Jim Harbaugh is building a Monster at Michigan
Fluff piece from the Sporting News about how aweseome Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football team are.
Will Michigan be a monster? It took Harbaugh one year to get the Wolverines back to that comfortable place where Schembechler, Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr had the program.
It's similar to another model at a college football powerhouse. Nick Saban went 7-6 in his first year at Alabama in 2007 before a 12-2 record in Year 2. From there, Saban created a national championship superstore. Harbaugh has the same resources to work with at Michigan. He took three years to compile a winning record at Stanford. He is ahead of schedule with the Wolverines.
Reminds me of just the other day when me and a buddy of mine were out in my driveway - he saw the neighbors dog licking his balls. He said "man I wish I could do that". I said "go ahead but you might want to pet him first".
One of the best from Peter Sellers!
I don't want to drag this down into the gutter, but your friend's comment intrigued me. I for one would not take advantage of any unusual flexibility in this way.
but man September can't get here fast enough
that Spring is not wanting to appear....September surely seems a long way away...
At least we get some 80+ degree days in early September.
I'm glad I made the move. It is funny to see how people bundle up in blankets and hats when temperatures drop to 64 after the sun goes down. I was coaching a baseball game in shorts last night and you would have thought it was Winter by looking into the stands.
my first winter trip to Mexico. Found a beautiful little city down here about 40 KM away from Guadalajara with a winter climate very close to that of Hawaii and/or San Diego.
First year down was 2011. Flew out to L.A. to spend month with my son prior to coming down, and actually watched our last victory over OSU with him that month. I got on the plane to Guadalajara and could not resist but smile. Now obviously L.A. was not the home of all the Mexicans returning home for whatever reason, but judging by their down jackets and other thick winter wear, you would think they had spent the last 2 years in Death Valley. Speaking with a few, I was surprised to learn they were, indeed, residents of L.A. and the weather I had fallen in love with was on the cold side to them.
I had been walking all around Santa Monica for a month in shorts and a T-shirt and shortly after locating my winter rental, changed back into them and pretty much wore a variation for the remainder of the winter. Although the locals didn't go to quite the extremes my fellow passengers did, it was not unusual to see them wear a hoodie if the temp fell a bit below 70.
While reading your post I just had to smile because I knew exactly how you felt.
I remember a trip I made to Phoenix once in October. The temps had been consistently in the 100's for weeks, but they dropped down to the mid 80's.
I laughed when all the TV and radio stations there could talk about was sweaters and hot chocolate now that there was a crisp fall nip in the air.
Mid 80's.
It's all relative, I guess.
I will accept eternal winter as long as it means eternal Harbaugh and Michigan football
Isn't this obvious? He is building a monster, and this time he is going to enjoy it, instead of moving on to create his next monster.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Monsters have to win on the field and win against thier toughest rivals. Michigan has yet to do this but I hope we see the monster emerge this fall.
Harbaugh has been at Michigan one year and there are actually "fans" bitching because he didn't beat either rival, both of whom were top five teams when they played Michigan?
Michigan is 68-35-5 against Sparty all-time and 58-47-6 against OSU. They have proven that they historically "win against their toughest rivals." Take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the great job Harbaugh is doing with the program.
My post isn't a complaint or a rant so maybe you need to relax a bit yourself. I'm just stating what is obvious. We have heard a lot of hype before and I am only stating the superlatives should wait until this team actually shows it can dominate their rivals. That's all.
losing only to the end-of-season #4, #6, & #17 teams (#17 on the road) is an improvement deserving superlatives.
People have short memories. The level of desperation in that final season of Hoke was horrifying.
EXACTLY!!!
We had a happy season. But we have not yet reached the point where we can be walking around touting Harbaugh's Michigan success because he hasn't reached the pinnacle, or even come close yet.
After a 5-7 season, a 10-3 campaign is fantastic (and I'm very happy with it).
However, compared to top teams that we all want to compare ourselves to, 10-3 with losses to the three highest ranked teams you played is not great. Not bad. But not great.
