wildbackdunesman

December 31st, 2016 at 10:20 PM ^

Under Hoke we went 11-2, 8-5, 7-6, to 5-7.  We scored exactly 3 touchdowns in 4 years against MSU under Hoke...one of those was in garbage time.  We had scandals of concussions and more...it was a very dark time, our recruiting class for 2015 nearly completely evaporated.  We didn't know who our next coach would be.

If anyone came in and said during that bleak December of 2014 that we would go 10-3 back to back years and have top 5 recruiting classes in 2016 and 2017 we would have jumped for joy and said it was an A+ hire.

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huntmich

December 31st, 2016 at 10:33 PM ^

Not only was last year's Florida game a big game that he won, he has also reset the balance of power in the MSU rivalry immediately and brought us onto a level playing field with the Buckeyes. There are only 5 teams in the country that have a better record than Harbaugh's 20-6 since he was hired. If you aren't wildly happy with that result, after the shitstorm that preceded it, you're delusional.

 

When he was hired, the expectations of his first season were 8 wins. If someone would have told me that Michigan would go 20-6 over his first 2 years and be in the playoff conversation late in the season both years playing with the same Hoke squad that went 5-7 before the transition, I would have PAID MONEY to guarantee that result.

 

It's as though some segment of this fanbase wants a return to a dominance that Michigan never actually had. Michigan has won 1 national championship in the past 60 years. It was always going to be a gigantic task to get Michigan playing for a national championship in today's college football and with the team and program that Harbaugh inherited. That process is still very much moving in the right direction, and Harbaugh is guiding it with class, intensity, and dignity.

 

I hate using the word, because I feel it's been used against my own generation far too liberally in the past several years, but there is a vocal segment of the fanbase that thinks they are entitled to a national championship right now, because... reasons, I guess. There is no one else in the country that I want at the helm of my team than Jim fucking Harbaugh.

 

I am not saing I don't have a few disappointments with play calling, but is far less than with any head coach in my adult lifetime stretching back to Lloyd Carr, and it is not a quality that is only a problem at Michigan. Just look to OSU v MSU last year as a shining example.

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HL2VCTRS

January 1st, 2017 at 8:46 AM ^

C'mon man... logic, facts, and an accurate historical perspective? Totally uncalled for in this day and age. Good summary. I think we've always (or at least for a while) had that element of the fanbase. Fielding Yost could walk back into the program and we'd find a way to criticize his methods as too old school. It's why Bacon seems fond of saying that Michigan fans aren't happy unless they are unhappy.

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Don

January 1st, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^

I agree wholeheartedly with all of your points with the exception of this one—my recollection is that there was a sizeable portion of the fanbase—especially MGoBlog—who expected immediate return to elite status.

Regardless of whether I'm right about that, the bitching about Harbaugh is bizarre.

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MGoPoints: 148387

FauxMo

December 31st, 2016 at 8:58 PM ^

These two facts are not incompatible:

1. Jim Harbaugh is a great coach, and there is almost none better that we could have. 

2. I am deeply disappointed the team ended the year 1-3, and I think the way it happened (especially in the Iowa and OSU games) falls on the staff. 

It's OK guys; we can both love our staff, want to keep them, and also think the team could have played better at key moments... 

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Bodogblog

December 31st, 2016 at 10:32 PM ^

I still don't understand this narrative.  What is on the staff besides dragging a very good but fundamentally flawed team to within a play or two of the playoff? 

Iowa: a consistent series of errors by the players themselves, any of which could have won that game.  The team was 9-0, the pressure was on, road game against a good team with nothing to lose - Michigan has their bad game  (I believe every team has at least one each year) and melted a bit.  This happens when a team hasn't been accustomed to the pressures of winning.  Lost by 1. 

OSU: yes officiating, and a great game lost in OT.  In Columbus. 

FSU: M's offense didn't belong on the same field. Lost their two best players.  Lost by 1. 

Let me guess, you thought the offense wasn't very creative?  This is such a lazy narrative.  Didn't like the toss sweeps?  Then I guess you must have liked the inside runs.  Oh, can't run the ball inside or outside.  Can't hold protection for more than a few moments.  FSU DL literally chucking guys in a moment and sprinting at Speight.   "Go deep, why didn't we test their safeties deep?!"  They could not protect for more than a few moments, and our WRs got no separation on anyone all year.  How the hell would we go deep?  Can't run, can't pass.  Do you think there's a magical scroll that allows even great coaches to solve that problem against good teams?  There's not.  And Harbaugh's staff still almost did. 

What are your specific complaints?  Iowa played like madmen, beat our DL pretty good. Otherwise the D was excellent at OSU and pretty good at FSU.  Offensive personnel is nowhere near playoff level and wasn't in any of those games. 

