When in the last 3 years did you know things had changed with the program?

2021 Michigan at Wisconsin. I remember I kept screaming at my kids from kickoff “we’re going to win this game!” Dominating win. 
 

The following week at Nebraska. Night game with lots of adversity. Typical Michigan game that we always lose and they found a way to win. 
 

From that point on things started to feel different. 

I realized it when Ojabo sacked CJ Stroud in 2021. 

Penn St 2021.  Coming back on the road after giving the lead up late.

Nebraska 2021. That was a game previous teams seemed to find a way to lose and we pulled it out. Also, the way Haskins ran the ball in that game I could tell it was going to be a different team. 

For me, it's the 2021 Wisconsin game at Camp Randall. A game that so many Michigan teams of the past two decades lose, we dominated them, and we had fun doing it. We "jumped around" with them. 

Attitude change. Culture change. Leadership evolution. Similar philosophy, but evident scheme evolution. And a leveling-up of abilities.

It was all evident in this game. The game where BPONE started to lessen its grip on my soul and where I started to believe.

Mike MacDonald replaces Don Brown

After Harbaugh was hired, he immediately made changes. Even before the past 3 years, he was heading in the right direction.

He had his system and ideas but wasn't inflexible. Upon arrival he didn't like the QB situation so he went out and got Jake Rudock (I will awlays believe if we had one more year with him, the program would have advanced more quickly). He continued to seek out better QBs, Shea Patterson, John O'Korn, Joe Milton, Cade McNamara, and ultimately JJ McCarthy. Not everyone worked out ideally but always there was a movement forward and not inertia (See Iowa QB situation. Hard for today's fans to believe this but once Iowa had Chuck Long a legitimate Heisman trophy candidate QB)

When things didn't work, he adjusted. Many college coaches excel at one idea, one system or one approach. They cling to it because it had brought them early success and can't move away from it. (See Rich Rod, and his particular obsession with his basketball on grass - Michigan 67 - Illinois 65, Novl. 6, 2010).

While he evolves he does not chase fads, he has consistent core ideas: believes in running the ball and stout defense, but that has evolved from a Pro-I, to a Spread to a PIstol-Spread-One Back QB under center hybrid; his defense went from hyperaggressive TFL orient defense to today's very NFL like one - allowing teams to travel up and down until they get close and then shut them down or force a FG.

I'm glad he had the time to develop his program. When he went out to get Shea Patterson, I knew he was serious about winning it all.

The Game. 2021.

Nebraska in 2021 was when something seemed a bit different.

• Michigan was toying with them but couldn't totally put it away. Next thing you know, Michigan is down to them after Nebraska scores 20+ points in the 3rd.
• Carr, RichRod, and Hoke all lose that game. Hell, even pre-2021 Harbaugh loses that. It was shaping up to be the classic Michigan "steal defeat from the jaws of victory" kind of game.
• Instead, they didn't fold. They won.

The second half of 2022 OSU was when things truly felt different.

• Pure domination.

When I went to the 2021 Michigan-msu game. Yes they beat us, but it really felt like we beat them. It was the weirdest feeling I ever had after a loss. I spent $300 bucks for that ticket and was not unhappy after that game.  I just knew we were better, much better, and that they would take that L and do something with it. It was our last regular season loss. That was the turning point. No doubt. And I saw it and more importantly, FELT it. Paradigm shift. Man oh Man. And here we are. GO BLUE! NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!! Feels so good to say that.......

@ wisconsin in 2021 really got me thinking

beating ohio 11/25/21 was it.  

EDIT:  let me be more precise about 11/25.  when we drove down that first drive and scored, held them to a field goal, and then had another very nice drive i said to myself: 'self, this is different.  we are going to win this.'  and even when they went up on us 10-7, i just knew things had changed.  then cojo caught that bomb on the 2, in the snow, and all the angst went out of me. 

Watching Hutch and O-JA-BO body slam Stroud to the turf.  

When we fired Don Brown. Honestly, that's when things started to turn the corner to me. The largest problem the program suffered from was stubbornness, and replacing Brown (who we all should still love and admire) with MikeyD showed a light at the end of the tunnel. 

The OSU answer isn’t wrong but the PSU game started out bad on the road the week after the MSU game seemed to indicate we were capped at 2nd or 3rd best in the division.  Winning that close game on the road was when I started to believe, but yes I was still nervous until the very end of the OSU game.  

There’s two answers to this:

First is the obvious one, Ohio State 2021.

Second is still pretty obvious…but…Monday. Winning the National Championship. Proving that it could be done. Everything up until then was a “yes, but.” Yes, but Michigan chokes in bowl games. Yes, but Saban with a month to prepare. Yes, but McCarthy is clearly injured. 

