We all need to think of the situation this way: JH was fired after the dismal 2020 season and the new coach hired to replace him was JH.
There is no way Harbaugh could put together this type of coaching staff without some ability to assure these coaches that this isn't a one year thing.
If you supported JH all along, great for you.
For the many ready for a coaching change, just mentally pretend that JH was fired and replaced with JH.
That's what I'm doing. It helps me accept that this is likely the situation.
Having said that, great hire today to go along with the other great hires.
JH's rebuild is going along nicely.
2 years? Warde will take one look at the stadium next year and realize that it'll be a 1 year make it or break it.
It's a dumb point though. He's absolutely not guaranteed 2 years. He got a pass for one horrific season in a pandemic, but some people here act like that's supposed to reset all of our expectations. He'll probably be fired even for something like 7-5, certainly sub 500.
make it stop
It will only stop if a) Harbaugh actually wins something, or b) Harbaugh gets fired.
And then it will start again with the new coach!
The new Jim Harbaugh still needs to win at least 8 games this year and that's the absolute floor. If he loses to Wisc, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana then he has to have wins over Washington and Mich State in order to pull that off.
I truly wish him and his program all the best. Of the 4 teams mentioned above, JH will need to win at least one of those games for a 9 win season. If those losses do occur, they better not be blowouts.
I'll hope for the best in 2021.
If Harbaugh grows a mustache and ditches the glasses, then I can fully embrace this mindset.
It has to be a thick, dark mustache. Something Magnum PI would be envious to have.
Why are you the way you are?
No. Just no.
I mean, I think Harbaugh's been told he's got a short(er) leash but unless he absolutely craters this year he'll have a couple years. But this is big-time college football and just like how coaches tell recruits and players they're "here for the long haul" and "love what we're building here and want to be part of it" before jumping to a better opportunity, an HC like Harbaugh is going to tell coaches he's supremely confident they're going to fix Michigan and yet if he goes 3-9 he's likely out of a job. To echo Don Draper, that's "what's the money's for" - to manage/compensate for the uncertainty surrounding the coaching situation. These are all grown men who are being paid a ton of money, and they understand the risks and see the upside here being worth it.
I agree with this take. Barring a catastrophe, he will get a 2022 season. I would argue that a 4-8 season (the catastrophe) is much more viable this year than say 2019--offense continues to stagnate, defense implodes under new DC.
This is a reasonable way of thinking. I think it's clear that he's got more than one year left to prove the program can be successful. 2021 will be tough but 2022 can be like 2016 if things fall right. Better than 2016 if we're lucky.
The problem is that you can't convince the media and the minds of all the fans to adopt this mindset. Too many people, particularly national hot take artists, are going to point at the 6 year record and conclude he can't get it done. Even if this season is mildly promising, and what you would expect from a Year 1 coach, for most people it's going to be a disappointing Year 7, unless we upset OSU. I don't even think 10-2 will be enough to get people positive for 2022 if we're still clearly behind the Buckeyes.
It's always a rebuild year for Michigan, and the backup QB is always better than the starter.
Have been a Michigan fan since 2005. Craig Ross was right, it's been f**king hell being a fan of Michigan in the last 15 years.
Maybe it would have been easier being a fan of Indiana? Purdue? Illinois? When you can't change reality find of piece of it that is pleasant.
I don't change loyalties often. When the Pistons broke up the early/mid-2000s era team I just gave up on the NBA and got into college sports. I have not found a substitute for Michigan Football, and I just care less and less about CFB every passing year.
If I look at it this way, then I’m assuming JH has 3 years to turn it around. I was thinking two, but three makes more sense.
Also Harbaugh seems to do better with the previous coach’s recruits. Hopefully he can coach up the old Harbaugh’s recruits and have them competing for the playoffs again in year 2. I definitely think our QB room is set up for more success than his first go round but hopefully he doesn’t start the transfer QB this time and instead allows the younger QB’s to develop on the field. I would rather the team finish 7-5 with Cade or JJ than 9-3 with Bowman. (Not that I’m expecting Bowman to be that much better than Cade or JJ - just speaking hypothetically).
competing for the playoffs again in year 2
you lost me right there… last I heard, teams need to actually win games, both home/away and against ranked opponents, to have a chance at the playoffs.
Whether it’s new or old Harbaugh, that just isn’t happening - the guy has lost something on his fastball and it ain’t coming back.
I will now only refer to him as James. He's starting his coaching record at UM 0-0. Nice.
A Tuesday drinking thread. Nice!
I think JH's biggest mistakes are:
- Sticking with Don Brown too long
- Not having coaches that can both coach and recruit
- Not developing an NFL draft-able QB
- Not building a better recruiting department
Having schemes and systems that work great in the NFL where every player is a full-time, "5-star" talent, and you have the best ones on your roster for a decade . . . versus college where the talent level is all over the map, you only have them for 20 hours a week for half the year, and the best ones leave your roster after only 3 years.
He waited too long to realize he was not in the NFL anymore. All he did was confuse his players (which is why they play so poorly on the road under duress).
At first he was busting his ass on the trail. Satellite camps, showing up at recruits houses, signing of the stars, etc. Then it seemed like instead of fighting back when the SEC and NCAA shut down camps he just sort of withdrew inwards. He’s going to have to go back to trying to out work every coach in the country if he wants to win going forward.
