Jim Harbaugh Appreciation Thread
Jim Harbaugh understands rivalries and is the definition of a Michigan Man
Last night's loss, as fresh on our minds as it is, was not and should not be the reason for us as fans to suddenly want Jim Harbaugh gone and back in the NFL. He has a vision for this team and I know that it will get here sooner rather than later. The weaknesses of this team will be strength under Harbaugh and we are seeing this team transform. Prior to his arrival, we were horrible on Defense, Special Teams, and Offense: Two of those Three weaknesses are fixed and the Offense will take a huge positive soon.
Jim's record to date as our head coach is 24-7. In most of the losses, including last night's game, we were competitive and had a chance to win. Last season we didn't lose a game by more than 5 points. Yeah, losing to a rival sucks ass because we have been dominant against OSU/MSU for over a decade now but the sky ain't falling. A loss like last night's game builds steel in your spine.
I attribute all the anger and frustration to a few things: 1. A sense of despair and loss not seen since these two took the field:
Nick Sheridan and Steven Threet
2. Urban Meyer / Mark Dantonio dominance in the B10 and against Michigan.
Everything is coming to a boil and I feel that the anger won't subside until we beat OSU, which may or may not happen this year.
The Michigan Death Star will not be built in a day, but it WILL be built by Jim Harbaugh. I'm appreciative of that and know that it will happen sooner than later. The last thing we need is a complete regime change which will probably see the likes of our top 10 defensive coaches leaving our program and years of further rebuilding. I DO NOT WANT A NEW REGIME CHANGE.
Thanks Jim Harbaugh for all the hardwork you are doing with the program. This is football and losses will happen, but the team is on the right path. Onward and forward!
October 8th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
October 9th, 2017 at 12:53 PM ^
I think people just assume he sucks because he got the job through nepotism. Also fumbles, but frankly fumbles are statistically totally random.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:09 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:14 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:53 PM ^
October 9th, 2017 at 8:37 AM ^
The existence of this thread speaks more to the chicken little reactionaries in the fanbase than it does to anything relating to the OP.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:09 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:11 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:39 PM ^
There's a term for people who only support a team when they're winning games.
It's easy to beat your chest and brag when you're winning games, but the true test of a fan is how they support the team in defeat and when times aren't as good. You and other reactionary, kneejerk, fairweather fans embarrass yourselves. We have a very good thing going right now, and recognizing that and giving thanks for it isn't "terrible." Go cheer for Ohio State, you'll fit in a lot better with the Buckeyes.
October 8th, 2017 at 10:12 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
In your own words: "appreciation... after losing to a rival at home again?" Ignore the thread aspect, pay attention to the intention of the thread. It really comes into focus when looking at your other comments, as well.
"Harbaugh most certainly is overrated and should be on the hot seat if they can't figure this shit out."
"Year 3 in the Harbaugh era is going in the same direction as Hoke offensively."
"Yep. Michigan=next year is our year."
"Should be unranked with the jr high offense they have."
Just a small selection of your well-reasoned and oh so supportive comments in the last 24 hours. I don't think 1-4 against rivals is "a very good thing," and that's a disingenuous strawman on your part, but to react as though we got the doors blown off of us and didn't have a chance of victory while acting like a spoiled, petulant child without any sense of nuance is sure as Hell a lot worse. Especially taking the youth of this team into consideration.
If a couple of balls bounced differently the last few years, the kneejerk fairweather fans like yourself would be treating Harbaugh as though he were the best coach since Lombardi. Spare me the "I SUPPORT THE TEAM!" garbage, you're nothing more than part of the embarrassing black hole of entitled negativity that comes from this fanbase.
I agree that offensive changes need to be made, but to sit here and act like we're hopeless because we lost a game by 4 points in a monsoon with our backup quarterback and being -5 in turnover margin is downright shameful, and your comments in the last 24 hours are a disgrace.
October 8th, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 11:01 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 11:08 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^
Massive credit to you for owning up to bad behavior. As somebody who used to react really badly to when my team lost even a couple of years ago, I can definitely understand the sentiment, and I know that it comes from a place of caring about Michigan and not wanting to see them lose. I've faced some hardships in my personal life since then and gotten a lot better about keeping small things like sports in perspective, so it's not as though I'm entirely innocent of things along those lines in my own past, either. I genuinely apologize to you if I came across too harshly.
