Big Ten Teams That Found Success After An Early Season Loss
With most of the board claiming this is the end of everything (I myself posited such a question in the game thread for dramatic effect as the second half began) after a loss on the road with a chance to tie to the #12 team in the country, I thought I would look back at some other teams that went through similar experiences in the conference but rebounded for successful seasons.
2012 Ohio State: 35-28 W over Cal (3-9) - Yes, this wasn't a loss, but Ohio State looked awful against a terrible Cal team. They trailed in the fourth quarter and needed a touchdown with 3 minutes remaining.
12-0 season, no postseason due to sanctions
2012 Nebraska: 30-36 L @ UCLA (9-5) - Nebraska ended up winning the division at 7-1, though they got pounded by Wisconsin in the title game
2013 MSU: 13-17 L @ Notre Dame (9-4) - Michigan State went on the road to South Bend while in the process of breaking in new QB Connor Cook and lost. They finished 13-1, Big Ten and Rose Bowl champs.
2014 Wisconsin: 24-28 L @ LSU (8-5) - Wisconsin went on to make the Big Ten title game, though they got blown out 59-0 by Ohio State. They finished 11-3 with a bowl win over Auburn.
2014 Ohio State: 21-35 L to Virginia Tech (7-6) - Ohio State lost an ugly game to a bad VT team at home while breaking in new QB JT Barrett. They would go on to win the Big Ten and National titles.
2015 Ohio State: 20-13 W over Northern Illinois (8-6) - Ohio State won this one, but it was an ugly home win against a MAC school. They would finish 12-1 with a bowl game victory over Notre Dame.
2016 Penn State: 39-42 L @ Pitt (8-5) - Everyone always talks about how Franklin won a title in year three when discussing Jim Harbaugh's failings, but they rarely mention the circumstances. Penn State lost to a mediocre Pitt team in their second game of the season and then got pounded 49-10 by Michigan shortly after. Entirely by way of fluke (their win over OSU, a game in which Penn State officially committed one penalty and Michigan's loss to Ohio State, a game in which Ohio State officially committed only two penalties, one a false start), they found themselves in the Big Ten title game, where they proceeded to come back and beat Wisconsin. They lost to USC to finish 11-3.
2017 Ohio State: 16-31 L to Oklahoma (12-2) - Ohio State lost at home to a very good Oklahoma team, but rebounded to win the Big Ten and finish 12-2.
So there you have it. Anyone who thinks the season is over has completely discounted the talent of this team and the history of any number of successful Big Ten seasons.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^
I believe we can win out. I’m an idiot, but I believe we can.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:47 AM ^
In all honesty, if they can stop making the stupid mistakes and figure out how to fix this O-line we should be okay.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^
You are not an idiot. I think you are brilliant with this prediction. If we get through the MSU game with only this ND loss, all these crash and burn fans will be back on the train. I think most of our fan base is a rational one and it is the 2-5% that take over these message boards and just sound like complete morons. I also think a lot of the idiot posters on this board are trolls but it is hard to tell anymore
Go Blue!
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^
Not in the dumpster fire camp here...but just watched the game...and am a realist...but no “rational” fans watched that game and truly think we can win out after losing to Notre Dame.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
I think that’s the point of this OP post. There was not a fan base above that thought they would accomplish what they did by seasons end after their first game. Go back and watch that OSU Virginia Tech game and tell me that they believed they would win a National Championship that year. Crazy things happen when you are talking about 18-22 kids. Not saying we will win out, but winning the Big Ten is certainly still in reach even with another loss.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
Exactly.
I guarantee the vast majority of those fanbases exploded with overreactions after those games thinking the season was lost. And while some people are claiming that they had a track record of success, that wasn't really the case for 2013 Michigan State (coming off a bad 2012), 2014 Ohio State (seriously, people were talking about getting rid of Meyer because he was 1-3 in his last four games, 0-3 against real teams. He also hadn't played anyone till Michigan State in the title game in 2013) or 2016 Penn State.
