Yahoo Article on Matt Campbell's culture
This is a fluff piece, but I think the age difference between Campbell and Harbaugh, 41 and 56, respectively, shows in some of the exposition on the dedication and passion Campbell brings to his program.
I think Harbaugh has lost a step here since 2016, while Campbell just made ISU a conf champion contender for the first time since 1912.
The article mentions how Campbell went to a winter workout in 15 degree weather in the early morning hours right after his first daughter was born. I'm not here to say what is wrong or right, but that kind of energy is a difference maker for a program that has been stigmatized for lacking focus.
Maybe he isn't the answer for Michigan, but I think I doubt him less than I doubt Harbaugh.
December 20th, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
As Steve Deace has been saying, UM needs a grinder for a HC.
December 20th, 2020 at 10:45 AM ^
Can’t pass on Steve Deace hard enough
December 20th, 2020 at 11:07 AM ^
All the Michigan football personalities in the world and you pick Steve Deace to listen to?
Gross.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:31 AM ^
All the Michigan football personalities in the world and you pick Steve Deace to listen to?
I think the point's merit is more important than if I like who said it. I mean I'm about as opposite of a personality and interests outside of UM sports to Brian as I can imagine, but that doesn't effect how I interpret his content. I don't agree with everything Steve says, but I agree that we need a young grinder and Campbell is that. His other recommendations to fix UM is to maximize NIL & open up the program to media a bit more. It's hard to argue with any of those points. JH appears to have lost a bit of his grinder mentality in the past few years and he clearly hates his media obligations. I think his distaste of media makes them publish more bad than good and it would behove both him and the program to change that and a little more access and openness to injury information and the like would be great.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:05 PM ^
Maybe next time when you comment you can just say "Michigan needs a grinder as head coach" and leave out the white supremacist
December 20th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
I don't understand this comment - I didn't read anything about white supremacy in MGoStrenght's post. What am I missing? (Disclosure: I don't know anything about Steve Deace.)
December 20th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
Deace is not known as a white supremacist but as an ultra-conservative per below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Deace
He is a whiner, however - and not worth much time.
December 20th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^
Deace is not known as a white supremacist but as an ultra-conservative per below:
I don't listen to much political commentary so I'm probably a bit in the dark here. I only ever listen to his UM Football Podcast. But his political views don't invalidate his take on a new coach.
December 20th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
His political views are something else entirely but his Michigan podcast (IMO) is just him saying a bunch of shitty jokes/quips in an attempt to be clever and witty.
December 20th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^
Maybe next time when you comment you can just say "Michigan needs a grinder as head coach" and leave out the white supremacist
The problem with that is I didn't say it. He deserves to be cited for it.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
I listened to that guy's show a couple times. He had a Buckeye guest on, and Deace was kissing OSU's ass so hard even the guest seemed uncomfortable.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:36 AM ^
So you're saying he's basically like ESPN with regard to "ass kissing" the buckeyes?
December 20th, 2020 at 11:34 AM ^
This will get you banned.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
Not without cause.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
Found another one of Deace's burners
8.5.5December 20th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
Yeah, maybe someone who's willing to work through the offseason, maybe even travel around the country and evaluate potential recruits first hand so he can make sure he's bringing in the right guys to be successful here.
He can call them satellites ......
December 20th, 2020 at 10:48 AM ^
Steve Deace looks like Ned Beatty in Deliverance.
December 20th, 2020 at 10:55 AM ^
Meanwhile Dan Mullen’s team just played as competitive of a game that you could expect against Bama from a non-elite tier team. We had two chances to hire him. Hindsight is 2020.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:03 AM ^
Everything about 20/20 has sucked.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:06 AM ^
You are judging Mullen and Harbaugh by different standards. If playing a competitive game against a top ranked opponent is all that matters, Harbaugh played Ohio State incredibly close in his early days (we were one questionable spot away from beating them in 2016).
December 20th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
Good response, I suppose I was being a little bit unfair.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:21 PM ^
He was so very close in 2016 and 2017... Unfortunately, those are the only two that he was competitive. The other four were non-competitive blowouts.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:08 AM ^
The Mullen love is crazy to me. My bro In law is a gator alumni and loves him. But he never fields a good defense or special teams. He’s an offensive coach only. He can’t ever put it all together. And their fans complain about his recruiting as much as Michigan fans do with JH.
edit: btw the team he did this with are all Mac’s recruits. Sound familiar?
