Over/Under on Harbaugh's first season? Be Honest
Whether you stated it publicly or merely kept it to yourself, everyone on this site had an opinion of how many games we would win in Jim's first year. I was one under but was still met with more than a little skepticism when, after the announcement of his hiring, I predicted 9 wins. I can understand this because I did this fully expecting that Shane or Wilton would be our qb. I correctly picked the three losses during the regular season, but I thought, with luck, we could beat UT and one of either MSU or OSU seeing we had them both at home. I didn't think we would be pushed to our limit by IU or MN but, in retrospect, I'm glad we were for no other reason because these are the type of games that define the character of the team. Further, I think beating the teams you are supposed to beat, no matter how close, makes the statement we won't lose to inferior teams. I was also wrong about the way we would win these games. I thought, finally, given how highly rated our OL was coming in from high school, that our ground game would resemble what we saw in the bowl game against a damn fine FL front seven. I also thought it would by Derrick and Ty putting up big numbers during the season and whoever our qb was would basically be asked to complete safe, timely passes just to keep the D honest. What I saw that line do in the Citrus Bowl gives me great hope for next year though. Given the above, I was even more impressed with Jim's abilities to manufacture points with modest tweaks and understanding each week what he could expect from Jake. By season's end it looked like, in addition to an AA TE, we had an All Big QB and a more-than-impressive receiving corp. I am not going out on a limb by saying 98% of us are extremely happy with his first full campaign. There are always a few that hold ridiculous standards. There have been a number of threads related to the steps he took to ensure future success, and obviously he did well in this regard. I am just curious, and I am sure you all remember the "realistic" number of Ws you thought we would accomplish this season.
January 2nd, 2016 at 11:50 PM ^
January 2nd, 2016 at 11:58 PM ^
different our satisfaction for this year and excitement for next would be if we had lost to Minne and IU but still won our bowl game 41-7 in the Pinstripe Bowl or something.
January 3rd, 2016 at 12:41 AM ^
I thought 8 wins was the ceiling.
Hitting 10 wins in year one after that god forsaken shit show last year is grounds for claiming this was one of the greatest coaching jobs of all time.
Think about where we were pre-interim AD and pre-harbaugh hire. I'm sure you can all remember that feeling of hopelessness after the OSU game. The
What a difference a year makes.
January 3rd, 2016 at 1:46 AM ^
My tennis buddies were graduates or had rooting interests for UCLA, USC, Fresno State and yes the Buckeyes. My neighbor across the street had a Spartan flag out for a couple weeks but that came down quickly yesterday.
January 3rd, 2016 at 1:56 AM ^
Even back in the day, we would have that frustrating conference road loss! The only game I'm disappointed in was at home against OSU! Something seemed off with our defense that day. Offense could not keep up with the scoring pace set OSU.
I had predicted a 9-4 record with a win against Sparty at home, it should have been minus the fluke final play. I thought we would lose a couple more road games, at Minnesota and PSU.
Overall a better than expected season. The running game will need to improve, which I think it will. But we got a glimpse at how explosive Harbaugh's offense will eventually become.
January 3rd, 2016 at 2:25 AM ^