Wasn’t the Vikings 2 years ago? I do agree that people may be overblowing the need for a star QB to attract JH. This is a guy who had success in SF with Alex Smith and here with Cade. (What’s more likely, winning a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins or the B1G with Cade? Not sure.) He may value OL and DL talent over QB.
I cried when, some time in the 4th quarter of The Game 2021, I realized that we were actually going to win, that for once Lucy wasn’t going to pull the ball away. I was sure I’d cry if we won tonight, but nothing…until I read this column and now I’ve turned to mush.
Day is so smart! With weather, illness, bad DC, adjusting to new DC, and cheating already used, he had no excuse to use to avoid being fired after losing next year. Now he’s bought himself “adjusting to new OC” as a reason to keep his job long enough to lose to us a 5th straight year.
Fantastic preview, as always. I get that there’s no time for FFF but can we get just the lineup configurations with the stars and shields? Those are so helpful in understanding who we’re watching on game day. (Plus I’m dying to see whether Colson (after making his second All-B1G team and singled out by JH after last game) finally gets a star for possibly his last game at Michigan.)
2021 and a huge loss. We were dropped by several recruits as a direct result, including a 5* tackle who now starts for Oregon. Thankfully we kept Mason Graham, who Morgan was instrumental in recruiting.
These fancy stats make me more optimistic…and happy. We appear to be the clear best team according to fancy stats, though obviously that’s not a guarantee of anything. I’d like to know how our fancy stats positioning compares to UGA’s the past 2 years, etc.
So if Oklahoma State wins but Texas loses and Kansas State wins, KSU gets in over Ok state, which has the same record and head-to-head tie breaker over KSU? How does that work?
Dammit, when I saw “Henderson” my brain assumed you meant the starting OSU running back with an extensive injury history, not our starting LT about whom I’d heard nothing about an injury!
Agreed. It sounds an awful lot like a statement from one of your governments, CF. It basically says we’ve successfully brought Michigan to heel. U-M gave up their futile resistance to the might and righteousness of our great regime so we will henceforth consider them good subjects who may return to doing our bidding.
Questioning whether the by-laws are part of a binding contract cuts both ways. If the by-laws aren’t binding, then the conference has no power to suspend a coach (or any other employee of a university).
I agree. But the tea leaves read like Michigan is not going to leave the conference over this event. The regents will talk about it, explore other options, etc., but won’t make a move except to force Petitti out.
Wow, what a POS. Suspending Harbaugh this afternoon would be a blatant attempt to sabotage Michigan to an extent to which I never thought Petitti would go. That’s not merely putting a thumb on the scale but a whole hand. You don’t come back from that. It would essentially be blowing up the conference in the 1st 6 months of his tenure.
Excellent description. I’ll just add that the Court in Alston suggested that the NCAA is an agreement among direct economic competitors (also called a horizontal conspiracy or cartel in antitrust parlance) so any economic restriction is likely to be found per se unlawful, I.e., even if there are pro-competitive benefits.
Also there is a pending case challenging the NIL restrictions that prohibit schools from directly compensating players. Based on Alston’s reasoning, it appears likely that the restrictions are not long for this world.
Obviously there’s no comparison between the respective opponents, notwithstanding Duke’s blowout loss to Louisville this week. And I agree they have good WRs — Keon Coleman is maybe the best WR next to MHJ. We do have a pretty good secondary but I’m sure they’d get theirs. On the other hand, FSU’s OL is a liability and I think our DL would dominate it. Conversely, I think our OL, warts and all, would hold its own against FSU’s defensive front. More than anything, JJ’s poise, command of the offense, and arm talent really stood out to me as compared to Travis.
Michigan appears to be on a different level than any team in B1G and probably the country, UGA being the only real question in my mind.
ACC is bad. FSU is okay but not really in Michigan’s league. I was at a friend’s last week and we watched their game last week side-by-side with Michigan and I the difference in skill and polish was obvious. I remember watching Alabama a few years ago and thinking they looked like a pro team playing college teams. That’s how I feel about Michigan this year.
In Big 12, OU losing seemed inevitable. I think Texas has more talent but a worse coach.
I’m picturing 11/25/23 at around 3:30 PM. Michigan has just handed OSU another blow out loss, this time hanging “a half a hundred on ‘em.” Of that part I’m confident. The question I have is whether Ryan Day starts crying when he looks Harbaugh in the eye and realizes JH owns him or he is able to hold back until a reporter asks whether pushing signgate may have backfired.
