Overreaction from 62-39 OSU has created this chaos
After losing 62-39 as a favorite to OSU last season, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Brown both reassessed, and drastically altered their approach to football. Coach Harbaugh made a decision to not only fire an offensive coordinator whose philosophy was similar and familiar to his, but he chose to bring in an offensive system completely antithetical to his own. I believe that the constant media and fan declarations and harpings that Michigan's offense was outdated had a deleterious effect on Coach Harbaugh. He began to listen to his critics, and changed the way his team has played football for his entire coaching career.
Listening to his critics, Coach Harbaugh sacrificed efficient and effective offense (21st in scoring) for what his critics craved as a potentially exciting offense. From power football to a cutesy spread attack has led to an offense totally lacking in identity, and has created a cognitive dissonance in Coach Harbaugh. He's not coaching football his way, he's not being himself, yet he's still in charge. How does that work?! He didn't need to tear down his offense, he only needed to tweak it. He didn't need to change offensive philosophies or offensive coordinators. He just needed to loosen the reins and pass a bit more.
As for Coach Don Brown, it is apparent that watching OSU completely shred his top 5 defense last year has so harmed his psyche that he, like Coach Harbaugh, has forgotten the basics of his coaching philosophy. Coach Brown is still so shell-shocked from OSU racing up and down the field that he has gone from a base 4-3 defense, with situational fronts, to an odd 3-3-5 defensive base that leaves gaping holes for opposing running backs. Where is the coach who said our first objective on defense is to stop the run? Well, 62-39 caused him to throw that out of the window, when all he really needed to do was play Ambry Thomas over Brandon Watson last year, and then sprinkle in a little more zone this year.
Admittedly, last year's result in Columbus was shocking. Hell, it was worse than shocking, it was demoralizing. But, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Brown have to understand that it was ONE GAME! They cannot let that one game define the future of the program. Last year was a 10-3 season that did not necessitate dramatic change. 3 win seasons require the degree of change that Michigan underwent in the offseason, not 10 win seasons!!! That one horrible loss is turning into many, many more.
Hopefully, the overreactions will cease, and Coach Harbaugh and Coach Brown will get back to their philosophies and get this figured out... before it's too late for us all.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:04 PM ^
You must be high!
September 21st, 2019 at 9:06 PM ^
No, he’s just a fucking piece of shit idiot or a Nervous Bird. Anyone creating a thread with their hot take reasons why we suck is a complete idiot or a troll. We lost, we suck right now, hopefully we get better.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:06 PM ^
Your avatar is so sexy
September 21st, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
So....Harbaugh made a mistake by trying to change his mediocre offense to one that shredded his highly rated defense?
Ok, dude. Bo ball is over. Adapt or die.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:23 PM ^
How is Bo ball over ?? When Wisconsin plays Bo ball EVERY year and continues to be good
September 21st, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^
Wisconsin ran power bo ball all day. They will likely win the big west.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:52 PM ^
Who knows? If we carried over last year's offensive philosophy with Charbonnet as the bell cow, maybe we could have been special...maybe...but LSU and Georgia are running spreads, and one of them will overtake Alabma, eventually.
Idk, I feel like our issues go beyond offensive philosophy.
And Wisconsin has adapted. Even they're throwing more this year after last year's struggles. Still, I wonder how a team like Wisconsin would do playing from behind against a great, fast-paced spread team. It might end up looking like 62-39 if things go bad enough.
September 22nd, 2019 at 5:39 AM ^
Michigan’s issues go well beyond offensive philosophy. The defense got absolutely destroyed by Wisconsin. They would have lost today even if the offense was good. Wisconsin’s offensive philosophy will allow them to be good enough to play in the B10 Championship Game. With OSU firing on all cylinders, that is their likely ceiling. They just don’t recruit at a high enough level to beat a more talented OSU that is also well-coached.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
Unfortunately too much truth here...
September 21st, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
Unfortunately too much truth here...
September 21st, 2019 at 9:08 PM ^
Tl;Dr, but we just got destroyed by a team that should be our floor. I thought Harbaugh wanted to be a high talent Wisco/Stanford?
September 21st, 2019 at 9:57 PM ^
You're so right. I just don't think Harbaugh could get us to even Wisconsin-level in that system. We also consistently play a tougher schedule than Wisconsin or Stanford. It's hard to play that system against teams like PSU, MSU, and OSU game in and game out. Even Jonathan Taylor or their great OL would get banged up eventually. Seems like we play 3-5 of these tough games a year where they only play 2-3.
At the same time, I believe most of this is on the coaching. Harbaugh can't get it to work in the pro style, and he probably won't get it to work in the spread. Ugh.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:14 PM ^
We'll see, but they may also be very good. That wasn't my original point. Just saying Wisconsin might be really good.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:10 PM ^
You are a FUCKING idiot.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:10 PM ^
Like the mods letting this place burn to the ground. Place will be soot by tomorrow morning.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:08 PM ^
If that happens, its more time to work on losing your virginity
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
Pretty well documented on here that I've been with my current girlfriend for almost 2 years now. You really shouldn't project your failures in life on others.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:11 PM ^
The first objective on defense should be to stop the pass. Present day football is about passing and scoring a lot. Having a strong defense is the way of the past.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
Do you seriously think that failing to stop the pass is the reason we lost today when we gave up over 350 rushing yards. Dude...? Just accept that we don't have the DLine to win this game no matter what gameplan the coaches come up with.