December 20th, 2020 at 11:15 AM ^
You hit the biggest problem right on the head. This fanbase, we somehow think we know better than those in the positions we complain about when we don't know all the facts, then rely on another fanbase to validate our thoughts formed on limited knowledge.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:17 AM ^
“It used to be that good defense beats good offense. Good defense doesn't beat good offense anymore," Saban told ESPN.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:04 PM ^
I think this is a fair point.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^
Yep co-sign
December 20th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
Judging Michigan and Florida as equals in recruiting is just a bad idea. It’s not the same at all. People inherently prefer the warmer climate, Florida can preach staying close to home and recruit their hotbed state etc. It’s a lot harder to pull these kids up north when you don’t have consistent top tier success like OSU. Florida has plenty of high end talent willing to go to Florida because of the national fanbase and exposure and their great weather etc. Michigan thrives off these things, minus the weather and local talent hotbed. It’s not hard to see why Florida may be a strong program regularly. I don’t really see Mullen as the answer or us having missed out on some phenomenal HC talent
December 20th, 2020 at 11:24 AM ^
The Mullen love on this board is insane to me - regardless of the fact he rode a heisman contender QB to a forgettable three loss season despite having every imaginable advantage in the SEC, he’s also a scummy guy. Led a fight earlier in the year against Missouri, complained about his player getting flagged for throwing a shoe, crying about fans at TAMU and wanting to open up the swamp only to then be shut down for covid, and that’s just this year. Hard pass please.
December 20th, 2020 at 1:54 PM ^
Well, the fact that Trask is even a Heisman contender is a pretty amazing story in and of itself.
Kid was a 3 star, ranked 2123 on the composite rankings at .7984, and didn't start a game between after his freshman season in HS to his junior year at Florida...
Not like Trask was some kind of 5* can't miss prospect.
The guy has done a good job with Florida, and I expect that continue as he moves forward at Florida.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
I mean, Michigan played Alabama pretty competitively last year, with a worse team than Florida has right now. The yardage difference was actually less (Alabama put up 605 to 462 against Florida, while they "only" put up 480 to 395 against UM. Recency bias exists and I'm as guilty as anyone, but Michigan isn't as bad as people think even though it's pretty clear at this point they're a couple steps behind the truly elite teams in the country. Honestly, OSU even looks a step behind Alabama and Clemson this year.
December 20th, 2020 at 10:56 AM ^
I would love for Matt Campbell to bring his culture to AA.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:46 AM ^
I love how Campbell lost his shit at the refs yesterday. Wish Harbaugh still had that in him.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:21 PM ^
Campbell looked like a legit psycho yesterday and i couldn’t get enough of it.
It must be nice to have a coach who doesn’t look like a zombie bent over with his hands on his knees the whole game.
December 20th, 2020 at 3:57 PM ^
This is ridiculous. Harbaugh used to go ballistic on the sidelines and folks on this board would blast him for it and say it cost us yardage and made us look bad. Then he quite clearly toned it down and now everyone is upset that he toned it down. Our fanbase is beyond difficult.
December 20th, 2020 at 4:48 PM ^
The team was on an upward trajectory when he was going ballistic.
December 20th, 2020 at 5:34 PM ^
That's total crap. Most people on the board liked when he went ballistic especially the time he ripped his coat off.
December 20th, 2020 at 8:24 PM ^
How true this is. And it was also the admin and his dad who said to tone it down. A shame because Jim wouldn't pick his spots ...the issue was it was always. Even up 40 in second half vs Hawaii he would be berating refs.
Had he blown up in spots...when it truly mattered in a few games, he could gotten away with it and nobody says a thing. But when he leaves his starters in in the fourth are up by five tds and is acting perry, he gets told to tone it down...and it becomes a mild Bobby Knight thing where he loses the edge.
December 20th, 2020 at 1:27 PM ^
Was he flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct?
December 20th, 2020 at 2:40 PM ^
No penalty. You could argue he deserved one, but no flag.
December 20th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
Zero conference titles, can't win the big game.
Sound familiar?
