Harbaugh letter grade year one

Submitted by Amaizing Blue on

It has been almost exactly a year.  At the end of the 2014 season, some were angry, some apathetic, and nobody was happy.  5-7 will do that.  Then Hackett and Harbaugh happened.  Here are my grades for Jim after one year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        A+:  Energizing and unifying the fan base and University community.  From spending two hours at Ultimate Frisbee practice, to his delightful Twitter account, to actively encouraging lettermen to be around and part of the program...this has been a home run.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  A:  Building an infrastructure for success and recruiting.  The addition of a team mom and grabbing Partridge as a recruiting coordinator were big.  He cobbled together a respectable class in his first month, and what could be a monster this year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      A-:  Building a coaching staff and in-game coaching.  Think he misread Durkin and his character/commitment level.  Allowing him to interview when he did with Maryland was a mistake.  He also didn't beat either of our two main rivals.  On the other hand, awesome overall staff and in-game coaching ranged from solid to brilliant.     Neg away for this one...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Incomplete but promising:  Talent evaluation and player development.  Give it one more year, would be an A if graded now.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Overall:  A. Pretty much hit the realistic ceiling with this team.

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Danwillhor

December 24th, 2015 at 2:18 PM ^

we're extremely one dimensional due to our poor OL and HBs. osu was never stressed by any facet of our offense and we all saw what happened to the defense. That said, it's not USC vs Stanford because of the era we're in. A pro system is inherently more prone to be hampered by mistakes and/or a single bad player. The read-option spread covers up deficiencies but is downright scary when full of NFL talent. The offense has to improve just as much as the defense, IMO. That said, we did more than expected with what we had all year. We can't forget how different this team is with one transplant along with the same players.

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R. J. MacReady

December 24th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

An 'A' does not make sense as it leaves no room for improvement.  We lost to both rivals (one a blowout loss), and finished with 3 losses.  Should/Coulda/Woulda does not count in assessing grades.

If you were to grade this season an 'A', then what do you grade next season if we win the B10 and have 1 loss?  An 'A'?  How does a 3 loss team that gets an 'A', stay with the same grade and win the B10?  Do you give a B10 championship an 'A+'?  Then what would making the Playoffs or winning the hold thing give us?

I think this season is a solid 'B', with the case for a 'B+'.

Joined: 12/02/2014

MGoPoints: 14347

gwkrlghl

December 24th, 2015 at 3:13 PM ^

It makes sense if you take into account where the team was coming in. You can't just say 'Michigan should win the national title every year' because players come and go. The work of taking a 5-7 team and getting us to top 15 level and 9-3 is a great job. How many coaches do we think could've done the same? I doubt very many.

Joined: 04/13/2012

MGoPoints: 72

JFW

December 24th, 2015 at 8:27 PM ^

"The work of taking a 5-7 team and getting us to top 15 level and 9-3 is a great job. How many coaches do we think could've done the same? I doubt very many."

This is an excellent point, and colors the grading scale for me greatly.

Ask yourself, how does this team look with the other candidates we were looking at last year?



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Saint_in_Blue

December 24th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^

Overall -- B

Why? He failed to beat MSU and OSU. Probably could have been a higher grade had we not got blown out by OSU. Also close wins to Minny and Indiana lowered the grade a bit b/c those are bad teams.

Recruiting -- A

Obvious.

Coaching staff -- B+

I understand injuries are a part of the game, but it seemed the backups just were not prepared to play.

Offense -- C

The QB took nearly half the season to finally get cofortable. Running game never materialized. Play calling was off at times.

Defense -- B+

OMFG against spread teams!

Special Teams -- B+

Fuck MSU! Plus a lot of other lapses in some games......like Rutgers.

Joined: 10/17/2011

MGoPoints: 16993

JFW

December 24th, 2015 at 8:25 PM ^

I'll disagree on the QB. Rudock went from tentative to great. That's all Harbaugh making a huge difference.

Most other coaches screw that up. Hell, with 4 years Hoke had Gardner regress.

Defense was good, the 10,000 lbs gorilla is the performance against read option teams.

If that is addressed next year we are golden. If not... We have our new consistent thing to complain about.



