Thanks boys for a great year and hats off to Georgia. No excuses.

Submitted by RustyCleats on December 31st, 2021 at 10:20 PM

Michigan is having the game tonight that Georgia had last week. It happens. It was Michigan's turn tonight to have that game. Georgia looked like a team of All Stars tonight. Can't deny that. Big, fast, motivated, good coaching. They owned this game. Hats off to them. No excuses. They wanted it and they took it.

Moving forward.........

Thanks boys for a great season! Beating OSU and shutting their mouths was the highlight of many years in the making. Felt great.

JJ looks like he is going to be awesome once he gets some experience under his belt. Lots of good pieces coming back and coming in.

The NFL draft will be interesting to see who gets selected at what spot.

Harbaugh 100% redeemed himself and the team this year.

It's all good.

Can't wait for next season.

 

Burt Macklin_FBI

December 31st, 2021 at 10:24 PM ^

Yep, agreed - miserable way to end it, but proud of the season we had this year. 

 

Not even in a salty way, but is there any reason for anyone outside of Georgia or Bama to tune into the championship game? A SEC rematch is just so boring, even if they are pretty clearly the 2 best teams in the country.

Harbaugh's Lef…

December 31st, 2021 at 10:25 PM ^

Disappointing night but Georgia deserved it. Doesn’t change the fact that this season was wildly more successful that any of us thought it would be.
 

Regardless of tonight, it was a great season and we all have a lot to look forward to next season.

Wendyk5

December 31st, 2021 at 11:55 PM ^

Of course the OSU trolls are out. They forgot they lost 42-27 and that Michigan held them to 64 rushing yards and that they looked soft and gave up easily. Hope they're ready to face Utah without 5 of their best players, who jumped ship because the team wasn't that important to them, and they thought they were too good for the Rose Bowl. Good luck! 

mfan_in_ohio

January 1st, 2022 at 1:00 AM ^

Enjoy your Rose Bowl consolation prize.  You'd better hope your D has learned to stop the run.  Did you see what Utah did (twice!) to the Oregon team that beat you on your own field?  Oh, that's right, I'm sure you only lost that game because it was too hot.  Or windy.  Or humid, or cloudy, or your flow was particularly heavy, or whatever bullshit excuse you want to give.  I bet you can think of 27 to 42 more.  

sonie_me

December 31st, 2021 at 10:30 PM ^

It's been a fun run. This team has overachieved all year. Great leadership by Aidan and Cade. I will always remember beating osu and the Big Ten championship and our first trip to the playoffs. Didn't quite work out but still a very special team. Salud guys. You are the leaders and best.

1VaBlue1

December 31st, 2021 at 10:33 PM ^

Well, I, for one, hugely underestimated Georgia while also overestimating Michigan.  They played pretty good, I thought - they just got beat by a better team.  It was apparent early, UGA seemed to move the ball fairly easily while it was tough sledding for Michigan.  I think they were ready to play, but that initial punch in the mouth was something they didn't expect or recover from too well.

Sometimes the other team has more players - God knows we've seen that enough over the years.  But I still feel like that gap is closing.  This team needs to learn how to win like other championship teams did.  Unfortunately, that usually involves losing.

The big thing - this game was the extra icing on top of that sweet, sweet carrot cake that was the B1G Championship.  We all said it didn't matter so much what happened tonight.  So this sucks, it sucks bad.  But at least we have a future to look forward to.

Congrats Georgia - you came to play and gave us the game we didn't think we'd get from you.  Nonetheless, I hope that both you and Bama lose in two weeks.  Not sure I'll watch it...

1VaBlue1

January 1st, 2022 at 10:29 AM ^

Disagree.  They were fast enough at the skill positions, and yet 10-20 lbs too small and a couple of inches short.  At the non-skill spots they just plain lacked the size and athleticism that Georgia had across the field.  And McNamara just wasn't up to the level of Bennett.  The speed and size they went against, combined with the extra effort needed because of it, is what made the mental errors we saw more prevalent and noticeable.  It wasn't because they played like ass, it was because UGA was just better across the field.

That UGA fanboy scouting report we saw, and mocked, yesterday was spot on.  We didn't know what we didn't know, until last night.

