Spielman piles on too. Don’t hate - he’s generally very respectful of Michigan
Space Coyote and other apologists notwithstanding, I agree with Spielman.
And Jake Long.
And Charles Woodson.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
Great. Now that it's been said, go root for OSU or something.
September 25th, 2019 at 7:58 AM ^
Cool, I'll be sure to go let Charles and Jake and big Steve Hutchinson to turn in their cards because sunshine blower and noted Internet personality "Catchafire" said so.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Whatever I want to see how the team responds to being punched in the mouth. Rutgers is Rutgers but all three of these next games are winnable. Then @PSU happens. Let’s see what happens over these next few weeks.
September 25th, 2019 at 7:37 AM ^
If they don't show significant improvement against Rutgers they probably won't make it past Iowa. Iowa will be 4-0 and is already ranked several spots ahead of UM.
September 25th, 2019 at 9:05 AM ^
Regrettably we have learned that rankings don't mean much.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
Prepared to be neg'd by the "see no evil, hear no evil" PC police.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:28 AM ^
More diminishing a respected poster like SC to just an “apologist”.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:14 AM ^
Seriously. How could anyone have read SC's post and said he was an apologist? It was pretty damning. Some people think anyone who isn't foaming at the mouth yelling for Harbaugh to be fired immediately is an apologist. I hardly spend time here now.
September 25th, 2019 at 6:01 AM ^
/r/cfb is where I spend most of my discussion time. You can actually find some measured discussion there from M fans and non-M fans. The amount of mlive threads on here this week is setting new records
September 24th, 2019 at 11:25 PM ^
It’s an appropriate and fair take, but it is only that. Harbaugh, the other coaches, and the kids in the program are going to be the ones to have to put in the work. Hats off to those that tough through this.
Go Blue!
September 24th, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^
I need to get Ja Rule’s take to make sense of all this.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
Logged in to upvote this fine comment
September 24th, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
Sports Talk radio out here in CA was 'matter-of-fact' about Harbaugh today, and it wasn't good.
Not extremely negative about him just saying 'it isn't working' and quickly moving on to which pro team would be a good fit for him.
Normally, that would be news in AA, but not under the current state of affairs in AA, I guess.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:40 PM ^
So...Oakland is still in play?
September 24th, 2019 at 11:45 PM ^
Sorry... moved on from that.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:51 PM ^
I haven't.
Oakland is still in play...forever...and ever...and ever...
September 24th, 2019 at 11:57 PM ^
Gruden is their coach next year.
September 25th, 2019 at 4:41 AM ^
That's Vegas.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Miami and Cleveland as well
September 25th, 2019 at 6:34 AM ^
So did Jim say “it isn’t working” or was it the Cali news? Stop being so West Coast about commas, just saying.
September 25th, 2019 at 8:32 AM ^
That's just, like, your opinion, man.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^
Looking at the glass as half full...maybe the team has enough bulletin board material calling them soft to start mashing people?
September 24th, 2019 at 11:50 PM ^
that's what I am talking about!
A reverse revenge tour, it will be epic if we knock them off this year
edit: I feel I must clarify reverse revenge tour.... don't talk about statements, don't make a T-shift, get pissed and start playing Michigan football..... I loved how Winovich played, but I cringed every time he talked about the revenge tour
September 25th, 2019 at 12:38 AM ^
Well, that's why I thought we'd beat Wisconsin.
Fingers crossed, I guess.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:41 PM ^
I've always respected Chris Spielman. Maybe because he endured the pain of being a Lion for so long. Lost his wife to cancer. That's a good dude. I miss him doing college football. Great analyst. And what he said about Michigan is all true, except for the part about the B1G being horrendous outside of OSU and Wisconsin.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:48 PM ^
I loved him as a Lion, but I hate when he announces Michigan games
I try to be objective about it. I think Herbstreet does a great job
September 25th, 2019 at 4:19 AM ^
Really? I always felt that he was very fair, and generally positive about Michigan when he called the games.
September 25th, 2019 at 7:31 AM ^
Spielman wanted to go to Michigan; he’s said that more than once. His dad told him that wasn’t happening, threatened (possibly tongue-in-cheek?) to disown him if he went to Ann Arbor instead of Columbus.
I think that may be why he’s never been especially snarky when he comments on the state of the program lately; he always respected Michigan from a young age and like a lot of Gen X types actually remembers when they were good.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:42 PM ^
Not sure how explaining what has held the offense transition back is being an apologist?
He's right, they looked bad this game. Wonder what he said about OSU after their loss to Vtech?
September 25th, 2019 at 9:06 AM ^
They’ve had worse losses since, much worse:
Iowa blowout.
Purdue blowout.
September 25th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
But haven't had one against Michigan
September 24th, 2019 at 11:45 PM ^
Spielman was one of my all time favorite Lions
But the dude sucks as an announcer, only announcers I hate more is fat mouth Millen and Booger Mcfarland
I think all these OSU alums should shut their stinky unhygienic pie holes
September 24th, 2019 at 11:46 PM ^
Meh.
Spielman's a decent individual and an A+ linebacker and commentator, but it doesn't take a guy with his knowledge to point out that the team is broken. We saw what we saw.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
He is right. Why would I hate on him?
