Why Hasn’t the Harbaugh Era Worked?
Looking back over Harbaugh’s tenure thus far, I’m legitimately surprised that it hasn’t worked out. The guy won big literally every other place he’s ever coached. I’m curious what you guys would point to as the reason why he hasn’t been successful so far at Michigan because I honestly don’t get why the hire hasn’t panned out.
November 1st, 2020 at 12:12 AM ^
Why hasn't the Harbaugh era worked? David Shaw wasn't at the very first press conference to keep JH from tripping on his way to the dais.
November 1st, 2020 at 12:26 AM ^
Recruiting recruiting recruiting. Michigans talent composite in 247 is currently at 18th I believe. The fact that we have players transferring out constantly and no one transferring in doesn’t help either. Ohio State had 3 Heisman candidates last year and they had the 3rd pick in the NFL draft. The NFL thought he was the 3rd best player in the nation, and he was the 4th best player on OSU. It ain’t close.
November 1st, 2020 at 12:44 AM ^
It is still too early to tell for sure.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:39 AM ^
I remember a few years ago when Nebraska fired their HC after a 9-3 season because "9 wins isn't good enough for Nebraska." Since then that program hasn't even sniffed 9 wins. As Harbaugh continues to disappoint I've always looked to that and have always had the RR/Hoke years in the back of my mind and have defaulted to, "who do you replace him with? Do we really want another Hoke?"
So, I've always been in the camp that he's been good enough and should be retained. Today changed all of that. On paper, this is a game we had no business losing. This team looked bad in every aspect of the game. I can't point to a single aspect of this game and say, "Well, we have a silver lining - at least our running game showed some life...or whatever." And this was against a program that is bottoming-out. This game shouldn't have even been close. But here we are.
Fire Harbaugh. His successor at least inherits a cupboard that isn't empty talent-wise. I'm done with this.
November 1st, 2020 at 2:45 AM ^
He stopped improving as a coach and the game passed him by. He offers nothing schematically at this point, doesn’t develop QB’s anymore and I think his odd personality always limited his odds of being an elite recruiter. He’s basically a CEO type coach now but also hasn’t hit on assistants at a clip like he used too.
November 1st, 2020 at 8:20 AM ^
Alot of armchair psychologists in here today.
November 1st, 2020 at 8:20 AM ^
Recruiting is why it hasn’t worked. We’re on par with Penn state in terms of program and 5 star recruits. OSU has half of the 5stars committed to the big 10. THERES your issue. Just about any offense would work when your 3 steps ahead of the competition. Yesterday was on the coaches, plain and simple. We were methodical and predictable in addition to just plain stupid from a game plan standpoint, and ultimately never bailed on it when it wasn’t working. It was almost like when a play worked they completely scrapped it and went back to run up the middle.
November 1st, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
Here we go once again:
- Harbaugh utilizes an outdated offensive philosophy, emphasizing safety and ball control over playmaking. The offensive game has passed him by, and he won't relinquish control over the offense, especially in games that he sees as "easy wins" (Army last year, MSU this year).
- Harbaugh breaks QBs with his extreme emphasis on avoiding mistakes. Luck at Stanford was so good that JH's coaching didn't matter. The only Michigan counterexample is Rudock, and as a grad transfer, he was football-savvy enough to overcame this emphasis by JH. Other than that, QBs have not developed under Harbaugh. In the modern offensive game, QB play matters most.
- The coaching staff does not get the team "up" for games, week in and week out. Many games we play look like the team is going through the motions. After 2016, it seems like Harbaugh is going through the motions as well.
- On the defensive side, Brown is stubborn in the extreme, reverting often to concepts that don't work -- the 3-3-5 stack and man-press coverage with inferior CBs are two examples.
- Defensive recruiting is a tire-fire at DT and CB. Deficiencies at these crucial positions - as well as scheme issues above - make it very easy to construct effective game plans to beat Michigan, which is what Mel Tucker did yesterday. It wasn't hard to say "protect the QB for 3 seconds and chuck it up" as a game plan.
- Harbaugh seemingly is wedded to Brown, so the defensive issues persist. He should have been fired after the first OSU blowout.
- I won't use officiating and strength-of-schedule as crutches, but Michigan -- arguably the second-most high profile program in the conference -- certainly hasn't been done any favors by the conference schedule-makers or the officials. I would normally not even bring it up, but analyses have been posted here about officiating (holding calls) and strength-of-schedule (compared to OSU) that show bias.