Hail to the Vi…

January 1st, 2022 at 12:40 PM ^

Agree with this take. Georgia beat us at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You pepper in a couple of turnovers and it gets ugly. We just didn’t play our absolute best game and we needed to in order to stay in and potentially win this game. Still a great seasons and proud of our guys. Just didn’t have an answer for their interior DL and our interior DL got handled. That’s ball game.

SD Larry

December 31st, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^

Awesome season.  Georgia with too many horses tonight, amazing size and speed.  The win over OSU was the best college football game I have ever seen in over 55 years of watching football.

DHughes5218

December 31st, 2021 at 10:36 PM ^

I’ve seen the posts about this team being different and program changing players, and in the back of my mind I was concerned that this is the same Michigan team that Harbaugh has had pretty much every year. The difference was Wisconsin and Penn State weren’t very good and OSU was young and having a down year. I was worried we would come out and look like we didn’t belong and that’s pretty much what has happened. Hopefully the momentum is enough to give recruiting a boost and they can continue to build on this team’s success. It was a very fun year.

demardorsey

December 31st, 2021 at 11:51 PM ^

DHughes this is a bullshit take. This is far from the same old Michigan teams you have seen under Harbaugh. This team is loaded with talent. Possibly the first overall number 1 pick in the next NFL draft and another 2 possible first rounders in Ojabo and Hill. Haskins and Corum were arguably the best RB tandem in the country with a freashman RB that has the talent to win a Heisman and and Doak Walker. A freshman QB with possible first QB taken in whatever draft he’s in and another Heisman trophy talent. Also the best offensive line in the country. Cincinnati gave Georgia everything they could handle last year in their bowl game. Georgia was ready for everything Michigan did tonight. They had a great game plan and executed it nearly to perfection. This is just the beginning of bigger things for Michigan. They were 100/1 odds to win it all this year. Half the fan base wanted the head coach fired and most on this board thought 8-4 was the ceiling for this team. They have finally turned the corner. Clemson beat the OSU 3 times before OSU finally got over that hump. You learn from your loses and you keep working and you get better. Sometimes teams need to lose and learn how to win the big games. This is the first team that was preseason unranked to make the playoffs. I would say this team is on the right track and has a very bright future. Not to mention Michigan had a first year defensive coordinator as well as a lot of other first year coaches and coaches that switched positions they previously coached. The way to look at this season and team should be with a huge smile that they beat OSU. You could say they got robbed of a win against MSU although Walker had a monster game. And beat every other team on their schedule. They just came up short against a team that was rated number 1 for a majority of the college season. There’s no reason to hang your head as a fan and damn sure there’s no reason for the team to hang their heads. Some great young talent on this team that now has big wins under their belts and had the experience of a college football playoff that only 4 teams out of 130 or so we’re apart of. I myself would like to thank this team for making every Saturday all fall exciting and I’m super excited that I witnessed the growth of this team week after week. Coach Harbaugh never doubted himself or his team and always deflected credit for their success and took all the blame for the failures. What a special season by a special team and if you don’t feel that way you should probably go root for another team because you have a loser attitude and it’s a disgrace that you made comments like that and you should look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you’ve ever done anything close to that special because I doubt you have. Fans like you are losers and will always be losers because you can’t see the big picture. Once again thanks to the coaches for coaching these guys up and a big thanks to the team for a special season and I can’t wait to see what the future holds because it looks very bright!! Today just wasn’t their day but their day will come sooner than later with the trajectory they are on. Congratulations to Georgia they were the better team tonight. But don’t get it twisted Michigan is coming for that number 1 spot!!

Go Blue!!

Cam

December 31st, 2021 at 10:38 PM ^

It’s nights like tonight that make me wonder if Michigan will ever contend for a National title again. The times have changed so much. The talent differential is so stark.

Georgia was a 9-3 team for decades, then they hire a guy from a program that openly paid players for years, and suddenly they got tons of 5 stars. Gee, I wonder how that happened?

Bo Harbaugh

December 31st, 2021 at 10:39 PM ^

Great season. OSU game was glorious.

That said, 5* recruits matter and we need to level up on talent and depth to play with elite SEC teams. Hopefully this season catapults us towards regular top 5 classes so we are competing on an even playing field. 