December 20th, 2020 at 2:45 PM ^
Actually Campbell has won big games, road games, and upsets against higher ranked opponents (all things Harbaugh has struggled with). He lost his first conference championship game, but Harbaugh hasn’t even made it to one yet.
I loved the Harbaugh hire when it went down, but I feel like this is a different guy than what we thought we were getting.
December 20th, 2020 at 7:17 PM ^
I like Campbell, but Big12 has been poor outside of Oklahoma since he's been there. Wisconsin and Penn St would be the 2nd and 3rd best teams in that conference most seasons, if not challenging OU. Iowa is usually as good as OSU, TCU, etc.
December 20th, 2020 at 10:56 AM ^
Direct link and one less nugget for the surveillance masters:
https://sports.yahoo.com/matt-campbell-ended-generations-of-futility-at-iowa-state-053103504.html
December 20th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
Very good column.
Also, Pete Thamel>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Steve Deace
December 20th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
Harbaugh is a phenomenal coach yet 2016 and 2018 appeared to shed what made him Harbaugh. His awkwardness used to be endearing as a coach, now it causes doubt.
He knows how to coach and he knows football. What appears lacking is his ability to motivate, to connect, and to inspire his players to be their best.
I don’t doubt he cares very much about M and the players. I doubt his ability to psychologically mold these players into savage, unyielding, and absolute winners.
His teams play timid. They play uninspired. They fold in big games and they seem less than confident in what is asked of them.
It goes way beyond X’s and O’s. They need a coach that makes them believe in themselves and each other so much, they KNOW the opponent has little to no chance.
Enough talent is there... mindset needs to shift and not sure Harbaugh can do that anymore. Campbell might be that guy.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:36 AM ^
What stood out to me yesterday was when Alabama ran a tight end in motion who got under center and ran for 3 yards. Sounds simple, right? Alabama has perfected their basic offensive philosophy. Michigan could not run a fourth and inches set and looked pretty miserable doing it.
The difference is not psychological from a standpoint the Harbaughs drive to win, Alabama is more developed from an organizational standpoint than we are. I also think that Alabama creates more “time” than the majority of programs. Whether it’s legal or illegal I have no idea.
From a standpoint of talent having lost out on Najee Harris, Petit-Frere and Isiah Wilson versus Hassan Haskins John Runyan and Jalen Mayfield is also very distinguishable.
The simplicity of running a tight end in motion to run for three yards at QB. You have no idea how long it takes to create that play without a creating a fire drill play.
We are light years away organizationally and talent with the expectations of what our power brokers thinks Michigan Football is or should be. Are we committed to make everything football or not at UM? I don’t think the directive is all that complicated, can’t do both. Alabama and the other few elite teams know that very well. You could bring 12 Matt Campbells in and still be handcuffed.
December 20th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
Are you referring to Forristall who went under center for a 1 yard QB sneak on 4th and 1? Somewhat clever (but mostly silly) until the TE who isn't used to being under center fumbles the snap. Then everyone is bitching because you have Najee Harris to give the ball to or Mac Jones to sneak it behind that massive OL. And it was one yard, not three.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
Harbaugh is a phenomenal coach yet 2016 and 2018 appeared to shed what made him Harbaugh. His awkwardness used to be endearing as a coach, now it causes doubt.
It's like Crash Davis told Nuke in Bull Durham, "You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful." Messages...winning changes perspective.
He knows how to coach and he knows football.
I question this now. He's an offensive guy. He knew how to coach old, pro style offense. He does not know how to coach new offensive spread concepts. He continues to muddle up the offense even as he tries to transition it to a modern spread. Without his offensive mind, what does he offer? You know it's not defense.
What appears lacking is his ability to motivate, to connect, and to inspire his players to be their best.
This has become the biggest problem. He's lost this year's team and unfortunately that will trickle down to the freshman coming in. We need a new coach with a new schtick, regardless of what it is, to regain buy in from the players.
December 20th, 2020 at 11:46 AM ^
If you had told me in 1986 or 2014 that this comment on Jim MF Harbaugh would be penned in 2020, I would not be able to disagree more vehemently.
Read it again.
Jim Harbaugh's coaching flaws are almost entirely psychological? Yes and no. Yes, obviously, but no, the fundamental issue has to be some complicating health factor.
He's not Jim MF Harbaugh anymore.