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Mannix

December 24th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^

A with one big issue:

The Punt

Unbelievable it wasn't max protect and then, when seeing what MSU was doing, take a delay penalty and regroup.
Second, just line up like the O was going for it and pooch punt.

/rehash'd. Yes, it made my stomach growl.



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ABOUBENADHEM

December 24th, 2015 at 4:36 PM ^

when he took over, coupled with the long-built talent edge of our two rivals, you have to give Harbaugh a straight "A". He inherited a handful of recruits in the 2015 class, no starting QB, avg running game at best, significant uncertainty at WR, a 5 - 7 season, a questionable OL, mediocre special teams, questionable coaching staff, etc. - all of which he improved on, most by a huge amount. Most of all, we got our dignity back and we see ourselves as equals to anybody once again. My UM glass is half full, not half empty, and I am planning to pour it out in 2016 and fill it up to the top!

Joined: 11/17/2015

MGoPoints: 2768

Jack Hammer

December 24th, 2015 at 7:08 PM ^

Having read all of the posts, the B/B+ arguments make sense to me.

EDIT:  improves to B+/A- when we crush Florida.  

Someone should start a thread about what an A looks like in 2016.

Joined: 11/25/2014

MGoPoints: 24429

shoes

December 24th, 2015 at 7:01 PM ^

It is interesting to read the different perspectives. For me it is based upon the dramatic improvemnt on the field- re-energizing the fanbase, kick-starting recruiting which was about to fall of the cliff and instilling hope for the future. There were many other fine coaches we could have hired but I firmly believe that no one else could have done so well in year one.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 9571

Beat Rutgerland

December 25th, 2015 at 2:03 AM ^

Ok, I’ll play

 
Overall record: B+. Team looked like a world beater for a second there, but despite a drop-off ended up meeting or exceeding pre-season expectations that were already quite high. Bonus points for beating Michigan State, save a fluke, minus points for relying on karma to win the following two games. 
 
Offensive coaching: B/B+. The real success story of this season is Rudock. An absolute transformation of a 5th year senior is truly impressive. You could play devil’s advocate and say Rudock started the season underperforming, but you still have to credit Harbaugh’s unwavering faith in Rudock. Any way you want to slice this Harbaugh cements his place at the top of the mountain of quarterback gurus. 
 
Less good was the running game. The backs are not ideal, but if you want to play tricky manball, the manball part has to be convincing. If the running game doesn’t improve drastically next year, the record won’t improve either.
 
Defensive coaching: B-. This is a composite of 3 grades. An A+ prior to Michigan State, a B+ for Michigan State up to the game, and an F on the final. Injuries or no, the coaching staff failed to put the players in a position to win that game. If you’re being beaten exclusively by the running game, you respond with some variant of extra guys in the box. I don’t really consider that an opinion, anymore than "it’s generally bad to punt on 3rd down” is an opinion. Frustrating. We could post-mortem what the breakdown was and why it happened, but let’s just say somebody should have had a V-8 and move on.
 
Staff: A. A bunch of good hires, the ones with question marks seemed to turn out great. Everybody seems to be having a good time. We lose a coordinator and hire a guy everyone thinks is a great choice, oh and Mattison is our friggin D-line coach. 
 
Recruiting: A+. Right now our recruiting class is ranked higher than Alabama's, while the #1 overall player in the country is seriously considering a Michigan commit. Obvious sign Harbaugh is one and done back to the NFL.
 
Intangibles: A. Less weight for this one, but the positive feelings and confidence about the future of this program at least deserve a mention. Can’t hurt recruiting or alumni donations either.  Also, “man least likely to say ‘there are no stupid questions'” press conferences may be less novel in the future, but this season they were pretty great. Harbaugh wins feelings ball.
 
Overall grade: B+/A- final grade TBD by bowl game.

Joined: 11/29/2015

MGoPoints: 4626

ford_428cj

December 25th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^

A+ for bringing pride back into the program. 

A+ for being creative with peppers

F for not having max protect punt - having Ruddock pooch it would have even been better

F for punting at osu 35 yard line & not run blitzing hard on D

A- for everything else.

Overall B+

 

Personal A+ for me being really excited for games again

 

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