I think Jay Harbaugh deserves some apologies from the fan base.
I think much of the criticism he’s received is unwarranted, but I also haven’t heard recruiting being something people have complained about regarding Jay.
Most of what I’ve heard people say is that he’s a good recruiter but they don’t think he should be a coach.
I don't usually follow the coaches much so only notice more macro issues but the insipid 11 man stack formation was a waste of practice time that fooled nobody and was only included because Jay is related to Jim.
You mean the 11 man stack formation that worked? It was fun. I’m sure it took almost no time to actually install.
And yes, it confused everyone. The defense has to quickly move into their assignments with zero error before the quick snap.
The train was awesome, you crotchety bastard ?
Nobody who crapped on Jay had anything legitimate to back up their claims. Unfortunately, he was just an easy target for a frustrated fan base given who his father is. If his name wasn't Harbaugh, nobody would have anything to say about him.
If his last name wasn't Harbaugh, he wouldn't be coaching at Michigan.
His hire clearly violates university nepotism rules.
You clearly don’t know how the university works. Nepotism happens all the time at UM.
Yeah. I mean both positions he’s coached have only been really productive. Not like he’s been effective in his roles and a positive recruiter or anything.
That's fine and dandy, but my response was to the original post's sentence stating that people wouldn't have a problem with him if his last name wasn't Harbaugh. The point is, a person of his age and resume (or lack thereof) during the time of his hire would not be coaching at Michigan to begin with if not for his last name.
We're lucky he hasn't been a train wreck because that's always an awkward decision with family and business.
Your assumptions are wrong. Jay could have encountered Jim if they weren't related and then stuck with him by demonstrating competence and loyalty. Specifically, he could have been an assistant at Stanford, made a good impression and had a successful career until Jim returned to college coaching. It's true that a prior relationship with Jim will help you to get hired but a blood relationship isn't the only connection that Jim has to his coaches.
Or Jay could have been an assistant with John Harbaugh in the NFL and when Jim was forming his staff, John could have recommended Jay highly... which is what happened.
(Pseudo) +1. Insightful.
While I usually am annoyed by this idiom... username checks out.
Counter:
If this place wasn't called Michigan Jim probably isn't coaching here either.
I wonder if people would have criticized a young Jim as much working as a newbie under his father? Hmmm....
I hate to say it but Jay Harbaugh has been one of the weaker Michigan recruiters of this regime. He's gotten close with the likes of Nuata and Najee, but his best get, Asiasi, was IMHO mostly his dad's doing. I'm willing to give him a ton of credit for Charbonnet and Gray. Those are both big time recruiting wins.
According to 247 he was also the primary recruiter for Tarik, Mustapha Muhammad, TWJ, and Eubanks. He's not on the Partridge/Mattison/Wheatley level but he's a good recruiter.
Najee was recruited by TW...not sure how that's a knock on Jay.
"but his best get, Asiasi, was IMHO mostly his dad's doing" this is crazy to me. Why do you think you just get to decide who gets credit for what? And what did you form that opinion based on besides how you feel?
That couldn’t be more false. He has been a wonderful recruiter.
Asiasi, Tarik Black, Muhammad, Charbonnet, Wheatley. Not to mention playing key roles in the recruitment of McCaffrey and Samuels.
Or under the radar star Sean McKeon and a player who was blossoming until injury Nick Eubanks.
He isn’t the best recruiter on the team, but he’s been very good and a definite positive in that department.
I've been in general agreement with your comments on this thread, but giving credit for recruiting Wheatley is pretty silly.
He was his primary recruiter. I’m sure his dad being on staff and his secondary recruiter played an extremely significant role, but Jay was his positions coach and his primary recruiter.
I hate to say it but you are one of the weaker posters of this regime.
Bullshit. Going from Ty Wheatley to Jay Harbaugh is a huge downgrade in resume at the very least.
Okay? But resume doesn’t have anything to do with how good of a coach you are.
