Strong parallels between Harbaugh's legacy and Fritz Crisler's
Both stayed for about a decade
Both had a predecessor (Hoke and Kipke) who completely fizzled out after a promising start to their tenures
Both had an initial "bogeyman" rival they seemingly couldn't beat (Crisler started 0-4 vs Minnesota) before flipping the script
Both ran an offense that was somewhat unconventional in their time frames in college football while being here (championship teams today just don't run our downhill power run offense anymore and win)
And of course, both left going out into the sunset with no equal in a season by winning a national title
Quite a compliment to give I'd say for a Michigan coach to have comparison after only 9 years
January 26th, 2024 at 1:07 AM ^
It's amazing Crisler was kicking around Ann Arbor until 1982!
His record during his run:
1938 Michigan 6–1–1 3–1–1 T–2nd
1939 Michigan 6–2 3–2 T–3rd
1940 Michigan 7–1 3–1 2nd
1941 Michigan 6–1–1 3–1–1 T–2nd
1942 Michigan 7–3 3–2 T–3rd
1943 Michigan 8–1 6–0 T–1st
1944 Michigan 8–2 5–2 2nd
1945 Michigan 7–3 5–1 2nd
1946 Michigan 6–2–1 5–1–1 2nd
1947 Michigan 10–0 6–0 1st W Rose
January 26th, 2024 at 1:45 AM ^
Michigan also won the national title the year after Crisler left...
January 26th, 2024 at 4:02 AM ^
Just sayin'
January 26th, 2024 at 4:45 AM ^
Crisler's 1947 team also won a National Championship, but the NCAA does not recognize. This was the season that Notre Dame finished 9-0 and was awarded the AP #1 ranking at the end of the season, but UM slaughtered USC in the Rose Bowl 49-0 causing the AP to add a poll after the bowls and re-rank Michigan #1 by a 2-1 margin as we beat 3 common opponents each by a larger margin. Nonetheless, the NCAA does not recognize this championship.
Then, despite the loss of their great coach as well as the entire offensive backfield, both tackles, center and star end, the 1948 squad only gave up a total of 44 points across 9 games, enabling the undefeated and undisputed national championship of 1948, slightly ahead of a 9-0-1 Notre Dame team.
Hoping that history repeats itself and the 2024 defense mauls our opponents into a second national championship.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:36 AM ^
we wont know until a center, tight end, or long snapper of Team 144 or Team 143 becomes a U.S. President to see if history did, in fact, repeat itself
January 26th, 2024 at 6:11 AM ^
I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts the POTUS from Team 144 is a defensive back who used to be a receiver.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:47 AM ^
Or it's Connor Stallions. The US wouldn't have to worry about the Chinese or Russian military.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:40 AM ^
"the POTUS from Team 144 is a defensive back who used to be a receiver"
Mike will have to get the Constitution changed first—he was born in Haiti.
(IMHO I think that provision in the Constitution should be changed, but I know that the chances of that happening in the foreseeable future are zero.)
January 26th, 2024 at 9:26 AM ^
I’ll allow it
January 26th, 2024 at 10:21 AM ^
I’m in favor but they’ll have to change the constitution for that to happen.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:48 AM ^
My money is on Kris Jenkins. My god is that kid polished for a ~20 year old.
If he was on the US Presidential ballot for this fall, I would vote for him over anybody.
Bet.
January 26th, 2024 at 9:32 AM ^
FWIW, while Gerald Ford did indeed play on back-to-back national championship teams, he played on the 1932 and '33 teams coached by Kipke, not the Crisler/Oosterbaan champions.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:40 AM ^
Alabama claims a national championship in a year that they finish 20th in the polls. I say Michigan should start claiming another title then.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:49 AM ^
We do claim 1947 as one of our 12 national titles.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:51 AM ^
As we should.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:51 AM ^
So Michigan basically caused the creation of a poll in 1948 and BCS in 1998 because we got screwed after a national championship?
The Michigan Difference.
Unrelated, but I also take pleasure that we are the last winner of the 4-team CFP and the last winner of obviously the OSU game and the B1G in the 4-team CFP era.
I loved how Klatt kept saying The Game will never mean this much again (because the loser can easily get into the CFP with 1 or 2 losses)...and then we won the game.
And we won it without Harbaugh...or better yet, with Moore.
Absolutely perfect ending to an era. That's why I knew these guys were leaving...this was truly a storybook season.
In 5, 10, 15 years there will be an incredible "The Last Dance" style 30 for 30 or Netflix special on this season or these last 3 seasons.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:26 AM ^
team of destiny. after the rose bowl, there was no question they would be champs
January 26th, 2024 at 8:46 AM ^
Somehow the AP didn't issue its final poll after the bowl games until 1968.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:20 AM ^
When you see the TV networks claim Michigan only has 10 National Championships in football but we claim 12, 1947 is one of those years that we claim that not everyone recognizes.
The other one is 1932. Michigan went 8-0 only allowing 13 points all season. While the USC, who gets credit for the championship, went 10-0.
"Although there was no AP Poll to determine a national champion in 1932, the Knute K. Rockne Trophy was presented at the end of the season to the team deemed to be the national champion using the Dickinson, a rating system developed by Frank G. Dickinson, a professor of economics of the University of Illinois. Michigan won the Rockne Trophy, edging USC by a margin of 28.47 to 26.81. However, USC was later recognized as the 1932 national champion in several retrospective rankings, including Berryman, Billingsley, Boand, Dunkel, College Football Researchers Association, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Poling, and Williamson."
