Hold me UMBIG11

Submitted by gustave ferbert on November 1st, 2020 at 6:38 PM

It's times like these that I look to umbig11 to get a feel for what's going on. . .

and that there might be hope. . . 

UM Indy

November 1st, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^

You’re looking for hope in year 6 of the tenure of the guy who was supposed to be the savior. Ouch. 
 

Guess you gotta.stay a LONG fucking time to be a champion!  

Joined: 03/05/2009

MGoPoints: 22269

MJ14

November 1st, 2020 at 7:02 PM ^

Hate to say it but I don’t think umbig11 has any insider access anymore. Shoops has been gone for months and it was released tonight by multiple people and then all of a sudden he comes on board tonight and posts a comment essentially saying Shoop is gone. Like he was giving us insider info before it ever hit in the way he made the comment. Yet if he truly was an insider he would have shared this months ago, not today after it’s now news everywhere. 

Joined: 01/09/2011

MGoPoints: 16412

Erik_in_Dayton

November 1st, 2020 at 7:18 PM ^

I have to believe that Manuel wants to fire Harbaugh as much as he wants to remove one of his kidneys with a soup spoon. It might be time to take a break from the team if you need a sign that Harbaugh is on the way out.

Joined: 12/03/2008

MGoPoints: 59152

Blue Me

November 1st, 2020 at 8:12 PM ^

It appears to me Harbaugh has the most support among older alums who might have been enamored of his father forty years ago.

I've talked to a dozen or so former players and they either were never on or have jumped off the train.

Manuel didn't hire him and has no reason to hitch his himself to a pony about to jump off a cliff. Warde did, however, make an excellent hire in Juwan.

Does anybody out there think he would have hired Harbaugh? His own success at UM is inextricably linked to that of the football program. 

Does he want to go down with the ship?

Joined: 02/17/2019

MGoPoints: -3001

Don

November 1st, 2020 at 8:38 PM ^

That's one of the dangers of hiring alumni player heroes.

Harry Kipke took over for UM alumni non-hero Tad Wieman in 1929 and had a spectacular four-year run from 1930-33, winning four consecutive conference championships and two NCs. Then the wheels fell entirely off in 1934, going 1-7 en route to the program's worst year in history which saw the Wolverines shut out 5 times and scoring a grand total of 21 points for the season. Kipke's final four years were 10-22, and he was let go after the '37 season to make room for non-UM guy Fritz Crisler.

Bennie Oosterbaan inherited a national championship program from Crisler and proceeded to oversee a decline in the program to second-tier status—at best—over his 11 years. He won or shared three conference titles in his first three seasons, and that was it.

Then alumni player hero Bump Elliott took over and won one conference title in ten years.

Now Harbaugh has been here for five full seasons, and there's no conference title on the horizon in his sixth season.

Four alumni hero coaches have a cumulative 35 full seasons at the helm, with 8 conference titles total and 4 NCs. The problem is that almost all of that occurred before 1950.

Since Oosterbaan's third conference title in 1950, alumni coaches (Oosterbaan, Elliott, and Harbaugh) have coached a total of 23 seasons. We have one conference title (1964) to show for that span. That's not particularly impressive.

The vast majority of Michigan fans giddily thought that we'd hired the Michigan equivalent of Bear Bryant when Harbaugh was hired—the hero alumni player who "came home to momma" to dominate the college football landscape. In the midst of all that over-the-top hooha I suggested caution since it was equally plausible that Michigan had instead hired its version of Johnny Majors. Unfortunately the latter seems to be the case.

Out of curiosity I looked up OSU. They've hired three OSU alums to be HC for a total of 18 seasons, with the most successful by far being Earle Bruce, who coached OSU for nine seasons. If you want to include Fickell's interim year, it's four coaches for 19 seasons, with a total of 5 conference championships.

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148358

Durham Blue

November 1st, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^

When JH was hired I was over the moon happy.  Who in the Michigan fanbase wasn't?  I mean, we were going from the Hoke shitstorm to a successful alum with a solid, winning pedigree in both college and the NFL.  Six years later I am truly in disbelief that we are still losing with some regularity to a dumpster fire program in MSU and we can't so much as sniff OSU's jock.  The gap with OSU has gotten larger, not smaller.

Of all the possible outcomes of the JH era so far, this is the one that 6 years ago I would've laughed at and said GTFO.