Instead, the ship was righted and everything was fine.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
Absolutisms make you sound very logical. I’m glad we appointed you the king of determining rationality for everyone.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
Just to be clear, winning out is a very optimistic viewpoint and may not even be rational, but we are not even close to the crash and burn stages of this program or even this coaching staff. Let’s get through the MSU game and reevaluate where we are at is my stance.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^
Are you choosing to ignore the fact that we are 9-9 in our last 18 games!? Including 4 straight losses.
9-9
OSU is 73-8 under Urban Meyer.
Wake up. We're going to string together a few wins vs crappy teams, but there's no way we win ALL 4 of the difficult games remaining on our schedule.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:35 AM ^
What does 9-9 have to do with THIS team? What does Urban Meyer's record have to do with THIS team?
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
THIS team and THIS coaching staff is basically the same as last year (JH calling plays on offense, with input. DB on defense). Add in Shea.
The OP is comparing us to several OSU teams.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
You're also going back and pulling the last 4 games from 2 years ago to make the 9-9 statement. Why not grab a few more games prior to that from 2016 then?
Look, I don't disagree with your opinion that going 4-0 against our toughest opponents is highly unlikely. I just get frustrated when I keep hearing things like we haven't won a road game against a ranked opponent since 2006. Yeah, it sucks big time for us fans, but why is that relevant now in any discussions about this team? (I know you didn't make this statement)
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
Well, if we want to go back further, we can. But aside from beating a poor MSU team and Penn State at home, it's still a bunch of fluff.
If we looked at JH's entire tenure and scratched the cupcake wins, our record would look uglier than 9-9. It is so frustrating...
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
Lots of red herring lovers on this board.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
Well then let’s just shutdown the program down because this team has no chance of ever improving. I choose to believe we still have a very good team and would rather not dwell on our first game of the season where we lost by 7 points to the #12 ranked team. We have 11 more regular seasonn games this season. I am definitely not confident we will win them all but I would like to wait and see before losing all optimism.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:48 AM ^
YES THE TWO SITUATIONS INHERITED BY EACH COACH WERE EXACTLY THE SAME THUS COMPARING AN ARBITRARY NUMBER OF GAMES COACHED BY ONE COACH TO THE OVERALL RECORD OF THE OTHER COACH IS THE PERFECT MEASURE OF SUCCESS.
YOU ARE A GENIUS.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
I like you and your optimism and your in my opinion rational takes on this team Scooter. I think we could be friends.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
Thanks. I can understand the sky-is-falling mentality given Michigan's history, but given some inspection it really doesn't hold up.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^
So our biggest rival is not an adequate measuring stick??
Personally, I want to be better than them in every way.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
Do you honestly think that Urban Meyer taking over for Jim Tressel (after one year of Luke Fickell) is the same thing as Jim Harbaugh taking over after 7 years of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke? He received a ready-made team with a QB perfect for his system. He also played NO ONE his first 25 games at Ohio State. Seriously, look it up. The best team he played before the big ten title game in 2013 was probably 2012 Michigan. That team started a QB who was playing WR for half the season. And that game ended 26-21.
That he inherited anything close to the same sustained personnel via recruiting?
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^
Yes, I would think a Jim Harbaugh team in years 3 and 4 would be close to the same level as an Urban Meyer team. I think most of us have been expecting/waiting for that.
Also, YOU'RE the one who initially compared us to OSU(several times) in the OP, Mr. ALL CAPS
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^
I'm holding off on my honest opinion of your intelligence for the sake of not being banned.
Recruiting classes for Ohio State from the year before he took over and his first year (Where he had a month's head start in recruiting over Harbaugh), which would be relevant by his 3rd and 4th years:
According to 247 team rankings
2011: 6th overall
2012: 5th overall
Here is the same metric for Harbaugh:
2014: 20
2015: 37
Wait, you're telling me the coach that had the 5th and 6th best classes in the country becoming JRs going into his third year is better off than the the coach who had the 20th and 37th ranked classes in the country becoming JRs going into his third year???
