Why is Michigan historically bad in bowl games? Revisiting Alex's Take
Last year as part of a mailbag, I asked Alex why Michigan is historically bad at bowl games. His take is below. Do you agree? Are you keeping your expectations for the Rose Bowl low not because of this year's team but because of previous experience? (I am)
----------------------------------------------------------
Why is Michigan historically bad in bowl games? (-thelomasbrowns)
I talked to older Michigan football fans last night about this one for the Bo answer, because I am far from a Michigan Football historian and was not alive in the 1970s (surprise!). What I heard was two things, that Bo considered winning the B1G and beating OSU to be paramount and didn't care as much about bowls, and also that Bo mostly played in Rose Bowls. 10 of the 17 bowl games that Bo coached Michigan in were Rose Bowls, and he went 2-8 in those games, while going 3-4 in other bowls. Furthermore, Michigan played USC or UCLA in six of the Rose Bowls, opponents playing a de facto home game, while Michigan was traveling out there. Winning on the road in CFB is hard, let alone against very good teams. From that angle, it make more sense.
As for the Carr and Harbaugh era? Carr lost four bowl games near the tail end of his tenure and part of that in my mind is the fact the B1G was not great in that era relative to the rest of college football. Ohio State lost by multiple scores both times they played in the BCS title game in the mid-2000s, PSU and Illinois got hammered by USC in their Rose Bowl appearances, so it's not really surprising to me that Michigan didn't beat USC in their Rose Bowl cracks, or Texas in 2004 (though there's a strong case they should've won that one). The teams they played were generally better than them.
And Harbaugh? The Fiesta Bowl we can gripe about, but the rosters of Georgia and Alabama in the 2019-20 Citrus and 2021 Orange were way, way better than Michigan's. Michigan also had limited motivation in the bowl games following the 2016-18 regular seasons coming off devastating losses in The Game in all three. Bowl games in the modern CFB (outside of the playoff) are really all about which team actually cares about the game and wants to win. When you're told your season rests on beating Ohio State and then you don't beat Ohio State, it makes you far less interested in getting up for an Outback Bowl against South Carolina in rainy/muddy Tampa, Florida. Especially when you had OSU on the ropes and didn't pull it off. At least that's always been my theory.
https://mgoblog.com/content/january-mailbag-has-answers-about-football-…
December 6th, 2023 at 6:14 PM ^
The search for reasons why U-M has struggled in bowls is, at its core, excuse-making.
If traveling to the Rose Bowl is such a disadvantage, why has Wisconsin done so well there? If it’s so hard to play a bowl after a bitter rivalry game, why hasn’t this historically been an issue for Alabama?
It could simply be that the Michigan teams who’ve gone to these games haven’t been as good as thought. This was especially true during the Ten-Year War, when there was an echo chamber about how good U-M and OSU supposedly were.
December 6th, 2023 at 6:23 PM ^
Back in the earlier Bo years especially, Michigan had no indoor practice facility like there is now. Also, fans used to make a big deal about the Rose Bowl having a grass field and Michigan having artificial turf. There was also the whole wide-eyed tourist feel for many Michigan players visiting southern California for the first time.
In more recent times, the Michigan brand allows the team to get onto better bowls with better competition.
1984 was a bad year for Michigan football, finishing 6-5, but when the issue of BYU "not playing anybody" that year someone always mentions "they did beat Michigan." I remember Bo complaining bitterly about Michigan defenders being held all game, leaving a clean pocket for the BYU QB.
December 6th, 2023 at 6:31 PM ^
This makes sense. I’ll also add climate. Every year our grim and frostbitten northmen are dragged down to some sweltering, godforsaken swamp or desert for the postseason exhibition game. Bring those subtropical fuccbois up for a January day in Ann Arbor and see how they play when their little balls are frozen. They never will because they are pathetic cowards.
December 6th, 2023 at 6:47 PM ^
Once upon a time there was a complaint about the number of days in advance of game day that the team has to arrive in California and also complaints about the hotel they were required to stay at.
December 6th, 2023 at 8:11 PM ^
Michigan is a massive brand.
Due to this Michigan gets some favoritism on what bowls they play in. So if they were generic school and would get the #4 seed in a typical year, bowl representative says thats Michigan with all the eyeballs we will take them over #3 and #2. So they often are facing a higher level opponent in these bowls than their record and standing in the conference might afford other teams. Forget the last 3 years for those with recency bias, I am talking a few decades.
Last, Michigan seems to spend all of bowl practices doing what they do all year. Other teams scheme off their tendencies to surprise opponents. Michigan doubles down. Stubbornness. It is what it is.
December 6th, 2023 at 8:16 PM ^
Right now Saban is planning for every contingency Michigan's offense could throw out there, every difference that could be done on every play Michigan has shown all year to go off plan and surprise Alabama.
Right now Harbaugh is doubling down on repeating every play they showed all year and just doing it better than before with even MOAR practice.
It is what it is.
December 7th, 2023 at 10:56 AM ^
This gets to the real explanation. Listening to the mgowtka this morning, I agree 100% with the take that M played to not lose, hence the conservative game plan.
We've seen it all year. When we were up by a hundred early in the season, we brought in the backups. There's value in getting them reps, but it's also a chance to run some abnormal plays with our starters in a game and see how we do. In-game reps are more valuable than practice reps. We habitually do not take advantage of those opportunities. Then, when we need the play in a tight spot, it's rusty.
Namely, we've hardly thrown the deep ball this year. Ideally, going up against Alabama, our deep passing game would be a perfected, well-oiled machine. It's not. We have the capability, but we haven't tried it out much. It's a concern. Generally, M has adopted this kind of conservative mindset in one way or another, and it definitely contributes to the overall results.
Against Bama, if we can come out to an early lead and python them, we have a good chance. If they get out front early, we're going to struggle keeping up and I expect will end up just short like UGA did. This is a very talented team but they aren't soft like the buckeyes. We can't bully them from behind like we did last year in Cbus. This is our concern, Dude.
December 6th, 2023 at 10:08 PM ^
Its because the big ten kind of sucks and the teams we play in bowls have functional quarterbacks or offenses in general that use modern concepts. Its pretty much always the defense underperforming what they were expected in these bowl games
December 7th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
Excuses are like ______ . Just win the f-ing games.