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.
Top 20ish classes are not Michigan.
Rod gave up 60 plus points to Illinois.
We could win every other game in the season for the rest of Harbaugh's tenure, but if we continually shit the bed against MSU and OSU, I'd define those seasons as failures every time.
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I'm really tired of hearing about this 'schedule'. Never once have I seen or heard Harbaugh referring to any schedule he put in place for said monster.
Comparing 2015 UM to 2000 Stanford is about as dumb as comparing a Honeycrisp apple to the tanginess of a lemon. Even at its worst, with either Rich Rod or Hoke coaching, those piss-poor UM teams would have destroyed 1-11 Stanford pre-Harbaugh. Harbaugh started both jobs under utterly different circumstances.
But yes, he is building said monster. I believe we'll see it in full form this year.
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Because honestly, nothing about that made any sense, and we've lived that type of monster for too long.
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It was almost a decade ago when I watched it now (wow, just realized that; actually it was 8 years ago when I binged it on Netflix to be exact). I liked the show, don't get me wrong, they killed me with the cliff hangers after every episode. But a lot of it didn't make sense and they were pretty clearly making it up as they went along.
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I hate autoplay videos
reduces steps to see it, and can fly past if I don't want to.
Everyone on this board needs to realize that we are going to win at least three national championships now, not so much because we have Harbaugh (although he is a good coach), but because of our new strength and conditioning guru MIKE BARWIS.
I propose that we call the results of this new training regime "The Barwis Effect" because it will turn 3 star recruits into killer 6 star machines.
In 2008 at least. Mainly because he wouldn't have tried to radically change the offense using QB's totally unfit for the dual-threat role.
Especially if he had the same assistants as he hired in 2008, none of whom (save for Mattison), were qualified to coach at Michigan.
My hope for Hoke was that he'd be a JoPa type figurehead (minus the rape), who would hire good assistants and let them coach the team. Once I saw the guys he brought in as assistants I figured he wouldn't last long.
Don't forget that one advantage that Harbaugh had his first year over RR and Hoke was solid recruiting from the predecessor to get players suited to a similar style of play.
RR certainly didn't have that, and Hoke had Denard and others at their peak in his first year that made his 11-win season happen.
I agree that Hoke wasn't up to the task of coaching at this level. But I'm pretty sure that RR wasn't satisfied with his team's losses.
and Hoke / RR is that Harbaugh will adapt his coaching style to suit the team he has, not the team he wants. He's a little like Bo in that regard, whose offensive strategy changed over the years as his players and the game itself changed. He ran 4 or 5 distinctly different styles during his 20 years as HC.
If RR had bought a copy of "How to Run a Pro-Style Offense for Dummies" and used it his first two years he would have won quite a few more games.
If Hoke had bought a copy of "How to Use Outstanding Dual-Threat QB's for Dummies" he also would have won more games.
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Do you still think it was a good idea to bring in Rudock last year? Imagine if Speight would have been the QB last year and spent the year on the field learning? Maybe we lose a game or two that we didn't, but we would be bringing back an experienced QB and we would be a pre-season favorite to win the Big 10 this and make the CFP.
I think the need to "win now" last year may hurt us in year two when we have a legitimate shot to make the CFP.
The hurt you can do to an athlete, especially at the qb position, by playing him before he is remotely ready is so great it cannot be undone. You have to go back no further than whoever was no. 3 behind Devin and The Great One to prove my point. It was so bad in his case I can't even recall his name.
This was more than a "win now." situation. It was actually viewed as giving us a chance to win. I believe Jake surpassed even Jim's expectations especially on that Saturday late in the season when he looked out onto the field and thought to himself, "I think he has a chance to play in the NFL."
Obviously he didn't bring him in because he had proven he was great. He did lose his job at IA if you will recall. But he was confident enough he could teach him due to Jake's intelligence and the fact that Jake still believed in himself. Also, if you will recall, Jim said, "The gap between Jake and whoever is no.2 - before Shane asked for his RS - is so great it can't be measured."
And even though it's obvious Speight has made great strides to be running neck and neck with O'Korn right now, he still hasn't been named the starter. There are a certain few coaches in the game that do not have to worry about one season's Ws and Ls costing them their jobs. Jim is one, especially in his first season.
The team was better the moment J.H. walked onto that field. The one thing Jim wanted from that team last year, more than anything else, was a belief going forward they could win and he wanted his team to practice with those expectations. With Jake we realized we not only had possibly the best TE in cfb. We also learned we had a receiving core as good as anyone in the conference. Those things would not have been realized with Speight last season and it would have gotten worse each week as his confidence suffered even more. You must remember that was the first year anyone on that offensive side of the ball received coaching above low-tier MAC level.