January 26th, 2024 at 8:05 AM ^
I think there is some debate about a few others, like 1903, '04 and '18. Titles from the pre-AP era (before 1936) are a bit hazy to define. We do require some reputable organization's vote before we claim one, and then from 1936 on we accept the AP as the standard.
A couple of organizations declared us co-national champions in 1973 but we don't claim it ourselves.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:38 AM ^
A quick Wikipedia search shows that in the 155 seasons of football played since 1869, schools claim 263 titles. Some are more dubious than others.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:43 AM ^
Crisler's 1947 team also won a National Championship, but the NCAA does not recognize.
The NCAA doesn't recognize football national championships at all. Even the CFP isn't run by them.
January 26th, 2024 at 9:34 AM ^
That is false. The NCAA does not award an NCAA National Championship in the FBS, but it does recognize national championships based on several polls. Here is a list of Champions recognized by the NCAA.
https://www.ncaa.com/history/football/fbs
January 26th, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
Good find. I would have included that had I searched a little.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^
NCAA hated Michigan back then too... Another reason to disband the NCAA...
January 26th, 2024 at 4:03 AM ^
Harbaugh has had a better run than Crisler.
And Crisler has a building named after him . . .
January 26th, 2024 at 4:48 AM ^
Crisler was AD for nearly 30 years
January 26th, 2024 at 7:42 AM ^
Exactly.
If Crisler had retired as HC at Michigan and had gone into private business for the rest of the life, or had left Michigan to go coach someplace else, the University Events Building would never have been re-named Crisler Arena in 1970.
January 26th, 2024 at 8:02 AM ^
Harbaugh was an All American caliber player at Michigan too. Crisler didn’t play at Michigan.
One can easily justify naming a building after him in time.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:19 AM ^
The buildings are named after Athletic Directors, not coaches or former players.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
One notable exception: Carol Hutchins Stadium
January 26th, 2024 at 8:27 AM ^
That could still happen after Harbaugh wins his Superbowl.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:06 AM ^
The capacity of Michigan Stadium needs to be increased to 107,602.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:36 AM ^
I mean, I would say, "Just remove the first row of parking and build the bowl up", but you'd have to remove the only places to park pop-up vending on game days, a bike lane, equipment access ports, and probably tell OSEH and ICLE that you are terribly sorry about their space too.
But in principle, sure. It's a delicate balance that would be difficult to find again even with the additional seat.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:46 AM ^
All that for one extra seat?
January 26th, 2024 at 6:30 AM ^
Both left just before new teams came into the Conference.
Both made significant changes to the look of our helmets.
Both won Rose Bowls in their last year.
Both played for legendary B1G coaches (Crisler played at Chicago under A.A. Stagg)
Both were 1-1 vs ND while at Michigan
January 26th, 2024 at 7:48 AM ^
Needed to make sure someone pointed out the helmets.
Question: Do we keep the stickers? Lloyd got rid of them last time.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:07 AM ^
I don't like them. I'm on Team Lloyd on this one.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^
After they were redefined to focus on each player's career accomplishments, I've been a fan. I hope they continue.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:03 AM ^
Now that Harbaugh has left, I hope we can go back to the 'correct' wing tip shape on the helmets.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:35 AM ^
The difference being that Crisler did not leave Michigan to go coach elsewhere, he stayed on as Michigan’s AD.
January 26th, 2024 at 9:22 AM ^
I think one big difference is that Crisler was loved by the Big Ten and the NCAA--they appointed him head of several committees, including the rules committee--because he was opposed to any progress at all in college athletics. He opposed recruiting, scholarships, TV broadcasts, women's sports, etc. He even opposed "two platoon" football, even though he essentially invented it.
Harbaugh was pretty much Crisler's opposite in every case.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:24 AM ^
In some ways, Harbaugh has more common with A.A. Stagg...
January 26th, 2024 at 7:01 AM ^
Only 1 has a stadium named after him, so far
January 26th, 2024 at 7:25 AM ^
Except for one major difference: Fritz Crisler didn't leave Michigan to go coach someplace else—he stayed at Michigan to continue as Athletic Director.
At the time he stepped down as head coach, he was only 47.
January 26th, 2024 at 7:55 AM ^
When I saw a post starting with the words "Strong parallels" I thought this was going to be about Harbaugh and Klopp.
Both in 2015 join blue blood programs that had for the most part been mired in mediocrity for decades.
Both big personalities (though Klopp I would say is more universally admired by other fan bases).
Both restore glory in emphatic fashion (Klopp gets Liverpool its first ever title in the Premier League era, Harbaugh cfp of course).
Both announce their departure this week (Klopp much more unexpectedly).
Both leave me devastated.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:20 AM ^
I don't know of another Michigan football coach other than Jim that resigned to take another coaching job. RR, Hoke and Moeller went on to coach elsewhere, but they were fired by Michigan. Crisler retired to take on AD duties. This singular fact about Harbaugh is what sticks out for me... in a good way.
I'm a chargers fan now.
January 26th, 2024 at 10:26 AM ^
I've been saying!!! Keep it going and you'll see Crisler went out a champion with his top offensive assistant who'd already played a major role in reinventing the team (the Mad Magicians stuff was Bennie's) left in charge. You'll note they won another championship the next year despite graduating their superstar passer (Bob Chappuis -- halfbacks were the QBs of the age) because they returned the best defense in the country, especially on the line. You'll also note they tailed off and went into a multi-decade funk afterwards because the administration wouldn't financially support the team during a period of major changes to the college football landscape, and a major shift in recruiting and player compensation norms that Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Michigan State were all over.
January 26th, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
That last part, I am less excited about
January 26th, 2024 at 11:01 AM ^
Crisler was better. He was Michigan's best head coach.