons and we typically lost the bowl game. And thru most of the 70s and 80s, there was only one or two games - OSU, occasionally ND - that caused angst. There was no Penn St on the schedule. MSU was MSU. Iowa didnt get good until '81. Wisconsin was an also-ran until 1993. I could go on: the conference is better now and OSU has never been better. 

Let's be honest, years three and four saw substantial regression during the Drevno/Hamilton regime on offense. Fisch took all the good parts of the Stanford/Harbaughfense with him, and we were left with a shell that had numerous issues, e.g. OL having two different position coaches, one teaching zone blocking, the other teaching power.

They were lost seasons. Consider this year three; we changed offensive scheme at the start of this year with signs that it is starting to take. It's less crazy-making that way.

I admit, I was super pumped when he was hired.  Having graduated in 1972, I grew to absolutely love Bo - he won and showed class off the field. He's still is my all time favorite Wolverine - player or coach. 

When JH was hired my immediate thought was "here we go."  And I realistically gave him a couple of years to turn the mess he inherited around.  But then came the numerous  childish and immature social media spats with other coaches and ADs. That sent up a red flag. And again this year when he said that "Meyer has problems wherever he goes" - or something to that effect. Enough ! Just think before you speak (if possible).

5 years now and NO B1G titles, another 3 loss season (so far), and 0-5 against OSU after getting completely curb stomped again.  $8 million a year ? The party is over and not just for me but a lot of other old-time graduates that donate back to the university.  Troll ? No, I have Maize & Blue running through my blood and think we deserve better than a childish acting coach that can't back it up - especially against the school he was hired to beat

Obviously, no one's going to predict a bunch of second-place finishes and whatnot.

But 10-3, 10-3, 8-5, 10-3, 9-3 is a very normal stretch for Michigan historically, very much reminiscent of the 1969-2007 period, which is what a lot of us wanted to return to after the two previous disastrous hires. 

The problem is OSU.  They won it all the year before Harbaugh and have not only kept it up but are probably even better now than they were then (could you imagine a .500 VT team beating them by two touchdowns this season?).    

Ok I get it if you're disappointed, I am too, but I'm just not going to get on board every opportunity to punch myself in the dick for daring to have some hope 5 years ago. I promise it won't happen again.

I am certai ly disappointed with the results.   But I now also realize the college football landscape has changed a lot since he was hired.  The only way to keep up with OSU is basically ally ro cheat or not have academic restrictions for athletes.

Michigan cannot compete with OSU, ALabama, Clemson or LSU unless they play the same game and that is to not have football players get a real education, or to pay kids to come to Michigan.

Schools with standards and ethics cannot compete in this current setup.

Not disappointed at all.  Got back to normal with MSU, almost beat those fuckers twice, ten wins are now ho hum.  We have the best coach we could possibly have.

Lol. I’m not sure the expectations of MGoBloggers means much to anyone inside the athletic Dept. 
 

I think this indicates how difficult of a job it is to compete with OSU in this modern era of college football. They are the Bama of the big ten, so eventually someone will have to knock them off the hill. This just isn’t the year 

Everyone expected Michigan to at least win a big ten championship and beat Ohio state at least once by year 5. He has done neither. Therefore he has significantly failed to meet expectations. It’s a shame but this is the reality of Michigan football. Harbaugh is the best option right now and that means being Ohio states bitch. 

The funny thing to me is that the old thread actually had a decent number of posts with measured expectations that were met in reality or even surpassed.

Of course there were some clowns then, many of whom still hang around here and still act like clowns.

Wasn't this ... 

A few championships of some sort. Elite top 5 recruiting on a regular basis.  Exceptional roster depth at all positions.  Discipline.

Based upon the many posts I have read, I'm reduced to being happy with 9 to 10 wins a year and maybe 11 rarely. 

Unless we have a future elite prospect on the team that can take us to the next level to electrify recruits again, I've moved on. 

Enjoying what we have, not dreaming about what we will never have.  Unless we want to bend the rules and run a sleazy program, this is the ceiling.