- And refusing to play with any tempo on offense
It's a nice sentiment, but I think your mental trick of pretending we have a new coach will go out the window when we spend 3 minutes to go from our own 30 yard line to midfield to end a first half.
So this is the Three (Dozen) Martini Lunch thread, right?
I hope the new coach has organizational skills better than the last guy who once received the opening kickoff and then called a timeout to contemplate his next move...
Here's how I think of it:
After a stupid excuse for a 'season' where a bunch of players were sick, sat out healthy, etc, a season that in the interest of public health should never have been played, we fired one of the best DCs in college football. Just to add to how stupid it all was.
You think that's the only reason why Brown was fired? The guy's a dinosaur and was Ryan Day's whipping boy. Giving up 118 points to OSU the previous 2 years combined, plus getting obliterated by an awful MSU offense is why he was fired.
While I don't disagree that Brown is one of the best DCs in college football.....he was not ever going to get us "over the top", against Ryan Day's OSU program.
Not only is Ryan Day's OSU program running an offense that whips up on the "press man coverage" scheme, but they also have a program with superior athletes.
Not to mention, Ryan Day was the OC at Boston College at the exact same time Brown was the DC. That means Day practiced against Brown's defense every day. He knows how to beat Brown's defense. Add to that Mattison having a very deep knowledge of how Brown thinks, because he was on his staff for several years. That doesn't even take in consideration Al Washington, and the fact that he also coached under brown.
Too much familiarity and stylistic mismatches there. You can't have that, and expect to beat a juggernaut program, that has a countdown clock to your game.
As good as Brown is....he had to go.
was it a good hire?
Are you a Russian bot?
I give your mental gymnastics a solid 8.4 out of 10
What type of coaching staff is that? Clinkscale is the first one anyone else anted.
I have came to the conclusion the reason the football program sucks is because we are getting rewarded with a natty in basketball this year so it will all workout
Juwan Howard replaced Jim Harbaugh?
Your idea is interesting.....and kinda unrealistic for me.
Bringing on Weiss for analytics and Courtney Morgan and especially Clinkscale to improve recruiting, there is some hope for improvement, though I don't think it happens this year. The only real hopes for long-term improvement for Michigan in a Harbaugh regime are:
- Weiss convinces Harbaugh to modernize the offense, use tempo, and understand how to function optimally in end-of-half situations. Is this possible? Slightly. Perhaps Harbaugh is open to ideas, but he also seems VERY stuck in his ways and stubborn as hell. If it does, though, it raises our ceiling as it is the only hope for a Harbaugh team to beat OSU.
OR
- Recruiting really kicks in for the defense and McDonald's system turns out to be understandable and highly effective. This could make up for an offense stuck in the 1980s, and could bring us back to respectability, though it likely wouldn't get us Big Ten titles. Is this possible? More than the first possibility, though it would take at least two years to kick in. Also, kick-ass defenses alone will not beat the top teams given our offensive system.
BUT
From what I have read about spring practice AND what Harbaugh sounded like on TV, I don't sense much of a change in him compared to the previous two years. Spring practice seemed like a giant ball of nothing -- perhaps the most not-positive reports since 2008. I mean, hell, the offense is focusing on getting the QB run game going by subbing in a different QB, which will make the play obvious. On TV, Harbaugh sounded lost and confused, just as in 2019 and 2020. So, I'd say the second point up there is more likely than the first, and that keeps our ceiling around 10-2. Not horrible, but not sufficient for a conference title.
TL;DR Nope, I can't buy in to "it's the new JH". Because he seems the same. Hope is there, especially with the hiring of Clinkscale, but unless Harbaugh is open to offensive changes, it's limited.
Alternative facts. I like it.
holy shit
The half-decade mulligan.
A contender for dumbest post ever.
I think I'm gonna scope out a new Michigan blog. Maybe hang out at reddit more often. We had a good run here.
Is it just me or are we in a unique time? It seems like there is at least one thread on the board at any given time that is highly negged. That seems unusual for us.
Taking the 2020 season seriously is stupid. I don't care what anyone says, it was a garbage year for everybody.
The coach who is directly responsible for the hole our team is in was hired to get us out of the hole our team is in.
Can't wait to re-re-hire him for his third rebuild in 2024
"directly responsible for the hole we are in"?
Did you sleep through the 2005 and 2007 (Lloyd Carr) years? 7-5 and 9-4 (with a loss to Appalachian State) respectively.
Did you sleep through the RR years? 3-9, 5-7, and 7-6. With being blasted all over the news about how we "cheated" (stretchgate).
Did you sleep through the Hoke years? Which gave us such great gems of seasons such as the 2012 (8-5), 2013 (7-6), and 2014 (5-7) seasons. With being blasted all over the news about how shitty of a program we were, because we played a QB who was CLEARLY concussed.
All while OSU won every single year, but one, since 2004, and winning the national championship in 2014.
Lol....the facts be damned.
He signed a 5-year extension.. I don’t know what world people are living in to think he is getting fire next year.
If we can get 2016 Harbaugh with fire back, that would be awesome