Joined: 10/09/2008

MGoPoints: 30023

Don

November 1st, 2020 at 10:58 PM ^

The extent and depth of the braindead Harbaugh idolatry around here (not referring to you specifically) during the first couple of seasons was just nuts. It was almost religious in its fervor.

Now the pendulum has swung fully to the other end of its arc, and in some ways it's just as crazy.

But there's one aspect of Harbaugh's tenure that I wouldn't have guessed would happen. A hallmark of the late Carr and RR/Hoke years was a continual WTF about coaching decisions during games, roster management, recruiting, etc.

I was never convinced that Harbaugh was inevitably going to bring us championships, but I did expect that there would be a swift end to the "what in the fuck were they thinking there?" moments. I mean he took Stanford from nowhere to upsetting USC to kicking ass in bowl games, then going to the Super Bowl, so surely he's absolutely minimizing the self-defeating coaching decisions, right?

That conviction disappeared when we sent two gunners on the final punt against MSU in 2015 despite the fact that MSU didn't have any returners set up. What in God's name was the coaching staff thinking there? Did they not expect MSU to be 100% committed to blocking the punt?

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148358

FlexUM

November 2nd, 2020 at 7:31 AM ^

I'd say this pretty much full on nails it. If you want to go down the rabbit hole further there are WTF coaching decisions that have lead to about 6 losses that should absolutely not have happened. If we flip those 6 losses to "W's" are we even having this conversation? Don't get me wrong we'd still be pissed because osu would still be eating our lunch but you win games like the msu in '15, iowa in '16, hell in 17 that team still should have won 10 total games (counting the bowl).

The worst any UM team under harbaugh should be (including bowls) is 10-3 with all of us still mad he can't close on osu but a clear 1b in the BIG to osu. 

I'm a bit pessimistic so I had doubt he was going to come in and do a 180...but I sure as heck thought UM would be a clear "1b" to osu with a chance to close the gap. 

In reality it's much more like...

Tier 1: OSU

Tier 2: UW, PSU

Tier 2b: Michigan, Iowa   

 

That's how I thought this whole thing could play out and while we still wouldn't have championships, UM family, fans, and friends would all be feeling much better. It feels like we are not even "in the game" now and we are fighting to get to UW and psu status. 

Joined: 11/05/2011

MGoPoints: 13573

evenyoubrutus

November 1st, 2020 at 7:32 PM ^

If you want inside info, this is not the website for you.

I got hooked on mgoblog when he was the first to report that Lloyd Carr would retire. Even Sam Webb tried to refute it (and was wrong.) Then the coaching search coverage was Grade-A+ (Peanut Butter Jelly Time!). Then they had Tim Sullivan, and Tom Van Haaren, and Steve Lorenz for a solid five seconds. It was glorious.

But at some point they decided to not do the insder stuff because it was too click-baity or something. Which is fine. It's their blog and they can do what they want. Just don't make the assumption that you're going to get inside info here anymore.

Joined: 11/04/2008

MGoPoints: 178243

rob f

November 1st, 2020 at 7:40 PM ^

While I generally agree, we've had a few "insiders" (self-proclaimed and otherwise) who seemed somewhat reliable but several others who have been charlatans and snake oil salesmen.

One in particular I thought was legit (correct me if I'm wrong) was Dr. Mantis Toboggan. I have no idea what happened to him; I did a quick search and he hasn't posted since May 30th and abruptly stopped. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 194595

jdib

November 2nd, 2020 at 12:23 AM ^

Tracking the Dave Brandon Plane to Baton Rouge and many other destinations does bring back nostalgia and excitement.  That was actually a fun time to be on the blog because of the excitement of the unknown to getting  a new coach.  I wish I could travel back in time and tell my old self that I should probably reel my expectations in a bit though..

Joined: 10/31/2012

MGoPoints: 13905

Michigan Arrogance

November 1st, 2020 at 7:38 PM ^

So I’m just gonna sum this up to make sure I’ve got this right. 
 

We've been down one coach, the safety coach, for about 2-3 months, since he walked off the job for unknown reasons. 
 

and we’re just hearing about this now?

 

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 35493

jblaze

November 1st, 2020 at 9:14 PM ^

I’ve been here too long and am too long, but (and you all knew that was coming!) what’s the deal with Shoop and Michigan having no DB coach, despite having 2 new starters?

I saw the well written anti-rumor post below, but we all know about it them, so why not let Brian get the clicks?

Joined: 08/29/2008

MGoPoints: 19316