I completely agree that the offense should be a lot better at this point, and hope that changes are made including getting rid of Drevno. I think that, all things considered, however, we're in a very good spot, especially compared to the Hoke and Rodriguez regimes. I think within the next couple of years Harbaugh will get that Big Ten championship and Michigan will be in the playoffs. Hoping for good things out of McCaffrey next year.
October 8th, 2017 at 11:42 PM ^
October 9th, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
was always about turnovers. It was the only way we were going to let them win. Maybe we could have gotten away with -1 or -2. The fact that we were within a hail mary after going -5 is really a testament to this ludicrous defense. And they're even younger than the offense!
Protect the ball and we win that game. You can't scheme for that.
October 9th, 2017 at 4:20 PM ^
Exactly. There is obviously not cohesion among the offensive staff. Results don't lie. This hurts more when Sparty gets their asses kicked a few more times this season.
October 9th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
Should it, though? Hoke's recruting was garbage in his last few years and those are his upper classmen... he lost 11 offensive staters (including Speight, now) from last year. About the only thing I can think that he could have done that would have helped us is keep Shane Morris, who might be better than O'Korn, around. But that would probably not make a difference.
If we are still this bad next year, he has questions to answer. But I think a one off season where the offense is mediocre-to-bad is acceptable under the circumstances.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:10 PM ^
Here here!!!
That said, it is perfectly fair to wonder about the direction of the multi-headed offense monster this year. Last year it worked just fine. This year, it has regressed. The offense we have today is not nearly as good as the worst we saw last year. That is the crux of the problem. All of the 'fixes' brought forth by armchair QB's sound good, but let the guys that are paid to coach football, coach football.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:10 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:11 PM ^
But the shine is off Harbaugh. He's not the instant savior we all hoped he'd be. Being a Super Bowl coach didn't translate to dominating in college. I appreciate his 14 hour days he puts in trying to prove this offense.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:20 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
Being a Super Bowl coach didn't translate to dominating in college.
Yeah, all he did was inherit a 5-win team and go on to deliver back to back 10-win seasons for the first time since 2002 and '03. Fuck that guy.
October 8th, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
October 9th, 2017 at 10:17 AM ^
If we had LTT and Newsome, it would be a very different line. I can't remember what year LTT was but if memory serves, this would be his final year of eligiblity?
October 8th, 2017 at 9:12 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:35 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:13 PM ^
Good post Catchafire. And Brutus. Gotta love College Football for sure!
I think a lot of this is timing - the B1G has probably been the best conference in CFB for the past 2-3 years. Dantonio and Meyer have built their program during the timeframe when the conference was pretty bad.
Again, this was a brutal loss, and losses like this are always going to affect me way more than it should any sane person. Still, let things play out with this staff. We got the best guy for the job, and I really think he's got either the best, or close to the best people around him.
...
...
...Anyone but State, though! Anyone
October 8th, 2017 at 11:33 PM ^
I think the "built a program" part is huge. Dantonio inherited a crap program and didn't really get the train rolling until years 4 and 5. Harbaugh inherited a program that had an outstanding group of upperclassmen who were poorly coached, but were woefully deficient when it came to offensive linemen and quarterbacks. Meyer didn't really have to build much of anything, since Ohio State was outstanding throughout the previous coach's tenure.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:19 PM ^
We weren't horrible on defense prior to Harbaugh's arrival. In 2014 Michigan was 7th in total defense and 14th nationally in ypp. The defense went from very good to elite and the offense is currently a dumpster fire, significantly worse in Year 3 than in years 1 and 2.
There is basically no one here who is saying Jim should be fired, but he and his staff aren't beyond questioning. I think if Jim were philosophy/scheme-agnostic on offense like he is with the defense, he would find his Don Brown by simply looking for the best guy anywhere in the country. I doubt he is willing to do this and we may be left with sub-optimal results going forward. Harbaugh is the right man for the job but that is my concern.
Dabo Swinney went 6-7 in Year 3 and everyone thought he was a dead man walking. In the next two years he got Chad Morris and Brent Venables as his coordinators and that changed everything.
