Bill Connelly: "Jim Harbaugh’s doing an excellent job at Michigan, whether you like it or not"

Connelly is quite bullish on Michigan under Harbaugh. LINK. Choice passage:

September and October define the stakes, and November defines how a season will be remembered. At Michigan, Harbaugh is 16-2 before November 1 and 6-4 after. The last step in the building process is obvious.

It might be difficult, however, for UM to progress in 2017. The Wolverines must replace their leading rusher, four of their top five receiving targets, three all-conference offensive linemen, their top three defensive linemen, their best linebacker, and their top five defensive backs, including nickel back and Heisman finalist Jabrill Peppers.

Harbaugh has been recruiting incredibly well — per the 247Sports Composite: sixth nationally in 2016, fifth in 2017 — and most new starters will be former four- or five-star recruits. But that’s so much turnover. S&P+ loves what Harbaugh has done but projects the Wolverines to fall to about 10th.

From a macro view, the rebuild is going well and leading to one hell of a 2018. From a narrative perspective, though, 2017 will be interesting. Michigan’s schedule features eight likely wins (84 percent win probability or higher) and four virtual tossups (between 41 and 55 percent). Two of those tossups (at Wisconsin, Ohio State) happen to be the last two.