Results would have been devestating and instead of having what he wanted in year 2, a legitimate contest for the no. 1 qb spot, we would have been wondering how much O'Korn had learned last season and with Peters being forced to give up his RS, which may happen anyway. But if it does, it will because he overtook no. 2 at some point this season.
mr speight?
harbaugh is not even remotely the same dude and same outstanding coach if he thinks along those lines.
he obviously has a grand vision and understands the need to project his roster and ponder future strengths / weaknesses, depth chart holes or concerns, etc, but harbaugh does so with the mindset that his squad needs to win the day and do whatever it takes to win the next game.
hes obviously a fierce competitor and the mentality and method you suggest does not jive with the man. i like speight, i think hes a sharp, tough kid that knows how to lead but were not talking about cam newtown or some phenom waiting in the wings
Good job and spot on. Jim is a breed apart with the likes of but a few, and we know who they are. Some of those were fortunate, but not one that didn't have to change the mindset of least one program before they landed a position where that was not part of the rebuilding process. Hell in Jim's case, he's had to do it at every stop.
Yes, he inherited a hell of a lot more talent here than he did elsewhere(cfb), but even here, and I am not suggesting the players were o.k. with it because many of those players that Hoke recruited were obviously of superior talent that its doubtful many of them did too much losing at the high school level. But in some cases they were entering their third and fourth years of sub-par play and just like winning on a consistent basis will create the needed confidence that is responsible for that becoming a habit, losing and sub-par performances almost always lead, even subconsciously, to somewhat of an expectation of same and all our bad habits are, ultimately, the result of incorrect thought..
I don't know how he does it, how he conveys his message but I have no doubt from the time that very first meeting ends everyone that was in the room is aware his thoughts aren't on what is going to happen two years from now. We've all seen him on camera and at times, I must admit i shake my head and ask myself, "What the hell did he just say?" But the locker room, football meeting rooms are his comfort zone and where there is no misunderstanding. So it probably didn't take much longer than that first meeting to make everyone aware of what he believes. Hell yes they're skeptical but at the same time a little excited. And it doesn't take too much longer before they have the same beliefs. Hell, if all you ask of your players is to do what every other team does, why in the hell would you expect different results? He asks more, expects more and he gets more. And the players get something they haven't felt in a long time. It's a real good starting point.
Some of the things we witnessed, like not seeing a certain RB for a long period of time and then seeing him this season, both looking different and running like he expects to be the featured back, could have been a result of him possibly not buying completely into the message to the point that it did not meet J.H.'s standards and let's just say there could have been an ultimatimum laid down. I have no idea what happened and I don't need to. I do know there has been change.
There is no way in hell any member of that team believes he does not give all to making a difference every damn day and "play being a reflection of the coach," is so true. They bought in totally and why shouldn't they? He told them, showed them and this season they're building off that proof.
As I said, we all saw what went down, loved it but until I saw you put in print what we all know is the main reason why we wanted him, it's easy to forget just what about him is different. It's easy to forget where it all stems from. Seriously, a very fine job.
Not to pick nits with the OP, but the statement about Harbaugh taking one year to get the program back to the comfortable place that Schembechler, Moeller, and Carr had it in is patently false. It's only comfortable when we're beating OSU on a regular basis. Bo, Gary and Lloyd were 20-17-2 against the Buckeyes. There is no doubt in my mind we will get there, and probably as soon as this year, but we weren't competitive against the Buckeyes last year at home.
isn't beating on a regular basis, that beating once every other year. On top of that Tressel did very well against Lloyd (I'm sure WD or somebody can look up the stats).
Once every other year is literally the definition of regularly.....
We beat them more than they beat us, that's a win. We are never going to put up a 80% winning percentage over OSU for a two decade long span; they have even more institutional advantages than we have. Not to mention, this is the greatest rivalry, it's supposed to be back and forth.
For the short term (5 years), we just need to get to the point where we beat them as much as they beat us so that they don't continue dominating us.
Every other year is regular in my book, as opposed to "occasional." And for the success Tressel had, we had even more success against Cooper.
but the only victory I can recall for Lloyd over Tressel is the one where OSU had no one and was with Big John under center, we laid a pretty good ass whupping on them. And I truly believe so much of it, after those first -tempted to say three - but will stick with two were of the psychological variety, something he was not able to overcome. He had so damn much more talent those first two years - as stated not sure about number 3 - that had we did what the talent said we should have, could have been a huge reversal of fortune.
Sorry, I see now where that was a quote from the article. I wrongly attributed it to the OP.
Arguing about not beating rivals with a sample size of one season?
Ahhhh, must be spring.
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I want Uncle Urban outted like Earl Bruce. Osu to bring in John Cooper 2.0.
I want Mike D' Antoni forced into earlier retirement due to back to back to back to back losses to Michigan . Then John L Smith-Williams 2.0 to be hired at Sharty U.
All the while...Harbaugh is collecting rings and trophies like Tom MF Brady
GO BLUE!!!!