RichRod Said It Well
During his time here, I remember a reporter asking RichRod when will Michigan beat OSU. His reply was spot-on: “Michigan will beat Ohio State when we have better players than them. Period.”
10 yrs later, still nowhere near. And if you think the chasm is wide this yr, wait until next when our OL is depleted.
It’s about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s - and we don’t have them. Recruiting misses and transfers have caught up to this squad. Ben Mason on the D-Line tells you all you need to know.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:51 AM ^
I didn’t see more talent on our team yesterday to be honest.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:00 AM ^
Can you really be run out of a building if you didn’t bother to show up?
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
Why are we talking about OSU?
We just got smoked by Wisconsin. Do they have better players than us too?
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Better coached players , better players that fit their scheme
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
We are too clean to compete with those cheese eating cheaters.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
Just wait until we have to face Iowa and their bag men.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
Every team the ‘Baugh loses to has better players. Or cheats. Or cheated to get better players and plays better cause they cheated. The ‘Baugh is really awesome at his graduation rate. That’s why he makes the Big ‘Baugh Bucks.
September 22nd, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^
so now this is where we are at now? we aren't getting recruits and getting beat because of bag men? we are ahead of Wiscy on the 247 composite but they "paid" to get lesser athletes to beat us. great logic. this is the answer every year when we lose. everyone cheats and bagmen
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
Dbl post
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Brilliant insight. Did he say that before or after fucking his assistant?
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Dear OP, if that's your excuse, then how do you explain MSU beating them multiple times in the last 10 years (with really sub-par recruiting), PSU (with Franklin!) has beaten them, and oh yeah, Mighty Iowa with their team full of 5*s and genius Ferentz?
Talent matters, but it isn't everything.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
It’s not an excuse because it’s the coaches job to get the best players. This staff is failing on all fronts. But as bad as the game planning has been, the inability to land recruits and keep players here has been the biggest contributor to poor performance.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
I know everyone hates to hear this, but if we’re being honest, most of those were flukes and impossible to systematically replicate. Michigan was an inch from winning in Columbus, and we’ve honestly just had shit luck. So as much as it hurts to know that the Universe just hates us, there really is no rhyme or reason as to how some other teams have managed to steal a win against a team that wins 90% of its Big Ten games.
MSU’s last win was 13-14 on a last second field goal when Urban Meyer decided to bench Ezekiel Elliott. The 2013 BTCG was really MSU’s only impressive win against Meyer in the Dantonio era. Iowa’s win in 2017 was baffling, but OSU is never going to come in with a poor defensive game plan like that against Michigan. Teams like Iowa and Purdue can steal wins in large part because it’s hard to have a perfect game plan every week and OSU doesn’t care as much against those teams (OSU still won the Big Ten both those years).
And Franklin? He’s 1-4 against each of Michigan, MSU, and OSU. The win against OSU was due to a magical blocked field goal returned for a touchdown. You’re going to fire a coach who is 3-1 against your supposedly superior example? How dumb is that? Even Brady Hoke was a 2-pt conversion away from beating Meyer with.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Cool. He must be smart. Where is he coaching now?
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:36 AM ^
OC for Ole Miss who just lost at home to Cal. He'll be out of a job again after this season when Matt Luke is fired.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
I totally forgot he was Ole Miss's OC
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:33 AM ^
It's about time this fanbase lower their expectations and understand the reality that Ohio State has a much better football program. This isn't a blip, it's been consistent for 20 years. They are on another level.
They aren't a rival. They are a team that beats us every year. They are the Globetrotters and we're the NY Generals.
We should consider our sole rival to be Michigan State.
