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**WingsFan** · January 19, 2022, 04:06 PM

I remember being at that game right where the video cuts, she says "The Team, The Team, The Team". They blamed audio distortion for her slurred speech. If memory serves me correctly, I do believe it was vs Wiz's favorite team of all time.

**THE_WIZARD_** · January 19, 2022, 04:07 PM

bastardo

**Tom W** · January 19, 2022, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by WingsFan View Post

Never seen a scenario like this one, the pendulum keeps swinging back and forth. NFL back in the picture, meanwhile Harbaugh keeps on recruiting & hiring assistants? All the while appears to be leading NFL teams to believe that he'd leave for the right situation?
.

It's probably not a pendulum so much as it's oscillation around a trendline. Harbaugh knows what he's going to do and all of the noise around it is just that: noise.

**THE_WIZARD_** · January 19, 2022, 04:47 PM

He's gonna coach Da Bears.

**Jeff Buchanan** · January 19, 2022, 04:49 PM

If he does leave, Gattis is the new HC

.

I agree with this. There was a decent piece at mgo a couple of days ago (Seth) who did an overly complex narrative where he describes the "influencers" or groups that actually do or think they do have an impact on the M football program. He broke each of a dozen groups down by percentage impact. By far, the biggest group of influencers is this one:

Cotton Pickin’ Blues (47%). Think college football is dying, and warning of grave consequences of NIL. Foresaw giving away open transfers as a problem and want you to acknowledge it’s been a disaster. Worried about losing Jim Harbaugh but are willing to hand the keys over to Josh Gattis if it comes to that, because continuity matters.

Not taking the Gattis comment as Gospel but if JH does leave for the NFL, Gattis is a very good pick and probably the rest of the staff (and recruits) stay put.

Besides that take, Seth also does a very good job of describing NIL, the portal and the impact of both. That part is worth a read, the Harbaugh stuff not so much. The best part of the piece I just quoted above.