September 24th, 2019 at 11:57 PM ^
His analysis is fine. Not rocket science. I generally don’t endorse players or coaches reading their own press clippings. But this week I’m hoping that Harbaugh reads everything. Maybe it will give him a spark.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^
Spielman is right. And reading neck sharpies today really gave the impression that Don Brown was making the best he could out of what were also self imposed constraints on personnel usage. Hoping it would be enough but recognizing it likely wasn’t. Hence larger but younger d line were not given a chance. And more experienced yet ridiculously undersized players got paved
Well if this some enlightened attempt at playing the long game, the objective has been really poorly defined. And losing never puts you closer to an objective. And losing massively can do all kinds of collateral damage beyond one game.
So yes Spielman is right on here. The game, the strategy, everything about it was unrecognizable as a Michigan product.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:23 AM ^
Not just Spielman. I'd bet if you ask Charles Woodson - my favorite all-time UM player - and he opened up, he wouldn't have good things to say either. He was PISSED during his stint on the Fox show this Saturday. He made a few comments then shut up. It's getting ugly and it all falls back to the HC.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:40 AM ^
Again, the horse is dying, but it comes down to recruiting. Harbaugh did a pretty good job with Hoke’s recruits and in year five we are now seeing Harbaugh’s players in action. Michigan needs DTs bad and yet there’s not one single DT recruit in this class. It seems like Harbaugh throws out a bunch of offers, gets what he can, and then finishes up recruiting before the season starts.
And if you thought Wisconsin exposed the UM defense then what are the more athletic teams going to do?
September 25th, 2019 at 12:06 AM ^
One of our players was talking about blocking out all the outside noise in his interview. I understand it's a generic response about staying focused, but I kind of hope the players do read a couple of the focused criticisms. That team was devoid of emotion on Saturday, and I think they would benefit from a little chip on their shoulder. Give in to the power of the dark side...
September 25th, 2019 at 12:11 AM ^
I hate this vague, feelings-ball talk about being Michigan and Harbaugh being out of touch and uninspired or whatever. Do people remember 2014? How about 2008? Yes, OSU has recruited better. They're really fucking good. It doesn't help that Michigan let their best RB and best DT leave because they didn't study enough for their underwater basket weaving classes or whatever.
We have a brand new OC. It's been 3 fucking games. Give it some time. If Michigan goes 5-7 I will change my tune. But I honestly think the offense will pick up, and the defense will be good enough to win most games.
September 25th, 2019 at 12:47 AM ^
Ohio State hasn't recruited better. You're just assuming they have based upon how shitty Michigan has been under Harbaugh.
Fact: Michigan has regularly recruited more ESPN 300 players than Ohio State in Harbaugh's tenure. You're more than welcome to have a look for yourself, year by year.
If Michigan keeps shitting the bed, I don't expect that trend to continue though.
http://www.espn.com/colleges/michigan/football/recruiting/commitments/_/class/2019/order/false
http://www.espn.com/colleges/osu/football/recruiting/commitments/_/class/2019/order/false
Michigan simply isn't developing and coaching players to the same level as Ohio State. The "give it more time" excuse is getting pretty stale.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:20 AM ^
Let's look at the composite recruiting rankings:
2015: Michigan #37, OSU #6
2016: Michigan #5, OSU #2
2017: Michigan #4, OSU #2
2018: Michigan #22, OSU #2
So Michigan has had 2 good years, but OSU has still finished ahead of Michigan in the composite rankings EVERY YEAR under Harbaugh. OSU has been recruiting INSANELY good. Michigan also fucked up their defense by letting Aubrey Solomon, arguably their top recruit in the 2017 class, leave for academic reasons.
September 25th, 2019 at 8:44 AM ^
What's your point? Those 2016 and 2017 classes are who most of our starters are from at this point. They just got bitch slapped by Wisconsin who had the 35th and 39th classes respectively those years.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Wisconsin isn’t breaking in a new offense. They have an elite RB and a perpetually great OL.
For as good as those 2016 & 2017 classes were for Michigan, they still have massive holes at RB and DT.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:06 AM ^
Every take you have is awful. Nobody cares about going 8-4 and losing to ohio state again moron.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:22 AM ^
Your takes are nothing but bitching about how you want Harbaugh fired and replaced with... Matt Campbell? Brent Venebles? lmao
September 25th, 2019 at 12:12 AM ^
Feels like Michigan will never be Michigan again until they start doing what the others are doing. 18-21 year old kids don't look the same at Michigan as they do other places, that's been the one consistent thing since the end of the Carr era.
Until then, the OSU paid pundits will continue to pile on, anything to plant a negaitve seed in the head of a borderline recruit.
The rest of us will continue to spiral around the eddy.
September 25th, 2019 at 1:31 AM ^
thats what I don't get, how can people not see through this?
September 25th, 2019 at 12:38 PM ^
Your second point about the kids no looking the same is something I have started to notice and pick up on in the last 2 years. Our players just don't look the same as other places. Don't get me wrong, we have big, strong, fast, athletic men but when I watch teams like Auburn, Oklahoma State, and other teams that aren't tier 1 programs their players look bigger, faster and meaner. Especially Auburn, holy hell have you seen their Dline? they are other worldly big and strong. our guys just look a step behind and not dominating at any one position.