Embrace this reality or continue the insanity of getting frustrated when the buckeyes blow us out on an annual basis.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
It’s NJ generals, thank you very much.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
Wait, isn't our OL pretty much depleted already? Ugh...its going to be a LONG rebuild.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
People laugh about “one guy not making a difference” when transfers are announced... but this program has consistently lost its most talented players (from each recruiting class) to the transfer portal. This team alone lost the potential ability of:
Brandon Peters, Top 70
O’Maury Samuels, 4 star RB
Kekoa Crawford, Top 120
James Hudson, 4 star OL
Nolan Ulizio, starting at Pitt
Drew Singleton, Top 80
Benjamin St Juste, 4 star DB
Brian Cole, Top 100
Myles Sims, Top 180
Aubrey Solomon, 5 star DL
Oliver Martin, Top 180
Eddie McDoom, speed receiver
Grant Newsome (injury), Top 220
When you run off your best players, you lose. It’s that simple.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
You missed Asiasi - the only capable TE (who can both block and catch) that Harbaugh has recruited. Nice to see him score yesterday.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:32 AM ^
Odd, why is Newsome on this list? If Grant doesn't get injured then Michigan does NOT lose to Iowa or MSU and most likely doesn't lose to OSU or South Carolina. As for the rest, most left (it appears to me) because they were not going to start.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:04 PM ^
It's a mixed bag. Like you I see a lot of players who wanted more playing time, and some of them aren't getting it at their new homes either. Singleton's not starting for Rutgers. Sims isn't starting for Georgia Tech. Peters is starting at Illinois but he isn't exactly blowing the doors off and I doubt many of us are aching to trade our QBs for theirs. McDoom dropped a couple of passes for South Florida when Wisconsin beat them 49-0 but didn't have a catch.
If these were really our "best players" we're in even worse shape than I thought.
Samuels had legal issues; I hope we aren't going to get to the point where we don't care about that stuff. Brian Cole, in his own words, "was hanging out with the wrong people" and needed to get farther away from some of his Saginaw friends.
Ratings aren't meaningless but they aren't infallible either. I don't know how anybody could have watched that game yesterday and thought we had clearly better talent across the board. No back with the speed and strength of Jonathan Taylor should have been a 3-star, but he went to a small high school and was hard to evaluate (kind of like Mike Hart in that way I suppose). Three stars for Biadasz is an even bigger joke, but Wisconsin locked him up early and he made it clear nobody else had a chance, so the recruiting sites sort of lost interest. I don't think he was ever even rated as an offensive lineman. 247 had him as the 68th best defensive end in his class, they kept dropping him lower and lower when he never got any other offers.
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:23 PM ^
I often wonder if we could look at recruiting rankings looking only at players retained. Would be nice to know what the ‘16 and ‘17 class looks like now compared to how other teams fared. And it should factor in players that transfer in as well. I’m guessing after the adjustment, we’d be like top 20...maybe???
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
Some 3 star farm boys from Wisconsin just punked our 4 and 5 stars. They showed mercy as it couldve been alot worse.
Explain that idiot.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
Bullshit. Wisconsin beat the pants off of us yesterday with unarguably less talent on the field. They just were better coached and cared more. The same thing could happen to any team that plays osu. I just don't think we are that team, and I am coming around to the possibility that the problem can be helped with a coaching change.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:43 AM ^
Honestly, I thought this excuse died out years ago. I cannot believe it is still being used.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
Wisconsin will beat Michigan when they have better players than them. Period.
Oh wait
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
Michigan football is a brand, designed to give fans just enough to keep pumping money into the machine. The actual goal is not to be competitive nationally on the field but to maintain the money status quo.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:49 AM ^
I don’t know how to tell you this, but we played Wisconsin yesterday, not Ohio State. Did RichRod have any nuggets of wisdom on why he couldn’t beat Wisconsin?
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
You’re missing my point. Wisconsin is far superior on both lines of scrimmage. They clearly have a better RB and TE.
As bad as our game planning has been, i am blaming the coach for the inability to land (and keep) better players - it’s his job and he’s failing at it.
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
Some of us have been saying that from Day 1.
September 22nd, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Talent matters a lot. But we just got destroyed by a team with 9 four/five stars on its roster compared to ours with 40 four/five stars. So, figure that out.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:02 AM ^
I doubt Wisconsin has a single recruiting class rated higher than ours in the last decade.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
C'mon, Don. Wisconsin has never had a better recruiting class than us. Not once in the recruiting site era.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:03 AM ^
They aren’t ready to play yet. The coaching staff isn’t done turning them into shitty players.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
Michigan will win when it has better coaches than OSU. Which also doesn’t seem to be anytime soon.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
You mean the o-line that is currently a sieve and doesn't seem to be able to block anyone.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:03 AM ^
During the Cooper era at OSU, there were years they had superior talent and superior overall records, but we beat them regardless. Coaching has been huge in determining the winner in the game a lot of the time, and it is just an excuse by RichRod to lay it all on talent. Many years recently we seem to have been poorly prepared for the game and unable to make adjustments.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
Yep that's the one trick you can use to beat Vegas. Add up the star ratings of everyone on the field. Team with more stars = more good. You'll be rich in no time. Thank me later
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
Has nothing to do with talent. If it did OSU would never lose to Purdue or Iowa. Much less get blown out. We have more than enough talent to beat OSU.