I think he'd be a perfect fit for the Steelers in culture, with his experience QB'ing a run-first, somewhat conservative offense, and with his combination of arm talent and mobility. Pickett isn't looking like a franchise QB but would be a good backup to JJ.
There’s a bigger picture here than a (generally boring and sunshine blowing) podcast. I fear this is not an isolated incident but a salvo (fired through the AD’s official podcast/podcaster) in an ongoing battle between Harbaugh and Warde over the NCAA investigation. Remember when the AD was going to have JH’s back as he fought the NCAA if they insisted on suspending him? The AD didn’t follow through and pressured JH to accept a suspension. JH went along rather than blow up a promising season.
But he didn’t go quietly. With obvious approval of JH (they must’ve practiced the train during the week to use it in game) the players made it known that they (and JH) don’t view the suspension as just with a small protest. The AD is now firing back through Jansen (and likely planting the idea for the opinion piece in the Daily) to make it known that the players’ (and JH’s) protests are unacceptable. The AD disrespecting its most valuable employee is unlikely to end well. I think, at most, only one of JH and Warde are at michigan in a year. I hope (but doubt) it’s Harbaugh.
Is their another linebacker room in the B1G (or any conference) with both starters returning all conference selections? And we have the #1 transfer LB in the country as a backup! Why does this preview feel like it's middling position group?
National guys who just look at stats might say that JJ was poor at deep balls last year. But those of us that watched and analyzed every play remember that the deep ball inaccuracy that was an issue for about 3/4 of last season was corrected in the last 3 games. It never seemed like an inherent weakness in JJ’s game given that it wasn’t an issue in his freshman year.
I think this is 100% what’s going on — he’s a charity hire because he’s the son of Harbaugh’s coach who’s down on his luck and cashing in his main asset, his name.
I met him a few years when he came to our alumni group to stump for a radio show that he was trying to start (based on his name), following which he spammed our Facebook group with posts promoting his show. My impression of him was a self-promoter a little too eager to remind you who his dad was (if that’s not obvious from the fact that he even uses “shemy” as a first name).
Why is a guy in his 50s with decades of nfl scouting experience taking what is essentially an entry level job where a 20-something year old will be his boss? It’s not because he’s exceptionally qualified. The next step up for a good scout is a higher position in an NFL GM’s office.
Also why is he the only one promoting the hire, not the university as generally occurs with new football hires? My guess is this hire has virtually no effect on the football program. The $50k or whatever that it costs to pay his salary is de minimis for the AD so I don’t think it limits the ability to hire others. And I doubt his job will involve anything of much importance.
NBA street cred was great for recruiting in an era that is gone. In the current era, you (or your proxies) need to offer upfront $$$ to be a great recruiter.
Brady just got divorced (with children) in Florida. He can’t relocate outside of Florida (or more than 50 miles really) without court permission, which he’s unlikely to get (certainly not in a timely manner) without Giselle’s agreement. And even if they have some kind of agreement to that effect, SF is a 5+ hour flight from his kids so it seems unlikely that he’d be willing to go there.
I don’t think anyone would admit that he just followed the money. I’m guessing a recruiting-obsessed person could probably figure out who these players are.
I’m a little confused by the description of him as a WLB. I had thought that the current iteration of Michigan’s defense just had 2 LBs called inside LBs that had roughly the same job. What is the distinction between WLB and MLB in this defense?
No doubt we could use more linebacker depth. But your evaluation of Junior Colson is pretty harsh considering he was a unanimous all-conference selection this season.
This article has more information on what goes on in the coaches’ rooms than I can ever recall reading. Last year’s offense apparently wasn’t a result of Harbaugh meddling. According to the article, Harbaugh let the coordinators run both sides of the ball and didn’t generally attend granular level meetings (sending Poggi as his proxy). But there were offensive assistant coaches (maybe Weiss? Hart?) that wanted to bring in more old school offensive concepts, and who did not buy into Gattis and his offense, at least not until cajoled to come together. Reading between the lines, it appears that the offense we saw was ultimately the product of collaboration/compromise among the Gattis/Moorhead offense devotees and the more Stanford Harbaugh oriented coaches.
I don’t think it’s (mainly) about the QB either. Maybe you need a star QB to win a NC but not to be a top 25 team. Michigan in 2015-2019 and 2021 is exhibit A. Texas seemingly does not have a great HC — no team he’s coached has ever lost fewer than 4 games. But I question whether UT is just bad at hiring coaches or institutional forces are preventing coaches from succeeding (and/or good coaches from taking a job there).