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FrankMurphy

January 1st, 2017 at 12:59 AM ^

This. So much this. Harbaugh and staff pulled a rabbit out of a hat in overcoming below average offensive line play to pull off a 10-win season, with three losses by a combined five points. Do any of you remember how terrible Brady Hoke was at recruiting and developing offensive linemen? Do you know how difficult it is to put together a halfway decent offense when you're saddled with an O-line that can't consistently open up running lanes or hold off a pass rush? Do you think that situation will persist under Harbaugh and Drevno, who built an O-line at Stanford that only allowed six sacks in all of 2010, Harbaugh's forth year at the helm? The captain of this ship is one of the best coaches in all of sports, and he just finished his second year. Take a deep breath and relax. Everything is going to be alright.

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MGoPoints: 32106

Bodogblog

January 1st, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^

What are the alternatives?  Have him throw?  We tried that and teams sniffed it out.  Use him as a receiver and catch the ball?  That takes away the man advantage and none of us know if he can catch (jugs machine video or no).  

You're talking about good teams late in the year who'd seen it.  Maybe you don't put Peppers in, but he's your best player.  And the regular offense wasn't doing much in the red zone those games either. 

I agree no coach is infallible, but what is the alternative here besides observing that it didn't work as a fan and then complaining about it.  Pepcat didn't work, regular offense didn't work.  I say that's due to the limitations I note in my post above (which everyone already knows).  But I'm open to a suggestion of what they should have done.  

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bamf16

January 1st, 2017 at 2:35 PM ^

Alternative?  How about having Peppers on the field on offense with an actual quarterback on the field with him the way Denard and Devin Gardner were at the end of the '12 season and the way Woodson was never on the field without Griese in '97?

 

 

 

 

Joined: 01/05/2014

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Bodogblog

January 1st, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^

Then he's just a RB and you've lost the extra blocker.  You've also limited the number of plays available drastically.  Do you decoy and if yes, can he pass block?  That's not easy to do as we all know.  If you throw to him, can he catch? 

10,000 mgopoints says if Harbaugh had done this late in the year (though by this I don't know exactly what you mean), ran the plays and it got stuffed - because to my original point all our stuff got stuffed in the red zone late in the year, which is what happens when you can't run or protect - you and a dozen others would be up in arms that Harbaugh didn't run the Pepcat.  "It worked against Colorado and Rutgers and yada yada, why wouldn't we krep rinning it yada yada..." 

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huntmich

December 31st, 2016 at 9:05 PM ^

Agreed. Harbaugh deserves AT LEAST 5 years to get his pieces fully in place. If we fire harbaugh within 5 years with him winning us 10 games a season, no coach in the country will ever take the Michigan position again. I am wildly happy with harbaugh. Someone said that as soon as harbaugh came the goal was no longer double digit win seasons, but national championships. Two points: these are not his kids he is playing with. And second: this is the exact same bullshit logic that has had us shuffling coaches for the last damn decade. Let harbaugh keep making us better.

Joined: 10/18/2015

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huntmich

December 31st, 2016 at 9:36 PM ^

I am certainly not calling for ANYTHING of the sort. I am happy with him winning us 10 games for the rest of my days. I'm responding to people on this website referring to his chair as getting hot if hasn't delivered a national championship within his fourth year. Those people are idiots.

Joined: 10/18/2015

MGoPoints: 18173

6tyrone6

January 1st, 2017 at 1:33 AM ^

UM was in the championship conversation in year 2. People were not shocked how quickly (last year) Harbaugh rigthed the ship. 2017 will be a 9-10 win season and the 2018 we will be right in the conversation again. That would not have happened with any other coach unless UM hired Meyer or Saban.

 

Joined: 02/18/2009

MGoPoints: 2027

UMVAFAN

December 31st, 2016 at 10:14 PM ^

We are not Alabama. No other program is remotely close to becoming like Alabama anytime soon. What Saban has done is unprecedented in this day and age, and ranks up there with other stretches of dominance in college sports like John Wooden's stretch at UCLA in basketball (but not quite there since the championships haven't been consecutive at Alabama). In the past 30 years, has there been any other program that has done what Saban has Alabama doing now? It's unrealistic to expect Harbaugh to match this with only two years under his belt. It's actually quite remarkable that the gap between UM and MSU and OSU has been closed so quickly. I understand the frustration with the offensive line, the lack of playmakers, and questionable playcalling, but we're not that far off. A few bounces our way and we're getting trounced by Clemson or Alabama instead of OSU and Washington. Are these team's offensive lines, running backs and QBs doing any better??? Let's all just collectively chill out.

Joined: 10/15/2013

MGoPoints: 5013

UMfan21

December 31st, 2016 at 9:07 PM ^

this year started exciting, and ended in disappointment many times. however, I would be happy to have 10-3 every year from now until I die. sure, we need to beat OSU and get to the playoffs, but anyone bitch ing after back to back 10 win seasons needs to be punished by rewarding Rich rods first season on repeat until September.

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 51231

DK81

December 31st, 2016 at 9:16 PM ^

This is why I don't understand why Chip Kelly took the job in the first place. I don't know if he is a good NFL coach (obviously not when he has control of personnel) but he had no chance with that roster. He should have waited out a better NFL job or found a good college landing place.



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