What is wrong with this entire program?
We have been laying eggs for literally decades in big games. MSU gets better results than us with lower rated recruits. So does Wisconsin.
I'm on a small vacation right now, and I wonder why I've wasted the last few hours watching this. I used to be the biggest Michigan fan anyone knew as a kid, but I'm now 24 as of 3 days ago, and I haven't seen us do shit since I was 10. Even that year we lost to a 6-4 OSU and Notre Dame coached by Charlie Weis.
I've been texting back and forth with my uncle who has had season tickets since the 70s, he says this is the last year for tickets and I don't really blame him. This stuff is too predictable and I don't get that many free Saturday's anymore with my job.
We hired the hottest coach in football in 2014...Why is it no matter who coaches here they can't get results? I just don't get it. Nobody on our team has looked hyped to play, just like MSU last year. Is it mentality? They expect to just waltz in and win without preparing?
September 1st, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^
Something else I forgot, we seem to have more mental mistakes than any team out there. Really disheartening .
September 1st, 2018 at 10:53 PM ^
Tell-tale sign of a poorly coached team.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh is the problem. $8,000,000 for what? Run the ball straight up the middle? The most uncreative play calls known to mankind. No onsides kick. This loss, not the season yet, is clearly 100% on Jim Harbaugh. Our offense has talent and Harbaugh seemed to do whatever he could to limit that talent.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
I thought it was the right call to kick it deep and not try the onside kick at the time and it seemed to work. Our defense was finally hot and we forced a three and out and got the ball back with 2 minutes at about the 25 yard line.
Suppose we tried an onside kick that failed and then they ran the same 3 plays with the same three results...they likely have the ball at our 37 with a 4th and 2 and go for it to kill the clock.
September 2nd, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^
Definitely the right call at the end. Though I thought they should have tried an OK after the Thomas touchdown. The defense had just been on the field for seven and a half minutes. Why not try to grab the momentum?
September 1st, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
5th year senior taking a roughing the passer penalty on fourth down? This team is not mentally tough. So many third down conversions given up. Don’t even get me started about the offense
September 1st, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
The worst 3rd down conversion was the 3rd and 18 and ND runs a QB draw to pick up the first down. WTFF??????
September 1st, 2018 at 11:30 PM ^
Disagree. Even worse was the 3rd down backup on their goal line. Long pass. Metellus knows he is going to nail dude’s head. He lets up. Still gets tossed. Dude holds onto the ball. What’s the coaching lesson there? Explode the guy? Still get kicked out? Incomplete pass? Stupid.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
Not to mention, we lined up Furbush in coverage on a TE on that play. Wimbush saw that and was going there before they even snapped it.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:43 PM ^
I think also as much as i hate to say this but Don Brown is a tad overrated. He is a good to great d coordinator, not elite. Its been shown. The d did play better in the 2nd half, but that was not what any of us expected.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:24 AM ^
No. He has spent his entire coaching career in the football crazed hot bed of New England. How could he be overrated?
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:51 AM ^
He is overrated by us Michigan fans. This defense has fallen at bad times each of the last 3 years. What am i wrong about?? I said he is great , not elite.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:59 AM ^
i was so bummed because I like him so much but maybe he is? they were so good in the 2nd half but im so confused because they also spotted ND 14 weak ass points. It seems like they had the capability to hold them to fewer but they didnt do it. And that was the difference in the game. I'm still confused.
I'm mostly disappointed that this was so much last year - offense was sragnant and awful and the defense was great. If only the O provided a few more points it wouldve been an easy W. So, in conclusion - I dont know what to think? Help me, please.
September 2nd, 2018 at 6:36 AM ^
So, we’re playing a top 15 team on the road, holding them to 3 2nd half pts with a brand new QB to the team.
It will take a minute to get Pattterson and the offense to hold chemistry, but I loved what I saw from him.
ND made some amazing plays in the first quarter that would probably not work 8 out of 10 times. Their chemistry was better and they were playing with all the juice of the home crowd.
remember Harbaugh’s first season. We went on the road and lost by 1 TD to Utah. Jake Rudock was a new transfer to the program and we lacked some chemistry that led to some turnovers. Within a few games, we became one of the most formidable offenses in the country. That was with 100% Hoke recruits who were good, but maybe not elite. Compare potential between Rudock and Patterson. Look at the roster from 2015 to 2018. The speed on the D is much improved and our playmakers will be incredible if they get in sync with each other.
September 2nd, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
The constant, pedal to the metal, 100% aggression is getting tiresome. If you are always one thing, and one thing only, over teams will know how to burn you. We are constantly overcommitting to plays and leave HUGE lanes for mobile QBs to tear up.
Throw a curve ball every once in a while D Brown....it won't kill you.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:36 AM ^
to be fair to Winovich, that was a terrible call. a half step and a bump is not roughing the passer anywhere.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^
O line.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:06 PM ^
This, this and this. For 11 years this.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
I've been patient.
I waited for Rich Rod to get things rolling--and to shore up the D. I wanted Hoke to outperform every other stop; alas, he lucked into Denard that first year.
I tried to be calm when officials took matters into their own hands. Even when it happened again and again in the same games, against the same teams.
Every season I tried to hold expectations in check, but secretly hoped the OL would turn a corner--and the last six or seven years, that the O would match the D.
I've been reasonable; I've taken the rational approach. Never too high; never too low.
