January 1st, 2020 at 9:33 PM ^
uh, besides LSU, are those other schools supposed to make me feel better? we're basically at the same place as georgia, florida, and penn state right now.
January 1st, 2020 at 11:07 PM ^
Two of those have made the playoff, one won the big ten, and the other beat our ass a year ago in the Peach Bowl. Try again.
January 1st, 2020 at 6:02 PM ^
I’m not saying every coaching hire will end like RichRod. I’m saying hiring a “hot” coach that has done worse than our current coach because of quite literally one good year in which he didn’t win his division is quite risky and I’m not sure why we would do it. Unless you have someone that is a guaranteed better coach than the one we have, why start over again. I’m not super happy about winning 9 and 10 games every year with no championships but we’ve had 4 coaches in the last 12 years....I’m not willing to just start hiring anyone who has a good year and is an up-and-coming coach
January 1st, 2020 at 6:32 PM ^
Almost every coach hired was hired after one hot year...Our own head coach was hired by SF after one hot year at Stanford...where he didn't win his division.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:30 PM ^
The other strawman argument is that a coaching search will end like Urban Meyer.
January 1st, 2020 at 4:58 PM ^
Then watch the games on TV like I do. It’s ridiculous to think that any individual fan’s financial support is relevant.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:02 PM ^
lol you don't think the near fan-revolt on Dave Brandon had any impact???
How soon we forget
January 1st, 2020 at 5:08 PM ^
Adding: the senior class went winless against OSU and bowl games, that’s 4 straight years of ending on 2 game skid.
wtf
January 1st, 2020 at 5:46 PM ^
We recruit pussies . They lose the last two games every year and then get butthurt if a few idiots say something mean about them in their twitter mentions and complain about our “mean fanbase”
January 1st, 2020 at 5:23 PM ^
Harbaugh has done a lot to right the tide against Sparty... they were kicking our ass on an annual basis before he got here.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:40 PM ^
A lot of that has been a downfall at MSU. Their talent level is really down in the last couple years. Recruiting suffered there with all their controversies and problems at the school. They’ve not been good as witnessed by their win-loss record.
January 1st, 2020 at 6:17 PM ^
On the Sparty topic, Josiah Scott is apparently going to try the draft. They have almost nothing returning on D and their O could be even worse. Woof.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:50 PM ^
The fact Dantonio went from being a SOB playing with a chip on his shoulder, to being a lazy ass who is content to rest on his laurels and give his pals cushy jobs with no expectation of performance, also helped a lot.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:26 PM ^
I’m pissed beyond belief that Harbaugh, after a very effective ground game in the first half, basically told Shea to go out and Drew Brees us to victory in the second half......Seriously WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
It was almost like JH wanted to give his golden boy Shea one last chance to go out there to sling it around and show everyone that they’ve been wrong in their assessments about his QB abilities for the past 2 years.
More than anything else, it’s these kind of strange decisions JH repeatedly makes, that seemingly have no rationale to them other than some voice inside him tells that it’s what should be done for reasons known to him alone, that really concern me about his ability to get this program to a title winning level.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:49 PM ^
Your last paragraph is DEAD ON....inexplicable decisions that only make sense to him.....repeatedly causing us to take unnecessary face punches.
January 1st, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
I don’t think Harbaugh is calling the offensive plays fellas. It looked to me that Bama was crowding the line in the second half and daring Patterson to bear them and he couldn’t.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
Not having some kind of hurry up offense is the most troubling for me....change of pace is pretty important and we had them on the ropes in the first half. Could have put them away had we gone up tempo with the running game and just kept hammering them. I think they would have folded if one of those FGs had been a TD.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:38 PM ^
The funny thing is, I remember the commentators saying this about Rudock in the first bowl game. How Harbaugh was having him throw late in the game to improve his draft stock. I thought him doing that with a big lead was genius. But blowing a bowl game because of it is obviously a different story.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:32 PM ^
Please explain why you think he deserves another year? Granted he will not be fired now obviously it’s too late but why does he deserve it?? Enlighten me
January 1st, 2020 at 5:58 PM ^
He should get one more year because there's no one you'd really feel good about taking over right now. Also, if McCaffrey turns out to be anything other than good, that's the final nail in the coffin for Harbaugh. He brought the program back, but if he can't find a develop a QB -- the No. 1 thing he was suppose to be able to do -- then what are we doing here? Can't win as an underdog, can't beat Ohio State, and can't win against any of the cream of the Big Ten let alone the rest of CFB. Just waayy to much negative momentum in the program.
