A Modest Attempt at Perspective
Here goes. First, the bad:
• The generally disappointing performance of the program over the past 10-15 years and persistent futility against our two main rivals should trigger some legitimate introspection.
• The way in which we lost the Outback Bowl, coupled with the disappointing 2017 season, dismal offense, and persistent weaknesses that date back to last season or earlier (e.g., poor offensive line play) raise legitimate questions about whether the issues plaguing this team are systemic.
• Jim Harbaugh’s failure to develop an elite QB so far legitimately tarnishes his reputation as a QB guru.
• Pep Hamilton, Tim Drevno, and perhaps other offensive assistants may need to be replaced.
• The above, coupled with the fact that Michigan has failed to finish better than 3rd in the B1G East three years into the Harbaugh era, raises legitimate questions about whether the Jesus-like hype surrounding Harbaugh and his antics is excessive and unwarranted.
Having said all of that, we ultimately need to keep the good in mind:
• This program was a complete and total train wreck when Harbaugh got here, and he doubled the team’s win total in his first season.
• For all of the issues on offense, the defense actually overachieved with another top 5 finish despite losing 10 of 11 starters from 2016.
• The defense returns 9 of 11 starters in 2018 and is poised for another dominant year.
• Many blue-chip recruits, like Rashan Gary, Khaleke Hudson, and Devin Bush Jr., have lived up to their hype and then some.
• What isn’t the product of hype is Harbaugh’s track record, having turned around two miserably underperforming teams, coached two Heisman Trophy runners-up, and molded a group of unknown recruits into the country’s best offensive line in 2010 at Stanford.
So that’s where we’re at. This will be a long, painful, and critical offseason. We have no choice but to take our lumps from Sparties and Buckeyes who will spare no opportunity to point out Harbaugh’s 1-5 record against them, our painfully long B1G championship drought, and the fact that Michigan was the lone blemish on an otherwise perfect B1G bowl record. HOWEVER, the light at the end of the tunnel is still in sight. It may be further off than we wanted, and the tunnel has had some unexpected twists and turns, but the light is still visible. All we can do is be patient and keep the faith. There are still plenty of legitimate reasons to do that. And it beats sky-is-falling hysterics or head-in-the-sand rehashing of old statistics that bear no relevance to the program today. Now neg away.
January 4th, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
The QB injury excuse is hamstrung when a large vocal portion of the fanbase is crying for Speight to benched in favor of Peters/O'Korn and then for a healthy O'Korn to be benched for Peters.
January 4th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
Well Iowa is 3-1 against us since we expanded the conference in 2011. I don't see how strength of schedule would effect head to head results. I agree we are trending up. From 2005 to now iowa has only 2 10+ win seasons. We just had 2 in the last 3 years. If carrs final 4 years, rrod, hoke, and harbaughs first three years are equivalent to Ferentz's years 5 through 19, then i can live with that. That said the records are what they are. Put whatever spin you want on it. Certainly over the last 3 years iowa has had an easier schedule than michigan. But iowa has been 3-6 against um, osu, psu, msu, and wisconsin over past three years. Michigan has been 4-8 against those same teams and iowa in that same time period. So although we've played 3 more games against the top teams in the conference our performance is similar to Iowa's.
What is even more depressing is that if you take out '97 through 2000 when Michigan had the best defensive player in college football history followed by two years of the best QB in the games history, and one year of Henson, the guy they sat the best QB in the history of the game for then Michigan is identical to Iowa going back to Carr's hiring. For Iowa '97 through 2000 was the transition between Fry and Ferentz being the last two years of Fry and the first two years of Ferentz.
If you remove the most successful four year period in program history (41 total wins, 3 big ten titles, 1 national championship 4-0 in bowl games) going back to 71-74 (41 total wins, 4 big ten titles, and 0-1 in bowl games) and arguably even farther back to 1901-1905 Michigan has been identical to Iowa since Carr was hired.
Michigan is 155-85 (96-58) from 95-96 and 01-17. Michigan is 1-5 in the Outback and Alamo Bowl, 1-4 in what were BCS or NY6 bowl games, 2-1 record in the capital one/citrus bowl and 0-2 in the gator/bww (Insight) bowl.
