If seven years ago someone told you this would be the state of U of M football. What would you have said?
Take yourself back to 06. One game away from a National Championship appearance. Sure the season didn't end the way we all hoped, but the future still looked bright. I would never have believed you if you told me we were in store for:
- Losing to App. St
- Have a 50-39 record
- Winning zero Big Ten championships and not even be a factor
- Going 1-6 vs OSU
- 2-5 vs MSU
Obviously there have been a few bright spots,(beating Florida in the Citrus and winning the Sugar bowl)but by in large being a Michigan fan has been pretty damn rough. Two years ago I was certain Hoke was the guy to bring us back, but now I have serious doubts. I’m starting believe he is just a good position coach who absolutely loves Michigan, but is in over his head.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^
"Holy Crap, they hired Mike Debord!!"
December 29th, 2013 at 2:02 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:09 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:33 PM ^
Good thing we get to play them in 2014 to reverse the curse!
December 29th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^
App State was the first big leak to be sprung. It continued to erode from there but we were about to trend down whether we won that game or not. Oregon was still going to murder us
December 29th, 2013 at 2:06 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:39 PM ^
We were 11-2 with a Sugar Bowl win in Hoke's first year. That's about as short as you can get.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:07 PM ^
Awesome, another "Guess what guys, we're actually not good at football right now" post.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:12 PM ^
Don't worry, the "Guess what guys, we're actually good at football!" posts are only two years away. They just need a few offseasons to develop.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:09 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:11 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
i just think of brian's "we are nd"post in the wake of hoke's hiring and think, damn, this brian guy was on to something!
December 29th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:21 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
Well 14 years ago (on the eve of 2000) I was thoroughly convinced that Michigan was going to find itself behind the times, and petrified of slipping into mediocrity because of it.
I didn't yet know that Brady and co. would be able to stand up to Alabama. I was writing emails (an early form of blogging) between fraternity brothers to voice concerns that the SEC was rampantly cheating, that the NCAA was powerless to stop it, and that the northern powers needed to take drastic action, no matter how strong they looked (Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State were all national title contenders, MSU was very strong at the end of Saban's reign, Wisconsin kept going to Rose Bowls anyway, and even Purdue (had Drew Brees) and Illinois (beat us) and Northwestern ('95 and '96 were in recent memory) and Minnesota (beat PSU that year) were capable of beating just about anybody). Jesus even that new guy at Iowa seemed to know what he's doing, and the only hopeless cause in the conference, Indiana, had Randle El to make up for it.
I felt that Michigan's offensive strategy was wasting its talent, and that the NFL factory strategy wasn't a very good fit for a school hampered by caring about academics. I feared Carr would retire soon since he was already pretty old, and that there were no longer any obvious successors.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:28 PM ^
Seven years ago I would have told you I would marry my then gf, have kids and a house by now and probably would have thought I'd still be living in Michigan. None of those things happened either. And I'm fine with it. You never know what is going to happen, and that's what makes life and sports so great.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^
Honestly, I wouldn't have believed it like a lot of other folks... And I don't see any sign of it getting any better. This staff has shown no sign of any significant player development and have not proven that they can make significant adjustments during games. I don't think I said one positive thing that wasn't about Shane during the game last night.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:34 PM ^
"I guess it's our turn to have a down period, just like every other major historical college football power."
December 29th, 2013 at 5:57 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^
1987 | 6–4–1 | 4–4 Big Ten | 5th | Earle Bruce | Win | |||
1988 | 4–6–1 | 2–5–1 Big Ten | T–7th | John Cooper | Loss | |||
1989 | 8–4 | 6–2 Big Ten | T–3rd | L Hall of Fame | 24 | John Cooper | Loss | |
1990 | 7–4–1 | 5–2–1 Big Ten | 5th | L Liberty | John Cooper | Loss | ||
1991 | 8–4 | 5–3 Big Ten | T–3rd | L Hall of Fame | John Cooper | Loss | ||
1992 | 8–3–1 | 5–2–1 Big Ten | 2nd | L Citrus | 18 | 18 | John Cooper | Tie |
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Buckeyes_football#Results_by_year)
Looks pretty similar, hmm? Our 6-year record: 41-34. Ohio's 6-year record: 41-25-4.
Wins in The Game during the stretch: 1
We at least have a top 10 finish (#9 coaches poll, 2011) in our stretch.