Has everything to do with coaching at this point.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
It is not a simple equation like supreme talent (ie 5 stars)=winning all your football games each and every season. How can Wiscy or even Sparty recruit mainly 3 stars and get very good results?
Michigan has the talent side of the equation but apparently lacking in coaching. I don't have the answers. Talent weighs heavily but if the coaching isn't there to develop them into All-Conference and First Team All American in Power 5 College then it's all for naught.
I did make part of your point so we should agree that Michigan has a coaching problem.
The question or point we should make is if Shea would be a better QB at Wisc with their superior OL? Would our tailbacks be much better behind any team with a good to great OL? The answer is: perhaps so.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
F Rich Rod. That piece of crap sent us backwards by several decades because of his small minded recruiting. He was terrible and can keep his opinions to himself.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:40 AM ^
Several decades huh?
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
Bill Martin, Carr, RR, etc. Anyone to distract from the fact that Harbaugh has had five years and he can't field a competent team.
It's not even wins and losses. Teams lose. It's looking fucking lost that means Harbaugh is a failure and needs to go ASAP.
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
What's the worst case scenario to me is, Apathy like we all saw in 2014. It was Brady Hoke's 4th year. He started 11 and 1 then went downhill each year after that. Similarities exist this year.
Imagine this team is 6 and 5 going into Ohio Sate and their fans fill 75% of Michigan Stadium then blow us out.
Then again, if this team doesn't get any moxie back, they don't make it to a bowl game.
Apathy is our next stop on this train, let's hope not
September 22nd, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Putting It All on the Line(s)
Last season’s defensive line included Rashan Gary, Chase Winovich and Bryan Mone, three players currently on NFL rosters. Among the interior rotation players were Lawrence Marshall who graduated, Aubrey Solomon who transferred and Michael Dwumfour whose playing time this season has been limited to a few snaps in the opening game due to an injury. Luiji Vilain, who once was considered a promising rotation player until injuries derailed his career, has played in one game in three seasons. (Walk-on Carl Myers appeared in five games by the end of his third season.)
Also gone from last season’s defense is defensive line coach Greg Mattison who must’ve known that he’d become remembered as the proverbial rat leaving a sinking ship, and who appears to be on his way to winning the Big Ten championship that eluded him during his recent stay at Michigan.
Having failed to satisfactorily replace Mattison and six players who were key to 2018's defensive line, and coupled with the disastrous performances of the offense to date, it looks like Michigan’s defensive line is going to be a major obstacle towards a successful season. (The less said about Michigan's supposedly strong offensive line, the better.)
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
Every single player should do one thing, which is to worry about the one thing they can control: themselves. “Worry about you.” These players talk too much to the media and on social media. None of them have done squat and instead of the rumors now spreading that players hate Harbaugh’s tough practices and that he’s lost the team, they need to humble their asses and listen to the adults who only succeed if the players listen and perform how they are taught.
OSU has more talent than all but 3 to 5 teams (Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, ND). This is not new. Yet, OSU has lost. Once almost every year. “Worry about you.” Focus on your self improvement, young men. Shut up, work, and play for the big stage. Ingrain the fundamentals of ball control.
September 22nd, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
What a terrible take after a loss to a team with far less talent.
September 22nd, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^
Yes, and we don't get the talent until we get better at cheating.
That's the message the NCAA has been sending out. It's repulsive but true. A program needs a coach who can assess talent and guide the offensive/defensive philosophy to be contemporary and effective.
But also a coach who knows how to cheat while keeping his employer and the NCAA plausibly insulated.
I fricking hate it, but it's true. Past 20 years is my proof.