UM_Ftown

December 31st, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^

Whatever, it was a good season and super glad we won the big ten and beat OSU but this was our coaches getting their ass handed to them and they weren’t prepared at all. Not happy about that. Lesser talented teams did better against Georgia this year. 

mackbru

December 31st, 2021 at 11:51 PM ^

Yeah, that’s nuts. How can you say Harbaugh had the team ready to go from the start when it was absolutely torched at the start? The team was a step behind from the first snap, then compounded this with unforced and semi-forced errors. Great season. Wonderful. But tonight was a 100 percent shitshow. 

frodly

December 31st, 2021 at 10:48 PM ^

I love this team, I love these players, and I loved this season!! This game sucked, but that doesn’t change how much joy this team brought me this year!!

Beat Rutgerland

December 31st, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^

Really expected to beat Georgia, thought Vegas was nuts on the -7.5 line, quite surprised our oline got beat as badly as it did. Feeling not that bright as a fan. Overall great season, no complaints, I just very much did not see a blowout on the books.

Punter

December 31st, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^

The drops, picks, fumbles, mental errors in coverage all were very uncharacteristic. On top of that, Georgia seemed to be an awful matchup for us as Ian Boyd alluded to. That front 7 is brutal. Throwing over the top seemed to be the way to get chunk plays on them, and we hit 2/4ish attempts. Perhaps Bama will do that again in the final and win comfortably.

The future looks bright with McCarthy and Edwards! Go Blue!

alum96

December 31st, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^

I had a ceiling of 8 wins coming into the year and reality thinking 7.  So it's all good.  You need a prime time QB (top 3 in college football) to have a chance to compete with the VERY top of the SEC.  (see how Clemson fell off this year without that elite QB) The rest of the conference is not much different than most conferences.  But yeah 25 or whatever 5 stars vs our 3.  All the stars need to align to beat the Bama, OSU, Georgia (some years LSU) etc.  Oklahoma has had multiple NFL QBs and still got routed in playoff games.  It was an overachieving year in every way.  Disappointed it was not closer tonight but we played like crap and Georgia played great and they just are better - we don't have the difference maker at QB.

Unfortunately think we take a step back next year unless the offense really takes off as you lose 2 NFL DEs and that makes a lot of difference in the Big 10.  But 9-10 wins is solid and hopefully JJ is anything like a Stroud type someday and we can make some noise.  If not, it's just our level.  Recruiting 3 stars from New Jersey and Connecticut (and MI) is not going to cut it at the highest level.

NCAA is really a 3-4 team system at this point.  Everyone else (ND, us, PSU, Oklahoma, etc) are just playing to get to the 3rd or 4th slot.  And then face teams where 7 WRs are 4/5 stars - 4 guys happy to sit on the bench waiting their turn unlike at our program since they know they will get 1st round grades in due time and get paid.  And 340 lb DTs can burst for 7 yards as fast as our RBs.  And LBs can go hash to hash faster then our WRs. Its Jimmy and Joes at this top level. 

JT4104

December 31st, 2021 at 10:55 PM ^

This is what Elite teams look like. No shame it was an uphill battle and eventually the magic was going to wear off. With that said you have three very good freshman to build off of in the offseason for the love of God please do it

Perkis-Size Me

December 31st, 2021 at 11:01 PM ^

Insert Bill the Butcher tipping his cap gif here.

Sometimes, you just need to tip your cap in respect and know you’re on the wrong side of an ass kicking. 

That Georgia defense is as good, if not better than advertised. So fucking fast at every level. And violently physical. Just de-cleating guys left and right tonight. How they got their doors blown off by Bama is beyond me, but if they play that game the way they played tonight, they will beat Bama. 

FireUpChips

December 31st, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^

Worst game of the season. Michigan would have kept this close if they brought the same performance as they did against Iowa and Ohio state 

TheBlueAbides

December 31st, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^

Congrats Georgia, that’s a good team. I hope they beat Bama. Go blue, we were on a huge stage again where we belong. I wish he gave our best shot, and even our best shot may have lost that game, but I am so proud. I lost my dad this year, and he is why I’m an M fan. I had so much fun watching this team with him this year. Thanks everyone, hail to the Victors. Happy new year