Rolling Stone article on Harbaugh and Meyer: "The Big Ten's Big Two"
Steve Greenberg has an excellent article out today in Rolling Stone about the Michigan - OSU rivalry and their respective coaches. He heaps praise (and rightly so) on Urban Meyer and says Michigan might not turn the tables this year, but nobody should count out the Wolverines in the coming years with Jim Harbaugh leading the charge:
He's aligned against perhaps the finest coach in all of college football – 1? 1A? What's the difference? – yet bent on shoving the Buckeyes' recent dominance in the rivalry into the abyss. Doubt this maelstrom of a man at your own peril.
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:49 PM ^
Meanwhile in East Lansing...
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:54 PM ^
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:56 PM ^
Nothing but a bunch of disrespected gritty grit-sters grinding their way to the top. Nobody believes in them but they'll grind through the grit like the true underdogs they are.
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:56 PM ^
I'm the first one to give sparty props - hell of a run. But for all the chest thumping they have one outright Big 10 title - that's it - since 1987.
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August 4th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
Consistent? They've finished in the top ten twice under his tenure. Compare that with four times under Clarence Munn and seven times under Daughtery, and your post doesn't make a lot of sense.
August 4th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Somebody said this on here the other day, too. MSU went 7-6 in 2012.
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August 4th, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^
They should have an excellent team this year, but it's tough to see MSU staying at this level. They lose 15 starters next year, and with both PSU and UM on the rise, I think the 10-11 win seasons are going to be much less frequent.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:31 PM ^
possibly, but, kids in high school where 5-6 or younger the the last time Michigan challenged for a Big Ten title and probally couldn't talk the last time Penn state challenged.
I don't care about what Penn state or MSU does during the season, I just want the University of Michigan to field a competent football team and win football games. I need to let the memory of Devin Funchess getting hit while in motion by the snap out of my mind forever. One of many truly embarrassing moments under Hoke.
August 4th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^
You conveniently changed the scope here by 11 years in attempt to make a point. He said since 1987, not 1998.
M has 6 outright and 4 shared conferece titles over this period = 10 total.
MSU has 1 outright and 1 shared title over the same period (not including OSU's vacated 2010) = 2 total.
Kind of a big difference when actually comparing apples to apples.
August 4th, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^
August 4th, 2015 at 12:38 PM ^
Yes, but...even in victory they are annoying, defensive, and bitter. The wound is permanent, apparently.
August 4th, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^
You really want to talk about outright titles?
August 4th, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^
Says the dude who supports a team that's too afraid to join the conference.
August 4th, 2015 at 10:35 PM ^
Actually Phork we won 100% of the AP title - not shared. The preeminent poll in college football. Nobody is claiming anything else.
That gif applies to us during bowl season the last few years...not MSU. Which one counts more...
August 3rd, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^
Dantonio has a solid claim of being a top-5 coach in FBS, and I've seen some news media make decent arguments for him being #3 behind Urban and Saban.
In the past 5 seasons, very few coaches have had the same amount of success as Dantonio:
Five straight bowl games (with wins in the Outback/Hall-of-Fame, Rose and Cotton Bowl)
Four 10+ wins seasons
Three top-10 final rankings
Two conference titles.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:07 AM ^
Double post
August 4th, 2015 at 12:01 AM ^
One outright conference title. One split title.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:04 AM ^
August 4th, 2015 at 12:25 AM ^
But he has to be a hell of a coach to do what he's done in East Lansing. MSU had just one 10 win season in their entire history before he showed up.This point got made in another thread a week or so ago, but given the inflation of football schedules in recent years, lauding yourself for multiple 10 win seasons is not the bellweather that it used to be. Also, it's fair to question how many of those 10 win seasons would have stayed 10 win seasons if MSU had to play OSU every year? If the rest of the B1G hadn't fallen into a morass of shit over the past 6 or 7 years? There's no denying that Dantonio has taken MSU from tire fire to very good in his time there, but I'll reserve final judgment on his tenure after he's demonstrated an ability to hold his own in a division where OSU, PSU, AND Michigan are all playing to historical levels. The truth may be that NONE of those programs will be able to demonstrate long-term dominance in such a competitive environment, but I'm guessing that the program that comes in consistently at the bottom of this "Big 4" is MSU.
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August 4th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
Nobody is saying getting to 10 wins is easy. It is easier to get to 10 wins these days than in previous seasons simply because college teams play more games. How many teams in the AP Top 25 reached 10 or more wins in 1965? Three. How many in 1985? Ten. How many in 1995? Twelve. How many in 2005? Thirteen. How many in 2014? Nineteen. The last twenty years has seen the number of teams that reach 10 or more wins in a given season increase by about 50%.
Getting to 10 wins is an admirable achievement for any college football team, but people throwing out nonsense about Dantonio being a Top 5 coach because he's had 10 wins 4 out of the last 5 seasons and no coach from Michigan ever did that, rabble, rabble is a fallacious argument. How many conference titles did those 10 wins garner him? Two, and one of those he got because MSU got to dodge OSU in 2010.
So you'll forgive me if I don't roll over and lump Mark Dantonio into the elite company of Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and yes, even Jim Harbaugh.
August 4th, 2015 at 11:18 AM ^
August 4th, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^
You said they had an ignore feature. Don't know how you'd be aware of that if you hadn't used the software.
MSU is more obsessed with Michigan than vice versa. Obviously. But the denial about the other's success is pretty close to being on par. There is a ton of intellectual dishonesty here, which is a problem for a board that has pointed out many times that it is higher-minded than the communities of its rivals.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:13 AM ^
Not trying to jump down your throat here, but what decent argument does Dantonio have over, say, Bob Stoops, Les Miles or Jimbo Fischer to get him into the top five?
Dantonio is a very good coach, but that's an awful lot of hardware to overcome just to be in the conversation.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:29 AM ^
1. Nick Saban 4 national titles
2. Urban Meyer 3 national titles
3. Bob Stoops 1 national title, high winning percentage
4. Les Miles 1 national title
5. Jimbo 1 national title
6. Harbaugh Orange Bowl, Super Bowl, 3 NFC title games
7. Richt multiple BCS games, high winning percentage
8. Dantonio Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl
That's how I see it. Harbaugh can move up but the others have won a national title at this moment while Harbaugh hasn't even if he wasn't able to the last 4 years.
August 4th, 2015 at 12:44 AM ^
put Dantonio out of frank beamer, mike gundy, malzahn, bret bielema, paul johnson, charlie strong, kevin sumlin, chris peterson, gary patterson, jim mora.
August 4th, 2015 at 11:36 AM ^
I'm going to go ahead and throw Auburn in there too. A friend of mine is a team manager, who was a player his freshman year. He got injured, but that's not really relevant. The point is, Auburn loves Gus. I honestly do not believe they would get rid of him for Harbaugh.
Georgia, however, would get rid of Richt in a heartbeat for Harbaugh.