Give Fleck another season to see if he can repeat some success at Minnesota, and if he can, hire him. That's your best available hire and a slam dunk. Because if you can make Western good, and Minnesota good, I'm pretty sure you can at least win 9-10 games a year at Michigan.
January 1st, 2020 at 7:48 PM ^
This is the correct take. Firing Harbaugh right now would be a horrible decision because they have no one else lined up to replace him.
Take this next season and start the coaching search behind the seasons so that we’re prepared for the very likely blowout loss to OSU again and a pathetic showing in next years bowl game. Then as smooth a transition as possible can be made.
And absolute best case (though highly unlikely) scenario, year six is somehow the magical year where everything clicks and we finally beat OSU and win the conference championship, then you can retain Harbaugh, but at least we’d be prepared for what’s almost certain to be a necessary HC change. Take the time and do it right, don’t rush it at the very end of a season.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:45 PM ^
I'm not willing to support a program that thinks we should be grateful for a 10 win ceiling, but yet increases ticket prices every other year like we're elite.
Oh, please. I'm only in my 30s, but this has been Michigan football for my entire life aside from 1997. Even the Game of the Century team went on to get embarrassed by USC in the Rose Bowl, and the 2016 team pouted from the OSU loss all the way to a bowl loss against Florida State. And yet the program has been among the most profitable in the business through it all.
January 1st, 2020 at 7:12 PM ^
This is true in that people are reminiscing about a past that never was. For all of Bo’s accolades his teams were perennial choke artists that had trouble in almost every bowl game, never mind a getting a sniff at a national championship.
Nevertheless, there is no reason that fans should be happy about this constant state of underperformance. If there is one part of the tradition that we should try to retire it is the perennial choker’s mentality. That is not a proud part of the Bo coaching tree legacy and yet somehow it persists no matter the decade or coach.
For the resources and support that the program has it is not unreasonable to expect better. Granted, football is a zero sum game and only one team each is going to truly have a great year, but is perfectly reasonable to expect to effectively compete for conference championships and win your bowl game 50 percent of the time. We don’t even do that 30 percent of the time and that is not the mark of a supposed blue blood program. Yes, we are not Alabama or even USC, but neither are we Minnesota...yet. And if Minnesota keeps climbing we may not be Minnesota either.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^
Michigan is 7th in SP+ in the 2015-19 stretch, which is better than any Michigan coach since Bo. Fuck off with this
January 1st, 2020 at 6:18 PM ^
Amazing that our S&P is always higher than what we actually finish at.
Also it's pretty amazing that you know what our S&P was 30 years ago for a stat that started in 2009.
January 2nd, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
This is just factually incorrect. Bill Connelly has the charts back to 1900.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:53 PM ^
Who gives a shit about S&P ranking? Seriously what the fuck does that prove..Not a Damn thing
0-5 Against Ohio State. No Division Championship. No Conference Championship or even an appearance in the game. These are what matter. Not some bullshit calculation.
January 1st, 2020 at 10:14 PM ^
Is this factored into the magical SP? The Wolverines have dropped 16 straight road or neutral-site games against teams ranked No. 15 or higher in the AP poll, including all 10 under Harbaugh. The last time the Wolverines won such a game was Jan. 3, 2012 over then-No. 11 Virginia Tech.