And obviously the post wasn't a direct comparison to OSU. It was to point out that for plenty of teams (including OSU) an early season loss wasn't the end of the season.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
So do you think our season will still be a success, or that OSU is the superior team to us? Please explain for the idiots like me.
And do it in that angry, sarcastic voice again.
September 3rd, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
Yes, the season will be a success.
I do not know if Michigan is better than OSU because we don't know what either team will actually look like come November. You've made your judgement based on one game this year and some arbitrary standard you've set based on an entirely different situation for another team. I find that to be idiotic.
September 3rd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
Your entire thread is based off what OTHER teams did.
I'm pointing out what MICHIGAN has done in it's meaningful games under JH.
Which do you think is the more realistic indicator for our season, and which seems more idiotic?
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:54 AM ^
I always liked you. Some people on here are a little too serious. I mean I know this is serious business but what’s the harm of a little fan optimism?
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^
It’s over
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
Sure any other team can lose to ND or central michigan or go 3-9 and their doing great their on top of their game. This team loses to ND 1st game on the road and its over, hmmm why is that do you think? How many teams would have won that game saturday night? Alabama? Washington? Let me tell you ive watched enough college football to be able to tell you that ND would give any team in the country a tough time in that situation. Some of our stupid fans need to realize michigan never will beat every team all the time and never has. They need to get that through their thick skulls and stop being snowflakes.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
I think some of our fans are just frustrated we haven’t truly been good in 15 years and currently have one of the highest paid coaches in the country. I don’t think winning every game forever is the expectation, but marked improvement year to year should be an expectation, especially when all the coaches and talking heads talk it up all offseason. It’s just years of built up disappointment. Don’t get too riled up over comments on a board, snowflake.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^
I thought we improved. How do you think we would have done last year against them? We probably would have got shut out.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^
Agree completely. The disappointment and frustration stem entirely from watching the offense. There was so much excitement after the Citrus Bowl. I would like to get that feeling back.
September 3rd, 2018 at 2:20 PM ^
My disappointment and frustration stems from the defense giving up scoring drives of 75, 75 and 96 yards. I thought ND would score some on us, but as a result of getting short fields from offensive miscues. I didn’t think they would repeatedly punch our defense in the mouth and benefit from defensive penalties, blown assignments, and an obvious, undisciplined targeting play.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^
I'd also throw 2014 Michigan State in there as well. They lost to Oregon early, but finished 11-2 with a bowl win over Baylor.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^
Our talent is vastly overrated. I can't name a single player on the offensive side of the ball I'm excited about. Our line is putrid.
The interior of our defensively line is good not great, our back 7 is also good not great as evidence, Notre Dame receivers manhandling our DBs.
Add to the fact Michigan hasn't beaten a ranked team since Dubya and I don't think your comparisons work
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^
How do you reach these conclusions after one game? I mean, seriously, one fucking game. A close loss to a very solid team on the road and they might as well throw in the towel.
Season's over folks.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:33 AM ^
It's not after one game. Look at the last 18 games. Take off your MgoBlinders...
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
Why 18 games?
Harbaugh's overall win percentage at Michigan is .700. That isn't incredible, and if you want to argue that we should do better, OK. But cherry-picking 18 games (which conveniently ignores the 10-game winning streak before that) just makes you look like a troll.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^
Yes, I chopped the Win-Loss record to help my argument. But that doesn't change the fact that in the last 18 games we've lost the 9 most meaningful games. Our only "good" win coming vs Florida.
Why does anyone who points out bad things about our team automatically called a troll?
