Michigan football and unearned arrogance

Cannot beat OSU on recruiting trail unless we get an Ohio sourced coaching staff, with all the contacts and influence that go with it.  Its our only way back... OSU is taking so many out of staters and alot of Ohio region players want to play in the game...  might need to get Fickell in this light.  Dantonio suffices but that ship sailed in 2005.

A good starting player from Ohio is worth 10X a guy from Connecticut... they have so much on the line personally...  they were spurned by OSU and have so much at stake, along with a massive chip.

Our downfall was when Treseel locked out the state to us... Hoke miraculously got us back in, Harbaugh didn't continue it, instead he hammered on the northeast and Georgia.   He had the opportunity to hire Ohio staffers and keep Hoke's excellent Ohio recruiting going, and he didn't.  Harbaugh had one chance, had we won in 2016, and only then attack the area.  He did try with our LB coach but then he flipped to OSU.. brilliant move by them to steal him....they understand how critical it is to keep us out of Ohio.  Yeah, yeah, many are gonna say that there are great players outside of Ohio.. there are, but that has poor perspective with our rivalry and history.

this is all bullshit man -- we hired the best coach available after hoke.  now it's time for a change, and yes we keep getting our butts kicked by ohio.  has nothing to do with arrogance

Tldr.

Regardless of the football program's status, I'm extremely proud to be a Michigan alum.  How well the football program's doing doesn't change my feelings on that. That may be a significant departure from the feelings of those fans that never attended but still love the school primarily because of football.

I agree with you on the whole Michigan Man thing, but Rich Rod is not without fault.  You can’t come in with crazy new ideas, proceed to go 3-9, and then get upset when you’re not handed the keys to the Ferrari. That was the magic of Bo. He was an outsider with new ideas.  The difference?  He won.  Your point about Michigan Men still stands though.  I’d be happy to never hear that phrase uttered again. 

Some good points about Ohio and recruiting in the region. Families and folks from Ohio simply come with more of a chip on the shoulder. We should be targeting half the state Dammit. Northeast and norhwest Ohio down to Columbus. Lock down Michigan. Go into Georgia and Cali etc but realize that your "leader" core is likely to come from the region. And dang, if we are going to take projects and 3-star "sleepers" or flyers from Massachusetts lets go with Ohio NOT the wall street corridor!

OP, I honestly don't know where to start.

"It's replete with coaches/AD staff/etc. constantly cashing in on the recycled lore of old ..."

Yep. Agreed. I also agree with your later remarks about Michigan Men.

"... Michigan has been missing the building blocks that made the program special under Bo ..."

Wait. You just said we shouldn't do that.

"Beat Ohio State on the recruiting trail ..."

Good luck with that.

"Make more talented teams uncomfortable with hard-hitting and disciplined play (Close losses to VERY talented USC, Oklahoma, Auburn teams in bowl games)."

JFC. I'm not interested in "dignity in defeat" or "outhitting" (a la Frost and UCF) the opponent. The object is to WIN.

The focus on ohio is part of the problem, it allows us to pretend we're better that we really are. We're like a middle school kid looking at the varsity team and thinking there's no way we'll ever compete with those guys. No shit, we're in middle school. Let's focus on making the JV team first, then we can worry about making varsity. We've just deluded ourselves into thinking we're already on the JV team.

The entitlement mindset comes from our academics. We expect our program to be as good relative to the competition, as our academics relative to other colleges. 

Anyone who's gone to Michigan knows that almost every department is at the top of the field. Law, medicine, business and engineering are the 4 most lucrative careers, and Michigan is at or near the top for all of them. Outside of the Ivy league and elite privates (Duke) you're graduating with a better degree than 99% of people. The arrogance is well-deserved, because many alumni are very successful, and the name carries a lot of weight. This is true even in NYC. 

So of course we expect the same for our football program. At the very least we should be competing for NY6 bowls, which is not a high bar in 2020. USC, PSU and Florida are all similar programs with recent hires & resets that have had more success that us.

That's why there's always a big disconnect between fans who think we've returned to historical levels vs ones who think we could be doing much better. 

Notre Dame beat Clemson last night, albeit with Clemson down a few stars. Notre Dame has been in the National Championship game(maybe undeservingly) and made the playoffs with similar recruiting and similar academic restrictions. The point is, we can’t blame that stuff for not being able to win big games or beat Ohio State. That falls on coaching. I can’t stand Notre Dame or Brian Kelly and it’s very discouraging to see them be successful every few years especially when Michigan has put a hurt on them in recent years games. 

We should take down the "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions" sign.  It's not correct.  Those who earn it will be champions.  

Obviously I'm not saying that a sign is the cause of our malaise, but it is symptomatic of the arrogance that seems to be an issue when we get outhustled and outcoached by teams with less talented players.  Don't expect to win just by showing up.   

Did this really need its own post?  Seriously.  Zzzzzzz.  

Dan Dierdof, Billy Taylor, Thom Darden

Ironically, those three guys weren't recruited by Schembechler—they were recruited by Bump Elliott.