Biggest disappointment is he really hasn’t had that “magical” season where it all comes together. He’s been consistently good and if not for injuries in 17 his record would be even better. But he hasn’t had a season where it all came together. A lot of the coaches ppl compare him to have that 1 season and live off it for a while. Malzahn may have beaten Bama but Auburn has a worse record than UM since Harbaugh arrived. He gets credit for the 1 national championship despite the other seasons that were worse than Harbaughs. Same for Orgeron. Before this year what had he done? And we’ll see what he does after Burrow leaves. Same for Brian Kelly. 

I guess either I am an optimist, realist or an idiot. I still think that closing the recruiting gap is a more time consuming task than in the past. I believe we are making gains. Fact of the matter is is OSU had a huge jump on us when Harbaugh got here. We were a train wreck when he arrived. Remember? I personally believe he will get us there. OSU is playing with there new coaches personality, even and consistent not as unpredictable as when Meyer was there. They played like Meyer acted and they would melt down one game a season. Ok, maybe I am an idiot but I believe its it's coming. 

I think a lot of people thought about what Harbaugh achieved at that PAC-10 football armpit called  Stanford, and how he resuscitated the SF 49ers off the NFL gurney, thinking "Harbaugh is Anakin Skywalker and will bring balance back to the Force!"

In a way he has.

Michigan is a 9-3 or 9-4 football program again. Just like it was under LLoyd Carr.

A lot of mouth breathers don't want to accept this fact, but there it is.  Check the math.

A lot of people on this blog are downright Carr-era romantics anyway, because they keep talking about Brady and Woodson and Mike Hart and Mario Manningham, the great 97 and 06 defenses, etc.

The only missing ingredient for Harbaugh right now is a win over Ohio State. 
But matters are different today.

I don't think anyone here back in 2014 believed Ohio State would land BIG10 recruiting classes ranked 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st. 1st, 3rd and 1st. 

But that's exactly what The Sith have done.

Maybe Brian is right?

Maybe to defeat evil (cheating, no integrity, breaking rules, reinstating players, $ bagmen, interest free loans to players and their families, dealer rental sports cars, weekend recruiting hostesses) while the NCAA stands there and does nothing, you have to become something you are not.

I don't like that idea.

But if nobody cares what Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama and Georgia are doing, and all of this "student athlete" business is one giant lie and pretense, then if you can't beat them, join them.

And then let's see who really lands the top recruiting class on a consitent basis. It won't even be close.

College football is a bigger raw sewage cesspool than most people want to acknowledge. In my view Harbaugh is doing pretty well under the circumstances, and is probably a greater self-critic than any of the Michigan fans and haters combined.

I’m pretty disappointed in the lack of consistency in coaching staff. I understand there is turnover when someone is exceeding expectations but I feel like every year we have 2-3 guys departing. Maybe I’m off on that but I do feel that way. I’m also disappointed in our lack of QB development, maybe we have missed on our recruits or these guys aren’t getting the time they should, hopefully Milton or McCaffery change that. The dumb mistakes we seem to make on a game to game basis. Finally, the lack of excitement for bowl games. We should be undefeated in our bowl games but it seems every year since year 1 the bow ll game isn’t good enough for us. 

positives are the fact that we have been relevant through most of these 5 years 47-17 feels good after 43-41.. I’m a 90’s baby so besides the early 2000’s I’ve suffered through a lot of bad to finally see a little success. I get mad and upset but that’s because I didn’t have much to root for when I first became a fan and it feels good to at least have something good happen most years besides that last game of the season, I can only remember 3 or 4 wins? 

I can laugh at these, since I hadn't joined yet.

But the consensus seems to be we were duped.

Complete failure!

Ill answer your question with a question. What is your expectation of the competing program down south during harbaughs first 5 coaching years?  

Who would have thought that team would be the best looking team they have put together over the past decade the year after UM retired?

I'm disappointed, sure. But the following is a list of possible replacements who would do better and who Michigan could realistically land:

I expected that Alum96 would still be posting here in year 5 of the Harbaugh era.

Did not happen...