But I'm really tired. I've reached apathy. I think I need a break.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^
I am right there with you. 15 years of severely underperforming potential and expectations will do that to a man.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:24 PM ^
I'm beginning to think something was inextricably broken in the transition to RichRod, and there's no way of fixing it. All momentum this program had for forty years, completely gone. Rebuilding that, it seems, is impossible.
Embrace the mediocrity, stop caring, live your life. It's only crappy football.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:10 PM ^
The Bill Martin butterfly effect. Only Marty McFly, Doc Brown and a delorean or a big fuck-off black flying train could fix it.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
That's' where I'm at... my wife was watching it with me and said.. hey you can yell a bit.. if it's too much I'll just head back upstairs, don't hold back on my account. (We finished the basement late last year). I was like.. nah.. I just don't have it anymore. I embrace the fact that we don't kill players.. or put up with pedophiles.. rapists... wife beaters.. but then you have to listen to Mike Tirico, also noted sex offender.. basically be a ND slappy and it's like.. whatever... embrace the suck. It's fine, everything's fine.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:36 PM ^
This is exactly where I’m at. Something toxic, something we’ll likely never know about or possibly can’t even be explained, entered the program in the RichRod transition. I don’t know that it will be exorcised in my lifetime. I have stopped expecting anything good to happen here.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:55 PM ^
Agree Bando. Ive been upset about 1 game in 5 years, the osu game in 16 because the refs fucked Michigan. I dont even care anymore. Ill watch, ic they win, great,. If not i move on. Im done getting emotionally involved. This program is average and thats how it is.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^
The problem is 50 programs have the talent to win 10 games a year....many do it year after year with less talent than Michigan. We may not have the talent for top 5 every year....but to fail for the most part to be nationally relevant with top 10 recruited talent for 20 years is painful.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:27 PM ^
Bo died.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
We can revive him!
September 1st, 2018 at 10:35 PM ^
Bo being alive has dick to do with anything. Does evey other major program need their former coach to be alive to continue winning?
September 1st, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^
The intense dysfunction of the three years that followed, well, that's what you prevented with Bo in the building. What we learned is the whole thing was far more fragile than we thought.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:47 PM ^
yes, it's the cult of personality.
He dominated the program. It died with him. The lack of direction in hiring RichRod was the first obvious sign.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
Bo died? I don't think Harbaugh has realized that. He wants to be Bo. He thinks he can run the same plays Bo did.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
If you have a terrible offensive line for 10 years you cannot run the ball or pass the ball and it doesn't matter if you have the best defense, Denard, Braylon, Brady. You cannot play football.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:30 PM ^
Recruiting. Higdon is UM’s best RB and he wouldn’t start on Ohio State’s scout team. The whole program needs an overhaul and it starts with recruiting.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:53 PM ^
I think Higdon is generally fine and probably would look like a totally different back behind Ohio State's OL. Chris Evans would probably be a really good weapon for a lot of good teams with an OL. But its tough to look like a good RB (or QB) when you're consistently met at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield by a wave of defenders. Turns a lot of 5-10 yard runs into 1-2 yard runs.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:03 PM ^
Good points
September 1st, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
1 million percent not true, I'd take Higdon all day over Mike Weber
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:58 AM ^
That's a stupid fucking take, regardless of the upvotes. Higdon has been fine, it's the line etc. that's the problem.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:58 AM ^
That's a stupid fucking take, regardless of the upvotes. Higdon has been fine, it's the line etc. that's the problem.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
The offensive line is the most important unit on the team and we have not had a serviceable one for well over a decade. It starts their. After that, I’ll need 3 weeks to cover everything wrong with the program.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
I just can’t understand why we have so many problems with the O Line. They look no better than last year. Kudos to ND for using our speed on “D” against us.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:41 PM ^
I can't understand how they recruit the OT position in general. Its been a major red flag since Harbaugh took over and they recruit the position like its no big deal. Take 3-4 OTs every single year until it stops being an issue.
We're in year fucking 45 of this never-ending OL shit show and our best hopes for the position are STILL a converted DL and true freshman.
How
The
Fuck
Is
That
Possible
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:22 AM ^
Yes! We have to over recruit tackles until it finally becomes a strength. JBB and Runyan are both better suited as guards but we have to play them at tackle because we have no other choice.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
Meh. Even if you’re right, it’s a game. That’s why I stopped investing so much emotion in this several years ago. Especially after the ‘15 MSU debacle. It’s just a damn game.
OSU can win national titles every year for the next twenty years. What does it do to directly improve the lives of their fans? Nothing. They’ve still got to go to work, pay bills, deal with family bullshit, and deal with the same every day shit that we do.
Not being a sore loser. Just saying that the game of football is not worth getting upset over.
September 2nd, 2018 at 2:24 AM ^
Best post on here. If only it was that easy. I see our team lose and I feel like the whole country is laughing at me for being a fan of a lesser team. I don’t even want to watch or hear about football for a minimum of two weeks after a loss.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
The team is soft and most of the players who come to Michigan are soft
September 1st, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
Hoke may as well be coaching this team. I really hate to say it. Harbaugh isn't on the hot seat but he has definitely lost his luster. Four years of not being prepared for any opponent with a pulse. Four years of doing the least with the most anywhere in college football.
September 1st, 2018 at 10:34 PM ^
3+ years ago I thought I might regret not renewing my season tickets.....
September 1st, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
Here's how I realized Harbaugh has lost his luster. Think back to when they rolled out the train formation and what the overall reaction to that was. Now think about what the reaction would be if they rolled that out now.
Honeymoon is long over.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
I believe Harbaugh is just going through the motions at this point. Something changed with him. It’s just sad at this point. Especially how much money he makes.