Measured, sane column on where Harbaugh is at

Submitted by yossarians tree on

"Here’s Harbaugh’s record after the fifth game of his third season on the job – 24-7. Here’s Nick Saban’s record after the fifth game of his third season on the job – 23-8. Here’s Mark Dantonio’s record after the fifth game of his third season on the job – 18-13.

(I’m not including Urban Meyer during the same stretch of time at Ohio State because, quite frankly, it doesn’t fit my argument!)"

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverine…

He also states: "He hasn’t yet passed MSU and he may never pass MSU."

Which I think is poppycock. We may have lost the game on Saturday, but just on the integrity of the program alone, and in recruiting, he has passed them. And once he gets his offense figured out he will begin beating them on a regular basis.

JHumich

October 10th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^

treated questioning the play calling as illegitimate. He said they are looking to improve [in context, implying other things], but that he's not going to question the play calling.

Almost as if there is no such thing as objectively bad or objectively good play calling.

Can he possibly think that?

I sure hope that game planning and play calling are things that they are working on improving!

Not calling for his head. Just saying that we have every right to expect more. Listening to his podcast, and getting a window into his family life, character, and mindset, I believe that we will get it.

I think that I for one would have been glad if he "sacked up" and said that the play calling was not acceptable, and that it is something that would improve.

JHumich

October 10th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^

sensitive to the youth, inexperience, and weather.

We were calling plays that require NFL pass pro, NFL routes, and NFL throws into tight windows.

With our current personnel.

In a monsoon.

PopeLando

October 10th, 2017 at 3:13 PM ^

This is what I don't get. Everything we do seems to play to our weaknesses.

There are schemes to mitigate bad OL play, bad QB play, and bad WR play. It seems like - for this year and the latter part of last year - we have been in Hoke Mode.

Hoke Mode = "These are the things we do. We shall do them, because these are the things we do. All practice is dedicated to doing these things that we do, regardless of any evidence that we cannot, in fact, do these things."

BlueInNoVA

October 10th, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^

So, presumably, the playcalling is limited to help them be successful at executing plays by limiting other factors (needing time in pocket, naked bootleg, complicated patterns etc..)..

If that's true, HOW BAD ARE WE that in a dumbed down offense against a solid defense (MSU), we can't even legitimately move the ball down the field?

The first posession was nice until the red zone, and then we panicked and threw it out of bounds on our fade / side line routes.  How many times can our QBs throw that route out of bounds before we don't do it anymore. I get it.. they tell him.. if youre going to throw it make sure only our guy can get it... but when is that EVER the case?

Then, thanks to the special teams luck and the defense, we had a 30 yard drive.

Then nothing.

So... we simplify the offense so they can execute it better, and THIS is what it looks like?  How far are we from even competence?!

Red is Blue

October 10th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^

Harbaugh said, "I want to look at the film, I want to learn from it. I’m not gonna get into questioning the play-calling."  

 

He didn't say he wasn't going to look at/question the play-calling.  What he did say was that he wasn't going to get into that at the presser.  That is, he is not going to publically debate play-calling.  I don't see how anything good would nave come from him saying that the play calling was not acceptable. 

CLion

October 10th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^

It was always fun when Borges would go into monologues about playcalling, and he and Heiko had the bubble screen banter, but if I'm a head coach the last thing I want to do is try to have a discussion about playcalling with a bunch of people who have likely never played the game, especially after I just lost to MSU and haven't looked at the film.

DairyQueen

October 10th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

Exactly.

Also, let's be honest. Tradtional journalism is absolutely dead.

I can get more in-depth and better analysis from some of the better commenters here on MGoBlog. Let alone the bloggers here, and former players, coaches, and analysts on their own websites.

Traditional journalism/news model is so dead. Our ability to transmist, broadcast, and access information nullifies a lot of what a traditional journalist was valuable for.