We just have to prove ourselves this season.
agreed on most points. but removing pre-1950 stats, wins, championships, etc paints a more relevant, more modern and less dominant picture. history is great and m has plenty of it but harbaugh understands better than most that only the next game matters in the march to championships
Historical win totals vs "modern era" and any given fans perception/interpretation of how successful a program is.
My formula is pretty simple. I don't discount all those old wins, but they become increasingly irrelavant as time goes by.
I take the average age of all assumed michigan fans,which given early childhood skews a bit older than average demographics. So lets say the average age for male Michigan fans is 45.
45 years is how far back I look to judge their "modern" performance. I guess another term for it would be "Fan collective memory". So i'd say the average fan's collective memory starts at the 1971 season. I realize that this blog probably has a collective fan memory FAR younger, and thats fine.
Look I'm all for history but trotting out old records doesn't mean a thing to new recruits. Here's what recruits know - the won/loss record that they can remember (mainly the last ten years).
Michigan vs MSU 3-7
Michigan vs OSU 1-9
Also here's Michigan's record vs both since MSU joined the Big Ten
Michigan vs MSU 35-26-2 (.571)
Michigan vs OSU 26-35-2 (.429)
Harbaugh is driving his monster truck over Maryland??
nothing wrong with that.
I live in Virginia and whenever I have to drive through Maryland I break some part of that state.
It's a time honored tradition.
Did I miss this pic during Maryland week?
This was in the Unverified Voracity post after the Maryland win.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Well our schedule is pretty easy this year, no Utah type team early. Big Ten looks weak overall.
MSU, which beat us by a fluke, lost their good starters - no Cook to Burbridge show this year.
OSU lost 9 starters, no Elliott, Bosa.
We have nearly all of our starters back.
We could be undefeated into the OSU game, just need to contain the QB.
Is going to blitz him so hard that he'll have PTSD by halftime.
Understanding the need (and having the players with the ability) to bring a safety into the box to assist in stopping OSU's mobile spread attack because OMG how do we have nobody within 15 yards of an option play?!
That's what Maryland thinks it does, but really it's just crab cakes.
Maryland truly does have delusional football fans. They expect to be a football power by reading their 247 board.
Stanford would be harder to turn around than UM. I would prefere to build Michigan into a winner than the 2000 Stanford team. In answer to the question Is Harbaugh building a monster @ UM or not? I say "building" is the key word, it is too soon to say positively whether or not he actually is. A vote of confidence from me is all I can offer because I believe he is creating something that we have not felt for a long time. When you can feel it more than guess at it, then you personally will know it is real. Go Blue!
and pound him senseless.
it doesn't say he has "built" a monster (yet). I have full confidence that the wins over our rivals are coming soon, very soon. We all need to enjoy this ride because once the machine has been built and is rolling, we will quickly become complacent and expect to win (and then gripe if we don't). The anticipation of it happening is half the fun, so enjoy the process. Onward!
Michigan is militant. It’s almost as if Harbaugh is playing “Axis & Allies” by himself and using every FBS school as a pawn. South Florida, Baylor and Iowa State are allies, of course, for teaming up in satellite camps. There’s a growing axis.
I actually laughed there because he wins even at this. He's made several precision strikes on various platforms that others simply do have have the equipment or ability to answer in a timely fashion, if indeed at all. It is incredible to watch as it unfolds too.
As thrilled as I was to see Hoke let go and as much crap as he takes here on the board I do think the fact that Harbaugh is ahead of schedule is at least somewhat thanks to the cupboard NOT being bare when he took over. There was definitely talent here, albiet hopelessly undercoached and underdeveloped, but it's not like Jimmy achieved 10-3 last year with pixie dust and magic beans.
Hoke failed at a lot of things but recruiting, for the most part (outside of quarterbacks), was not one of them.
In my opinion , Harbaugh creates a competitive environment and gets the most out of his players like NO OTHER. Amazing how he gets every ounce of effort out of every player...and if they don't put forth the effort.. Sayonara.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Was proven great overall, but really only when we were a winning program. I'm appreciative of the talent Hoke landed here, but given more time I believe he would've proven ineffective at recruiting if the team continued to slide further into mediocrity and worse. I think we can also chalk up some of these good-to-great recruits to the massive amount of luck that Hoke and his 2011 team had.