ND fans expect us to turn on Harbaugh after he goes 9-4
It's always interesting perusing the college football blogosphere and seeing what other fans think of our situation with Harbaugh. Obviously most of the time it is negative. We all know that Michigan creates ire everywhere just by being Michigan, and that is doubly compounded by Harbaugh.
Notre Dame has always struck me as an odd animal for offering criticism. Eric Murtaugh, a longtime ND blogger and noted M-hater from One Foot Down, has a new blog called 18 stripes, and never misses a chance to rip on M.
Excerpt from one of his more recent posts:
2017 seems like the year a long honeymoon starts ending for Harbaugh in Ann Arbor – expectations for year three will still be extremely high despite massive turnover on both sides of the ball. The schedule isn’t kind to the Wolverines either – they open in Dallas against Florida and down the stretch face road games at Happy Valley and Camp Randall before hosting Ohio State.
Michigan has recruited well enough that the floor remains high, but a step back even to 9-4 could start bending perceptions of Harbaugh from “crazy genius” back toward “just insane”.
This is a common thread among ND writers/fans. I've seen it from MSU and OSU fans too, but on this particular occasion I've limited my perusing to Irish corners.
Following is some additional noteworthy commentary. (Sources at the bottom)
You have to hand it to Michigan. There was no one - at least, no one who wasn't living in the fantasy land known as Ann Arbor - who genuinely believed that Harbaugh would leave the NFL for Michigan, even if it was his alma mater. The Wolverines were abysmal following the 2014 season, where they fell to 5-7 amidst blowouts, a concussion scandal, and the resignation of the athletic director - the very definition of a college football tire fire. Why would any coach with options walk into that?
Then when you realize Harbaugh is actually insane by clinical definitions it becomes easier to understand why he took the job. Of course, that won't stop the fans from eating him alive when he loses a third straight time to Ohio State. All the goodwill Harbaugh has built up from his two seasons will vanish come 4 p.m. on November 25th.
When does the Harbaugh honeymoon end?
The answer is obvious: 2017. Harbaugh is the only Michigan coach besides Rich Rodriguez to fail to beat the Buckeyes in his first two seasons. It's hard to see a triumphant Michigan squad succeed this year, either. They return so little that the losses spell doom for the Wolverines so much it could result in a 9-win season. That will prompt the very real grumbles from Michigan fans that Harbaugh isn't the right guy after all. The so-called Maize and Blue faithful can only take the abuse from Urban Meyer for so long before they decide it's time for a change.
Notre Dame only wishes it could play Michigan this year, when the Wolverines' loss of so many starters means the chance of a crushing defeat at the hands of the Irish would be surprisingly favorable. Alas, they'll have to wait until 2018, when the Wolverines will be a title contender.
Will Harbaugh still be the coach by then? Keep your eye on the game against Ohio State at noon on November 25. If the Wolverines lose that one (again), Harbaugh might just be given his walking papers, even if he's 11-1. Common sense tells us to never underestimate the delusional arrogance of Michigan fans.
In other news, Notre Dame went 4-8 last season.
Sources:
https://www.18stripes.com/
https://irishsportsdaily.com/
http://notredame.247sports.com/
*yawnnnn*
ND fans know all about 'delusional arrogance', so we might have to defer to their judgement on that. Oh, and Fuck ND!
Again there is not a better fitting coach for Michigan then Jim Freaking Harbaugh, lets just get that out of the way. But smart fans have the right to be upset or want things to improve. Yes he has turned us away from the dumpster fire that was the 2014 season, yes it was one of the worst stretches in Michigan history, yes I am happy to see that.
2015 - Great; turn around, 10 wins was top notch, that's what I thought a Jim Harbaugh team would do. Way, way, way more good then bad
Negative; silly loss to MSU, and the blow out to OSU.
2016; Come in with a loaded team, roll through the early season, beat MSU.
Negative; loss to Iowa, blowing the game at OSU, losing to FSU. During those games there were weird calls, and it didn't seem like the creativity at times like the 2015 season.
Overall the 2016 season was a disappointment. I don't care that so many people were "Hoke's" guys. We had 11 drafted NFL players on that team, lost to our biggest rival who's been blowing our doors off for over a decade, didn't make the playoff, and dropped the bowl game. It's okay to be disappointed. I believe that Harbaugh would say that the season was a failure to him because of no championships. Look at what Urban said at media day yesterday, last year was a failure.
Harbaugh/Michigan/and us as fans do not want to be a team that every few years has a chance at the B10, or a 9-4 season. They want Michigan to be competing for it all every year. Harbaugh is making way too much money for people to think that 9-4 seasons are okay, and losing the first four games to OSU is okay. With this recruiting, coaching staff, school support, etc Michigan needs to kick down the door and start performing like Alabama & OSU.
