Michigan's FB Weeks Ranked in the AP Top 10 since 1995

I revised to make my response less contentious, but no--that wasn't what I said. My point is that some of the negativity we have experienced here regarding Harbaugh isn't quite so new as people suppose. Some of the same really undeserved ugly was lobbed at Lloyd Carr, too. Made all kinds of mistakes, like everyone alive, but that he succeeded at the highest level, the facts show, is indisputable. 

I concur that the Lloyd narrative was mixed. There was griping, but not a consensus or anything. Plus, a significant chunk of that period was preoccupied with criticism for John Navarre, and after Lloyd gave Jermaine Gonzalez some snaps against OSU in 2001, people basically realized Navarre was the best option and criticized him pretty harshly for what he did with the job.

I do believe that Carr didn't effectively use all of his talent in the post-99 era. There was significant criticism of his unwillingness to adapt, and while it's true that Michigan didn't adapt to stuff, to some extent that was due to limitations on what the staff was capable of coaching. Michigan tried to adopt a spread punt formation in 2003 and was utterly incapable of running it (special teams arguably cost Michigan both the Oregon and Iowa games, which wise fans will recall were Michigan's only two regular season losses that year), so they went back to the traditional punt formation they knew. I recall Brian writing something about this: Michigan, I believe, didn't really pay staff well, and it hurt their ability to bring on the right guys during the Carr era and to some extent the RR era. When Hoke came in, Michigan finally started opening the wallet for the "right" coordinators. 

You can't coach techniques that you don't know. 

Michigan should have had more elite-level teams in the Carr era based on personnel. Ironically, the '97 team wasn't exceptionally gifted on offense relative to other Carr teams, but it didn't need to be. But at their best, Michigan could play with anyone, and often did. In an era where SEC crowing was already pretty loud, Lloyd Carr scored wins against Bama, Florida (twice!), Auburn, and Arkansas the year that they went to the national title game. And he beat some really good Ohio State teams. 

These narratives settle into a certain kind of "truth" for a while, then it gets revised. Moeller was a hugely innovative, creative, and daring coach. Carr was certainly more phlegmatic.

But--again--perceptions are often inaccurate. We lost to FSU--huge milestone for Bobby Bowden--with Mo at the helm. There WAS a sense that the game was changing, and worry we might not be keeping up. Carr beat OSU and a lot of good teams, often with very dynamic game plans--he just weirdly went all gentleman Lloyd in the second half of games, turtling, when the team was out front.  

But had we tried to adopt FSU's style, including on defense (where Bowden's teams were smaller and faster, sort of) we might have had RichRod-style disaster come sooner. This, some will remember, was where a lot of the cliches about southern team speed and brontosaurus Big Ten hogmollies really got concretized. Remind me, what are we prizing now? :) The cliches kinda just crumble when you look at them up close.