If it wasn't for the media-credentials access, they would have absolutely nothing of benefit. And even then theses stupid journalists don't make anything interesting of their behind-the-scenes access, and of course, most of the time, they wouldn't be allowed to.

A) Harbaugh's not going to go into it, regardless if he has or hasn't already looked at the film, and B) what Harbaugh is going to say publicly to these idiots, and the filter through they're going to write it, is mind-numbingly stupid and a waste of everyone's time.

Hence why NO ONE is tuning in. And ESPN (and the like) are firing/laying people off.

It's just not entertaining (and yes I realize that is a dangerous standard by which to validate something, but here I think it's relatively okay)

And I'm usually moderately conservative about this kind of stuff, but, in this case, I do think him deflecting talking about it, in this set and setting, is better than trudging through this with this idiot journalists trying to ask him leading questions so they can score a stupid, sensational headline.

Wolverine 73

October 10th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^

Additionally, the bar for being a journalist is so low these days that the stuff on mlive and even the bigger newspaper websites is routinely grammatically butchered. That drives me nuts. These people are supposed to be professionals. But the rush to publish without thorough (or any?) editing has really degraded the material both in style and substance.

SlickNick

October 10th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^

Now this is just my opinion, but it seems so far our playbook has been way dumbed down from last year to keep things simple for all of our new offensive starters. If you compare the complex schemes and formations we ran last year, to the vanilla stuff we are running this year I think its mainly  to try to give our players something they can handle rather than just 100% on poor coaching/coaching changes.  Now obviously for the most part these plays aren't being handled by our players which also reflects poorly on the coaching.  So I think Harbaugh's frustration comes in here where hes not going to call out his players, or coaches, but is noticeably frustrated they can't get into more complex play calls, and game plans. 

But on the other side of the argument there is no reason we can't have a couple creative plays that really fool the defense, like MSU did for the touchdown. 

Oregon Wolverine

October 10th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^

My recollection is that he said something akin to

"Yes, you can question the play calling and people are going to do that, but that's an easy thing to do.  If you run a play and it goes poorly, of course you can say 'I wish I called a different play.'  If it goes well, 'it must have been the right play.'"

Key is you judge it on the info you have at the time you called the play, not on the result.  Classic "hindsight is 20-20" problem, also known as the Historian's Fallacy.  Here's wiki's explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historian%27s_fallacy

Here's an example in another context.  I went through an acrimonious divorce and am now on the other side, happily remarried.  I still have to deal with the ex b/c I have three kids.  She's a pain in the a@#$ and turned out to be exactly the kind of person she despised for the first 5-7 years of our relationship.  

Did I make a bad choice to marry this person?  Hindsight say yes, we both made a mistake.  But at the time we made the best decision we could on the information we had at the time.  Beating myself up for a choice made 20 years ago based on information I have now is pointless.  

Better to accept, do my best to learn from my mistakes, and be the best dad (and ex) I can under the circumstances.

That's what I got out of Harbaugh's comments too.  We'll look at the tape and try to improve.

Based on the information we have right now, we have the perfect coach for Michigan.  The game is not easy, there are no guaranteed wins.  I hate losing to Sparty and the Bucks, but who out there would put us in a better postion to win than Harbaugh?  Noooooo-body.

BlueMk1690

October 10th, 2017 at 2:57 PM ^

rather than being a good leader for those he works with and supervises..is an absolutely awful coach.

I hate nothing more than the head coaches who after losses will just drone on about how this or that aspect of the team isn't good enough, fully well knowing that even without naming names they're throwing other coaches or players under the bus. Brian Kelly comes to mind. A supremely talented coach who will forever be held back by his self-serving character that makes it impossible for him to be a true leader.

In reply to by FA_Wolverine

JHumich

October 10th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^

think, because we don't know sh*t. We don't, and he's right.

I actually think that he loves the passion of the fan base.

He's not a flake with his finger in the wind to see how opinion is going.

He's working diligently and cheerfully to get better and beat Indiana.