September 21st, 2019 at 11:09 PM ^
"Having a strong defense is the way of the past"
Wtf, do you remember the RichRod era? Present day football is about scoring more than your opponents, not scoring "a lot." We put up 39 against OSU last year and still lost by three scores because the defense was awful. And, no, stopping the pass isn't innately more important than stopping the run, as today's game pretty clearly shows.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
They changed nothing. Watch the Georgia ND game. These are teams that get football. I'm shocked Harbaugh was ever a pro coach. Seems ludicrous now. He cant even prepare a team to run basic plays. It's over. Boom.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^
Preparation is non existent. It's almost like Harbaugh believes he doesn't need to prepare for what the other team is going to do, that they need to prepare for what he's going to do.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
Damn, that may be spot on.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
Go to bed. Your drunk
September 21st, 2019 at 9:14 PM ^
His drunk what? Uncle, aunt, father. There are many options.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:20 PM ^
Never change, UM Fan from Sydney.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:13 PM ^
LSU would disagree with you. The 1980's offense wasn't working.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:15 PM ^
Joe Burrow is a bad mother fucker. That guy can sling it. Though I have to believe if he played for UM, he'd be just average.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
He'd probably be injured.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:15 PM ^
Fuck, just stop. Harbaugh lost a step and the game has changed. Once a team tanks, it’s hard to get it back.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:15 PM ^
OSU has affected us a lot.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:16 PM ^
Changing offensive coordinators and modernizing the offense was not an over-reaction; it was a long-overdue and necessary change.
Hiring a co-offensive coordinator who had never installed an offense at any level of football, never called a play at any level of football, and who had been passed over for sole-OC responsibilities at both of his prior schools was an unnecessary risk. It could have worked (still might, though it's not looking so good), but he could have hired any number of OCs that had already proven they could do what needed done. There was simply no need to take that risk.
I am not a Don Brown defender, but this is not a talented defense. The defensive line is quite likely in the bottom 33% of all FBS teams; it is disasterously, objectively awful. I'm not sure what scheme you can install to stop Wisconsin's running game with a DL as bad as Michigan's currently is.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:00 PM ^
Just a mess.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:18 PM ^
You don't think Harbaugh needed to change anything after getting blown the fuck out? He's 0-4 against OSU with 2 blowouts dude, clearly it wasn't "one game". Problem is his changes haven't helped anything.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
Another apologist perspective post. This is enabling behavior and why the program is going nowhere
September 21st, 2019 at 10:01 PM ^
Honestly, I don't think it makes that much of a difference what we think.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
You guys are all crazy. Hell, I’m crazy. Watching football as it was played today by Michigan is enough to make anyone crazy.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:31 PM ^
Completely disagree. We have digressed, and the philosophy of what is "Michigan football" is still not defined 5 years into the Harbuagh era.
Michigan needed to change. Problem is .... it is stuck trying to figure which way to turn.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:32 PM ^
OSU, Florida, MTSU, Army, and Wisconsin.
That’s our last 5 games we went 2-3 in. All 5 showed serious problems with the team.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:46 PM ^
If he didn't change offenses people would accuse him if being stubborn. It's a no win.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
And we'd probably have the same result. I think they're just lost.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:53 PM ^
I don't think Brown is running this defense by choice. Michigan seems to have one viable DT tight now, Kemp. That forces your hand.
September 21st, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
We needed to replace last year's offense with a more up tempo passing game. The problem is that we hired the wrong guy in Gattis. How well would we have done trying to match blow for blow with Wisconsin today when we couldn't run for shit?
September 21st, 2019 at 10:00 PM ^
Wet farting noise.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:05 PM ^
You really are a nervous bird!
September 21st, 2019 at 10:06 PM ^
Our problem isn't that we moved to a spread offense.
Our problem is that we suck at running a spread offense. From the look of it, it's because our QB isn't analyzing the defense like he should and our scheme lacks a cohesive identity and we're not taking advantage of mismatches on the field.
Last year's offense was slow and boring, but as least it was logical. I thought we were going to make a fast, exciting logical offense.
September 21st, 2019 at 10:37 PM ^
its already too late. The time for coming to a healthy level internally and setting out a correct approach to this season was Jan-August. It does look like they did the exact opposite, hiding from their weaknesses by prepping for Army, etc. They either purposely didn't plan for this game at all, a la Ohio State in cross-division road games, or they're totally fucked and have no option other than panic mode.
September 21st, 2019 at 11:00 PM ^
I have been thinking the exact same thing. OSU is causing all these problems because of the one f---ing game.
September 21st, 2019 at 11:07 PM ^
Don was so she’ll shocked he decided to start a FB at DT.. lol
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:46 AM ^
Bullshit OP. It was an indictment of the state of the program. That game, the bowl game and the loss to Wisconsin prove that JH has no answers and he and his staff are losing their grip on this team.
If they continue to decline like this and lose big to ND and OSU and probably others, Warde Manuel may be forced to fire Harbaugh.