You guys are the experts but this seems unduly harsh to me. I thought Colson's performances as a true freshman displayed clear athletic talent limited by bad decision-making that was to be expected given his youth and inexperience. It reminded me of McGrone's sophomore season. This blog has many times preached about the difficulty of the mental aspect of playing linebacker and the need for experience. That's why it was super high on McGrone going into his 3rd year, saying fans' expectations were unreasonably high of a true sophomore, first-time starter. Colson had one year less in the program than McGrone when he became a starter and much less overall football experience. If healthy, I think chances are better than not that Colson plays to (at least HM) All-B1G level this year. I also thought NHG acquitted himself well for his age and experience last season and barring significant injury I think his floor is an above-average B1G LB in what is basically his second season as a starter. The backup situation is not great but Barrett is up to 233, basically the same playing weight as the starting ILBs, so it's not clear to me be why he is "lacking the size to thunk guys when he throws his weight around" necessary to be an ILB. And with all the freshman talent, it wouldn't be shock for a serviceable backup to emerge.
I knew him (as an acquaintance) when I was at Michigan. He’s a good dude. Several friends of mine have mentioned that, although they didn’t know him well, they remembered that he had inspired them to get involved with service projects that they otherwise wouldn’t have taken on.
the many and diverse pleasures of the season up to that point do not go away. They remain there, eliminating annoying takes and bathing you in a warm feeling of reward, finally, for sticking around in whatever capacity you managed to. To better days.
It’s interesting but the writer is a pure homer. I mean, in 2021, when 5 of 6 SEC teams have lost their bowl games, he’s still a true believer in the myth of SEC supremacy to such an extent that he thinks the best B1G team is athletically inferior to pretty much the entire SEC (“UM doesn’t have the 2nd level speed that UGA is used to seeing most weeks in the SEC”). UGA may prove to be a better team than us, but our defense had plenty of speed to keep up with OSU, which is faster than UGA.
My understanding is the stadium is theoretically divided east-west between Michigan and Georgia, hence Michigan’s allotment is in the northeast corner and Georgia’s is in the northwest corner. The south sideline (behind Michigan’s bench) is mostly corporate/sponsor allotment. So I’d focus on the east side of the stadium and trying to be close to Michigan’s allotment.
I’m really enjoying seeing so many individual players, the play-calling, and this team as a whole, improve throughout the season. I don’t remember another season where the improvement and evolution were so apparent. I especially appreciated Seth pointing out Cade’s laser sharp ability to read and adjust to defenses in-game and how that is part of what makes him a championship QB. To my untrained eye, this team’s success, despite a purportedly physically limited QB, is proof of just how important the mental aspect of QB’ing can be. And I’m happy to see Cade’s improvement retire yet another trope: that Harbaugh’s influence makes QBs worse rather than better.
I bet LSU is pissed he wasn’t fired until after they hired Kelly. Part of me wonders if someone intentionally waited until NSD to leak the info about the kicking-the-kicker incident. It happened in the preseason.
I also thought it was great. It reminded me of how my kids would call me cheesy when they were in their early- to mid-teens for saying things to them that they now love to hear as young adults.
Thank you for this well-written, insightful piece. I especially liked this point, which I think well encapsulates M’s struggle, from about 2005ish on, to find its place in the modern world of CFB:
This puts a tradition-obsessed institution like Michigan, whose self-conception involves meritocracy and rule-following, but also being the best at everything, in a tough spot.
Juxtaposed with this:
A major reason for the team’s success this season is that its committed individuals, flowing in harmony, manifested values like attitude and toughness that tradition demands without perpetuating the stubbornness and predictability with which it has often been confused
Does this imply that Harbaugh found the answer in 2021 to be a top program in CFB while maintaining Michigan’s values? Or is it just that this is the once in 18 years that the stars aligned, some usual suspects (OSU, OU, Clemson) faltered, allowing an old school team with some special individuals and a dash of innovation to rise to the top?
I hope it’s the former; only time will tell. But if nothing else, I’ll take this blog’s publication of this article as an indication that it’s time to feel good about exactly who and where we are as a football program right at this moment.
Recent Comments
Wasn’t the Vikings 2 years ago? I do agree that people may be overblowing the need for a star QB to attract JH. This is a guy who had success in SF with Alex Smith and here with Cade. (What’s more likely, winning a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins or the B1G with Cade? Not sure.) He may value OL and DL talent over QB.