Jay’s running back corps was more effective than Wheatley’s on the ground. How much of that is coaching vs experience is debatable. But you act as though there was a drop off in production between Wheatley and Harbaugh.
Not until his RB's learn how to pick up blitzers, he doesn't.
I absolutely don't think he deserves any sort of apologies. He's doing well, but to say he deserves apologies implies that the criticism is unwarranted. Last year getting some run of the mill 3* recruits isn't a big deal. But that, mixed with how lost and confused the running backs were in terms of blocking and development wasn't good. But good for Jay Harbzz for fixing shit. Like I'm not trying to say he deserved to be fired, but he fixed at least some of the issues and he's improving.
People can't stop talking about TW like he was a RB coach good. Yet, the blocking issue you criticize Jay for was also there with TW. However, Wheatley had Smith, who was a naturally good blocker, so people act like TW didn't have a blocking problem from the RB position when he was here.
Yea, that's true but TW cleaned the fuck up in recruiting. Like Absolutely annihilated everyone on the recruiting trail in-state. So it's not like he struggled on both ends. But again, I'm glad it's getting fixed, not to mention I'm not sure how much of running back blocking problems trace back to Drevno.
Big get if we can go into TN and sign him. TN has been on the uptick in regards to P5 talent so establishing it as a pipeline would be a nice coup
I like the criticism UM has received bc, although most of it is undeserved, it hopefully has lit a fire. Go blue
Don't think anyone needs to light a fire under JH. He knew there were problems last year and he aggressively addressed them.
Don't think anyone needs to light a fire under JH. He knew there were problems last year and he aggressively addressed them.
Don't think anyone needs to light a fire under JH. He knew there were problems last year and he aggressively addressed them.
Jay Harbaugh is an up and coming coach. His TE group is elite. His RB group is developing, but 4 star Zach C is true elite compared to Wheatley's recruits. Like Walker was a complete bust which is not on Jay's watch. Jay Harbaugh is a really good position coach and recruiter.
Good points about Jay Harbaugh.
I think both angles are correct; if his father isn't the HC at Michigan, he's very likely not coaching there, AND he's done a good job with his position groups and in recruiting.
I wish Walker could have made it work here. There was a reason that OSU's staff cooled on him and it would have been great to have proved them wrong.
Remember they cooled on Derrick Green too, and never had much interest in Amir Mitchell. They've let a few walk away that they've turned out to be correct on, give them credit.
I think our early commits are the ones doing the work right now. Hinton, Thomas, and Rumler. Jay Harbaugh is doing a fine job also. Partridge is our ace in the recruiting game though. Every big name they drops raves about him.
This would be another huge addition. Gray possesses a top shelf skill set that compliments Charbonnet’s and both could be on the field together.
One thing this class definitely reveals is a shift in offensive philosophy. Talk comes cheap, but Michigan is eagerly recruiting slot big and slot back types, and doing so in large numbers. Conversely, we are seeing fewer FBs this cycle and last.
It will be interesting to see the evolution of Harbaugh’s smash mouth offense this year.
There was a FB in each of the last two classes.
BVS was an afterthought when we missed on other targets. Yes we took a FB, but we did not recruit the position save for a few days. It clearly is not the same priority it used to be.
What are you talking about? We have a true freshman and true sophomore fullback on the roster. How many scholarship fullbacks do you want on the roster?
Two underclassmen is plenty, especially considering you can get quality FB play from a walk-on like Joe Kerridge or a concerted TE like Khalid Hill.
Youre completely overthinking this fullback recruiting thing.
Fullback is a very difficult position to recruit. It's a not an NFL friendly position and Harbaugh's higher ranked targets have backed off because they wanted to play a different position. While there's no need for one in this class, I suspect going forward we'll either see late targets like BVS or rely on position switches.
I was thinking of Charbonnet and Gray in a similar way. almost as a future replacement for the Higdon/Evans tandem we currently have.
I like balls
Name doesn’t check out