November 30th, 2019 at 10:21 PM ^
What the fuck are you talking about?
Edit: My apologies. I read the title "If You Think Firing Harbaugh Is NOT The Answer, You're An Idiot. I am firmly in agreement with the actual title. GoBlue.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:06 PM ^
He like all the Harbaugh slappies thinks it’s the end of the world if Harbaugh can’t fix the ship. So he will attempt to get everyone thinking like a scared kid.
Back the brink trucks up to Matt Rhules home. Dude turned temple around in 3 years and is now doing it again at Baylor. Give him Michigan talent and let him rock.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^
LOL. Will Matt Rhule miraculously be able to cheat? Because that’s how you get to the CFP. At least until players can make money off their NIL rights.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:34 PM ^
Yeah cheating made Auburn 4-6 against Bama when they recruit like gangbusters. Cheating made Michigan shit themselves at crucial moments today, 2018, 2017 and 2016.
Hoke teams played OSU tougher. Harbaugh teams are getting blown out worse and worse. While it seems like most have accepted the OSU L as a given, this year Ive noticed the first few glimpses of apathy coming back like in the Hoke years.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:44 PM ^
There will always be outliers(MSU/ND), and UM had their close losses to OSU under Harbaugh that could of, and probably should have gotten them to the playoff. But there is a reason the same five or six teams make it there each $eason.
Also, Auburn isn’t going to the CFP so I am not sure why it matters that they beat an Alabama team that also wasn’t going to the CFP and yes, they both cheat.
December 1st, 2019 at 12:18 AM ^
Auburn’s cheating ain’t that great apparently since they’re on par with us on talent. The coaching and mentality in Schembechler Hall is broken.
December 1st, 2019 at 3:54 PM ^
Alabama was also playing without their Heisman candidate QB, was OSU? I’ll hang up and listen.
December 1st, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^
Agree Cube. So tired of the recruiting and cheating angle. It gets old. Does it slightly happen? Could we be better recruiting? Duh, of course. But coaching is what is holding us back. Several coaches do more with less talent. Simply tired of the cheating angle. We act like everyone who beats us must cheat.
December 1st, 2019 at 1:18 AM ^
We tried cheating today. We untied JK's shoe after tackling him. Not sure how that was supposed to be effective as we got a penalty out if it.
December 1st, 2019 at 7:39 AM ^
Coming back? The apathy never left! It won't until UM beats OSU.
At least Harbaugh beats everybody else.
December 1st, 2019 at 12:38 AM ^
Harbaugh the coach isn’t the problem. Harbaugh the recruiter is. Not enough athletes to compete with the elite teams. OSU’s best players are not from Michigan or Ohio.
December 1st, 2019 at 8:31 AM ^
TheCube is the biggest idiot on this blog
November 30th, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
Yes that is likely true. I am worried about our recruiting. We don’t seem to be getting many elite players the last couple years. Gotta bag or at least hope these new rules for players come into practice quick.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:30 PM ^
I just spent some time looking at Rivals and 247 rankings. Recruiting doesn’t look good for us, at least, not elite. No surprise there. But focusing on other teams for a moment: I was surprised to see that USC has he fourth most talented roster. Additionally, kind of odd that so much talent is escaping Texas. I thought Herman would have the state on lock down but apparently their recruiting sucks too (relative to the talent bailable in the state)
November 30th, 2019 at 10:39 PM ^
Yes we are not recruiting at an acceptable level right now. It’s a problem. I have seen Harbaugh go into OSU 5 times now. I thought 4/5 of those he coached well. We need an elite defensive line to best OSU. Can’t have Kemp out there getting blown off the line every play. The guy works hard and is a leader, but he isn’t the Star DT we need. Losing Solomon may have been the difference this year from 9-3 and 11-1 or maybe even better. its crazy how much happens in the offseason to effect the games.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:42 PM ^
Meh, I think the problem is much deeper than Solomon. Maybe three elite DL and two elite OL and we may have been in business today, assuming we didn’t also make tons of mistakes. Just seems pretty hopeless at this point.
Clemson have five 5* commits. Maybe that thread about Venables has some merit lol yet Clemson must be bagging HARD
November 30th, 2019 at 11:09 PM ^
Average recruiting ranking for past 4 years.
Michigan: 10.75
Clemson: 10.5
Clemson has a great class so far for 2020. For 2016-2019, we are about tied with them.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Yeah, it’s well known around here that Clemson wasn’t built on the backs of killer recruiting classes. But don’t forget they’ve had multiple players fail PED tests, which may explain some of he success
November 30th, 2019 at 10:45 PM ^
THIS is solid analysis. I thought that overall today gameplans were not bad, but the defense was "out dude-ed", especially on the d line
November 30th, 2019 at 10:46 PM ^
The recruiting is the biggest problem in my opinion. We sign a couple top classes and then half those guys leave and we're fucked. It doesn't matter how good Harbaugh, Gattis, or whomever they get to replace Don Brown is if we don't have elite players.