January 2nd, 2020 at 1:20 PM ^
Where in Schembechler Hall is the 7th place S&P+ Trophy located? I'd like to visit it someday. Maybe get a picture of my kids next to it.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^
Sigh. I understand the emotion, but it's idiotic to say Minnesota is better than us. A record built against nobody but Auburn in a disinterested bowl game does not equal better
January 1st, 2020 at 6:09 PM ^
I thought they played PSU...
January 1st, 2020 at 7:16 PM ^
M would have smoked PSU at home
January 1st, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
Of course they would have, lol.
January 1st, 2020 at 6:22 PM ^
I'll say that Minnesota looks soundly coached with lesser players. We have superior talent but are disjointed sometimes, maybe due to sophisticated schemes.
Either way, at least we know our confirmed plan B (Mullen) and unconfimred plan C or D (Fleck) were good picks...
January 1st, 2020 at 6:24 PM ^
Agreed
January 1st, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
Fleck has one great year in 3 and doesn’t even make the big ten championship playing in the west, has never been to Indy but Michigan fans prop him up as being the next urban Meyer. oh and he lost to both his rivals this year. If it were harbaugh Michigan fans would be screaming “unacceptable!”
the grass is always greener.
January 2nd, 2020 at 9:30 AM ^
Oh idk maybe bc he did something at Minny that hadn’t been done in 100 years?
January 2nd, 2020 at 10:05 AM ^
That's great, but if you're going to say his program is better and that he is a better option than Harbaugh, he needs to be held to the same standard as Harbaugh.
January 2nd, 2020 at 1:19 PM ^
So you’re just going to ignore that he also lead Western Freaking Michigan to a 13-1 season and only lost to Wisconsin by 8 in the Cotton Bowl.
He’s led amazing turnarounds TWICE now at schools that had no history of that kind of success. After a while it stops being a coincidence and probably means he’s a damn good coach.
January 1st, 2020 at 8:02 PM ^
How the fuck is Minnesota better? Because of one year in which they also didn't win a conference title with a Charmin soft schedule?
January 1st, 2020 at 8:46 PM ^
The new normal. Not acceptable.
January 1st, 2020 at 9:59 PM ^
Over the past 5-7 decades minus 2008-2014 we are a 9 win per year team. The rest of the big ten has caught up, and there is a massive talent gap with OSU.
The harsh reality is we are not as good as we think we are, and we haven’t been since the 70s.
January 1st, 2020 at 10:42 PM ^
Minnesota is not better than Michigan good lord.
January 1st, 2020 at 11:12 PM ^
We will all be screaming bloody murder on this blog next fall when we lose to Minnesota. They beat Auburn and Penn State. They are pretty good, and will get better when their recruiting improves.
January 1st, 2020 at 4:51 PM ^
Seems like we emptied the bag of (well thought out) tricks in the first half and just didn't have anything left for the second half. Not sure how much coaching can help when they have 4-5 players on the field faster than all of ours at any given time.
January 1st, 2020 at 4:56 PM ^
Tell that to Minnesota.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
QB play was horrible today
QB development has been horrible for almost Harbs entire tenure
not ready to say fire Harbaugh but can’t say he’s doing his job very well either.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:13 PM ^
Bullshit. How about not committing stupid, drive killing penalties all the time? How about not throwing passes all the time that the receiver can't even make a play on? How about not throwing horrible interceptions when the game is on the line? How about showing some toughness when things aren't going well? This team is a reflection of their leaders.
January 1st, 2020 at 5:19 PM ^
Don’t forget about abandoning the run in the second half. Make them stop you before you just start throwing it around.
January 1st, 2020 at 7:20 PM ^
Yep, the announcers noticed how much they just gave up running the ball in the third quarter. Gattis needs to learn to be patient with the run instead of trying to hit a homerun on every play. 18 3rd down plays because of too many misses in the passing game.