September 18th, 2021 at 3:14 PM ^
Fire.
Just fire.
Bonfire, maybe.
Keep on burnin'!
September 18th, 2021 at 3:14 PM ^
Outstanding work on both sides of the ball. Love this coaching staff. Jay Harbaugh probably needs to run some stadium stairs, but other than that, it's great.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:14 PM ^
Welp. That was game.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:15 PM ^
I much prefer the JH that plays to win instead of playing to not lose. I hope that guy sticks around against stiffer competition.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:15 PM ^
Wonderful coaching, two mistakes stick out, roughing the kicker and 2 men on the same team with the same number.
they went for the throat and ripped it out!
September 18th, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^
Don't think the roughing the punter is coaching. He was trying to turn the corner in front of the punter and just slipped.
September 19th, 2021 at 7:22 AM ^
There was also only 7 seconds left in the half, so that is the time to go after the punter.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:22 PM ^
The numbers penalty was brutal. Led directly to a touchdown.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Numbers penalty was only because we had 2nd and 3rd stringers in at that point. I highly doubt we will see that again all year. It was a fluke because we were so deep into the rotation.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
No doubt.
In general, the coaching has seemed excellent and the discipline has been outstanding. This does seem like a one-off aberration. But it stung, nonetheless.
September 18th, 2021 at 4:47 PM ^
I was like how in the hell the zebra saw that. Damn. Impressed.
September 18th, 2021 at 4:21 PM ^
If the biggest problem is trying to play too many players and two have the same number I will take that anytime.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:37 PM ^
Meh, roughing the punter penalty is fine with me. With minimal time left in the half, go for the block and if you do get a penalty, there is no real damage done.
September 19th, 2021 at 12:45 AM ^
Yep.
It was actually good coaching decision.
Was like 7 seconds left with a huge lead. Succeed, and maybe you get it in for a score. Bump into the kicker, and they have enough time for one play from deep in their end. Plus, you get a low-risk practice for a punt block.
September 19th, 2021 at 8:53 AM ^
The roughing the kicker mistake was no biggie at all. Go all out after the block, penalty be damned. The risk/reward there was block it and maybe get some points vs get the penalty and don’t give up any points as a result.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
Beat Rutger
September 18th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Ah, time for our rivals to come into town.
September 18th, 2021 at 6:35 PM ^
I can already smell the Axe.
September 18th, 2021 at 9:48 PM ^
Smells like the cesspools of Hoboken?
September 18th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^
With how well we have been playing and the legit excitement with execution in all three phases, how bad would the season have to fall off the rails for you all here to get back in the “change head coach “camp?
I am genuinely excited for this year and beyond, just based on three games. Unless it goes absolutely in the toilet from here on out, I really like what JH is building here. His team so far has completely removed my apathy for the team.
it’s so refreshing to once again look forward to Saturday.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:24 PM ^
The haters are always waiting in the wings. Remember the 'Revenge Tour' season? Team was firing on all cylinders until the OSU game, when the wheels fell off. Talk of a playoff spot turned to talk of coaching carousels in 4 hours flat.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:29 PM ^
True, but I think that season had huge expectations whereas the exact opposite is true about 2021. Sometimes hope for the future and exceeding expectations is all it takes. So far we seem on track for that.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
True that. I was griping about how I had no interest or hope in the coming season just three weeks ago. Now I'm extremely invested in this team and feeling fairly optimistic. Amazing what low expectations coupled with modest success can do.
September 18th, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^
As these dominating wins continue to pile up, expectations will rise. Personally, I'm pleased, but still cautiously optimistic that what we're seeing may translate into solid wins over good conference teams, competitive wins over the better conference teams, and a chance against the best.
I suspect that, as expectations rise, the let down if there's a total debacle at the end of the season instead of a win or a really competitive loss, will become calls for coaching blood per the usual.
September 18th, 2021 at 7:20 PM ^
Most of it was aimed at Brown though, and, I mean, it was completely justified.
September 19th, 2021 at 12:11 AM ^
1. I don't recall a groundswell of "fire Harbaugh" after 2018 Ohio State...
2. But that was a catastrophic loss that the program has not recovered from, and Brown certainly never recovered, and though it took another two years to fire him we would have been better off if he had taken another job after the Florida loss. So, in retrospect, the carousel would have been justified.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
Well to be completely fair, this is what Harbaugh has always done (last year being the exception). Harbaugh does very well against teams with less talent. Beats the teams he’s supposed to beat for the most part.
