Quick reminder - Jim Harbaugh is the Coach of the Michigan Football Team

Submitted by The Mad Hatter on

It still seems surreal to me that Jim Harbaugh left the NFL and took the Michigan job.  Some players feel the same way.  

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/04/hollywood_harbaugh_michigan_lb.html

Also, I didn't know that all the major television networks treated his introductory press conference as breaking news.  It was broadcast on every network.

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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 17th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^

We definitely haven't gone through two head coaches and lost a whole bunch of bowl games and missed some others and driven out one head coach with infighting and fake newspaper stories and had another head coach put a concussed player on the field and had to give away free tickets to keep the 100,000 streak going because the AD was a soulless corporate buffoon remaking the program in his own image until he was torch-and-pitchforked out of town.  Nope, nothing like that.

Joined: 07/02/2008

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umbig11

April 17th, 2015 at 11:06 AM ^

JH has been a game changer as far as the excitement goes around the program. Now, just win! The rest will take care of itself. I haven't felt better about the program for a long time.

Joined: 07/21/2010

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Avon Barksdale

April 17th, 2015 at 11:10 AM ^

I'm trying to stay level headed. I remember when Hoke first got here and pounded his fist, started recruiting like a God, won the Sugar Bowl, and I was like we are about to be THE MICHIGAN OF OLD.......... and then 2013 happened... then 2014 happened... I just want; I just need this time to be different.

Joined: 04/27/2013

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Wolverine 73

April 17th, 2015 at 11:37 AM ^

Hoke was trying to prove he could win at big time football.  Alas, he could not, certainly not on a consistent basis.  I don't think we need to worry about Harbaugh's ability to succeed at the highest levels of football.  Nor do we have to concern ourselves about the quality of his assistants.  Sell out to your enthusiasm, it is going to happen!

Joined: 08/03/2009

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WolverineHistorian

April 17th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^

It is still hard to believe. 

I remember right after RichRod was fired, the Detroit Local 7 news team was in Ann Arbor interviewing students over who they thought the next football coach would be.  They all said, "It will probably be Les Miles or the Stanford coach."

And I'm like, "His name is Jim Harbaugh!  Former Wolverine great!!" 

I know they weren't born until a couple years after Harbaugh graduated (heck, I was in 1st grade) but they should know how spectacular a player he was for us.

Now that he's helped car accident victims, exchanged tweets with Judge Judy and learned to play the piccolo, I guess we won't have that problem anymore. 

Joined: 08/10/2009

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sailtothevictors

April 17th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^

However, I think that with the level of antipathy that people in the athletic department had for Miles, we would have been in a very similiar situation to what we had with RichRod. eg: Coach with limited personal skills, good football mind and no money allocated by the AD for assistant coaches.

Joined: 12/06/2013

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The Mad Hatter

April 17th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^

The assistants weren't paid that badly under RR.  Not nearly as much as under Hoke or Harbaugh, but their salaries were comparable to other D1 programs.

The main difference between Miles and RR is that Miles wouldn't have gone 3-9 his first year.  Fans would have been a lot more patient with a 6-6 or better starting season for any new coach.

Miles would have killed it at Michigan.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Harbaugh is here now, but if we had hired Miles in 08, Michigan would have at least one more NC and several more B1G titles right now. 

Joined: 02/17/2015

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True Blue Grit

April 17th, 2015 at 4:32 PM ^

You might be kind of optimistic there.  But yes,  Miles would have been more successful for sure.  But this would have assumed he would have been able to keep Mallett here despite Lloyd probably still trying to run him off.  Also, it would assume he'd be able draw from his southern base of recruiting and convince kids to come up north.  

Joined: 01/21/2011

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The Mad Hatter

April 17th, 2015 at 4:46 PM ^

optimistic when it comes to Michigan Football?

I think Mallet would have stayed since a Miles offense would have been suited to his talents.  And I think that Miles would have dealt with the elements working against him more effectively than RR did, mainly because he wouldn't have been seen as an outsider.  The people in the AD that dislike him would have probably quit, or been forced out.  And we probably would have never seen Lloyd in Michigan Stadium again.

And I freely admit that I'm a big fan of Les.

Joined: 02/17/2015

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drjaws

April 17th, 2015 at 12:04 PM ^

Can we please get rid of the "Oakland is still in play."  It is played out, was never that funny, and doesn't really fit.

I could see it being OK for use on threads poking fun at how terribly made up the info from many ESPN "insiders" is, but not for "Harbaugh is our coach" as they were never in play for him. 

Joined: 02/26/2014

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drjaws

April 17th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

All the excitement of the NHL playoffs I had entirly forgotten who our coach was.  I woke up and turned on MLive.  

Then this happened.

"Damn another year of Brady "The Mad Clapper" Ho-oh-oh-oh SHIT!  We have a Harbaugh!"

Joined: 02/26/2014

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