There is literally no reason for us to ever have a class ranked out of the top 10. And we need to figure out what makes these guys leave and stop doing that.
I've always taken pride in us doing the right things in the right ways. But I am so goddamn sick of losing to OSU that I don't care what we have to do to win.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:50 PM ^
You are delusional. We had an elite D Line for a few years and it didn’t do shit for us.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:47 PM ^
What exactly is Harbaugh supposed to sell elite recruits on? That's the problem, you have to win with what you have first and then go from there. People say "well the talent gap is too large". Okay? What are you expecting to happen when you go 9-3 every year and get blown out in the biggest game of the year?
November 30th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
Just got to find the classic manic pixie dream football player that likes snow.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^
Lloyd Carr went 9-3 and 8-4 a lot. And people weren’t calling for his head like they do for Harbaugh. Harbaugh just had the misfortune of coming in to head to head with Ohio state in the midst of one of the greatest runs by a program in a long time. Ohio is a juggernaut doing things not seen in college football ever. He’s winning. Just not beating one of the best teams of all time each year. But let’s fire him.
December 1st, 2019 at 12:21 AM ^
I'm curious as to what stats you are referencing when you say OSU is the midst of one of the greatest runs by a program in a long time. OSU hasn't won a national title since 2014. Both Clemson and Alabama have won multiple National Titles since then. OSU might be the best team in the country this year but they are at best the 3rd best college football program over the last 5 years or so.
December 1st, 2019 at 7:46 AM ^
This is the funny thing about osu since Harbaugh got here: every year they blew a game and they have one non conference win of note. Bowl games that aren’t the playoff don’t count.
They’ve had 3 of the most talented osu teams of all time (15 18 19) and prior to this year they had choked away playoff opportunities until this year. Ppl point to the msu win in 15 the psu win in 16 and the Iowa and Purdue losses and good things for those coaches when really they’re an indictment of Meyer. He shat the bad in each of those games. That also includes the only playoff appearance they made since Harbaugh got there where they failed to score points. Beating UM every year gave Meyer cover and made the focus on Harbaugh’s failures and not his.
Osu has owned the B1G for over a decade but they haven’t been that good against teams outside the B1G. Their playoff run this year will be important. If they do not win they will have again failed to match Clemson and Bama while recruiting at the same or higher level. If they don’t win a championship this year they really can’t be in the same convo with teams that have won multiple championships in the past 5 years and never missed the playoffs (until this year Bama).
December 1st, 2019 at 3:35 AM ^
I think you are misremembering things, because Lloyd took a lot of criticism after 2000, there was just no social media yet.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:41 PM ^
I thought about this a lot today, does it really matter? I mean Bama has how many NC in recent years? Auburn can’t keep up with bama in recruiting. We have had better recruiting than Auburn, yet they are 4-6 vs Bama in the last ten years. Is Ohio state better than Bama? Maybe this year and one other year but that’s it, yet Auburn finds a way to win. I’m tired of the excuses, it’s time to shit or get off the pot.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:45 PM ^
I just don see how anyone can beat OSU with our roster. I doubt Gus Malzahn could be dialing up some magic schemes that overcome the talent gap, but maybe I’m wrong
November 30th, 2019 at 10:48 PM ^
Malzahn is now responsible for "dialing up" two pick-sixes to beat 'Bama?
They were playing a backup playing his third game.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:02 PM ^
Still 4-6 this decade vs a team that has 4 NC and 2 runner ups in that time frame. Osu has 1 NC in that time, what makes OSU so unbeatable for Michigan yet Auburn can beat the best team of this decade 4 times?
November 30th, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
Lol I said I doubt he could do it if he was coaching our team, today. Not sure what you’re reading?
November 30th, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^
It was a response to marmot
November 30th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
2019 Bama 1 Michigan 8 Auburn 11 OSU 14
2018 osu 1 bama 5 Auburn 9 Michigan 22
2017 bama 1 osu 2 Michigan 5 auburn 9
2016 bama 1 osu 4 Michigan 8 auburn 9
thats the last 4 years of recruiting, maybe it’s not all about recruits, maybe schemes, and working hard mean just as much. I don’t have the answers I’m just pointing out that’s it’s not all about recruiting
November 30th, 2019 at 11:49 PM ^
The only explanation that I have is Bama, Clemson and OSU recruit better to their system than we do. Seems to round back to coaching and identifying who fits and who doesn't. We do seem to have our fair share of 4 and 5-star guys that flame out or go elsewhere.
December 1st, 2019 at 12:37 AM ^
We lost a lot of talent to transfers. It’s reflected in our over roster ranking, which lags OSU by a bit but is roughly tied with PSU
November 30th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
Good Lord
November 30th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
First of all... OK, cool.
Second, I'm not advocating to let him go either, but I hate this trope that he's THE BEST we could possibly get. How does anyone know this? Obviously, I have no alternatives off the top of my head, but you can't tell me that there is NO ONE who could do the same job and potentially knock off OSU with some semblance of regularity. Like at least in an Alabama-Auburn way.
