The National Media Haters of Harbaugh & Michigan
Everyone had doubts about the season back in the summer and everyone was frustrated with Coach Harbaugh's road record vs other top big ten teams. Those were legit critiques.
But this post is dedicated to the irrational, naked hatred of sports media "personalities" and "analysts" who, even post-ohio state, took potshots at Michigan and coach Harbaugh. This BIG TEN TITLE is for you...
...Michael Wilbon (PTI). "Michigan still hasn't won anything yet, and I fully expect Iowa to beat them."
...Keyshawn Johnson. "The game isn't in the big house in the snow, and so I'm picking Iowa."
...Bob Stoops. Picking Iowa in the pregame. Come on Bob! Wouldn't have anything to do with your "interim" Oklahoma gig would it?
And there are probably several more from the prior week. Any others come to mind?
Enjoy this W, media haters. On to the next!
December 5th, 2021 at 5:57 PM ^
I don't even ascribe it to hate (except perhaps in the case of Finebaum, who's a genuine hater, but even he had the decency to give Harbaugh props after the OSU win).
The talking heads love to appear to be geniuses with a crystal ball. To do so, they tend to follow whatever team love/hate is popular that five seconds, so that they can cover their asses.
They predicted a bad season for Michigan; well, big deal, everyone did; that OSU would be the league champs, like everyone else; that Georgia would beat Alabama because of their once-in-a-century defense; and that Clemson and Oklahoma would be in the top four.
Not a lot of imagination there. An awful lot of football predictions wind up being complete bullshit. Same, of course, is true of many of our own predictions.
It's easy to pick powerful SEC teams as winners. It's harder to spot the up-and-comers, the teams that will break the mold. Their failure to do so in Michigan's case is hardly surprising.
It's less important that they were proven wrong, than that the team believed in themselves, and won in spite of what the so-called experts predicted.