Our brand is also our curse
As a kid growing up I had no allegiance to any school ingrained into me. It wasn’t passed on from family or anything like that. But the first time I saw Michigan playing in the Rose Bowl under Bo I was hooked. As I travel the country now wearing UM gear, I get Go Blue’s and a lot of people who have something to say about UM one way or the other. On the heels of the Greenberg comments saying our expectations are too high because we aren’t an elite program, I feel there is some truth to that but also the media drives this because of our brand. Winged helmets, the largest stadium, the fight song. Michigan is still and likely always will be one of the most storied college football programs of all time. It fuels a lot of jealousy but it also seems to set us up for failure because we can never quite live up to the expectations. It often times puts us in bowl matchup’s where we are over matched simply because we are such a draw. I guess my thought is there are positives and negatives, but it’s good to be relevant. I also think that because of the expectations in the media scrutiny this is a tough job to have as the head coach of Michigan football.
December 4th, 2019 at 8:51 PM ^
No, you need to sweep shit under the rug and win at all costs to be elite. Even then the elite teams lose...
December 4th, 2019 at 8:59 PM ^
So MSU is elite? They beat #2 ranked MSU twice. If they are capable of doing it, why can’t we? Our recruiting is better and I hear our coaching is better. And please don’t tell me those OSU teams weren’t any good. This fan base has given up. We are now like the players - we talk about how great we are with no foundation of accomplishment to back it up.
December 5th, 2019 at 2:05 AM ^
There is a contingent of Michigan fans who suck -- the ones who have negative attitudes all the time. I wish they would switch to being Ohio State fans. I think they'd be happier. I know I would be.
December 4th, 2019 at 8:36 PM ^
If we keep losing to Ohio State and in the Bowl game, we won't have to worry about an over-inflated brand.
It takes a while, but you can diminish it down to nothing. I remember when Pitt was a national brand. Now it might as well be Cincinnati. It means nothing.
December 4th, 2019 at 8:50 PM ^
Spot on. You are correct.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:00 PM ^
UntilMichigan is playing for a spot in the BIG10 championship and/or CFB the very next year, such short sighted takes around here.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:00 PM ^
U of M is more susceptible to the shift in college football than any other blue blood program aside from ND (and we seem to be stuck in similar circumstances).
UM benefitted from exposure which allowed them to cast a wider net in recruiting, including Ohio. Because of the expansion of CFB coverage and the TV money, a lot of schools are on similar playing fields. Why does this impact Michigan more? Because it’s not a hot spot for recruiting. All those kids UM used to pluck out of state are staying home. Who was the last Impactful player from the state of Michigan? Jordan Lewis?
the expectations don’t line up because they’re built on results from a different era. Hell, this program idolizes a coach who never won a national title and yet we think the metric for success should be title contenders year in and year out. This fan bases displeasure has more to do with OSUs success then our failures.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:32 PM ^
The stadium is full. The football program is in the black. We are winning at a rate nearly back to the Bo era. We need to be patient. If Harbaugh stays, he could be the next Tom Osborne who took Nebraska from the rival abis to elite status. Doing it the right way like Osborne took Nebraska 10 years to overcome the cheating ways of Barry Switzer.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:38 PM ^
Michigan Football Hail to the Excuse Makers
December 5th, 2019 at 2:06 AM ^
Go be a Buckeye. They've got what you want.
December 4th, 2019 at 10:24 PM ^
I think we're overlooking the impact of the recruiting sites and the Internet / social media. 20 years ago the barrage of information that's on the recruiting sites now for free or for a small fee didn't exist. You couldn't easily upload videos onto platforms like YouTube to showcase players. That allowed programs with more resources like Michigan to exploit an information gap to pry players who were overlooked. It also resulted in good players not casting as wide of a net as they are now since most schools did not recruit nationally and those players couldn't get the information they could get now through the recruiting sites.
Another factor is the adoption of the spread by top teams. Actually, the spread existed 20 years ago and was widely adopted in the Big Ten, but not by the top teams. Then in the mid-2000s OSU and PSU started to slowly transition to the spread, while Michigan and ND fell behind. ND finally embraced the spread by bringing in Kelly, Michigan actually saw the trend and brought in RR, but then ditched it and only now (in 2019) is starting to embrace the spread.
December 5th, 2019 at 3:58 PM ^
I was thinking about OSU’s offense compared to ours and the last time we beat them was with...a run first spread QB. We keep trying to win with pro stylish offenses but the best results we’ve seen this decade and the last win over OSU came with a running QB. I think that might be the answer but I’m not sure if we are ready to commit to that style of play. We keep losing to the Braxton Millers and JT Barretts of the world and we simply won’t get our own for some reason. Long story short we need some more Denards.
December 5th, 2019 at 5:55 AM ^
What Brand? If you are a college football historian, then Michigan is a brand for what it did in the first half of the 20th century. However, most athletes aren't historians. The kids being recruited right now were born in 2001-2003 and probably became real football fans in 2008-2010. Since 2001, Michigan has less brand relevance in football than does Wisconsin, Michigan State or Penn State. After all, in that time, those teams have won outright league championships and all have beaten OSU. To these kids today, Michigan looks like a completely mediocre team.
December 5th, 2019 at 10:00 AM ^
2003 - Rose Bowl USC - We were Big Ten Champs.
2004 - Rose Bowl Texas - You're saying we didn't belong in the Rose Bowl? We lost by a FG to Vince Young...
2005 - Nebraska - Good tight game between two mediocre teams.
2006 - Rose Bowl USC - We fought for a rematch in the BCS Title Game, but are overmatched in a Rose Bowl??
2007 - Nebraska - Good tight game between two mediocre teams.
2008 - No Bowl
2009 - No Bowl
2010 - Mississippi St - Maybe we were outmatched here?
2011 - Virginia Tech - we didn't belong in this game and still won after not playing well.
2012 - South Carolina - Good tight game between two mediocre teams.
2013 - Kansas State - You're telling me Michigan didn't even belong in a Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl?
2014 - No Bowl
2015 Florida - Obviously not overmatched.
2016 FSU - Definitely not overmatched since we were National Title Contenders. Loss seemed very fluky.
2017 South Carolina - Definitely not overmatched. Michigan controlled that game for 3 quarters, then melted down.
2018 Florida - Michigan beat Florida in 2015 and 2017, and we were all confident we would win again.
I don't think you can say we get put into bowl matchups where we are overmatched.