Baumgardner: Harbaugh should change his philosophy about what wins big games or M will stay nationally irrelevant

Said it once...will say it again....JH is way too uptight and the team plays like it in many big spots. Did anyone listen to Dabo talk after the game last night - the dude is full of vigor, positive energy and personality - loved listening to him. Saban was very gracious after a thumping - stood there, shook hands and took it like a champ. 

JH needs to learn to relax and not pull the "I'm smarter than you" approach a la Charlie Weis with his infamous "we will have a decided schematic advantage" nonsense from years back. 

Our o line got its ass kicked in all three games and lost.

I would also like to see a more wide open offense, as would most people. But it’s not a silver bullet. It was our defense that lost the games against OSU and Florida. 

Clemson won the game in the trenches where most games are won.

They also had no critical turnovers or penalties, which is related in part to the first point.

With what they have returning and who is coaching them, these two teams will be back in playoffs next year and the rest of the country will fight for two spots.

I think we are back to running the Field Marshal Haig tactics from WWI Blackadder on offense. Somebody needs to send Harbaugh a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. 2019 is make or break, and if Harbaugh doesn’t change the offense to make it more explosive, with more tempo, it’s game over man. The slow offenses against Ohio State and Florida was unacceptable. 

Insert the Lloyd Christmas “we landed on the moon” line. 

I'm sorry, but I watched that game last night, and those offenses weren't vastly different from what Michigan is trying to run, they just have much better offensive lines. They had slow developing passing plays, but their lines held up. 

I don't get why it's so hard to understand. Everything Jim Harbaugh likes to do isn't what works in college football and is starting to not work in the pros. 

We had the model of what Michigan football should be doing in Lloyd Carr's last game against Florida when he opened it up, spread the field, and we torched them.

Harbaugh is an idiot. Let's take good high school quarterbacks and  make them learn a pro style offense and learn to play from under center. Even though the pro sytle offense isn't really the pro style offense anymore. Let's take a guy like Shea, who is used to running the spread in high school who could light it up at ole Miss because that's the offense he has always ran, and make him play a totally different offense with new footwork and new reads. Keep the offense explosive and open for the QBs. There is a reason why so many freshman quarterbacks can walk into college and have great seasons. You'll never see that at Michigan even with the most talented quarterbacks because they have to literally change from everything that they're used to doing. Hell we would have figured out a way to make Trevor Lawrence a bland quarterback.

Not Elite maybe, but  irrelevant no. Harbaugh has had his team in the top 10 for over 50% of the time that he's been here. Not many teams can say that. Is it where we want to be no but irrelevant seems a bit strong seen how we have been in the playoff talk near the very end of the season in a few of these years

1.  I guess I don't understand what "contending" means.  I hear people ask when will we ever contend for a Big 10 title and when will we ever contend for a playoff spot.  Isn't going into the final game of the year with both of those things on the line the definition of contending?  No, we didn't get it done, but we were contending for those goals until the final game.  Also, tired of people talking as if winning a National Title is easy.  How many active coaches have one?  Yes, we need to win a conference title, but people are still talking about getting Michigan "back" to where they once were.  We are "back" to where we once were--top 10 team year in and year out, with a chance at the end.  And yes, I am well aware we still need to beat OSU.  Which brings me to...

2.  Our talent level (and especially depth) is still not above OSU.  It's getting there, but the two deep isn't there yet.  That was evident when we lost started to injury in the final two games. People forget OSU were the heavy favorites to with the conferences and go undefeated until the playoffs.  We were again picked 3rd in our division by most people.  They played below expectations all year and we played above them.  The weaknesses that everyone was worried about in the beginning of the year finally came back to bite us in the end.  

*None of this is to say that the staff doesn't have some work to do and shouldn't have made some adjustments in the big games to help the situation.

In this era of college football you NEED to put playmakers in space! That is what wins big games, we have seen it over and over again. Harbaugh is finally going to have a year 2 starting QB and most likely the best offensive line hes had at Michigan next season.  If he doesn't adjust now he probably never will. If he doesn't change Michigan will have to take a hard look in the mirror and decide if 9-10 win seasons are good enough or if they want to compete with the big dogs. Here's to hoping Harbaugh makes the adjustments and a choice doesn't need to be made.