The problem people have had with Harbaugh is the failure to get to that next level. Go on the road and get a big win. Win a game as an underdog. Beating low level MAC schools and bottom of the B1G teams has never been a problem under Harbaugh.
If Michigan goes out and loses to any 3 of Penn State, Wisconsin, MSU, or OSU, then the people who have had an issue with Harbaugh so far are going to have the same issues with Harbaugh. Potentially slip up against a team like Indiana or Maryland and they’ll be there too.
Theres a very real scenario, whether it’s right or wrong, that Michigan can go 8-4/9-3 and it’ll be “new year, same Harbaugh” for a lot of people. There’s quite a few narratives that Harbaugh will need to put to rest in order to shut some people up.
September 18th, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
Agreed. Great start to the season. But this is pretty typical. We won't know if this season is different until Wisconsin.
September 18th, 2021 at 4:22 PM ^
Yup. Winning the games you’ve always won isn’t going to silence any of your critics.
September 19th, 2021 at 12:41 PM ^
Let's hope the team isn't sleeping on Rutgers. They have better coaching than in years past and upgraded a bit via the x-fer portal (so I am led to believe). Yes we should win comfortably but you still have to show up and play.
So far, the new coaching staff seems to bring more intensity which should help.
September 18th, 2021 at 5:16 PM ^
Remember the unimpressive wins against Middle Tennessee St. and Army at the start of the season a couple of years ago? The start of this season is different from that.
September 18th, 2021 at 6:02 PM ^
I remember a few big blowout wins where the season didn’t turn out any different either, so what’s your point exactly? Different how?
September 18th, 2021 at 9:08 PM ^
Okay, to be explicit, because you asked: Your assertion that "this is what Harbaugh has always done" is rather silly. Attaching no importance at all to the first three games is rather silly--and if we'd just squeaked by the first three opponents, you'd be saying that's a harbinger of things to come.
September 18th, 2021 at 9:39 PM ^
Its really not silly. Harbaugh has always beaten the teams he’s supposed to beat. Sometimes handily, sometimes we’re super conservative and the score is closer than it should be.
Yeah, struggling against teams you should beat handily is a bad sign. Doing what you’re supposed to do against teams you’re supposed to beat by a ton isn’t some great achievement.
Especially when it’s par for the course for Harbaugh. That’s not where he draws the criticisms for his tenure. Continuing that trend isn’t doing anything to silence those criticisms.
Have we looked good so far? Sure. That doesn’t have anything to do with the criticisms of Harbaugh. If he wants to change the narrative he has to actually defeat the narrative. Winning games he’s always won isn’t going to cut it.
September 18th, 2021 at 10:20 PM ^
Now you're just setting up a strawman with the labeling of "some great achievement." Sigh.
September 19th, 2021 at 1:02 AM ^
He really isn't. It's a rhetorical statement... that does, in fact, ring true with what some people are saying after today's win. "Never seen a more explosive team," "Don Brown never made adjustments like this," etc. There's a lot of hyperbole. Hintz states, correctly, that Harbaugh has rolled bad teams before.
2018 Western Michigan, for example. Final: 49-3, score was 35-0 at halftime. Shea went 12-17 for 125 yards and 3 tds. Michigan ran for 308 yards on 35 carries, with Karan Higdon leading the way with 13-156 12.0 ypc, Evans stepping in with 10-86 8.6 ypc, and some nice running from Tru Wilson 6-54 9.0 ypc. It's not 63, obviously, but are second-half TDs in a blowout game really that big of a difference?
Michigan beat Hawaii 63-3 in 2016, again leading 35-0 at half. 39 carries for 306 yards that game, with Wilton Speight contributing a modest 10-13-145 with 3tds and 1 int.
Now, 2016 and 2018 were both quite good teams, and Michigan's win today was every bit as impressive as those two. But you can't look at the numbers in those games and really think that what we saw today was in a completely different category, because it simply isn't.
It is natural to feel excited about the team, to enjoy the games. We should; it's a game, and we watch for fun. Hintz and others, like me, have simply seen too many seasons start like this to start concluding that there is really "something different" compared with other teams.
If there is, in fact, "something different" about this group, we'll find out and enjoy finding out. I, for one, maintain that the likeliest scenario is that this team loses some games, including at least one dumb one that shouldn't happen, and that 9-3 is ok and 10-2 is a real success. But that means there are going to be a couple of games where the team needs to pass or complete a 2-minute drill and can't, or where the defense is exposed as middling and our running offense can't keep up, or something like that. Bad things happen in losses, which is why they are losses.