Iowa is 156-85 (93-61) from 95-96 and 01-17. Iowa is 4-4 in the Outback and Alamo bowl. Iowa is 1-2 in what were BCS or NY6 bowl games, 1-0 in the citrus/capital one bowl, and 3-2 in the remaining bowl games which included 2 Insight (BWW), 1 Gator, 1 pinstripe and 1 Sun bowl.
Iowa even has a 7-5 record against us during this time period, and if you throw back in '97 through 2000 it comes up an even 7-7.
January 4th, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^
One more point. We aren’t Iowa, they’ve had the same coach for all those years, we’ve had two total morons and a competent coach. It makes a difference when you change coaches and lose recruiting classes, change systems, and have to rebuild programs under the pressure of Michigan fans. Not to mention, I don’t think Ohio State circles the Iowa game every year.
Are these excuses, some very unintelligent “just win games” people will say so, I say they are reasons why this has been tough. If you don’t want to stick around for the success that I think is still a little ways away, then go find another team.
January 4th, 2018 at 8:17 AM ^
Other examples of injuries effecting a football team could also lend more perspective. I wonder if Green Bay fans are throwing up their hands and wailing about how bad their offense is.
January 8th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
Were Green Bay fans clammoring for Rodgers to be benched before his injury?
January 4th, 2018 at 9:53 AM ^
I lost track of the number of excuses in your comment. Well, to be more precise, I stopped counting after 6.
Tuebor was right. We're Iowa right now. They are in an easier division. You're right about that. But we have advantages they don't have too, like not being in fucking Iowa.
So, it seems you need to get a grip instead of the other way around.
January 4th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
It's just a fact of reality. We've had injuries. We've had two losses to MSU where we dominated them and lost on weird bounces. Those are as frustrating as can be, especially this year when we should have just run the ball, but it's also being unlucky and it's silly to garment-rend over it. We're obviously not Iowa, We'd probably have a 8-10 win gap over the last 3 or 4 seasons if the schedules were reversed, including switching road and home games between the two teams.
The reason we are where we are is because we didn't recruit quarterbacks under Hoke. The contrast between OSU and UM in that regard is a great comparison. Urban Meyer had 2 top flight QBs in the system ready to go when he started, that allowed him to have stability at QB for 6 years. He's had 0 injuries to his Oline before this year.
Michigan has ~7 seniors who see the field. Harbaugh hasn't risen above the deficiencies the way we hoped (he's only coached us to two 10-win seasons, of the three in the last decade). No one is content with this. And, like Beilein, it's pretty apparent that he's going to fire loyal assistants who've underperformed.
Which coach could we hire that would be better than Harbaugh? Urban isn't going anywhere, neither is Saban or Petersen or Dabo.
Everyone knew this was going to be an 8 or 9 win season because of youth and weakness at QB. Despite that, we probably should have won 10 games this year. It's like panicking about a hurricane you knew was coming. The only way out is through. Go Blue.
January 4th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^
For the record, the "top flight QBs" Meyer had in the system were true sophomore learning an entirely new offense Braxton Miller in 2012 and red-shirt freshman missed his entire freshman year with a torn ACL JT Barrett in 2014. Meyer recruited Barrett to OSU in 2013.
January 4th, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^
is top flight and worlds ahead of Iowa 5th year senior transfer and a three star recruited by Borges.
January 4th, 2018 at 4:17 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 6:35 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^
I struggle with comparisons of how a coach early in his tenure has performed relative to others. A large component of how well that new coach does is what type of talent he inherited. Many will say, that Harbaugh inherited great talent (as evidenced by 2016 NFL draft). Overall that is true, but what talent did he inherit at the most important position (by far) on the field?
January 4th, 2018 at 12:25 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 12:28 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 12:47 AM ^
And your reply has appeared 42 times in the last 24 minutes. Let the man vent and share his thoughts, that is why this space exists.