I cried when, some time in the 4th quarter of The Game 2021, I realized that we were actually going to win, that for once Lucy wasn’t going to pull the ball away. I was sure I’d cry if we won tonight, but nothing…until I read this column and now I’ve turned to mush.
Day is so smart! With weather, illness, bad DC, adjusting to new DC, and cheating already used, he had no excuse to use to avoid being fired after losing next year. Now he’s bought himself “adjusting to new OC” as a reason to keep his job long enough to lose to us a 5th straight year.
Fantastic preview, as always. I get that there’s no time for FFF but can we get just the lineup configurations with the stars and shields? Those are so helpful in understanding who we’re watching on game day. (Plus I’m dying to see whether Colson (after making his second All-B1G team and singled out by JH after last game) finally gets a star for possibly his last game at Michigan.)
2021 and a huge loss. We were dropped by several recruits as a direct result, including a 5* tackle who now starts for Oregon. Thankfully we kept Mason Graham, who Morgan was instrumental in recruiting.
M 34 - 27 W
These fancy stats make me more optimistic…and happy. We appear to be the clear best team according to fancy stats, though obviously that’s not a guarantee of anything. I’d like to know how our fancy stats positioning compares to UGA’s the past 2 years, etc.
So if Oklahoma State wins but Texas loses and Kansas State wins, KSU gets in over Ok state, which has the same record and head-to-head tie breaker over KSU? How does that work?
Dammit, when I saw “Henderson” my brain assumed you meant the starting OSU running back with an extensive injury history, not our starting LT about whom I’d heard nothing about an injury!
Agreed. It sounds an awful lot like a statement from one of your governments, CF. It basically says we’ve successfully brought Michigan to heel. U-M gave up their futile resistance to the might and righteousness of our great regime so we will henceforth consider them good subjects who may return to doing our bidding.
Questioning whether the by-laws are part of a binding contract cuts both ways. If the by-laws aren’t binding, then the conference has no power to suspend a coach (or any other employee of a university).
I agree. But the tea leaves read like Michigan is not going to leave the conference over this event. The regents will talk about it, explore other options, etc., but won’t make a move except to force Petitti out.
Wow, what a POS. Suspending Harbaugh this afternoon would be a blatant attempt to sabotage Michigan to an extent to which I never thought Petitti would go. That’s not merely putting a thumb on the scale but a whole hand. You don’t come back from that. It would essentially be blowing up the conference in the 1st 6 months of his tenure.
At least in court, the argument that a legislative body considered repealing (or amending) a law but ultimately did not is a very weak argument.
Excellent description. I’ll just add that the Court in Alston suggested that the NCAA is an agreement among direct economic competitors (also called a horizontal conspiracy or cartel in antitrust parlance) so any economic restriction is likely to be found per se unlawful, I.e., even if there are pro-competitive benefits.
Also there is a pending case challenging the NIL restrictions that prohibit schools from directly compensating players. Based on Alston’s reasoning, it appears likely that the restrictions are not long for this world.
Upvoted you for the “lack of Oxford comma in the original” parenthetical.
Obviously there’s no comparison between the respective opponents, notwithstanding Duke’s blowout loss to Louisville this week. And I agree they have good WRs — Keon Coleman is maybe the best WR next to MHJ. We do have a pretty good secondary but I’m sure they’d get theirs. On the other hand, FSU’s OL is a liability and I think our DL would dominate it. Conversely, I think our OL, warts and all, would hold its own against FSU’s defensive front. More than anything, JJ’s poise, command of the offense, and arm talent really stood out to me as compared to Travis.
Michigan appears to be on a different level than any team in B1G and probably the country, UGA being the only real question in my mind.
ACC is bad. FSU is okay but not really in Michigan’s league. I was at a friend’s last week and we watched their game last week side-by-side with Michigan and I the difference in skill and polish was obvious. I remember watching Alabama a few years ago and thinking they looked like a pro team playing college teams. That’s how I feel about Michigan this year.
In Big 12, OU losing seemed inevitable. I think Texas has more talent but a worse coach.
PAC is fading. UW will lose soon.
I’m picturing 11/25/23 at around 3:30 PM. Michigan has just handed OSU another blow out loss, this time hanging “a half a hundred on ‘em.” Of that part I’m confident. The question I have is whether Ryan Day starts crying when he looks Harbaugh in the eye and realizes JH owns him or he is able to hold back until a reporter asks whether pushing signgate may have backfired.