Mailbag: Football, Harbaugh, Transfers, and The Clans | mgoblog

https://mgoblog.com/content/mailbag-football-harbaugh-transfers-and-clans

Last Friday I asked for football questions and got a lot. Roughly these fell into two categories: What’s going on with the college football landscape, and what does Michigan look like next year. So I’ll break those into two posts. If your question didn’t get answered, it’s because the person who asked something similar is better looking. Why can’t we get a transfer? Mercury Hayes asked: It is clear that Mel Tucker and MSU is going to target the transfer portal heavily to shore up their roster each year. With a team as strong as Michigan, why aren't we seeing more of this? Michigan is notoriously hard to transfer into. In deep history this wasn’t a case, since smaller colleges used to do the talent collection work that big high school programs do today. But today, Michigan treats transfers athletes no differently than other transfer students, and like many elite academic institutions, are stingy with the credits. Why isn’t this a problem with freshmen? While there are a lot of kids Michigan won’t even offer once they see their transcripts, given enough headway, the football program can get most of the freshmen they recruit into Michigan the normal way, and they get a hard number of quasi-waivers for the rest. With a transfer, our academic experts have to work with what they’ve got, and in most cases it won’t be enough. Even if they can get them in, they can’t get enough of their classes to match up with classes that Michigan offers, so the guy has to be good with essentially starting his career over again. Thus Michigan has been limited to grad transfers, guys who don’t mind virtually starting from scratch, and Stanford’s roster. Here’s the breakdown of Michigan’s 20 transfers since 1990: Grads (11): Jake Rudock, Wayne Lyons, Blake O’Neill, John O’Korn, Casey Hughes, Mike Danna, Willie Allen, Jordan Whittley, Daylen Baldwin, Alan Bowman, and Victor Oluwatimi Freshmen (5): Jonathan Goodwin, Spencer Brinton, Steven Threet, Ty Isaac, Andrew Gentry Mid-Career (2): Grant Mason, Shea Patterson Jucos (2): Russell Shaw and Austin Panter Grant Mason came from Stanford. That leaves just a mid-1990s Juco, another Juco who played 8-on-8 football in high school and became a doctor, and Shea Patterson who broke the mold. Did Shea graduate? I assume, but don’t know, that other football schools have much cozier relationships with admissions. That part is never going to change, but Michigan’s undergraduate admissions could ease off quite a bit and still be elite. Northwestern took six transfers last year. It’s really just us and Stanford who can’t seem to cut a deal between the jocks and the admissions pencilnecks. On the flipside, Michigan is a top-15 recruiting school that has to go well outside of its footprint to keep up that pace, and regularly leaves 4-stars on the bench, so they're bound to give up more transfers than most. The first year that players could free transfer (because of COVID) was alarming, dwarfing even the Great Rich Rod Flight. var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1642352070060'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px'; var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); Dismissed players not included. Click here if you want to see this chart as an interactive viz.) The thick yellow bars above were the glory days when grad transfers were free, which was ideal for Michigan’s particular needs and valuable graduate degrees. It also helped in recruiting; part of the pitch in those years was “commit to us and worst-case scenario you’ve got that degree with 2 years to play somewhere.” The chart above isn’t that alarming, however, because few of Michigan’s recent out-transfers have left us wondering what could have been. Most of the guys who’ve left the program under the free transfer rules were looking for playing time, IE they weren’t playing here. If anything, it’s made it easier, and less skeezy, to oversign and trim the roster. It’s going to lead to faster roster turnover for everybody. For Michigan, it means they can recruit larger freshman classes, refreshing mostly scholarship positions from guys who weren’t going to play into more guys who might someday. That’s also true for schools like Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia, which have an easier time recruiting, and have greater access to mid-career up-transfers, but that’s not a big change. What’s different is they’ll be replacing their 3rd year guys who aren’t playing with someone else’s 3rd year guys, while Michigan’s rosters will get even more freshman-heavy. Realistically, where the transfer market changes football the most is it raises the quality of the mid and lower-mid range programs who can fill major roster holes before it gets to true freshman Ray Vinopal. The schools it helps most are the mid-tier programs like Indiana, Illinois, or Michigan State that can protect their stars from getting poached, but often develop big roster holes. Being able to fill those with Michigan and Florida leftovers raises the floor for those teams; Kenneth Walker III-type impact players are probably going to be super-rare. My biggest concern is the opportunity for tampering, because it’s not like the NCAA is going to regulate that better than they (don’t) do anything else. Any time an NCAA rule is getting widely flouted, it’s going to disadvantage Michigan, because Michigan’s self-image is wrapped up in that being the case. The alarming thing about Xavier Worthy going to Texas wasn’t just losing a star freshman before he played, but how blatantly Sarkisian was communicating with him, and they just got away with it. Apparently that’s been happening a lot, which isn’t surprising, since the transfer rules came about in the first place because that was happening with great frequency back in the day. What’s the answer? I’ve heard of some labor markets using a document signed by both parties that stipulates enforceable conditions for an exchange of services, but I don’t think the NCAA wants to go there. [After THE JUMP: NIL, another big chart, and the return of The Clans]

**iam416** · January 19, 2022, 06:41 PM

It’s clear to me that HARBAUGH!!! hit the lottery in 2021 after 6 years of failure and a horrific Year 6 team. M was absolutely right to restructure his contract last year. Now, he’s going to bend them over…big time.

I so hope he comes back.

**THE_WIZARD_** · January 19, 2022, 08:24 PM

STFU

**Cody_Russell** · January 20, 2022, 08:38 AM

Raiders fans feel like the momentum is on their side right now when it comes to adding Harbaugh.

As for Gattis, it would be comparable to what ND did in promoting Marcus Freeman to HC. Keep the program intact as much as possible. Not sure if I’m a fan of the idea, but it could be the best option based on what’s currently available from outside the program.
I personally like Marcus Freeman much more than Josh Gattis. The person that Freeman comes across as. Leadership qualities. Everyone in the ND community pulling for Freeman. Not sure if I’ve seen that out of Gattis.