Of course I want us to win out. But people are saying it was a CLOSE loss to a GOOD team on the ROAD, and brushing it off as if there aren't two more of those staring us in the face.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
Because stats can be used to prove whatever point you want. When you say we are 9-9 over the last 18 games (spanning 3 seasons with different personnel and coaching staffs in each season) while ignoring a 10 game winning streak before that, you look like a troll because those are talking points of rival fan bases. Harbaugh has more wins at Michigan than Dantonio has at MSU since he’s been here and been to more bowl games. Why doesn’t that mean he’s a better coach than him? Why don’t we talk about that stat of overall winning percentage and number of bowl games?
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
Win percentage doesn't mean shit when you don't beat good teams.
And, Dantonio is 2-1 against harbaugh with his loss coming from his 3-9 team. Harbaugh is 1-2 in those bowl games including a loss to a terribad South Carolina team. MSU won the B1G in 2015 and went to the playoffs and is 1-1 in post season games (2-1 if you count the B1G championship game. And yeah, Harbaughs w/l is better than Dantonios since being here but MSU also has had 2 out of 3 seasons better than UM since then.
September 3rd, 2018 at 2:13 PM ^
Yeah, but the only stats I want to look at are winning percentage and bowl games. Why can’t I do that if someone wants to use an arbitrary number like “we are 9-9 in the last 18 games”? Notice how you said the only MSU loss to Michigan was from a 3-9 team like Dantonio wasn’t the coach of that dumpster fire? Also notice that the difference between 2-1 and 1-2 is a literal one-in-a-million play? This is why stating a fact over and over with no context is useless. Yes, we are 9-9 over our last 18 games. In Dantonio’s last 18 games, he has a 45 point loss to OSU, a 20 point loss to ND, and a 33 point loss to PSU. Also, 19 games ago, he lost to Illinois. Fucking Illinois. That means he sucks ass right? Because of only those stats that I gave, it means Dantonio isn’t successful at all
September 4th, 2018 at 9:16 AM ^
Lol why does everyone give Dantonio a pass for losing to us in 2016? Like oh, yeah he lost to Michigan, but he also completely botched the whole season and lost to Indiana and Illinois too, so it's not so bad, right?
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^
Fair enough. Let's go ahead and add that 10 game win streak in there. Now we're looking at 19-9... Still not good
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:36 AM ^
Look, I expect improvement and am somewhat optimistic that we still have a decent chance at a good season. I know the score differential was 7 points, but to me, that game really never felt close. Our first offensive touchdown didn't come until very late. Until then, the offense had managed to only put 3 points on the board.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
It's not one game. I like most here have been watching games for a long time. We know game breakers when we see them. Ambry Thomas has potential. Nico Collins has potential. Higdon is a work horse who can't block. Evan's is serviceable and I'd like to see him get more touches in the open field but nothing a team with have to specifically game plan to stop like a Denard, Pep, Braylon, Hart ect. Hell I'd even take guys like Junior Hemingway and Gallon at this point
Teams are gonna load the box and dare us to throw and get guys in space and we don't have the athletes to take advantage
If we had Tarik I think we would have a good shot of competing in the East, without that ability to stretch the field we will struggle.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
Shae had over 200 passing yards though
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:27 AM ^
I predict someone in this thread will be irrationally pessimistic and act like Michigan doesn't have five enjoyable weeks coming before a shot at Wisconsin to save the season.
Enough crying, time to drop your nuts.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
Guy right above you has you covered.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
The guy above you already hit your pessimistic stance but I'll come out and join him. the way I see it there are 3 outcomes for the upcoming weeks. We either lose to or have to fight for our lives to beat those teams, which obviously is a huge uh oh and probably won't be very fun. OR, we beat them handily, which at this point will just feel hollow because beating cupcakes means nothing when you can't beat the teams that count.
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:11 AM ^
Or we beat the teams handily while getting our new QB gelling more with our wide receivers and our Oline more experience and improving. Is that not an option while winning handily. I get the negative feeling about no hope with this program based on the last decade but improvement and winning is still an option. Geesh