I agree: if Harbaugh is averaging 9-4, then he's a highly-paid Bo Pelini, which isn't what we want.
But his problem is that he was too successful in his first couple years. Nobody expected us to emerge from the flaming dumpster of 2014 to go 10-3 in 2015. And nobody should expect us to be contenders in 2017 with junior and senior leadership that suffered from the malaise of Hoke's last couple recruiting classes.
We're on a steady upward path, both with regard to recruiting and with regard to results. But people who don't follow Michigan football might not see it if they just look at our W/L records.
I agree. UM has two victories against OSU since 2001 and not a single one in the last five seasons! That's 2-14 since the 2001 season. And one of those wins came during the Tressel debacle when Luke Fickle was the interim coach. That's really fu%$ing depressing.
I echo your sentiments in that Harbaugh was brought here to not only turn this program around but start beating OSU. It needs to start happening and soon. I'm not 100% confident that if Harbaugh starts 0-3 or 0-4 to Meyer he will ever acheive a winning record against them.
I think the last last 8-9 seasons have beaten mediocrity or acceptance into a lot of fans.
In most years, 9-4 is actually an improvement for Notre Dame, so...
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I'm still bitter about how badly Michigan shit the bed last season. That team deserved better and yes, I do believe Urban Meyer or James Franklin would have done a better job with those players.
But who's Michigan gonna get that's better than Harbaugh and his staff? PJ Fleck?
We're big boys. We can be honest about our coaches, don't need Notre Dame fans to tell us what to think.
As the season progressed, Penn State improved! Oh, and look who won the Big 10! Get out.
if you were to look closely at that fine hardware given to B1G champs...you'll see etched into it 49-10.
Obvious trolls are obvious.
given about what ND fans think. They can all get bent.
in the very unlikely event of a 9-4 season, there may be one or two insane people who will scream for Harbaugh's head. You can't help those people. The vast majority of us will continue on knowing we have one of the best coaches out there.
outsiders would think Michigan fans would turn on Harbaugh and want him out if the team went 9-4. It could happen. I doubt it given the roster and coaching. But anything is possible. There is nothing happening with this program that demonstrates anything but upward movement.
This program hasn't been in better hands in years. Period. End of story.
interesting,but pointless.
It's going to feel SO GOOD to start beating these sorry Catholic asses again. Cannot wait until next year!
I originally wrote something else.
But I realized I was putting too much effort into it.
To hell with Notre Dame.
10-3 the first year coming off a five win season is considered a successful year, 10-3 the second year with 3 losses coming by a total of 5 points with a team that obviously improved is also a successful year. Injuries are part of the game but let's not forget who those injuries were to, Speight, Peppers, Butt that's hard to overcome. The Speight injury doesn't happen and I think we win at Iowa we win at the Shoe and with all 3 we beat FSU and no one is talking about how Harbaugh is this or that instead you are hearing that he is everything he is billed to be.
People like to point out that he hasn't won the BIG10. He took over a talented but underachieving team. Urban took over a loaded team , loaded by cheating but loaded just the same and he's won it once in his 5 years at OSU and he's considered to be all that. And that's the difference that Speight injury made
for any of us to turn on JH. He is in the Bo category, fully trust him through ups and downs, no doubt we are winning multiple ships with him at the helm...hell, could be this year.
Us against the World.
Harbaugh can coach at Michigan as long as he wants, we're lucky to have him every season he is here, and when he goes, hopefully he has groomed a replacement that has the same feelings for the rivals, respects the opponents, wants to educate his players, desperately wants to win every game, strategizes on how to beat the opponent, and in the end wants to have fun and share some unique life experiences with his teams. All this with honesty & enthusiasm.
Does anybody think another coach would understand the tradition, the legacy, the meaningfulness of the games (Brown Jug, Staee, osu) like our current coach?
He was like any of us that grew up loving Michigan football, he made the team, was a winner with the team and he's building it up even further.
OSU fan here. I really think that ND and UM are in pretty similar situations, except that UM has Harbaugh. Both have excellent football traditions, excellent academics, rabid fan bases, tons of money, but sit in states that are not high school recruiting hotbeds. If ND could hire an elite coach, they could be back with a vengance -- but I do not see an elite coach for them to hire.
Sorry, nothing personal. Had to get that out of the way first.
Anyway, to your point:
If ND could hire an elite coach, they could be back with a vengance -- but I do not see an elite coach for them to hire.
Chip Kelly, Bob Stoops, and Les Miles are not coaching anywhere at the moment. Any would be a viable candidate for the ND job.
Fuck ND