September 19th, 2021 at 8:55 AM ^
So the people talking about how this season is different aren’t considering it a great achievement to do what we’ve done thus far? The notion that three wins against subpar competition is going to silence the Harbaugh critics isn’t considering this season a great achievement so far?
These aren’t the games Harbaugh has drawn his criticisms for. Winning these games, which hes always won, isn’t going to change the minds of his critics.
September 19th, 2021 at 6:53 AM ^
No one saw this level of domination coming from this or any Harbaugh team.
And at this point who knows how bad those teams UM rolled really are? I mean Western just beat Pitt. NIU beat Georgia Tech. Many thought Washington would beat UM before the season started.
UM is doubling up the Vegas odds. Not many expected this.
September 19th, 2021 at 7:45 AM ^
Except we’ve already SEEN this level of domination from Harbaugh teams before. Beating up on bad teams is fine. No complaints (except with the inefficient passing game against Washington).
But I’m also not going to sit here and pretend it means this is any different than any other year under Harbaugh. Harbaugh leans on the running game/defense and beats the teams he’s supposed to beat. To show this year is different, Harbaugh has to DO something different.
That means go on the road and beat two of Wisconsin, PSU, and MSU. That means at least remain competitive against OSU (though a win would silence a lot of critics). If we lose 3 of those 4 (or god forbid drop another game along the way) then how exactly is this year any different than any other year under Harbaugh? Win the games you’re supposed to win and then lose to the better teams on your schedule along the way to a pedestrian 8-4/9-3 record.
Enough with the preseason expectations bit. Expectations change throughout a season. The folks who thought Washington would beat us no longer thought that after Washington scored 7 in a loss to FCS Montana. Is Michigan better than we anticipated, it appears so. Am I happy about that, of course. Am I enjoying the season so far, undoubtedly.
But I also have the awareness to acknowledge that this is pretty typical Harbaugh. And for Harbaugh to change the narrative that surrounds him and frustrates many fans, these aren’t the games where he’s going to do that. Simple.
September 18th, 2021 at 11:49 PM ^
This start is way different. I can't remember the last time we absolutely destroyed all the weaker teams we were supposed to destroy by dominating all three phases. Sure, we would have some big wins b/c the D could out-atheleting the opposition. But the offense would always take a half to get going and there would be turnovers, bad penalties, and poor execution game after game.
September 19th, 2021 at 8:44 AM ^
Pretty sure we set a shut-out streak record in 2016 to start the season.
September 19th, 2021 at 10:15 AM ^
That was in 2015 - not quite the start of the year, but early on (BYU, Maryland, Northwestern). Durkin’s defense was very good before he started looking for other jobs and mailed it in.
In 2016 we dominated Hawaii and UCF but then needed to come from behind to beat Colorado.
September 18th, 2021 at 6:03 PM ^
No. You're citing 2 seasons. The rest started strong or with 1 loss against a top team. This season is the norm; you're citing abnormal.
September 19th, 2021 at 3:07 AM ^
The best comp, so far, is the start in 2016.
Plus, we'll probably be top 3 in SP+ after week 3 this year and I think 2016 was the only year that was true.
September 18th, 2021 at 5:38 PM ^
Fair enough about the comment " The problem people have had with Harbaugh is the failure to get to that next level. Go on the road and get a big win. Win a game as an underdog."
However, I don't recall a season we opened with 1000 yrds on the ground in three games.
Its the Offensive line, its the running backs and the backup QB has a high ceiling. The defense looks good. The next two games are going to settle the question [Who is Michigan].
September 18th, 2021 at 5:56 PM ^
That doesn’t mean anything though? Running game is good, that doesn’t mean the results against the better teams on our schedule will be any better.
I can counter that statement with: when was the last time we had as few passing attempts as we’ve seen through three games?
Running the ball a lot against three bad teams isn’t going to do anything to silence Harbaugh critics or change the narrative surrounding him.
September 18th, 2021 at 8:11 PM ^
well, not for some of our whining manbaby fanbase. obviously.
September 18th, 2021 at 8:19 PM ^
Or for the fans that have lived through the Harbaugh era and seen this story played out time after time…
September 18th, 2021 at 7:05 PM ^
If we still manage to lose 4-5 games I'm gonna be pretty bummed and wouldn't feel all that negative about cleaning house. We've done this "look great in September" business a bunch of times before, and if we lose to any 4 of Indiana, Wisconsin, Penn State, MSU, OSU it won't feel like there's been a whole lot of progress. I am really enjoying this season so far though.
September 18th, 2021 at 11:50 PM ^
If Michigan loses to Wisky, PSU and OSU -- and it could well do so -- then nothing will have really changed in the minds of most fans.