January 4th, 2018 at 1:03 AM ^
This year is Harbaugh's mulligan. It gives him a chance to fix some very real issues with the coaching staff, and the roster should be stabilized to the point where we shouldn't have to put so much youth on the field again. Next year he needs to deliver. Our combination of talent and experience should put us at or near the top of the conference, so it's time for him to deliver a conference championship and possibly a playoff appearance. The schedule is tough but that shouldn't matter for a playoff caliber team. As Mitch McGary once said, "win the game".
January 4th, 2018 at 1:20 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 1:38 AM ^
- Wilton Speight was expected to be significantly improved this season; he wasn’t, and then he got injured and missed most of the season. John O’Korn, impressive as he seems to be off the field, never lived up to the reputation he had as a freshman at Houston. Brandon Peters probably wasn’t fully ready to play this year; then he got hurt.
- Grant Newsome never might be able to play again, so the shifts that resulted from his unavailability caused the same struggles on the offensive line that have plagued the team for many years. For most of the game, the offensive line in the Outback Bowl was a makeshift line that never had played together in a game.
- Jake Butt, Amara Darboh and Jehu Chesson graduated and are in the NFL. Freshman Tarik Black looked like he might be Michigan’s next star wideout; then he got injured and missed most of the season.
- Ty Isaac had a promising start to the year and at times looked like he might live up to the hype he had as a high school player; then he got hurt and missed the last five games.
- For unknown reasons, Ben Bredeson, Juwann Bushell-Beatty, Grant Perry, Eddie McDoom and Kareem Walker didn’t play in the Outback Bowl.
- Michigan didn’t bring in an Australian punter before the season began.
- The coaching hires for the offense didn’t help, and probably hurt.
- Crotch-grabbing gestures bring bad karma.
GO BLUE!
January 4th, 2018 at 2:59 AM ^
Bredson and JBB were nicked up against OSU and could not fully practice and were left-out of the game. Walker violated team rules and probably remains in Harbaugh's dog house. I hope he can overcome and be a good future RB for us. I'm not sure about the others, may be team rule violations, not playing well in practice or injuries?
January 4th, 2018 at 2:46 AM ^
2016 was a great season. We were just two plays away from going undefeated in the regular season and probably beating up WI again in the B1G championship game and heading for the playoffs. Sometimes the ball does not bounce your way or the refs give the other team a few more inches then they should have on a 4th down play. Next year or in 2019 we will be back where we could compete for the B1G and make it into the playoffs.
January 4th, 2018 at 2:52 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 3:03 AM ^
follow Bama, OSU or some other dumb team.
January 4th, 2018 at 8:08 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:21 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:37 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 4:14 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 6:16 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 7:22 AM ^
This comment right here - I would normally defend the program against it, but not anymore. This comment may be spot on. I don't care one way or another what anyone's spin on this program is. It is now at a point where we can throw all the perspective in the world right out the window - this game is about results and there is no need any longer to get all worked up about coaching hires/fires, recuriting, scheme changes, personnel changes, etc until results are delivered.
January 4th, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
I've been a Harbaugh defender (some may say "apologist"), but next year the QB situation is on him. He'll have two of his recruits each with more than a year with the program, a highly touted transfer in (assuming he's eligible) and those guys will be surrounded by seasoned players Harbaugh brought in. In short, next year is Harbaugh's team.
January 4th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 6:40 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 6:58 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:09 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
"This program was a complete and total train wreck when Harbaugh got here"
No, it wasn't. It was mediocre, and Harbaugh has made it much better - but lets not exaggerate how badly off the program was.
" the defense actually overachieved with another top 5 finish"
The defense was good, and absolutely overachieved given how many starters they lost - but they were not a top 5 defense. #10 S&P+, #13 FEI.
"Many blue-chip recruits, like Rashan Gary, Khaleke Hudson, and Devin Bush Jr., have lived up to their hype and then some."
Hudson wasn't a blue chip recruit (and has exceeded his hype).
Rashan Gary has been very, very good - but has not come close to living up to his hype.
