Scathing article by Michael Spath on program culture

While I can certainly see merit to the Patterson stuff, the rest of his column is just a list of things we already knew. As Homer Simpson said, everything looks bad if you remember it.

He conveniently leaves out a lot of things, like how Mattison got a promotion and raise, Washington was a former Buckeye going home, most of the transfers were players who with little playing time, that NO ONE sat this year's bowl game, and several draft-eligible players are returning for 2020.

I'm not trying to discount the entire thing but there is clearly some cherry picking going on here.

Writer aside, there seems to be some truth to this.  I've been saying there has been culture problem the last two years.

The assistant coaching movement means very little to me, as guys move on all the time.  The meritocracy and player preparation are the issues for me.  Like, why was McGrone not starting from day one this year?  It's pretty obvious he's the best LB.  When players perceive favoritism or players not giving their all in the offseason it becomes contagious, morale suffers, and players don't give their all.

I have no idea what this article is supposed to be. It looks like someone typed out his notes exactly as written. Yikes, I have a headache

Yoder & Spath

When you need somewhere to store gigantic piles of poop....

they'll raise a barn.

There’s not a thing said in that story that sounded false to me. Entitlement is a serious problem in this program and needs to be corrected otherwise mediocrity will remain the destiny 

I'll take it for exactly what it is..By recent departures, I'm going to make the educated guess that is code for transferred. Most of the guys aren't transferring because they love the coaches... They're pissed that they didn't get the playing time they believe they deserve, so of course they aren't speaking highly of what's transpired. I have no problem with them trying to take some shots, but I'll believe someone leaving on good terms verses someone that may have an agenda. Maybe there's truth to this and maybe there's not. The only facts I saw was a QB that did pretty dang good once he was healed (albeit from an injury that he caused himself with a dumb decision to play fullback against middle Tennessee) until the second half against OSU. I'm not sure how much I put on shea in the second half of that game, though. OSU made the adjustment to throw away all defense against the rush (we weren't even attempting to run), and it seemed that there were 4 or 5 crucial drops in that third quarter by our stud receivers. 

Personally, this just sounds like rants from former players that apparently couldn't crack our starting lineup (right or wrong as that may be). Maybe it was all for show, but there were definitely several players all season, from the very beginning, that talked extremely high of shea, and at least appeared to fully have his back. 

I’m not sure this article makes much difference for most people. The fan base is so polarized right now, and people have selected whatever side of the Harbaugh debate they will be on until next season.

Harbaugh Haters will use the information from the article to validate and justify their claims that the program is sinking. They’ll ignore the obvious positives of the past several years by solely focusing on OSU, road performance, and inconsistent recruiting.

Harbaugh Apologists will bash the integrity of the story, slam Spath for shoddy journalism, and question the validity of quotes and anecdotes in the article. Maybe that’s a fair reaction, maybe not. Who knows? Either way, the Apologists will ignore the obvious concerns in turnover, on-field performance, and the messages from other industry insiders, like Witifong. 

I obviously don’t hate Harbaugh. As a Stanford and Niners guy before Michigan, I’ve had a lot of experience with him. He definitely gets a long leash at UM because of his “prodigal son” status, and I’d like to see what he can do for a few more years. But - woof - he’s wasted a ton of talent, and we’ve settled for an Iowa-based football program. Is that our new normal? Could be...

Either way, this is going to be a loooong offseason! And hopefully this board can chill out a bit and listen to both sides of the debate without it turning into a constant Hater vs. Apologist slugfest. 

Go Blue and Go Juwan!

Even if Shea was not working hard during the summer. He was still was much better than Dylan and Joe. That is a bit worrisome for next season.

MS is mostly just another passionate, partisan Michigan sports fan. I don't mind listening to his takes-they are what they are. The hilarity here is that his biggest critics are no different than he is. We are who/what we are and we are stuck with ourselves.

The simple, objective fact regarding Michigan football is that it is not performing to its potential-by a fairly wide margin. From the outside looking in there is something missing-which would indicate that there is a good possibility that there is more than a bit of truth to what Spath is throwing against the proverbial wall. And factually there is a bottom-line, where the buck stops responsibility for this under-performance...Jim Harbaugh-and he needs to figure this thing out. Any knowledgeable, objective, outside-the-program assessment would agree with such a depiction. 

This is what passes as journalism these days... 

So much coping in this thread. This stuff is crazy obvious to anybody with common sense. It's ok though, we definitely don't have any culture problems even though 40% of our heralded 2017 class transferred.

I get that American journalism is dead, and especially sports journalism including Sports Illustrated and ESPN, which is now all but unwatchable.

Perhaps that's why it's becoming increasingly difficult to take articles like this one seriously.

Playing favorites?  That's what these crack sportswriters have come up now with as to why Michigan is 0.6541 since 2000?

Nice work, Michael Spath. You're a real hero.

I'm sure no other college football teams treat their more highly recruited players differently. That shit never happens anywhere else.

And nobody in the working world has ever witnessed colleagues or competitors fail up.

It's quoted from an anonymous player. If the player doesn't have the guts to stand up in public and say it, then what does that say about them? There is a whole lot of "we" used in the article. Well, where are the 'we' now?

If this was such an important development then surely some former player(s) will stand up and take credit for it.  

There is a reason that you do not put much emphasis on anonymous quotes, especially in sports. 

People say it’s recruiting and talent but I really believe it’s a culture issue and I’ll keep saying it because it needs a voice here apparently. 

They need to offer online courses for the FB team. What we love about UM academically (degree means something) is a killer athletically against the elite football factories. It’s nearly impossible to play enough to be elite and get a real degree simultaneously. Very very few people are capable of that.