I think he'd be a perfect fit for the Steelers in culture, with his experience QB'ing a run-first, somewhat conservative offense, and with his combination of arm talent and mobility. Pickett isn't looking like a franchise QB but would be a good backup to JJ.
There’s a bigger picture here than a (generally boring and sunshine blowing) podcast. I fear this is not an isolated incident but a salvo (fired through the AD’s official podcast/podcaster) in an ongoing battle between Harbaugh and Warde over the NCAA investigation. Remember when the AD was going to have JH’s back as he fought the NCAA if they insisted on suspending him? The AD didn’t follow through and pressured JH to accept a suspension. JH went along rather than blow up a promising season.
But he didn’t go quietly. With obvious approval of JH (they must’ve practiced the train during the week to use it in game) the players made it known that they (and JH) don’t view the suspension as just with a small protest. The AD is now firing back through Jansen (and likely planting the idea for the opinion piece in the Daily) to make it known that the players’ (and JH’s) protests are unacceptable. The AD disrespecting its most valuable employee is unlikely to end well. I think, at most, only one of JH and Warde are at michigan in a year. I hope (but doubt) it’s Harbaugh.
Jansen is an employee of the AD and a voice of the AD. He’s toeing the company line and spouting the AD’s position on credit transferring.
Is their another linebacker room in the B1G (or any conference) with both starters returning all conference selections? And we have the #1 transfer LB in the country as a backup! Why does this preview feel like it's middling position group?
National guys who just look at stats might say that JJ was poor at deep balls last year. But those of us that watched and analyzed every play remember that the deep ball inaccuracy that was an issue for about 3/4 of last season was corrected in the last 3 games. It never seemed like an inherent weakness in JJ’s game given that it wasn’t an issue in his freshman year.
I think this is 100% what’s going on — he’s a charity hire because he’s the son of Harbaugh’s coach who’s down on his luck and cashing in his main asset, his name.
I met him a few years when he came to our alumni group to stump for a radio show that he was trying to start (based on his name), following which he spammed our Facebook group with posts promoting his show. My impression of him was a self-promoter a little too eager to remind you who his dad was (if that’s not obvious from the fact that he even uses “shemy” as a first name).
Why is a guy in his 50s with decades of nfl scouting experience taking what is essentially an entry level job where a 20-something year old will be his boss? It’s not because he’s exceptionally qualified. The next step up for a good scout is a higher position in an NFL GM’s office.
Also why is he the only one promoting the hire, not the university as generally occurs with new football hires? My guess is this hire has virtually no effect on the football program. The $50k or whatever that it costs to pay his salary is de minimis for the AD so I don’t think it limits the ability to hire others. And I doubt his job will involve anything of much importance.
NBA street cred was great for recruiting in an era that is gone. In the current era, you (or your proxies) need to offer upfront $$$ to be a great recruiter.
Brady just got divorced (with children) in Florida. He can’t relocate outside of Florida (or more than 50 miles really) without court permission, which he’s unlikely to get (certainly not in a timely manner) without Giselle’s agreement. And even if they have some kind of agreement to that effect, SF is a 5+ hour flight from his kids so it seems unlikely that he’d be willing to go there.
Guess he won’t be getting rehired by Franklin then.
I don’t think anyone would admit that he just followed the money. I’m guessing a recruiting-obsessed person could probably figure out who these players are.
I’m a little confused by the description of him as a WLB. I had thought that the current iteration of Michigan’s defense just had 2 LBs called inside LBs that had roughly the same job. What is the distinction between WLB and MLB in this defense?
No doubt we could use more linebacker depth. But your evaluation of Junior Colson is pretty harsh considering he was a unanimous all-conference selection this season.
This article has more information on what goes on in the coaches’ rooms than I can ever recall reading. Last year’s offense apparently wasn’t a result of Harbaugh meddling. According to the article, Harbaugh let the coordinators run both sides of the ball and didn’t generally attend granular level meetings (sending Poggi as his proxy). But there were offensive assistant coaches (maybe Weiss? Hart?) that wanted to bring in more old school offensive concepts, and who did not buy into Gattis and his offense, at least not until cajoled to come together. Reading between the lines, it appears that the offense we saw was ultimately the product of collaboration/compromise among the Gattis/Moorhead offense devotees and the more Stanford Harbaugh oriented coaches.