This is really dumb.

Michigan was nationally relevant most of the season. They got beat at Notre Dame early, trounced at Ohio State and basically imploded at Florida, and finished 10-3 and won a share of the Big10 East division title.

Most Michigan fans were elated with Lloyd Carr's 9-3 season average, as long as it included beating Ohio State and MSU. And they still use Lloyd Carr years and Jim Hermann as DC as the measuring stick. 

Harbaugh has done a good job here, considering where Michigan has been.

The negative Nancy boys here need to stop eating soy.

So Baumgardner and Michigan fans here think:

a. Harbaugh sucks because he doesn't run enough tempo

b. Harbaugh sucks because his and Pep Hamilton's play selection is too conservative and/or not flashy enough.

These allegations seem long on vague cosmetics, short on specifics.

In football when you execute an offensive play well enough across the offensive personnel, you simply don't have to be elegant and flashy and take high risks in order to win a lot of football games. Clemson's offense last night was not earth shatteringly different from things we saw Michigan doing.

Ohio State didn't beat Michigan by being less conservative and more risk taking in the play calling arena.  Ohio State beat the brakes of Michigan by scouting the ever living shit out of them down to a T, identifying talent and speed mismatches, attacking those mismatches and weaknesses with a customized game plan and offensive attack, and then succeeding in executing and sustaining blocks to near perfection, with little resistance or counter from UM. Ohio State also made fewer costly mistakes on both sides of the ball.. 

Michigan could have done things very differently, and could have surprised Ohio State by doing things they hadn't shown all year - like going no huddle high tempo, running zone read option plays and keepers, spreading out 5 wide, attacking the middle with TEs and the edges with screens.  Michigan tried many of these things during the game, but Ohio State was not surprised. They seemed prepared for it.

Ohio State beat Michigan again by superior scouting, scheme, talent and execution. But most of all just talent.  Michigan was not a healthy team, and it was not a comparatively talented team to Ohio State.   That can change with recruiting, but it's not looking good right now.

I mean, having no tempo offense whatsoever has been probably my major criticism of Harbaugh. We have a 5 minute drill, maybe.

Here is one thing I don't understand.  Michigan is both relevant and contending since Harbaugh took over.  We just can't win big games.  

The Detroit dailies dislike Harbaugh and love Dantonini.    Dantonioini, no matter the record, is given the benefit of the doubt and treated like its only a matter of time before MSU heads back to the playoffs. 3-9 is just bad luck, injuries, and rebuilding.  For Harbaugh, it is the program is irrelevant unless Harbaugh changes his strategy, proves himself, hires different coordinators, etc etc.  Bumgardner may or may not have valid points.  When he starts showing some objectivity I'll pay attention to him.  

Last year was the first year we had a quality QB under Harbaugh, we still haven't had a quality OL, and we've only had mediocre RBs. It's hard to say with certainty that the playcalling is the problem with all of the above. Especially when it was so good last year against OSU and in so many other games when our shitty OL and QB didnt torpedo everything.

The main reason we lost to ND was that nonsense hail mary bouncing to their receiver, Wimbush randomly being accurate, a garbage roughing the passer penalty, and a bobbled snap.

We lost to OSU because our DL was too injured to do anything, our previously dominant defense was over confident, and OSU's previously vulnerable looking everything finally played to it's ability.

We lost to Florida because nobody cared after thinking we had a great shot to go to the playoffs and then getting embarrassed by OSU. And our DL was even more injured than the OSU game, and no Bush, JBB, and Higdon.

Baumgardner's just spewing hot takes that push all the right buttons in our whiny ass bpone fans.

Since 2014 Michigan has recruited 41 four or five star players. Clemson 35. It isn't the recruiting. Harbaugh needs to stop coaching in a box. Saban did for a while then he took off. Sweeny never did and look at Clemson. Meyer coaches to win. Jim doesn't. 

that's nice

I never liked his writing style. Sophomoric and if you read closely he loves closing his articles with fortune cookie type conclusions. Decent analysis, though. 

He's not wrong.