There are numerous coaches in college football, in all divisions. To think that none of them has a better philosophy than Jim is just not well-thought out.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:39 PM ^
You can quibble about semantics, but it's very unlikely that we will improve upon a coach that has one of the ten best records in college football over the last five years. The odds are against that.
Jim has us at a pretty high level (9.4 or 9.6 wins per season, depending on the bowl outcome) but not quite elite. Problem is, getting to the next level is really tough given that 1) we have to recruit nationally since our home state is so-so, talent wise and 2) we are in one of the toughest divisions in football and play a top 3 program (OSU) every year, not to mention a top 10-12 program in PSU.
The best bet is to hope that Jim can put together the best staff himself. Gattis looks like he's settled in as a playcaller and I'm optimistic about him going forward. Don Brown was a good hire in 2016 but is he still the guy for 2020?
November 30th, 2019 at 10:41 PM ^
Agreed. Everyone thought there would be a drop off from Beilein to Juwan and it seems like the shooting hasn't missed a beat and Juwan is recruiting better than Beilein ever did. The football team has drops, boneheaded penalties, turnovers, end of half failures, and bad play calls in every big game. I don't know if you can find someone to go 15-0 but how hard is it to improve upon 9-3 with Michigan's resources?
November 30th, 2019 at 10:48 PM ^
Beilein didn't get fired, he left for the pros and Juwan inherited an intact roster that JB had assembled. That's an important distinction. The transition costs are higher when you fire a guy.
And yeah, it's actually pretty hard to improve upon 9-3, especially when you're in the same division as a program that is doing better. It's easier to fall off that pace (as Michigan, Texas, Tennessee and Nebraska have experienced) than get better.
November 30th, 2019 at 11:29 PM ^
Side note about the basketball program...we were probably real close to cheering on Ed Cooley who is struggling right now and even though everyone loves the start of the Juwan Howard era including myself, it's still a real small sample size.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:27 PM ^
I think we could be getting close to acceptance. Harbaugh is about the best we will get. Recruiting is not elite and that’s where it starts. Osu will kick our ass until that changes bc the athletes are on different levels. It’s not about “get better tomorrow” or “get the taste out of our mouth.” They’ll kick our ass again next year. Serious changes need to be made. Per usual.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
Firing Harbaugh for 9-4/10-3 is how you become Tennessee and Nebraska. Yes, there are examples like Georgia who roll the dice and end up better off by firing their "disappointing" coach, but those are few and far between. Michigan shouldn't become complacent, but they should be calculated about whether there is a viable option in the job market. People will say people like Matt Rhule or Matt Campbell. However there have been a number of examples of coaches succeeding at lower tier schools (i.e Rich Rodriguez, Scott Frost, and Kevin Sumlin), who could not handle the expectations at a "blue blood" (although I contest Michigan is in that category).
Now, I personally am becoming very wary of Don Brown's defense against top opponents and I think it is fair to question his ability to perform in these big games. However, Harbaugh appeared to make the right move with Gattis, so just firing Harbaugh to have ANOTHER coaching carousel is not wise.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:39 PM ^
No, you become Tennessee and Nebraska by hiring multiple shitty coaches in a row. Many people thought their hires were bad in the first place and turns out they were.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:46 PM ^
Butch Jones had won Conference Championships and was well regarded around 2012. Scott Frost was a top target for many programs. Easy to say, those hires didn't work out but the public didn't think they were bad hires at the time.
It is not easy to find high quality coaches. Its fine if you think Michigan should roll the dice, I just don't think its worth the risk.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:58 PM ^
Lane Kiffin was a terrible hire to replace Fulmer, Dooley was a terrible hire to replace him. Butch Jones was pretty meh at Cincy.
Bill Callahan was an awful choice to replace Solich as he had minimal college experience, Riley was meh at Oregon State and was viewed as a terrible hire to replace Pelini. It's still a little early to write off Frost, but Pelini won nothing in 7 years there, I don't blame them for trying to do better. If all you're doing is going 9-3 every year what is the point?
November 30th, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^
If all you're doing is going 9-3 every year what is the point?
Apparently that is the point. Seriously, scroll up to the other posts. We are to be happy with 9-3 seasons, what more should we expect, or deserve to expect?
Know what? I was going to write a longish post, but like the program that can't be bothered to win more than nine or ten regular season games, I can't be bothered to care any more.
November 30th, 2019 at 10:52 PM ^
Rich Rodriguez
Brady Hoke
November 30th, 2019 at 10:42 PM ^
What Georgia changed is a philosophy, losing their soul in the process. Career underachieving Mark Richt recruited well, but largely ran a clean (for the SEC) program. Kirby Smart is paying top tier prices for his recruits. We've seen it first hand a few times.
Unless we setup a Paypal account for 'croots, we're not going to be instant Georgia.