I don’t think it’s (mainly) about the QB either. Maybe you need a star QB to win a NC but not to be a top 25 team. Michigan in 2015-2019 and 2021 is exhibit A. Texas seemingly does not have a great HC — no team he’s coached has ever lost fewer than 4 games. But I question whether UT is just bad at hiring coaches or institutional forces are preventing coaches from succeeding (and/or good coaches from taking a job there).
You guys are the experts but this seems unduly harsh to me. I thought Colson's performances as a true freshman displayed clear athletic talent limited by bad decision-making that was to be expected given his youth and inexperience. It reminded me of McGrone's sophomore season. This blog has many times preached about the difficulty of the mental aspect of playing linebacker and the need for experience. That's why it was super high on McGrone going into his 3rd year, saying fans' expectations were unreasonably high of a true sophomore, first-time starter. Colson had one year less in the program than McGrone when he became a starter and much less overall football experience. If healthy, I think chances are better than not that Colson plays to (at least HM) All-B1G level this year. I also thought NHG acquitted himself well for his age and experience last season and barring significant injury I think his floor is an above-average B1G LB in what is basically his second season as a starter. The backup situation is not great but Barrett is up to 233, basically the same playing weight as the starting ILBs, so it's not clear to me be why he is "lacking the size to thunk guys when he throws his weight around" necessary to be an ILB. And with all the freshman talent, it wouldn't be shock for a serviceable backup to emerge.
I knew him (as an acquaintance) when I was at Michigan. He’s a good dude. Several friends of mine have mentioned that, although they didn’t know him well, they remembered that he had inspired them to get involved with service projects that they otherwise wouldn’t have taken on.
As a fan of both Michigan and the Steelers, Aidan totally reminds me of TJ.
That. Was. Awesome! Happy for you. And for us.
Best of luck to him. An unsurprising casualty of the scheme change as he was recruited to play viper.
Welcome back, Brian. We’ve missed you.
These guys are awesome! They deserved a better ending but I love them forever regardless!
Oh no, bronxblue being out of optimism makes me worried.
It’s interesting but the writer is a pure homer. I mean, in 2021, when 5 of 6 SEC teams have lost their bowl games, he’s still a true believer in the myth of SEC supremacy to such an extent that he thinks the best B1G team is athletically inferior to pretty much the entire SEC (“UM doesn’t have the 2nd level speed that UGA is used to seeing most weeks in the SEC”). UGA may prove to be a better team than us, but our defense had plenty of speed to keep up with OSU, which is faster than UGA.
I appreciate the link. I’m enjoying going back and looking at all the preseason predictions in light of what we know now.
My understanding is the stadium is theoretically divided east-west between Michigan and Georgia, hence Michigan’s allotment is in the northeast corner and Georgia’s is in the northwest corner. The south sideline (behind Michigan’s bench) is mostly corporate/sponsor allotment. So I’d focus on the east side of the stadium and trying to be close to Michigan’s allotment.
I’m really enjoying seeing so many individual players, the play-calling, and this team as a whole, improve throughout the season. I don’t remember another season where the improvement and evolution were so apparent. I especially appreciated Seth pointing out Cade’s laser sharp ability to read and adjust to defenses in-game and how that is part of what makes him a championship QB. To my untrained eye, this team’s success, despite a purportedly physically limited QB, is proof of just how important the mental aspect of QB’ing can be. And I’m happy to see Cade’s improvement retire yet another trope: that Harbaugh’s influence makes QBs worse rather than better.
I bet LSU is pissed he wasn’t fired until after they hired Kelly. Part of me wonders if someone intentionally waited until NSD to leak the info about the kicking-the-kicker incident. It happened in the preseason.
You mean WHEN we win in Columbus next year.
I also thought it was great. It reminded me of how my kids would call me cheesy when they were in their early- to mid-teens for saying things to them that they now love to hear as young adults.
Thank you for this well-written, insightful piece. I especially liked this point, which I think well encapsulates M’s struggle, from about 2005ish on, to find its place in the modern world of CFB:
Juxtaposed with this:
Does this imply that Harbaugh found the answer in 2021 to be a top program in CFB while maintaining Michigan’s values? Or is it just that this is the once in 18 years that the stars aligned, some usual suspects (OSU, OU, Clemson) faltered, allowing an old school team with some special individuals and a dash of innovation to rise to the top?
I hope it’s the former; only time will tell. But if nothing else, I’ll take this blog’s publication of this article as an indication that it’s time to feel good about exactly who and where we are as a football program right at this moment.
Don’t you mean “back-to-back national champion”?