October 8th, 2017 at 10:27 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
I said it's currently a dumpster fire and noted that the offense now is significantly worse than the last 2 years. The offenses were acceptable in 2015 and 2016 (although in 2015 the offense struggled early and it 2016 it struggled late), but far from great. My point was that if Harbaugh took a scheme-agnostic approach to offense like he does with the defense and just goes out and gets the best people, the offensive staff would look very different.
October 9th, 2017 at 9:17 AM ^
My comment came off as disagreeing with you, it was not meant to. I just think some context needs to be set, as I feel there is a lot of discussion about how the offense sucks now, has no identity or direction, etc...and people are ignoring that we did have an identity and performed adequately the last 2 years. There were certainly the struggles you mentioned, but there was also only 1 legit NFL player on that roster in Jake Butt. The rest of that offense consisted of a pedestrian QB, 2 decent (but far from game changing) receivers, an o-line that was average on its best day, and a running back that had zero game breaking ability. So people are asking for him to take the same approach to his offensive staff he did with defense, but for the first 2 years was there anything indicating he wasn't?
October 8th, 2017 at 9:15 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:16 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:16 PM ^
October 9th, 2017 at 1:45 AM ^
Goes both ways. Nobody is as arrogant about their program as our fanbase is either. Seems to be a whole lot of excuses on here today and last night and not much actual accountability. You would think it would be the other way around coming off a bye week and playing an in-state rival. As usual though, if one dares question the Ann Arbor Almighty, he or she will be rhetorically beaten into submission/silence.
Let's hope things get better offensively pretty quick here but if not, we'll see where everyone stands on this subject at the end of the season. Should be interesting. To be continued...
October 9th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^
between questioning our staff and saying they are pathetic human beings and some of the worst coaches in the B1G, maybe the country. There's a lot of chicken little going on. And in the face of that, taking a moment to appreciate how good we have it currently is appropriate.
If you come from a place of saying we need to do better than that, and we have stuff to figure out if we're going to win the one game that really matters this year, then I agree with you.
October 9th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Find me one person on here that said anything close to "pathetic human beings" in reference to our coaches. I think people are getting offended pretty easily. I am one of the biggest fans of Jim Harbaugh. Always followed him and his career and could not be happier he is our coach. So I don't know who you are talking about when you bring this up because it sure in hell wasn't me. My comments on here have been strictly about football accountability and results.
One game isn't that big of a deal. The defensive response on here yesterday and today speaks volumes about the fear and anxiety it caused some. It's just football to me.
October 9th, 2017 at 8:47 AM ^
*nods head in agreement*
*continues reading the board for another 4 hours*
October 9th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^
OSU fan here. I come in peace -- not to rub salt in wounds.
But I cannot leave unchallanged the statement that "Nobody loses their shit over a loss like we do" from UMProud's post. While I cannot prove it, I feel confident saying that we lose our shit after a loss more than you lose your shit after a loss.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:17 PM ^
Likely Jack may be reading these boards. But yes, we appreicate Jimmy! Anyone that doesn't is an idiot. I do wish he changed a few things though. The helmet stickers, the road unis, the alternates, the PR moves and of course I feel like Drevno and Pep should be jobless today. Harbaugh is a great recruiter and that still counts in today's NCAA. He can and will get the talent here as Hoke's recruits will finally be filitering out for next season. He hired the best damn DC in the nation. He just has to go out and do it on the offensive side and we're back in business. With McCaffery or Peters and the receiving talent we have, the future is bright. Let's not let that Sparty brainfart game get in the way of the truth. Does he have to improve? Yes. That starts with staff changes and I believe we'll signifcantly improve from there. He's still one of the best coaches out there, just has to prove it to the naysayers.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:18 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:18 PM ^
October 8th, 2017 at 9:18 PM ^
I'm sick from Saturday but I genuinely believe the team has issues and Harbaugh knew it. It is a teaching year. We are so young and had some bad luck on the O-line with injuries and decommits. Right now we are paying for the down turn we took at the end of Hoke's tenure. As a result we are super young. Not having a elite QB is not helping things. It is going to be tough on offense the rest of the year so we might as well brace ourselves for it. We weren't able to redshirt people because we have a gap in classes so they are playing early. I'm willing to accept however this year goes because of our youth.
October 8th, 2017 at 9:29 PM ^
Regarding the QB ... should we just be starting Peters? He can't do much worse, and developing O'Korn is a waste of time because he's done after this year. Maybe it's best to get Peters the experience and have O'Korn back him up.