We might be doomed no matter what if Harbaugh leaves regardless of the new HC. Harbaugh leaving = M can’t compete for a national championship in new age college football. That’s what it would tell me. Can’t get enough out of NIL and other changes that are needed.

F*** it, why not Mike Hart. 😆

**iam416** · January 20, 2022, 09:24 AM

To be clear, M couldn't compete for national championships in the previous age of CFB, either.

I'm still befuddled as to what evidence there is that HARBAUGH!!!! has EVER been able to recruit at a level necessary to win a national title.

I would very much prefer that he stay. Now, this isn't a Don Brown situation where I knew that M almost couldn't do worse. I was heartbroken when they eventually FORCED HARBAUGH!!! to fire that clown.

HARBAUGH!!!! is competent -- definitely a good, solid coach, but, IMO, he has a definite ceiling. I realize it's more likely than not that M fuck shit up and end up worse off, but, still, I can live with 1 win in 7 years and sub-elite recruiting. The next guy may actually try to compete for top recruits across the board...and get them.

**Jeff Buchanan** · January 20, 2022, 09:50 AM

The general consensus on Feldman's tweet is that it's click-bate and whatever sources he's using don't know diddly.

The one thing that is as close to an accurate assessment of what's going to happen with Harbaugh as there is, is that nobody knows. Jim Harbaugh probably doesn't know either.

**iam416** · January 20, 2022, 09:56 AM

We'll know more in a few weeks or months.

**Mike** · January 20, 2022, 10:06 AM

LOL

**Cody_Russell** · January 20, 2022, 10:09 AM

Joking aside… Have to imagine we find out in the next week or so. NFL teams don’t wait that long to hire a HC.

Originally posted by iam416 View Post

To be clear, M couldn't compete for national championships in the previous age of CFB, either.

I'm still befuddled as to what evidence there is that HARBAUGH!!!! has EVER been able to recruit at a level necessary to win a national title.

I would very much prefer that he stay. Now, this isn't a Don Brown situation where I knew that M almost couldn't do worse. I was heartbroken when they eventually FORCED HARBAUGH!!! to fire that clown.

HARBAUGH!!!! is competent -- definitely a good, solid coach, but, IMO, he has a definite ceiling. I realize it's more likely than not that M fuck shit up and end up worse off, but, still, I can live with 1 win in 7 years and sub-elite recruiting. The next guy may actually try to compete for top recruits across the board...and get them.

Harbaugh is the best HC that M can have given the constraints of the program.
The issue isn’t the HC. It’s the academic standards, geographic location, recruiting pipeline, NIL, etc. The best that ND or M can do is getting blown in the CFP to a Death Star-like program (Bama, Georgia, Clemson). That’s the ceiling unless things change.

Why isn’t the NFL going after Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, or Dabo Sweeney? They must be such great football coaches given their success. Oh wait, it’s the situation they’re in that helps the success.

**WingsFan** · January 20, 2022, 10:21 AM

Why isn’t the NFL going after Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, or Dabo Sweeney? They must be such great football coaches given their success. Oh wait, it’s the situation they’re in that helps the success.

After Nick Saban, UFM, Steve Spurrier , Lou Holz were disasters. The NFL wants a proven NFL HC. Harbaugh fits the bill.

**iam416** · January 20, 2022, 10:35 AM

Harbaugh is the best HC that M can have given the constraints of the program.
The issue isn’t the HC. It’s the academic standards, geographic location, recruiting pipeline, NIL, etc. The best that ND or M can do is getting blown in the CFP to a Death Star-like program (Bama, Georgia, Clemson). That’s the ceiling unless things change.

You can make as many excuses as you like for an inability to recruit at an elite level (it's most definitively NOT academic standards, btw). But, either way, there's a definite ceiling and HARBAUGH!!!! hit it this season.

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