"What isn’t the product of hype is Harbaugh’s track record, having turned around two miserably underperforming teams"
"rehashing of old statistics that bear no relevance to the program today"
These statements are somewhat contradictory... does past performance bear no relevance, or does it?
January 4th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^
Hoke
11-2
8-5
7-6
5-7
That's not a train wreck? Look at the recruiting classes of 2013, 2014 and 2015 and count the number of contributors this year. And don't say 2015 is on Harbaugh, he took over way to late to build a recruiting class.
Harbaugh won 10 games his first two seasons then went 8-5. And we lose few players this year and then again next year.
January 4th, 2018 at 10:33 AM ^
"That's not a train wreck? "
No.
31-20 (60.8%), #43 in D1 over that time period is just mediocre - not a train wreck.
Train wrecks in those same years?
Kansas: 9-39 (18.8%)
Colorado: 10-39 (20.4%)
Indiana: 14-34 (29.2%)
Kentucky: 14-34 (29.2%)
Cal: 16-33 (32.7%)
Purdue: 17-33 (34%)
Illinois: 19-31 (38.8%)
Virginia: 19-30 (38.8%)
BC: 20-30 (40%)
Maryland: 20-30 (40%)
January 4th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
Well compare it to our spirit brethen Iowa who went 7-6, 4-8, 8-5, 7-6 over the same time period. And then has an identical record to us since then.
January 4th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
nice job
January 4th, 2018 at 8:40 AM ^
Just a quick note - if some of the subthreads no longer make sense, it is because MGoBourbon was caved, mainly for his fondness for telling people explicitly to go fuck themselves, so I have found a more polite way to tell him to do exactly that.
Also, "dillhole"....he said "dillhole". Is he new to the whole insult thing? I guess we'll never know now.
January 4th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 8:45 AM ^
Over/Under on "Perspective" posts during the off season?
January 4th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^
All you did is trash the team. That isn't "perspective." Perspective would be to acknowledge the things that went wrong with the things that went right and/or provide hope for the future. All you did was the former. Without the later, it's not "perspective."
The things that went wrong are largely right. But you don't acknowledge that we were a team of mostly first and second year players, we had a killer defense. We did have a great run game for a stretch of the season even with the other team knowing we can't throw.
While Peters stunk up the Outback Bowl, he's a RS Freshman and he was looking a lot better before we went down at Wisconsin.
You didn't acknowledge squat
January 4th, 2018 at 8:59 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^
Bo's 1984 team went 6-4 before losing to BYU in the Holiday Bowl. Despite being dominated most of the game by Michigan, BYU won that game and was voted the national champion. That Michigan team was likely Bo's worst but I think the quality of football it played on offense was vastly better than what we saw on Monday.
January 4th, 2018 at 9:09 AM ^
OT season now? I kinda miss talking about cars and trips and stuff other than these horribly awful comparisons and reminders at how far this team has to go.
January 4th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
January 4th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^
is merely the belief system of the fan base underscoring past disappointment and expectations of renewed greatness that came with Harbaugh's hiring and the failure in three years of his arrival to match that convergence at an elite playoff level. I think the program is well on its way to that destination and that the contention of present failures slowing down that locomotive is just breathless rhetoric.
I really don't think Harbaugh wanted to play three quarterbacks this season. He wanted one to emerge, and hoped it would be Wilton Speight. But a porous Oline sacked that prospect and led to the carousel of competition that resulted in the fan base belief that a kid who started a handful of games would step in and save the season based on, what, exactly? Hopefulness, mostly, certainly not game production.
I mean Peters, as a redshirt freshman, played like one in the loss to Wisconsin and South Carolina, making the same cringeworthy choice to throw to a covered receiver in the endzone when either a throwaway or keeping the ball himself would have given his team a better shot at winning. But he was trying to make a play because that's what winners do. And he is a kid who needs more seasoning and help from an improved Oline. Michigan lost this year beause it lacked great play at the one position that requires it in order to reach the level that most here want, and that is the kind of perspective that ought to be considered. Because this year's qb situation was ruined by injury and bad Oline play. That is a fundamental and deserved criticism which should be attributed to staff choices and roster development.