The Pete F take that he's going to leave his dream job because some fans are whining is nuts.

uminks

October 10th, 2017 at 7:44 PM ^

If we end up losing 5 or 6 games and next season does not look as good and recruiting falls of because of this poor season, I could see Jim throwing in the towel and taking one of those good NFL coaching jobs. I hope he stays but I could see him making some more professionally successful career moves.

uminks

October 10th, 2017 at 7:54 PM ^

There is long list of NFL owners and GMs who would love to have Harbaugh as their head coach no matter how bad this season turns out. I thought Jim would leave for the NFL after he turned Michigan around into a big ten champions or national champions. But if he sees no hope for several years, he may just think it is not work staying here. I hope this is not the case but I think it may be possible if the team just implodes on him and we lose 6 or 7 games.

MadMatt

October 11th, 2017 at 12:03 AM ^

Jim Harbaugh isn't going anywhere because of a few annoying questions after a disappointing loss. This guy played QB for Mike Ditka and got chewed out in front of a national TV audience for a poor audible decision on 4th down. While he was still an NFL QB, he cold called 2 star recruits for his father's non-marquee program. He put up with the 49ers owner and front office even after taking a roster that missed the playoffs the prior season to the Conference Championship Game, three times in a row.
This guy has proven he will eat shit cheerfully if that's what he has to do. He lives his slogan about growing a steel spine. I'm not worried at all about his tender fee-fees getting hurt if (understandably) traumatized Michigan fans want to second guess his play calling.

Barooo

October 10th, 2017 at 11:46 AM ^

I will be curious to see what adjustments are made for Indiana. Call me crazy, but I expect to see a pretty big bounce back from the offense. Not just because it's Indiana, but because there's a lot of pride involved from both players and coaches. 

WolverineMan1988

October 10th, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^

I sincerely want to believe that our offense will bounce back, but many of the mistakes are self-inflicted and have not stopped yet.  For instance, I'm sure they have worked with the RB's on not fumbling the football in practice, but it hasn't stopped!  A lot of the issues on offense this past Saturday are only correctable if guys just flat out stop doing them: fumbling, penalties, overthrows, missed assignments, dropped passes, and I'll even include some bad playcalls,  etc.  

As Patrick Kugler said after the game, "We just have to play better."  Asked again if it was anything specific, he said "Nope, just play better."  Some of it is specific, but some of the stuff is basic things that guys just need to stop doing or do better.  

I'm to the point where I just say, I'll believe it when I see it.  I hope that happens this week, because there's no legitimate reason why the Michigan offense shouldn't be able to score 30 or more points against Indiana's defense.

For all the talk of our offense being "young,"  SOME of the problems have nothing to do with youth.

uminks

October 10th, 2017 at 7:49 PM ^

thinking the offense would have a big bounce back every game after Cincinnati. The 2nd half at Purdue was a bit of a bounce back but the loss to a not so great sparty team at home has dashed my hopes for a big bounce back next week. I just hope our D can score some points so that we can win at IU.

Barooo

October 11th, 2017 at 1:01 AM ^

Honestly, that's the one thing that really scares me this week. The offense is not gonna have another 5 turnover game, but the defense has been so dominant that if they try to compensate for the offense and get over agressive, indiana could burn them.

ijohnb

October 10th, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^

think at this point as fans, the overall record against Michigan State is beside the point.  We lost this year, and I think we can all agree that what we like to see is Michigan go into East Lansing next year with the same focus and effort that State just played with here.  We got them last year, they got us this year.  We will see them next year and I think we will come out of there with a win.

Right now I would love to see a Michigan win on Saturday afternoon and a MSU loss on Saturday night.  Division is still in play but we need some help now.

In reply to by ijohnb

The Mad Hatter

October 10th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^

But we do need to win out. And I think that's unlikely.

I say focus all of our practice time on preparing for PSU and OSU. Especially OSU.

I can stomach a loss to Wisconsin. Beat OSU and the future will long bright.