And before you go saying that 1987-1992 was a long time ago, recall that we had a 40-year stretch of non-losing seasons and would've been 40 straight bowl games were it not for the B1G "Rose Bowl or No Bowl" rule.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:36 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:40 PM ^
Faaawwwwwkkk
December 29th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^
Early 2000s is when I really got into Michigan football and I definitely wouldn't have thought this was going to happen. I was so young and used to seeing Michigan win all the time and it's been mostly downhlll from there, save 2011.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:47 PM ^
One of those OSU victories was vacated, I'll have you know!
/continues panicking and screaming
December 29th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
Looking back at the end of '06, when Carr reportedly told Martin he wanted to retire after that season but was talked out of it, Martin should have had a short list of people ready to go and not assumed he could get anyone he wanted. His belief that Ferentz would come here (vetoed by Mary Sue) gave him a false sense of security.
I think the coaching search debacle at the end of 2007 season still impacts this program today. ND went through the same stuff beginning with the botched George O'Leary hiring in 2002, which led them to Ty and Big Charley. They finally have a pretty good (but not great) coach in Kelly.
My only hope right now is that the PUBLIC Brandon isn't the same guy talking with Brady privately. I mean 15-11 over the last two seasons?
I view Hoke in a similar, but more visible place, that Beilein was in during the 2010-11 season when we were started 1-6 in the B1G and UM traveled to MSU. That win was the turning point in his program and led to 3 darn good seasons.
Hoke's turning point next year needs to be at MSU as well. Saturday October 25th in E.L. is his chance to have his Beilein moment and put a dagger into this season.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:56 PM ^
were Kevin Borseth's demon
December 29th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 6:06 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
Out of all of it, the 1-6 against Ohio and the 2-5 against MSU are the most painful things to bare. Ohio certifiably owns the rivalry now, so much so that it has lessened the relavance of that rivalry. That's bad enough, but what's just as bad is all the damn MSU fans around the state right now, it's insufferable.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
I wouldn't have thought we'd have fallen this far. On the flipside, if you tell me that within 7 years we will win a national championship, I would also be quite surprised and disbelieving given the present state..
December 29th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
I would have said, "we should get one of them run and gun style coaches, really open things up."
December 29th, 2013 at 5:33 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
I wouldn't have been that surprised. The team was scuttling a bit under Carr, and when you throw in two transitions that is about the outcome you'd expect. And just for reference, before this year Auburn was 58 and 32 in the past 4 seasons, buttressed immensely by going 14-0 in 2010. The era of dominant football teams season-over-season are probably over, but I expect 7-6 to be the nadir of the Hoke era.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:29 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^
Lumping the RichRod disaster in with the Hoke years to make the state of the program look worse. I love MGoBlog.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:21 PM ^
and is regressing against much easier schedules than Rodriguez played against. In fact, nearly all of Hoke's success came from Denard, a Rich Rod player. He was 17-4 with Denard at the helm. Then Denard got hurt and he's gone 10-9.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:35 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:17 PM ^
Now's a good time to review Michigan football predictions from The Borat Files:
- Antonio Bass will fully recover from his injury and not miss another season
- Kevin Grady will be better than Mike Hart
- David Molk is too small to be starting at center
- Ryan Mallett will become Michigan’s greatest quarterback ever
- Boubacar Cissoko will be an All-Big Ten cornerback every year
- Ricardo Miller will be a great receiver and will captain the Wolverines by his junior year
- Tate Forcier will break all of Michigan’s passing records and win the Heisman Trophy
- Will Campbell will be the Big Ten Freshman Defensive Player of the Year
- Trading Scott Shafer to Syracuse for a defensive coordinator who won two Super Bowl rings coaching the Denver Broncos defense was a brilliant move that will make Michigan’s defense dominant for years to come
- Justin Turner and Cullen Christian will become the stars of the defensive backfield
- Denard Robinson will win the Heisman Trophy
- Derrick Green will be the Big Ten’s Freshman Offensive Player of the Year
- Having to play Ohio State two weeks in a row at the end of the 2013 season won’t stop the Wolverines from going to the Rose Bowl
- Da’Shawn Hand is going Blue all the way
December 29th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 3:22 PM ^
Maybe Les Miles needs to go.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:40 PM ^
I dont see why next year will be any different. We have a super-soft team, and I truly don't see why next year will be better. After 3 years, our offense has absolutely ZERO identity. The defense has played f*cking horrifically, and our coaches seemingly find ways to muzzle young talent. The worst thing.... I honestly havent seen any players get substantially better outside of maybe Desmond Morgan and Frank Clark (sometimes?)....It's absolutely embarassing.
December 29th, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^