There were a dozen different reasons that it wasn’t possible…and each one of them rang true. We HAVE choked away bowl games. We HAVE lost to the best teams in the county before (Alabama and Georgia have both paved us). Our offense DID take a clear step backwards when McCarthy got injured and Harbaugh/Moore seemed content to just…not score as much. We DID have a history of “good but not good enough.”

The past 3 years probably won’t be remembered for the journey that they were. It’ll be “1997 and 2023.” But 1997 was a culmination of something that started in 1995 and 1996, and 2023 started in 2021 and 2022. 

Eric All breaking lose late vs PSU. Something about that shook me out of my coma.

Winning at Camp Randall for the first time in forever. 

First sign - Nebraska game in 2021. OSU 2021 made it a certainty.

I don't remember the exact moment, but early in the 2021 season I became absolutely convinced that we were going to beat OSU.

Nebraska 21. 

it was a process. after WMU in 2021 I knew the team was going to be better than 2020. As the season progressed I was hoping we stayed competitive with OSU. After The Game I was ecstatic and hopeful it was permanent but, especially after UGA and with our recruiting, I thought it was likely a one off that we beat them but thought the program had "turned a corner" in being competitive with them.

After Iowa and especially PSU in '22 I thought we were REAL good AGAIN but figured it was at best 50/50 on whether we beat Ohio. The way The Game started I thought we were being scrappy but figured they'd pull away...when the opposite happened in Ohio Stadium...I guess that's when my expectations upped and it terrified me. The TCU game didn't linger because I believed, especially when Blake said he was returning. All offseason I was thinking "natty or bust."

Now...I know that was a team in the conversation for best ever at Michigan and in the Big Ten and in the top half of the CFP era champs. I know we're a solid program. I know we're going to be VERY good next year...But I'm still not sure that our window stays open, that we win another natty in my lifetime. I sorta expect we will, but I'm not sure it'll be in this run or down the road or what or how.

I'd really like to beat OSU again and then take down UGA. This era has already been validated but that would just be....I dunno. Next level. We're already one of the best programs, but we do that and we're THAT program, you know?

Yeah the turning point was 2021 Wisconsin. I've never seen anything like how they handled the Jump Around song. Epic Harbaugh and epic Michigan.

3 or 4 games into the 2021 season,  you could see that Aidan Hutchinson was possibly the most dominant player in CFB. When Ojabo and Mike Morris started to flash too, you knew teams were in serious trouble. 

There's been 2 levels to this...

Better than B1G..this I knew 1st time beating OSU '21, cemented winning in Columbus, '22.

Better than SEC...our play on los vs Bama

They say in the UFC that as soon as you win the belt, (becoming #1), you immediately are 30% better.

As most have said, the answer is OSU 2021. But I will also throw in there Hawaii 2022. I know it was just Hawaii, but I also knew we had a QB that would make a national championship possible.

Didn't expect him to go 10-18 in a national championship game at that point but that's another story.

When we won @OSU I knew for sure 2021 and 2022 weren't a fluke!

On field interviews after the 2021 Ohio State game, when Hutchinson said he manifested his part of the change.  That type of player-driven leadership, mixed with high end talent, high end coaching, and a very specific and achievable goal (defeating Ohio State), has been the day to day driver of this consistent excellence.

Wisconsin in ‘21. Jump Around. 

The halftime taunting of OSU in the tunnel was it for me. Whatever we had been missing culturally had suddenly flipped and we seemed to have the edge over them mentally.

The three and out we forced after halftime in the 2021 OSU game. We’d been up at half in that game before, just couldn’t close the deal. We looked like the team with the edge there. And proved true. Much like Brian, I wasn’t gonna believe a win over OSU til it happened. And that’s the moment when it looked like it would happen. 

When Cade McNamara kept saying "This team is different". 

When we beat OSU in Columbus. Specifically the first long Donovan Edwards TD.

Up until that point I thought 2021 we got lucky and that 2022 was just full of cupcakes that we should usually beat. Then we lost Blake and Mike Morris to injuries and I was sure this team was dead in the water. 

But when they went down into that shit hole that is Columbus and Donovan broke off that first long TD run I realized the culture had really changed, next man up wasn't just a cliche. The program was finally where many of us thought they'd be years earlier under Harbaugh.

Aidan coming back and then Oct 2, 2021 at Wisconsin when UM took over jump around and Camp Randall was like WTF?!?  

Easy.  When that OSU player ripped Wilson's helmet off in the 21' game and nearly got ripped to pieces by the O-line.  That's when I knew this program was headed in the right direction.  There was a fight there that had been missing for a long time.